• First day at work

    My eldest granddaughter recently completed her first day in paid employment. She hasn’t left school yet though, is doing her GCSEs.

    Eldest granddaughter

    Here we were in 2010. How time flies.

    Granddaughter and me
  • Good karma

    What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

    I’d like to leave behind some good karma. That would be the best of the causes and effects of my life.

    Also, I have a large collection of photos, amounting to 125,000.

    I think the digital copies are unlikely to survive, but I could self publish a book with some of my favourites.

    Here’s one of missus befriending some sheep.

    Everyone loves Yvonne, including animals

  • Icicles

    How do you feel about cold weather?

    I tolerate cold weather quite well. I enjoy a good snow storm. It’s the damp I don’t like.

    Here’s a picture of some icicles that I took.

    Icicles
  • Happy

    How do you balance work and home life?

    I’m retired so it’s not a problem.

    I can spend my time pottering about or following my hobby interests, like photography.

    Wishing all my readers a Happy Monday!

    Neon bulb
  • Old shoes from Clark’s

    What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?

    I’m wearing a pair of shoes that I bought in July, 2021. They’re really comfortable. And they only cost £41.00. It’s about time to renew them though.

    Clark’s shoes
  • Five favourite fruits

    List your top 5 favourite fruits

    1. Strawberries 🍓
    2. Grapes 🍇
    3. Pineapple 🍍
    4. Banana 🍌
    5. Oranges 🍊
    Fruit tart
  • Common End

    What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

    I could do with getting out more and doing more walking. There are several options for this 1. We have a nice big park with a pond, 2. There’s also the cemetery that we can walk to, 3. I could walk part way into town, 4. There’s a nice green open space that used to be the village common., a shared space for grazing animals.

    The place where I grew up was called Common End because it was near the common.

    The village common
    Cemetery and church
    Pond
  • BY WILLIAM BLAKE

    “Love seeketh not itself to please, 

    Nor for itself hath any care, 

    But for another gives its ease, 

    And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.” 

    So sung a little Clod of Clay 

    Trodden with the cattle’s feet, 

    But a Pebble of the brook 

    Warbled out these metres meet: 

    “Love seeketh only self to please, 

    To bind another to its delight, 

    Joys in another’s loss of ease, 

    And builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite.”

    Key Imagery

    • Clod of Clay: Represents vulnerability, humility, and the ability to give.
    • Pebble of the Brook: Represents selfishness, endurance, and hardening by experience.

    In summary, the poem implies that human love is a complex, often painful mix of these two opposing perspectives—neither wholly good nor entirely bad, but part of a larger, difficult experience of life.

  • Robert Pirsig

    Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.

    He was the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I liked him because of our shared interest in philosophy and shared love of motorcycles. He had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and through his life and works demonstrated that you can have an active and fulfilled life with such a serious condition.

    I like the story of how when going over the Rockies on his Honda, he stopped to adjust his carburettors’ needle jets to allow for the altitude’s change in atmospheric pressure.

    I tried the same thing when crossing the Pyrenees over from France to Spain, and it didn’t make the slightest difference. Doh! 😩

    Love Pirsig though.

    Robert Pirsig
  • Ducks

    We were up and out early this morning and I captured this…

    Ducks