Monday Prattle

How nice to get out in the sunshine again.  Much of the time I have been holed up in this aroma filled dwelling so walking in the park has been a delight.  I realise we have had enough Daffodils but in truth there are billions of them lying around at the moment, one of the councils better ideas, and each park and green space has a variety of them livening up the day.  These ones poking through the park bench are good I thought. 

The introduction of the new Pound coin that begins tomorrow caused me to examine the fancy designs on the coins in my possession.  It was then that I noticed this on the back of the Fifty Pence piece.  Here we have a coin of the realm, on one side as always the head of the monarch and on the reverse either a tribute to 'Beatrix Potter' or Jemima Puddle-Duck one of her characters!  These are the coins of the realm with fictional characters on them!
A quick squint online shows some folks might wish to purchase these in time to come so they will rest on my shelf for a while to see if price rises.  As nobody is clear as to how many are out there I may be in for a fat profit, possibly a new pound perhaps?  But really, children's characters on the coins, what next, Jane Austen's people?  

Jemima and her mate did not appear too fussy about being on the back of a coin.  Happily settled into the pond in the gardens these two would prefer people not to throw 50p coins to them as they find them hard to digest.  

I note Theresa May attended Scotland today to ensure Nicola Sturgeon does as she is told.  The few comments noted afterwards indicate intransigent Theresa did not realise that Nicola comes from Ayrshire, I think she knows now.  Clearly a second referendum, IndyRef2, is on the way, Theresa by her continual high handed attitudes will ensure a YES vote far more sure than anything the snooty David Cameron could have produced.  People fell for the lies last time, they surely can tell the lies this time around.  BBC & SKY I note have placed this story reluctantly on their agenda trying to put the Westminster madman as more important even now.  Hmmm that tells you much.

Today I had to march against the biting east wind in an almost hot sun to St Paul's for the last of our Monday meets for a while.  The knees do not like exercise these days, how come it has come to this?  Tomorrow I have a full day at the museum, which means missing my siesta, something that means much to me these days, and assisting with the many 'art lovers' drawn in to hear the talk in the afternoon.  Too many folks on holiday at once in my view.  I suppose we ought to be glad so many showed up for the 'Oscar Ceremony.'

Oh look, more Council Daffs!

Trapped!

It is almost ten this morning and I sit here trapped!  Trapped while I await a man to fix the boiler that worked OK this morning but that he claims requires a new part.  This he decided after a brief view the other day.  Hmmm, good job the landlord is paying.  On the other hand he might be right, the water does not heat as it ought so maybe he has found something by his cursory glance.  We shall see if he is right.
However as he comes from the far distant coast of this county (clearly cheaper than the local guys) and I suspect he has also 'found fault' with one or two others in the building I am now sitting here in an almost clean but not quite slum while I await his presence.  This means I canny go out, I canny begin those jobs that require doing until he has been, and worse still I cannot dare to fall asleep again as I so wish to do.  I wait, and wait and wait...

Eventually he arrived!
Triumphant was I as he and his mate unpacked their heavy bags and began work.
Then we ran into trouble.  He produced a large round, red item which he claimed was to be inserted into the boiler, replacing the burst one.
"Did you not fix that two or three years ago?" Asked I.
"Yes I did," he said memory slowly coming to him.
Out came the phone as he called his brother (the one who came last week to check the boilers).
Several calls and many minutes later we reach the conclusion - he ought to be next door!
So the goods were picked up again, the left for next door and I reset the residence back to the normal mess in which it resides.
All morning I waited in for nothing!  The only good thing was the postman bringing Amazon's latest offering, that is Amazon the book folks not Amazon the woman down the road we all avoid bumping into!  
If the boiler goes off tomorrow there will be trouble...

    
While waiting the TV offered the usual non stop repeat of all the information from yesterday plus the debate in the House of Commons.  Once again we hear from people who were not actually eye witnesses but 'heard something' often from a distance away.  Quite what the purpose of these non witnesses can be I fail to understand.  
The story becomes clearer, the usual 'loner' with a family and surely someone who aided him as yet unknown to us.  The swift police operation raiding premises in Birmingham and elsewhere as the net widens and energetic police take action.  All this is good and acceptable.
What is less acceptable is the people offering their half baked opinions, TV celebs telling us of their 'Terror' or 'Horror' or anything else to get their name involved.  It certainly appears to me that we did not respond like this to IRA outrages, and there were many of those, the population today is steeped in emoting as opposed to reacting.  Let us know your feelings rather than an objective thought.  
Maybe it's just me.   
Anyway while the social media is full of praise for the police and their wok we all know that in a few days they will return to being "Pigs!" and "Have you not got a Muslim to find?" When they stop a dangerous driver using his mobile phone while driving.  Once again our 'Brave Boys' will become the ones who 'stop our fun' or 'do not appear when we need them.'
See my cynicism is out again.

