In The Pink

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...

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 ...

In the Pink is 1 year old today! It's been an excellent blogging year and I have greatly enjoyed developing this blog. I have found that having this as an outlet has encouraged me to pursue my existing hobbies and develop some new ones to. I have also made contact with people all over the world via their blogs and look forward to seeing their postings and sharing a small part of their lives. This has been a most worth while pursuit for me. In light of this I have decided to use this weeks 'weekly six' as an opportunity to re-post some of my favourite items from the last 12 months, and comment on some significant factors relating to this blog. Item 1: Verse Since In The Pink began I have written many poems, and posted most of them. I enjoy the exploration of language that writing brings. I have re-read the poems that have been posted so far and chosen this to re-post. (If you want to read more of my 'literary ramblings' click on the verse tag here or in 'In the P...

Item 3: The Missing Frog Item 4: Event of the Week Event of the week is a big one this week. I went to see Dweezil Zappa on Tuesday at Shepherds Bush Empire. Every year he tours playing his fathers music, a Zappa plays Zappa concert, this year named The Tour de Frank . I unfortunately never got to see Frank play live and have never really listened to Dweezils stuff as what I had heard was a bit Steve Vai who I am not particularly keen on despite his obvious talents as a guitar player. I will however be watching out for the next Zappa plays Zappa installment and plan to check out some of Dweezil's solo stuff. It was an awesome evening with a guest appearance by the world famous Ray White. For any Dweezil / Frank fans, or anyone just wondering what the Zappa thing is about, go along and see them. Mooanne !

Well last weeks 'Weekly Six' was a bit of a poor show! I had such good fun collecting the photographs however formatting the post took hours and eventually I ran out of time. You may have noticed that there are only four posts in last weeks weekly six! And the photograph of the frog I described in item 6 vanished at the last moment! I have however, had some new ideas for regular posts. I did think the original format of song of the week, movie idol of the week etc. would endure but it was too regular for me to be really spontaneous about it which is what I wanted. So, I have decided on a new regular slots that will hopefully stay the distance. I am now the proud owner of 1001 practical household uses for vinegar. No really, there is nothing this stuff cannot do! I therefore give you the first item of the Weekly Six! Item 1: Practical Household Uses for Vinegar Ref. 31.3 Pour white distilled vinegar on rusted hinges and screws to loosen them up for removal. (A good one for the D...

Item 3: The Big Knit Innocent drinks are making excellent progress with their big knit campaign and in tribute to the fabulous contribution of hats made by Bowledover I would like to post these pictures. I am afraid t hat Parp was not available to model them but he knew of this fabulous group of extras passing through the area who were happy to assist. They have kindly agreed to model the hats throughout this posting. Some of the wardrobe displayed today is from the Caged Minutes Collection circa 1980. My thanks to Bowledover and Mac's Niece . Item 4: Birds Update I have great news on the bird front. The one legged starling is alive and well, and was recently spotted feeding on our bird table. There is no end to that bird species talents. Additionally the jackdaws have returned much to our delight. Our neighbour has had to block off her chimneys due to the many years they have been nesting there and they disappeared for a few months after she did it. It had to be done and I won...

Ok, I have done enough justification of the irregularity of this posting previously, anyone who has been reading will have heard it all, so let's just enjoy and get down to it!! Item 1 : Larger Than Life I have recently watched the conclusive, second series to the HBO via BBC drama Rome . The first series was screened last year and out of an interest of that historical period Sunpat and I watched. For those of you who have neither: seen the series, seen the trailers or been staying at our house when there was an episode on that we made you endure, it spans the return of Julius Caesar to Rome following a successful campaign in......well almost everywhere they encountered, up to the demise of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. The series is brutal and graphic in both scenes of violence and physical relations however I would like to promote this series as an excellent introduction to a race admirable in it's achievements and civil structure. There are of course alternative adaptations of...

