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Monthly Archives: January 2014

Feeling Fine, Wonderful Words and Year of the Horse

1 “Woke up this morning feeling fine!” after a poorly week. Cue the music. I saw the lovely Herman’s Hermits in a tiny venue in 1963!

Thanks to Lynne for this one

2 I’ve spent a great deal of time this last week lollygagging and I’d hate you to think that I’m bloviating in this post or that I am dealing in skullduggery in an attempt to bumfuzzle you but I just want to tell you what pleasure I have had indulging my logophilia this week! Be certain, my very beautiful friends, that I do not intend to honeyfuggle you; just to share with you the delights of AWAD, A Word A Day, where a word is sent to subscribers’ inboxes every day. Click here to subscribe. It’s free!

3 It’s Chinese New Year today so Happy New Year of the Horse to all my lovely readers. Click here for twelve songs about horses starting with The Rolling Stones ‘Wild Horses’. Here, too, are some photos of horses, just for your pleasure!

Our neighbours

Up to his ‘knees’ in buttercups

Our neighbours

Taking it easy

Waiting outside The Vermont Alehouse in Stowe

Lollygagging – spending time lazily
Bloviate – to speak pompously
Skullduggery – trickery
Bumfuzzle – to confuse
Honeyfuggle – to deceive by flattery

12 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 31, 2014 in Beauty, Happiness, music, nature, photography, Postaday 2014, Words

Tags: A Word A Day, AWAD, Chinese new Year, Herman's Hermits, The Rolling Stones 'Wild Horses', Year of the Horse

Special Twins, Goldfinches and Pan Pattern

30 Jan

1 Our beautiful twins were born on different days 36 years ago. Here, in this link, there are two mums each with their babies born on different days, different months and different years!

Our twins at about 20 months, photo of a photo

2 The Goldfinches are back! The sun is shining today but we have another hoolie promised tomorrow. Let’s hope no more damage occurs to the coast. The photo was taken from indoors on a long zoom so it isn’t good but it does show some of the dozen or so that were visiting today.

Goldfinches at the feeder

3 Getting a pan out tonight, I was intrigued to find this beautiful pattern on the bottom.

Pretty pan pattern

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 30, 2014 in Beauty, birds, family, garden, nature, photography, Postaday 2014

Tags: goldfinches, twins

Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition

30 Jan

Seeing a remarkably well behaved pig walking the streets of Boston was a strange juxtaposition of things for us!

Going his own way

Asking for a treat

Attracting attention

Crossing the road

Find others in this challenge here

19 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 30, 2014 in America, animals, Beauty, Humour, nature, photography, Postaday 2014, Weekly photo challenge

Tags: pig on the streets of Boston, Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition

Chris Packham, Panther Video and Fortune Cookies

29 Jan

1 There was a brilliant programme on BBC TV last night, Inside the Animal Mind, with Chris Packham investigating how animals think. Catch it if you can on BBC iPlayer. This photo sums up the happiness of dogs!

Enjoy life!

2 A friend sent me this video today. Find time to watch it if you can – it is a very heartwarming film of an animal whisperer calming a very unhappy panther.

3 The postman delivered a soaking wet and falling-apart parcel for me today and was relieved when I wasn’t cross. Not a bit! I was delighted that the Fortune Cookies I had ordered for Chinese New Year had arrived safely!

Fortune Cookies

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 29, 2014 in animals, Beauty, nature, Postaday 2014

Tags: BBC, Chinese new Year, Chris Packham, Fortune Cookies, Inside the Animal Mind

Pete Seeger, Hyacinth and Favourite Words

28 Jan

1 Sad to hear today that Pete Seeger has died but what a legacy of music he has left behind. I just love this one, probably not one you will have been hearing today. Do click on the link and listen to his interpretation of ‘Forever Young”, a Bob Dylan song, recorded just a couple of years ago for Amnesty International. He was such a campaigner for peace and this one, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” is an anthem that will live on and on…….
Under the second video there are these words:
“The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel “And Quite Flows the Don”. Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as “Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?” Shortly after she sang it in German. The song’s impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. Its universal message, “let there be peace in the world” did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all who hear it.”

2 Our Hyacinths in the glasses are flowering just one at a time. In some ways that is lovely as they come in sequence and their gorgeous scent pervades the room – but I do miss the whole glorious display of flowers all at once as we had last year.

