To Alice

I've been inspired recently by the pictures which Kate has been posting and it will end up costing me money, as I have to replace my old faithful Nikon with one of those new fangled digital jobbies.

Anyway, as Kate is about to get the decorations dusted off and everyone is preparing for the Festival of Greed in their own way, all your posts prompted me to pass on one of the memories of Christmas that will stay with me forever.

I was down at the boatyard which is owned by one of my oldest friends and he asked if I would mind nipping over with him to see his mother and deliver some garden furniture.
His mother's name was Alice, she sadly passed away a couple of years ago, and she was a wonderful character. She was from an old Romany family and had a real twinkle in her eye, a superb dry sense of humour and a real warmth, calmness and wisdom that made you think "well that's o.k. then".

We loaded up the truck and drove the five miles to Alice's house, un-loaded the garden table and struggled with it down the side of the house and into the back garden.
"Where do you want this Alice" I asked, and that's when it started.

Alice - "You see that bit down the bottom by the hedge"?

Us - (carrying the table) "yes"

Alice - "Well don't put it there because it only gets the sun in the morning. That grass by the apple tree....."

Us - (carrying the table) "yes"

Alice - "I don't think I want it there....."

This went on for a bit and the we said "don't tell us where you don't want it Alice, it's too bloody heavy to run around the garden with"

We settled on the perfect spot in the end and Alice suggested we had a cup of tea and could we help her sort her decorations for the tree.
We were greeted by 2 large boxes of baubles and tinsel and 2 large boxes of tree lights which looked they had been dragged through somewhere that lights shouldn't be dragged.
A nice cup of tea and 45 minutes later we had un-tangled the lights and checked through every single bulb to make sure they were all tight and would not pose a fire risk.
30 minutes later we had to admit that we couldn't get any of the damn things to work and did Alice want us to get her some new ones.
All this time Alice and her neighbour had us in hysterics with their stories and were watching us getting more and more frustrated at our failure to fix the lights.

Alice - "That's o.k. they didn't work last year either so I got some more, do you want another cup of tea"?

It always makes me smile when I think of that morning over at Alice's house and it's a shame that the spirit of friendship, family and good humour is lacking in these days of consumerism and selfishness.

We will raise a glass to Alice again this year as we meander down the river to the Wherry Pub for our annual winter trip and remember the laughs we shared for so many years.

Keeping warm

So it's -150 degrees outside and it's spitting that really cold rain that "soaks you through".

The perfect day to start the garden project.
I got a couple of mates round and we attacked the big shrubs and forged a path along the old knackered fence in order to rip it all out.

10 cups of coffee, a load of sandwiches and 6 hours later we had the new panels up.
We were warmer by now!

This is "Ceefor" (C for cat), my garden cat thinking "what the hell's going on in my territory".

Next stage is to get the tree muncher round and turn all this crap into wood chippings, then start getting some plants and rocks together for the spring.
I need some tall stuff for the bottom of the garden, maybe some bamboo, and rocks and pebbles planted with alpines, and maples etc along the stream and the pond.
Any suggestions gratefully accepted as I'm not a garden designer.

Evolution

Dr Who regenerates from time to time.
He is a Time Lord for those who didn't grow up here in the sixties and seventies. Fought the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Yeti, the Zarbies (they go back a bit, but I hope Dive remembers them. Or did I dream them) and many other cheap "special effects" alien monsters.

It's been up-dated over the last couple of years and is worth a watch, if only for Billie Piper in the first two series.

Anyway, as a Deity, I also have the ability to re-generate at will, so as I have my new Mac, I thought it might be fun to have a change.

This is the new me working hard using my psychic powers to make pretty patterns on the screen.


It's tough to use the keyboard with no fingers.

So what do you think, is the new look o.k. or should I change back?

Roo

I've just popped back from Rich's site and Lin's recipe page.
MMMMMmmmm food.

This reminds me, I cooked the kangaroo steaks a couple of weeks ago.

Dive was over here to help set up my new mac so it was a good enough reason to try something new.
It was quite simple fare in the end, a quick mushroom & onion sauce with chilli, wine, garlic and lots of black pepper. New potatoes, lightly crushed and mixed with spring onions (scallions for Rich), butter and wholegrain mustard, petit pois for a bit of colour and the roo whacked onto a hot griddle pan and cooked until medium rare.

It was bloody fantastic. For me it tasted like pork with a hint of liver and the consistency of fillet steak.

I will get some more.

Zebra or wildebeest is next.

Leafy things

As we have all been waiting for the trees to get with the program and realise it's autumn, I thought I would wait until the sun was out on Thursday and snap the road outside the factory.

I had to rely on my friend Karen to let me know the sun was shining because I don't have any windows in my office. She rang around mid afternoon and by the time I got out it was dull again but I took the picture anyway.

I had a wander around Kett Hall after I had my breakfast coffee with Big Bro this morning.
The gardeners cut small trees from time to time and lay them down to be reclaimed by nature. There are lots of trunks and log piles around the place all becoming interesting with mosses, fungi and all things dark and mysterious.

This is the old path from the side of the Hall which leads down to a small wooden bridge over the top end of the lake. I don't think too many people ever come down here but they should. It's very peaceful and there are all manner of birds and furry creatures wandering around without paying too much attention to me.

This is for Lynn's "who has the best leaves" competition. I tried to count them but all I can say is there are more than 7.

This only makes me want to get a decent camera and not have to use my phone.
The light coming through these leaves would really benefit from some spot exposure and filters. Looked nice at the time though.

This is the old willow which we climb to spot big carp cruising in the summer. Shame the fucking otter killed and ate them all. Looks like we need to shift some more weed.

This would look better with a flash but the moss was nice. Maybe I could nail some of Dive's pigeons to it.

Light

There was a really weird look about the sky the other day.
I took this around 06:45 as I arrived at work.
Either it was one of those strange Norfolk autumnal dawns or something had just gone very wrong in the test cells behind the stores building.

More beer

I have the day off today. I thought it would be for the best as I was at the 30th Norwich beer festival last night with a few mates.
It is held in St Andrews Hall, a beautiful setting usually used for choirs, orchestral works etc but one week a year it is turned over to "Camra" the campaign for real ale.


This is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for beer drinkers.
Below is one side of the main double sided bar with a smaller cider bar on the opposite wall.
To the right is Blackfriars Hall with food and the local Norfolk ales. There is also a huge marquee housing all the bottled beers and world beers.

Music is provided by various bands during the week, last night it was The Cawston Band playing everything from The Dambusters March and The Floral Dance to Queen and The Police. Very entertaining. There are also steel bands, skiffle, jazz, a string quartet and organ music, so something for everyone.

We even had bagpipes last night!

No too sure what these two were up to though. Maybe groupies or Scottish super heroes!

My own personal favourite beers were there of course, as Mark the brewer has been charging about running the cellar at the festival for years.

Mark owns and runs Beeston Brewery and when he is not clambering around on the racks changing barrels he tries to make sure we get to taste the best beers in the room. Cheers mate.

The festival made the local news for another reason this year. A sparrowhawk flew into the main hall on Monday when all the bars were being set up and decided to stay, perched quite happily in the rafters.

The R.S.P.B. spent hours with a dead pheasant tied to a piece of string trying to lure the bird out but to no avail. I didn't manage to get a picture but it got headline news in the local rag and no, we didn't get shat on.