In The Pink

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

This is my all time favourite Christmas song, first heard at a school disco my sister took me to many, many moons ago! It was a close call between this and Fairytale of New York which I also realy like, but this just pipped it. I would have liked it to be the other way round, you know a partial celt bloodline and all, but I guess I am just a rock chick at heart! Merry Christmas Everyone!

I went to the City of Winchester, former capital of England, for work today and made a trip to the Cathedral during lunch. It is an awesome city and it was my first visit there. Needless to say I took lots of photos. Here's the first of them. This is the central area for the congregation. There was a carol service there at 6.30pm and I bet they raised the roof. The choir pews were so ornate. I sang in church choirs when I was a kid, and loved it, singing with other people is a great experience, especially with the harmonies of a full choir, from baritone to soprano. The robes weren't so great but they kept you warm! As a foot note I was really impressed with the service I received at Winchester City Council, the purpose of my visit. They were extremely helpful.

I seem to be having trouble with my blog header. I am not sure what everyone else is seeing but since my first TT post (no associated blame) the header has been shifting about and I can't fix it! Anyone else come across that? Speaking of headers check out this header over at Damozel 's blog, it's mesmerising!

Greetings. It's been a frosty winter wonderland here today hence my inspiration. This weeks TT is 13 things I like about winter! 1. It’s the season that heralds snow; the most fun of the winter weather, good for sledging, snow ball fights, making snow men and animals, and playing snow angels. 2. It’s the season of cold air of the purist clarity that fills my lungs and by its crisp neutrality permits springs first scent to be detected. 3. The season where weather creates a world cleansed and virginal in its iced façade. 4. The skin on my face tingles beneath winter’s crisp caress, making my cheeks glow. 5. Wrapping up to venture out into the cold in gloves, scarves, hats, boots and a winter coat, snug in wool. 6. I like the frost framing winter fruits; complimented by the crystal background. 7. Tree branches are revealed in their skeletal glory, naked of their leaves. 8. There’s a glimpse of the birds returned from their summer hiding, e.g. blackbird and thrush, frantic in their lon...

This poem was co-written with Sunpat for a Christmas challenge made by his parents a few years ago. It is traditional to have a new game each year and they have varied from: draw a picture that denotes a Christmas carol, make a hat for the day that symbolises your profession, murder in the dark......which pretty much gets played every year, and write your own Christmas poem. There are generally lots of kids there, and plenty of adults who like being kids for the day! Sunpat and I wrote this one together, in the car on the way down actually, and I am proud of it. We wrote it from the point of view of our dogs, who were an integral part of every family get together, and we thought it should be posted at this festive time of year, in remembrance and tribute. I hope you enjoy it. 'Come Fill Our Bowls' Greetings from old County Durham we are so very glad to be here, seeing all of your friendly faces smiling and so full of cheer. It's been along time since we've seen you but ...

I have not done a bird update for some time however, I am happy to say our garden remains a hive of activity with the usual suspects. The Thrush and Blackbirds have returned as tends to happen at this time of year, one of the Goldfinches has returned and with him the Bullfinch, and the Robin has well and truly stamped his species mark on our house! No other Robins allowed. This weekend has seen an increase in activity as the birds prepare to mate off. Mr. Blackbird is chasing Mrs. Blackbird from fence to tree and she's having none of it and the Sparrows appear to be practising for next years Red Bull Air Race. The Starlings, as usual, bathe constantly and squabble. I am ever grateful for their presence.

This weeks Porcupine Tree offering. I have had this one on my head jukebox a lot this week.

Got a bit of a Bing thing going on.

One of my favourite classic musical screen moments. If you have 3 minutes 41 seconds to spare then please watch. It's good stuff!

I just found this fabulous blog care of Lone Chatelaine , called Scotland . It is a collection of images from the country. I had to share it as Scotland is where I would always be if given the choice. There is no part of the country that is not beautiful. I mean even those 'burgers to be' look good this morning and I am a vegetarian! Anyway have a look, the pictures are truly awesome.

Last night was our works Christmas do, well the team do, we still have an office lunch next week. I bought candles for my boss, which went down really well I am happy to say, and I got this! I am still not entirely sure what it's all about but it's funny, in a really silly 'I cannot explain this at all' way! The other surprise of the evening was getting these! Our boss gave a flower arrangement to our administrative staff for all of her hard work and great organisational skills through the year, she is a very unique lady and brings us together as a team; and then announced that there was a second group gift to the member of staff who has done the most miles this year....which is me! It is pants I have to drive a lot for my job as I work for an environmental consultancy but it's just how it is, I look after a lot of trees and they are all miles away. I thought it was very nice and very funny of them! I have exceeded the maximum amount for the top mileage rate for thi...