First Day of Spring

The Year's At The Spring - Poem by Robert Browning

The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven—
All's right with the world!

Poem Hunter

I made it back home from St P's today about 30 minutes before the delightful Spring rain hammered down across the land.  I now wake about six in the morning which is good and the day is almost bright, bar the gray clouds that is. 

Spring - Poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Birds' love and birds' song
Flying here and there,
Birds' song and birds' love
And you with gold for hair!
Birds' song and birds' love
Passing with the weather,
Men's song and men's love,
To love once and forever.

Men's love and birds' love,
And women's love and men's!
And you my wren with a crown of gold,
You my queen of the wrens!
You the queen of the wrens --
We'll be birds of a feather,
I'll be King of the Queen of the wrens,
And all in a nest together.
Poem Hunter

Today, without telling the Scots, Theresa May spoke of the date she begins the Brexit process.  The condescending selfishness of the woman is giving many Scots the desire to vote indy!   Today I notice May, in her three hundred pound trousers and several hundred pound outfits posing for a glossy magazine.  How nice to take time of to present yourself, no man would do such a thing.  Arrogant, ignorant to and off Scotland, failing to accept the losses that will accrue she rushes into leaving the EU with no trade deals of any sort ready.  
Disaster awaits.

Oh and there is this!

Stronger in Europe!

Spring Sunday

I cheered myself up considerably this morning by not reading any of the lying online papers.  This was a good idea, though one or two things that appeared on facebook did niggle.  The woman at the Kirk who follows slavishly the UKIP line was close to getting my thoughts this morning but I managed to control myself and twice avoided expressing my opinion.  Coffee time would not have been so enjoyable for some if I had  mentioned my opposition to the hate filled messages she thinks acceptable.  I must write something biblical about this, it shouldn't be too difficult. 
The morning was good otherwise, these people are becoming family to me now, whether they see things that way I would not like to say but "You know how awful family can be," is a phrase I have heard in my presence...   

Plodding home from Kirk I noticed the Spring weather at its best.  Sun bright over there, black clouds over here scudding along at speed.  The football in Manchester I watched today began in teeming rain and soon afterwards the sun was shining, typical Spring weather.  Tomorrow I go out in sunshine but if the weather report is fulfilled I will drown on the way back. 

 
Is there nothing but Daffodils in this country?
These I believe are nearer the colour of the wild daffs that Wordsworth saw when wandering 'lonely as a cloud' though I have yet to see a lonely cloud in this country myself, usually they come with many friends.  
Small flowers, blossom on trees, milder temperatures in spite of high winds and occasional blue in the sky indicate better prospects.  Life is getting better.

  
It is noticeable how scared Westminster is of the IndyRef 2.  The media campaign is well under way already while the problems with the failure of Brexit negotiations and the Northern Ireland danger are pushed aside while Scotland is attacked on all sides.  The referendum has not yet got a date you notice!  England needs Scotland to keep it afloat yet will not accept this.  Instead the usual lies are offered and the usual suspects brought before the biased TV and radio programmes.  Today, in the week the SNP had their Spring Gathering the Andrew Marr show offered the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, not someone from the SNP!  Possibly they were at the Conference "cough."
There is however a great deal of hope for Scots, the greatest weapon we have still exists, Theresa May!  Her patronising attitude, her intransigence and contempt for Scotland will offer Scots an insight into England's understanding of Scotland.  I see that here all the time, and this from well meaning folks, they have a total ignorance of Scotland and its people, a total misunderstanding of why Scots require to be a nation again.   With their media being what it is this can be no surprise.

With the lighter mornings I am awakening at six these days.  This means I must begin to get to bed earlier for my much needed beauty sleep.  As it is past eight at night I suppose this would be the right time to head off for that is around the amount of 'beauty sleep' I require!

Lee is at Fault.

It is not my fault we have yet more Daffs.  Oh no, all I had to do was get up long before I was awake and cross the park to capture the daffodils in the early (ish) morning sunshine that's all I had to do.  This because she who must be obeyed insisted!   A lovely Spring morning, just right for entering the supermarket early on...