Hyacinth in blue glass 28.1.14

3 Friends and I have been discussing favourite words today. Lynne mentioned ‘nincompoop’, such a delightful onomatopoeic word, and I was reminded of a word one of my brothers found in the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary – ‘shittlewitted’. It’s not as rude as it sounds, meaning scatterbrained or flighty but it makes a splendid expletive! For those who don’t know, the Shorter Oxford Dictionary is no such thing. It comes in two enormous volumes and the writing is so tiny that the pair come with a magnifying glass! I’d love to hear of your favourite words.

19 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 28, 2014 in Beauty, music, nature, Peace, photography

Tags: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, 'Forever Young", Amnesty International, B4Peace, Bob Dylan, let there be peace in the world, Marlene Dietrich, Oxford Shorter English Dictionary, Pete Seeger

Snowdrops, Primroses and Native American Sense

27 Jan

1 While I’ve not been looking, the Snowdrops have suddenly appeared.

Snowdrops in our garden

2 The Primroses have been going all through this mild (but extremely wet) winter.

I love Primroses

3 The more I hear of what our short-sighted government considers the right way to look after our land, the more I want to make them think in the ways of the Native Americans.

When the blood in your veins

20 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 27, 2014 in Beauty, flowers, garden, Kindness, nature, photography, Postaday 2014, quotations

Tags: Native American saying, primroses, snowdrops

Under Milk Wood, Bird Visitors and Wild Winds

26 Jan

1 Another duvet day but with the special treat this morning of hearing some of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood on the radio. That is my favourite piece of literature even above Romeo and Juliet! Just listen to Richard Burton reading the opening lines by clicking here. It’s 60 years since UMW was first broadcast. Mum and Dad bought the recording on two 78rpm records and played it often and so I grew up hearing the best radio play ever.

2 It’s the Big Garden Bird Watch today (where people all over the country count the birds in their garden or park for one hour over the weekend) and, feeling better, I took my duvet downstairs to watch for the birds. The weather is still so wild that there were few but in the odd moments between showers and gusts of wind, one or two of our regulars called in.

Blackbird

Magpie

Pretty pigeon

2 The wind has been every-which-way today. The weather vane hasn’t known which way to go!

Blowing West?

…or East?

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 26, 2014 in Beauty, birds, environment, literature, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday 2014

Tags: 'Under Milk Wood', Big Garden Bird Watch, Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton

Breakfast, Reading and A New Blog

25 Jan

1 Breakfast in bed is a treat.

2 Time to read is a treat – as long as I can stay awake long enough. I have enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s other work and this has started very promisingly.

And the Mountains Echoed

3 I discovered a beautiful new blog today – funny, sad, touching and compelling reading about a Dad bringing up his two boys after being widowed. Give it a try. Click on the link.

11 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 25, 2014 in books

Tags: And the Mountains Echoed, being ill in bed all day, Breakfast in bed, Jack Morrison, Khaled Hosseini

Painting, Earrings and Soup

24 Jan

I had such a lovely day planned – piano lesson followed by Laughter Yoga and then an evening at Tate St Ives with friends but I have been struck down by some lurgy. Today you have beautiful things I can see from my bed!
1. A painting by Guiliana Lazzerini which I love.

2. My cork board of earrings.

Some of my collection of earrings

3. For this last one, you have to use your imagination…. Christmas Leftovers Soup from the freezer for lunch, absolutely delicious and recuperative.

I’d like to say I’ve spent the time catching up on all the unread blogs out there but truth be told, I’ve been sleeping most of the day away.

12 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 24, 2014 in art, Beauty, Food, painting, photography, Postaday 2014

Tags: Guiliana Lazzerini, Laughter Yoga, Purple Shadows, Tate St Ives

Bird Table, Peace Poem and Embroidered Bees

23 Jan

1 We’ve been looking for a new bird table for some time and yesterday found one we both liked. It has already attracted a couple of small visitors.

New bird table

2 Amy Witting / Joan Levick wrote this evocative poem, Peace. I was delighted to learn that this Australian writer chose the surname ‘Witting’ because of a promise she made to herself to never be ‘unwitting’, to always remain conscious of everything in her life – which is what I try to do here in my blog. I can’t put the whole poem here because of copyright but here’s the link so that you can read all ten lovely lines.

Peace

At the ship’s bow. It was my eye that drew
the perfect circle of blue meeting blue.
……………
……………….Stillness all around.
Only the perfect circle and the mast.
That moment knew no future and no past.

3 L gave me this beautiful embroidered little container but neither of us could think how I might use it. Then I thought – a jam jar of water and a bunch of Cornish daffodils so here they are!