I have decided, after much deliberation, to join the Thursday Thirteeners! I am a little nervous as I don’t like committing to things unless I can complete them. I had a regular post called the weekly six which involved a weekly posting about 6 items of my choice that I wished to share or rant about and I have struggled to maintain that. To do it properly with all links and pictures takes a day and like most bloggers, I regretfully do not have a day every week to spare for this pursuit. I am hoping that the TT posts will enable me to post about items of importance to me while maintaining the original concept. So here goes! For my first Thursday Thirteen I would like to share my love of camping and what it means to me!(Was that the sound of several bloggers hitting next blog?) I love being outside and would camp all year round if given the chance. With suitable under bed mats and a fire to sit round in the evening the UK is a perfect place to camp no mater what the season; in fact, if ...

I received this beautiful Christmas card from my Mum & Dad today. This photograph really does not do it justice but it's the best shot I could get of it. The very best view is reserved for us from the comfort of our couch! Many of our family members make their own cards for Christmas and it is so lovely to receive them. (Until we speak and I can tell you in person, thank you!) While attempting to photograph the card in its best light I had a play around with my camera and made this! I know it's a bit glarey but I like it! Our Christmas decorations went up at work today which instantly inspired Christmas songs to commence continuous play in my head. The one I usually get stuck on is Let it Snow - Dean Martin but I did have a brief spell of David Essex - Only a Winters Tale !! The song that was playing on my head jukebox when I woke up this morning was Dreamer - Supertramp , which has since returned. A final note; my thanks to the lady with the two boxer dogs that I bumped in...

I’m caught in the headlights again The 5am roadsters make this their domain I turn off the byway, the world goes insane I’m caught in the headlights again I’m blind in the glare of their haste Aggressive, invading my allotted space They throw down the gauntlet, endorsing the chase I’m blind in the glare of their haste I’m tempted to retaliate To punish their rude and superior state To inform of peril, atonement create I’m tempted to retaliate I’m caught in the headlights again Caught in the slipstream; where madmen reign I turn off the highway, leave them to inflame I’m out of the headlights again

Lady Banana has very kindly offered this badge to everyone who visits her blog as a way of saying Merry Christmas. For anyone stopping by here that hasn't visited you should! To visit her blog follow this link or the link in my blogroll. My thanks and salutations to Lady Banana , and to you all.

My very good friend from Greece just called to let me know that my second Godchild, Zora, was Christened today. Apparently the weather looked threatening for a while but a bright spell persevered and all went well. As Zora is of Greek nationality her official Godparents have to be Greek Orthodox . My friend is British and married to a Greek chap, and so has official Godparents in Greece, and unofficial Godparents for both of her daughters. It allows her to generously involve her friends in her family and also gives her daughters an additional guardian, who represent the other nationalities within their family. I am looking forward to watching Zora grow. As we live in different countries it will not be easy to see her and her sister as much as I would like but I hope that we are able to develop a good relationship and that she truly feels she can call on me for whatever she needs, whenever she needs it.

Every Christmas at work we do Secret Santa within our team; that's the landscapers and arborists, there are 12 of us altogether. We set a financial limit of £5.00 this year. It was £10.00 last year but I think there must have been some complaints, which is a shame as it's much easier to buy a £10.00 gift than a £5.00 gift! Last year when it came to drawing the name out of the hat I got one of my fellow arborists who has a lovely collection of old and interesting zippo lighters. I went to a Christmas fare with my sister about this time last year and found a giant brass zippo for exactly £10.00 which was very well received. This year I got my boss! Well to be accurate she's not my boss but she is our technical director. I don't know her very well and have been struggling for an idea. One of the twists of our Secret Santa is that during our works Christmas do (happening this Thursday night) we pass out the gifts, one at a time, and then you have to guess who gave you it! S...

This is one of my favourite Christmas tracks! I like the humour! It always makes me think of the Wake up to Wogan crew. I think it's the type of thing they would sing. I have a lovely vision of Deadly and Boggy Marsh with the Togmeister in shirts and suit jackets and suspenders and stockings! Many years ago my sister took me to the stage show of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the evening was filled with men dressed in womens underwear.....I think they all loved it!

The Last of Knights. Vsevolod Ulianoff (1924) I have just been looking into Arundel Castle , as I drove through there twice this week and noticed the amazing castle for the first time. Anyway, on my Blackle journey I came across this brilliant website called Castle Xplorer . It has information about all of the castles in the UK and you can search any region to find a castle near you. It is also a School Zone 5 Star Site. In addition to loads of beautiful photos there is lots of history and general information. I went looking for a suitable picture to accompany this post and found The Last of Knights, which I enjoy looking at and thought should be shared. P.S. Can you P.S. a blog post? Anyway, I should mention that this posts title, The Field of the Cloth of Gold, is a Nick Harper song from his new album. It is not available on You Tube but I would strongly advocate buying it and all of his albums! His website, Harperspace, is in my links list.