The day has been taken up with important things but I put them aside to listen to Theresa May the English Prime Minister talking down Scotland and watching how the English media have given her unstinting, and dare I say it unthinking, support.  Not only the media but the slaves of the comments forums have been once again bringing out their old insults, lies, false facts and abuse.  How lovely to meet old friends again.
The Tory press slants its coverage with little attempt to hide the bias.  The Scottish versions of the papers do have different slanted stories however, just in case these offend I suspect, and this added to the Glasgow based BBC Scotland (full of unionist Labour serfs) with the biased journalism (sic) that they offer it is clear the desperation of the Westminster elite to keep Scotland under the thumb has not diminished.
The usual scribes appear in the comments sections, the usual phraseology indicating 'copy and paste' is much used to abuse Scots and lie about independence.  Rarely do these creatures indulge in debate, they cannot as they merely earn their money by spouting what they are told, and all under several names freely provided and used to give the false impression that vast numbers oppose Scots independence.  Surely this lie has been seen for what it is by now.
The question I ask, and never receive an answer for is 'Why does England wish to keep Scotland if the Scots cost her so much?'  No-one answers as Scotland keeps England going.
How amazing that Theresa wishes to leave the EU without offering answers to the questions that are daily asked re trade deals and financial deals yet claims Scots cannot have a referendum as such questions re Scotland have not been answered!  Silly girl.
Another strange item is the number of Englishmen who fail to understand Scotland's situation yet feel free with their comments, I suppose such arrogance comes easily to them.  I have had to rebuke several and am used to doing that living in this wilderness as the knowledge of most here re Scotland is as a holiday place 'up there' somewhere where they went twenty years ago.  The clarity of the situation ought to appear as they look at the strain on Theresa's face when talking down to Scotland. 

During the week I was searching YouTube for things to watch that required no effort.  The sea slapping against the shore, birds chattering in trees that sort of thing and i found one or two happily enough.  I also came across this Penguin Cam the Penguins at Edinburgh Zoo enjoying their day.  On the occasions I looked they were being fed, some of you with your own animals will recognise the scene.  One is fed while the rest gather around desperate not to suffer malnutrition!  It's a nice watch.

I'm Sick of Daffodils

I'm sick of daffodils, much as I love them!  I wandered out today in the hope the Spring sun might allow for some pictures.  Not only did all the wee birds hide from me, as did some big ones, but no beastie of any sort was interested in posing for me.  
The flowers for the most part comprised Daffodils, more daffodils and yet more daffodils!  I understand why the park keepers fill the park with them, the bright flash of colour is magnificent, but no other colour is appearing.  On top of this I can wander only around the doors just now and this means there is nothing new or exciting to snap a foto off.  Really annoying.  

A few purple things did appear here and there, mostly not quite out yet, and my attempts to capture the early bees hovering between them failed miserably.  Rather a disappointing flower count today but I expect many more to appear in a week or so.  

Nothing else has happened as I have been resting from my housework all day.  Having cleaned up to no purpose last week I see no reason to do any more for a month or so.  The clean up was successful in that I still cannot find half the stuff I removed from sight.  
Bored yet?
I am with having little to report.
So here is another daffodil and good luck with it!

Monday Dawdle

The day went it's usual way.  My desperate Spring cleaning that caused each and every muscle to ache so much that I could hardly sleep on Saturday was in the end a waste of time.  The Boiler man arrived right enough, just as I was thinking of leaving, but the Landlords manager never entered the flat!!!  Now I have a clean flat for no purpose! 
Ridiculous, now not only can I not find anything but the place smells so clean and pine finished.  Tsk! I canny get used to this.  Having said that I must say it is better when I can walk across the floor without dust rising and actually find a space on the settee where I can sit with out having to move things.
But what a waste of time!  Bah!

 
While waiting for the men this morning I did little else, just in case it caused mess, however I did read the facebook pages and some things stood out.  One was facebooks insistence of shoving adverts in my face again.  This happens every so often, especially after the share value has dipped, and as they keep demanding I note other people 'Who I may know' it gets a bit wearing.  I am capable of finding people I know and people I wish to know without help thanks, and the adverts all get called 'Spam' and dumped.
The other thing was my niece, her daughter is 18 today and she is the youngest in the family (though from what pictures I have seen she dresses far from young if you ask me!) and here was my niece and her friends grumbling about being 'OLD' because this one is 18 and that one is 20 and 'innit terrible.'  
How do they think I feel when I can barely remember being 18!    
I canny mind that day when I could legally drink.  This at the time was very important to me and as I worked in a brewery at that age I then got an allowance of beer free each month.  This was more than enough for me as we (my mother and I) were not drinking that much, or should I say she didn't drink except at new year.  However I suspect this allowance of four dozen cans of beer would not be sufficient for my family today.  One of them would have it away in a day or two if he was not working!
This shows how much I have changed from those far off days and the life I then lived.  Meeting together at the church this morning for our debate I realise how distant those days and now my family and I are in our lifestyles and how we see the world.  I would add 'I prefer mine' to a life centred on sitting in pubs but tonight the church men meet for a social evening in a ...anyway I must be off, the sooner I'm in the sooner I get home again...  