This weeks 'weekly six' is dedicated to 'public open spaces'! Yesterday I went out with my camera to one of my favourite local parks. I used to work in local government as the tree officer and this was one of the parks that I looked after, my parade square if you like! Its been raining in England (really throughout all of it!) ' a hard cold rain. A kind of rain that washes away the grimy cover of would be villains and out into the darkness ' .... sorry about that deviation anyway it has been raining for weeks now which has great effect on vegetation so everything looked verdant, albeit all to a grey backdrop! I wish to pay tribute to parks and open spaces for the benefit they provide for all. This particular park is situated in the centre of a large, busy town however once inside the avenue of trees situated around the entire park boundary, the traffic sounds are replaced with bird song and you could be anywhere, for an hour or two. This avenue leads into the ...

Item 1: Planetary Revelations - Jupiter Jupiter is the 5 th planet from the sun and the largest planet in our solar system. Its' diameter is 142,600 km, that's 11 times the diameter of the earth. Were Jupiter hollow you could fit over 1000 earth size planets inside! My point in emphasising the size aspect is, in the words of the late, great Douglas Adams: 'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.' And much of what's in space is also.......big! While we are on the subject of Douglas Adams here is a bit of trivia for you that I found amusing. Douglas Adams chose 42 as the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything simply because he thought it was the funniest-sounding of all two-digit numbers. " A completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also six and seven. In fa...

Item 3: Song of the Week Lightning Strikes, Yes (follow link for a sample of the song) What you gonna do when the lightning strikes and hits you Who ya gonna call for the secret of stealing the world Swimming in this ocean of words on your new cellphone Diving for the wisdom of pearls in your eyes Come on What ya gonna do when the lightning strikes and hits you How ya gonna laugh when the joker forgets his lines Stepping off a cloud into space whatever greets you Show me how you got this award for being alive Waking up is waking to the power Dancing up is dancing till the dawn Talk talk talk will always get you someplace Shake it up n shake me till I'm done Shake it up now! She ay... do wa bap She ay... do wa bap She ay... do wa bap She ay... do wa bap Who ya gonna call when the power begins to chase you Spinning out of shape now you're learning to live again Fastening your seatbelt tonight it could get jumpy Showing me the good n that life is not in vain Take take take n take...

Greetings. Regular visitors to In The Pink will notice that once again the weekly six has been absent for some time. I have to say that although it is a posting I greatly enjoy I often find myself short of the time required to complete it. So my apologies for the delay; here for now is Part 1 of this weeks six items! Item 1: Artist of the Week M.C.Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher, usually referred to as M.C. Escher, was born in the Netherlands in 1898. Nicknamed Mauk in his early life, he attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts and studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita , who he remained friends with for many years. Escher had a unique approach to art, able to produce detailed compositions from memory and utilising his excellent mathematical skill to generate 'impossible' pictures such as, Relativity (1953 Lithograph). Many of my family members have been charmed by Eschers' unique ability and Mac's Niece has a lovely piece framed in her stair ...

Weekly Six – 23rd – 29th April 2007 Greetings and welcome to this weeks offerings! Before we start I thought I should provide a third and final note about our bird situation: our injured Starling appears to have made a full recovery. We last saw him greatly improved and feeding well however I believe that he has now lost all signs of the original injury and is therefore is indistinguishable from the other starlings in our garden! All of our resident starlings appear to be doing well though and there are the noisy sounds of starling chicks emanating from our neighbour but ones eaves, as is usual for this time of year, and it won’t be long before 'family starling' grace our garden with their young every morning for a feed and bath. This weeks’ weekly six in inspired by Bats. I attended a course on Friday which qualifies me to undertake stage 1 surveys of trees for bats. That basically means I can inspect a tree from the ground, for any signs or symptoms of bats or bat roosts, and...

Weekly Six – 16th – 22nd April 2007 Greetings and welcome to this weeks pickings! Before I start I would like to provide an update on our resident Starling. I mentioned in last weeks ‘weekly six’ that we had an injured Starling sheltering in our garden, and we had taken steps to ensure he could access food and water. A couple of days later he ventured into next doors garden and we did not see him for a short while however, I am very happy to report that he is alive, well and making progress, and currently residing in our neighbours fabulous thorn hedge, apparently a guest of the sparrows! In addition the loose feather has come out and he seems to be growing another one and improving in his flight ability daily. So, on that happy note here are this weeks items. Item 1: Flower of The We ek – Wild Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa Anyone who has been out and about in woodland over the past couple of weeks may have noticed this plant growing amongst the bluebells ( Hyacinthoides non-scripta )...