These Yew trees are between 250 and 300 years old, as far as we can guess; Yews being difficult to age. There were loads of them on site but this group lent itself to a good group photo.

Let us all give thanks for You Tube! Enjoy.

One final clip I wanted to share. This morning we are relaxing and listening to all of our favourite stuff, this one is always on the list to play and next on the list of bands to go and see!

PRESS PLAY!!!!!!!

I have been to see a couple of bands recently, one for the first time and one for the.......I've lost count time! Anyway, the latter I am always pleased to shout about. Nick Harper is an awesome musician and an inspiration to me and many other people who make seeing him play a regular feature in their lives. In addition he has an awesome musician father, Roy , who also features heavily in my gigging calendar however, Nick is my generation and sometimes it feels like we have been going through parts of life together. It's the first time I have had that kind of connection with an artist who I like so much. When we turned up to see him the other night and I looked up to the stage it was like looking at the face of an old friend. The other band are something of a new musical interest for me. Someone I worked with gave me a couple of their cd's which have been growing on me over the past year or so. They are a British rock band called Porcupine Tree and I went to see them a coup...

My sister bought me these flowers 8 days ago and they are still looking absolutely beautiful so I thought I would share them.

I came across a folk artist on Wednesday via the Mike Harding show on Radio 2. It was one of those few times when you hear a song and by the time it's a third of the way through know you are going to buy it as soon as you get home....and his two latest albums are on the way to me as we speak! He is called Benji Kirkpatrick and has been around for a few years, predominantly on the folk festival scene. Anyway have a listen here , the song I heard was called Wallbreaker , a song about water, however, there are others to listen to on his My Space page and I think they are all really good, plus you can find out lots more about him. I will report on the albums in due course. Also I have recently been introduced to Blackle, which is for those who don't know, an energy saving search engine, created by Heap Media. It uses Googles Custom Search Engine and has a black screen which apparently saves shed loads of energy. The Blackle homepage boasts 282,996.041 of watt hours saved. For more...

How the wind buffets and spirals this day While birds brave the updrafts to steal food away The trees in expression holdfast their leaves still And branch tips submit to the seasons strong will

This weeks six concentrates on some great moments over the busy past couple of weeks, hence this feature being absent last week! It's been busy both socially and on the work front and has heralded some great moments. Item 1: The North York Moors First off is our visit last weekend to the North Yorkshire Moors (correctly referred to as the North York Moors) to visit some good friends who relocated to that part of the country earlier this year and it was absolutely stunning. It was our first visit to see them and to that particular part of the Mo ors. We like to make the most of our time in the great outdoors and every holiday is usually spent camping in Scotland or Wales but these past few weeks have reminded me just what there is available within England and at a much shorter distance. I think Scotland will always be my favourite part of the UK (followed by Northumberland) but our trip to the Moors, and recent visit to the Peak District has encouraged us to get back to more weeken...

Rain falls this day and washes the dust and the debris away, as I am soothed by its’ temperate patter, its’ trickling sway.

Greetings! Well Blog Action Day is here! I am very excited and am looking forward to going off to other participants sites however first need to complete my own postings! My apologies for the lateness in the day but I had an early night last night, due to an early start this morning and this is the first moment I have had to blog.(Much to my disgust!) So, blogging about environmental issues...I have given this a lot of thought. There are so many things I could write about: don't leave your TV on standby, unplug the phone charger when the phone is not charging, turn the tap off when you are cleaning your teeth, but we all know about these by now don't we? The environment is pretty much a daily issue in the UK and I expect in many other countries. We now all know there is an issue, we may debate whether we are responsible but surely we must all agree that whether the changes we observe are as a result of our actions or not we live in a wasteful society with room for improvement. ...

I came across this via Macs Niece at Caged Minutes . The idea is as follows: 'On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you!' If you are interested please follow this link , or click on the button. My thanks to Macs Niece.

You may have noticed 6 new buttons on my blog in the left hand menu that say click every day. If you are unfamiliar with these they are basically a link to another site where if you then click the big button you donate to various charities for free. The deal is that for every click they receive their sponsors donate to each charity. You are therefore just two clicks away from: providing reading tuition and free books for children, providing free health care for children, helping to preserve endangered habitat, helping to provide a free mammogram for someone, providing 6 bowls of food for rescued animals, or giving free food to someone who really needs it. If you can spare two clicks please pick any buttons of your choice and help these worthwhile charities for free! Thank you!

I would like to dedicate this one to the DJ Steve Wright.....I don't care I love him!