Thursday

Nothing happened today except the sun shone.
Just imagine, sun and blue sky, daffodils reflecting the sun while they wave in the wind, seagulls bothering folks in the park while they chase food scraps (seagulls not the people), and another inkling of Spring in the air.
However I did nothing.
I do that very well.

This afternoon however was taken up wandering through the shops to find a gift card for my great niece.  If only 'Poundland' did them!  I finally found one (Primark) that would suit an 18 year old though I believe booze was on her list also.  Whether it was on her list or her mothers who informed me of this I am unsure but these folks don't behave in the seemly manner in which I spent my youth.
What?...oh!

Having said that I am reminded of the (near empty) bottle of Armagnac Brandy that has been lying about for a year or two.  I thought I had better ensure it was fit for purpose and indeed it is!  Such smooth brandy has never before bee invented.  How lovely this stuff is.  How low the level in the bottle...now.
During the Great War General Haig, then the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army was being constantly pestered by General Joffre the avuncular French top man.  He would arrive at Haig's door blustering about the situation and demanding action in a near hysterical demeanour.   Haig, though from the 'Haig whisky' family, rarely drank much but when confronted by a demanding Joffre would reach for his best Brandy and supply copious amounts to the eager General. By the time Joffre headed for his car he had agreed in principle to everything Haig required.  
I might try this with some folks I know...

More 'Roses'

Yesterday I wandered about in the bright sun and chilly wind.  This was just as well as today the weather has been 'fair drookit' and instead I sat here fiddling with the laptop to no avail and making a bad chicken stew.
Maybe I ought to have gone out?

Spring is indeed Springing all around.  Wee flowers are blooming everywhere, Robins, Chaffinch's, Goldfinch's and others are singing all around and the Wood pigeons, the males at least, are up for it already.  The Council planted Daffodils are shining brightly in some places, these are outside the Council offices hmmm, the ones opposite me are only now beginning to open.  Soon we shall see helping themselves to them on the basis that they are planted by the Council!  Help yourself to a Council dustcart also if you feel that way.  

While I admire the bright cheerful colours of small flowers that abound in Spring I do wish they were planted higher up!  Falling over while taking pictures is not my favourite habit but any observer in the Gardens yesterday might have taken a different viewpoint.  They could at least plant them closer to the benches placed all around.

    
While a great deal of effort has gone in to placing information regarding the many trees found in this delightful Garden no effort has been made to enlighten daft folks like me as to the names of these flowers.  This I suspect is because the rich who flourish all around have their own gardens and have made use of such creations for themselves.  Only the ignorant with no more than a dying flowerbox require education.

 
Interestingly few wee beasties are seen around the plants.  No bees or wee flies buzzing around.  No doubt these will arrive soon, once the damp weather moves away somewhere else.  The park had the usual local dwellers, squirrels abound, birds and the scattered white feathers told of the cat which has decided to play in the park, a cat I saw in the distance worrying a squirrel up a tree.

The fact that I have to lower myself to get near the plants, in spite of the telefoto on the camera, does ensure that I shake noticeably when clicking the shutter.  This is seen on many pics that fail to appear here, believe me!  I might by a wee stool to carry with me...

At last, as I left the park I found wee plants placed at a suitable height for people who's fitness is not what it ought to be.  The Robin chattering away was unwilling to show himself for the picture, would you like to see pics of branches and leaves...?

It was a delight to freeze my fingers while in the park as the thought of Spring was encouraging.  The days are getting longer, behind the clouds a sun often pops out, one day it will be there for hours.  When it arrives I will sit in the park reading my books and contemplating those as yet to retire who are slaving away paying for my wee pension.
How delightful!

A Cough in the Park

With the sun shining, the sky blue I took my cough across to the gardens to see some Spring.  This was the furthest I've roamed for weeks and it was a typical English Spring day, cold!  There was warmth in the air when the wind ceased but as it failed to cease much and blew from the east it hurled a chill at those fooled into thinking it was Summer.  When does Spring start and end I ask?  The official date appears to vary with metrologists and various others disputing what starts when.  I suppose in the UK it makes no difference anyway, it will not resemble a tropical land anytime soon.  
One thing that was clear was the Englishman's desperate desire to take his clothes off!  Not too bad today but all around I saw men and a few women in T-shirts when the weather was not yet warm enough for this, I helpfully coughed loudly in their direction to inform them of their next couple of weeks endurance test. 