Item 1: Practical Household Uses For Vinegar Ref. 7.1 An easy way to periodically clean out soap scum and disinfect your washing machine is to pour in 450ml (2 cups) of white distilled vinegar; then run the machine through a full cycle without any clothes or detergent. ( 1001 Practical Household Uses for Vinegar 2007 ) Item 2: The A-Z of Music. This is another new and hopefully regular item….well at least for 26 weeks! I have recently compiled a list of favourite artists for every letter of the alphabet. It was not easy and some letters ended up with several contenders! This weeks letter is of course A and I am afraid for me there is only one A in the music world……oh pants I just thought of another. Ok but AC/DC aside (sorry guys) this weeks A is ABBA ! Now I don’t feel I can leave it there as I am a big AC/DC fan, both with and Bon Scott and Brian Johnson; although Bon Scott was not the first lead singer with DC, I think most will agree he was the best. But there will certainly be no ...

Greetings! Just a short word from me to say top gig last night and, the icing on the cake, Rush played one of my favourite songs, Passage to Bangkok from the album 2112 which made my evening. For anyone who is not familiar with Rush here's a quick intro to the band: Geddy Lee, Bass, Keyboard and Vocals, Alex Lifeson Guitar and Vocals, Neil Peart Drums. (Image Credits: Global Bass , Guitarz For Ever , Hughes & Kettner , respectively.) They all, sounded awesome and the sound at the venue was good too, ( Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield ) although as usual it was a seated concert and they really crammed us in. The last Rush gig I went to (Birmingham) the sound was ropey and the chairs were narrow and hard. Last night the seats were padded but seriously close together! Why can't we just all stand and dance! The highlight of the night as anticipated was watching Dr. Peart at work on the drums! We have two more gigs booked for next month, Porcupine Tree and Nick Harper. Anyone o...

I am going to see Rush again tonight! My life is filled with music whether it be playing via my head jukebox or my computer and I could not live without it. Music touches something very primal in me and can make my soul soar and then in an instant reduce me to sobbing, obviously dependant on the song. I am a big fan of live music and go to as many gigs as I can manage clocking up performances by pink floyd , jethro tull , rush, steely dan , albert lee, johnny winter, crash test dummies, all about eve, yes, hayseed dixie , hawkwind (featuring Arthur Brown), nick harper , roy harper , bob dylan , freak power, stereophonics , dweezil zappa (featuring the world famous Ray White) and little feat to name but a few..... ok to name the best few, there are some suspect bands but I guess that just depends on your tastes. Unfortunately most of the bands/ artists I would like to see are deceased but I enjoy making the most of this spell of ageing rock bands returning to glory. I have recen...

Calling all Tolkien Fans. My very good source of book reviews and blogging tips at Between the Covers has reviewed The Silmarillion . For anyone who has not read it yet or like me is finding it an early struggle, have a look at Coversgirls review. I am on my way to take up the story as we speak. This is the first edition published in 1977. For any Tolkien enthusiasts...or Middle Earth enthusiasts, it's a must. Also, check out the Tolkien Companion . It answers lots of those questions! Happy wondering. ( Image Credit - Tolkien Library.)

I am taking part in the Four Legged Friends Reading Challenge, as created by Kailana at Kailana's Written World , in memory of her beautiful dog Sandy ('Rascal') pictured here. (The small, darker creatures front and rear are called Atra and Miko.) Please follow the links above for extensive details or to join in; in brief the challenge is to read 3-5 books where animals are the main focus of the book, main characters or certainly very influential, (Who am I kidding......it is impossible for me to be brief!) before the 26th Feb 2008 and review them on your blog! Sounds like a top idea to me so I have been searching for some books to read and have come up with these. I have only heard of one of them before and am looking forward to getting my teeth stuck in. Life of Pi, Yann Martal (Bengal Tiger, Orangutan, Hyena, Zebra) The Lost Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective, Kathy Albrecht (Weimaraner) Whale Song: A Novel About The Greatest and Deepest of Bei...

This is the Black-headed Gull, Larus ridibundus , although at this time of year they do not have black heads. The birds develop a darkened, to be accurate chocolate brown, plumage over their head for the breeding season; it's breeding plumage. By the end of the year all that is left of the breeding plumage is one dark spot behind each eye as seen below. Like all Gulls they seem to be masters of trajectory! They have distinctive dark red bills and legs. These Gulls are found predominantly in land and are commonly seen following tractors across open fields.

On Saturday I went to the local reservoir armed with two bags of brown bread and a camera. It's a favourite past time, both the purchasing of the food and the administering! And surrounding yourself in a flock of hungry birds is an awesome experience. Nature up close and personal! I also spent the early morning buying more bird food for the garden inhabitants. I greatly enjoy getting in the supplies, and had the added bonus of a money off voucher and a free bag of daffodil bulbs this time. Anyway the flocks at the water were very generous with their images, and I had a great time watching as well as photographing. There will probably be more pictures over the next few days! (Still working on the song by the way.)