Our cretinous leaders have pulled a great one this week.  Not that long ago they opposed tariffs on Chinese steel imports as George Osborne was desperate to get his hands on the Chinese cash, now said steel is flooding the market and 15,000 UK jobs will be lost.  Not only but also the steel produce still made in the UK will now have tariffs of around 42%  placed on it by the Chinese!
Selling the nation to the Chinese, Russians or Arabs of any type appeared to be a winner for George Osborne, now like almost everything else he touches it is falling apart.  Poor George his hopes of becoming Prime Minister are fading.

 
How nice to see the daffodils swaying in the wind today.  So many varieties of one flower were on view.  The council ones were darker and brighter than those planted long ago by the gardener in what once was a school garden but individual daffs seen in a variety of gardens had various shades of yellow.  None I suspect were similar to those seen by the poet that time up in the hills of the Lake District, those would be wild daffodils and not the type manipulated by green fingered peoples in greenhouses.  Such a variety of yellows, as indeed there were varieties of green to be seen.  Soon however the buds which have appeared will blossom and the world will smile once more.


"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"

          I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
          That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
          When all at once I saw a crowd,
          A host, of golden daffodils;
          Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
          Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

          Continuous as the stars that shine
          And twinkle on the milky way,
          They stretched in never-ending line
          Along the margin of a bay:                                  10
          Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
          Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

          The waves beside them danced; but they
          Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
          A poet could not but be gay,
          In such a jocund company:
          I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
          What wealth the show to me had brought:

          For oft, when on my couch I lie
          In vacant or in pensive mood,                               20
          They flash upon that inward eye
          Which is the bliss of solitude;
          And then my heart with pleasure fills,
          And dances with the daffodils.
                                                              1804.   William Wordsworth

Swanning Around

I was going to write something some would consider controversial but find that I am worn out with the pressure of the day.  It has been hard sitting inside watching rain fall heavily and constantly.  It was so bad I had to work on my great war men even though it was driving me up the wall.  I have around 25 more men to check up on and it appears to get slower rather than faster.  All morning it rained Highland style and up there they expect winds of a hundred miles an hour tonight. Sometimes it's good to be in the soft south.  The rain ceased long after lunch and allowed the people out once again.  

This was one of the better responses to the Paris attack.  However some papers were not keen to emblazon their pages with these cartoons.  The Express and Daily Mail cartoonists avoided the subject altogether.  

The sodden park opposite has daffodils growing through already!  These beauties that arrive in Spring are showing through, confused by the mild winter and find themselves surrounded by puddles of water.  The climate is indeed changing.  I tell thee Jesus is coming soon!  Not for the daffs by the way.

I am off to sleep, such hard work is wearing me out.....

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Spring is in the Air.

I am beginning to believe that Spring may actually be on the horizon.  Yet another day in which the sun shone and blue sky appeared overhead.  The kids football this afternoon took place in the sun with the wind bringing warm air instead of the usual chilly stuff.  People were seen

wandering about like Englishmen do in the sun, tee shirts and dark glasses, carrying drinks bottles and driving cars with the hoods down.  Actually they were doing this yesterday also but the wind was chilly and they were so busy being macho they did not notice.  I expect the horrid sight of men in shorts, fat men and unsuitable fashions, to appear soon.  

  

This weekend saw cup ties in both Scotland and England.  The fantastic benefit of televised games, once frowned up by the authorities, allowed me the dubious pleasure of watching well wrapped up highlanders in Inverness enjoying the rain and a five nil drubbing, all of which was their own fault, by Dundee United. I followed this with the first half of Hull City v Sunderland in the sunshine. Once again England keeps the sun while Scots get rain, it's a disgrace!  i got fed up with the quality of the 'best league in the world,' (@English media) as I was falling asleep so I went out on the bike for half an hour.  How nice to trundle around in warm air.  How nice to discover life was worth while once again. Life appeared even better when I discovered the second half of the football was on the one hour delayed transmission site, and joy abounded when I saw Rangers were losing to little broke Albion Rovers.  Joy was disturbed when later it was found that Rangers had equalised by scoring a goal with a BLATANT FOUL! Here we see the power of the club.  Had that happened anywhere else a foul would have been given, but with the ref afraid to be hammered by the authorities pro-Rangers bias he put his job before the foul and stole the glory from one of the smallest sides in the nation.  Disgraceful!  I expect however the Glasgow media will not see this that way.

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