Yes, Friends, have YOU been held back by your humble beginnings? Or by your humble middlings, even? Most of us have, haven't we. But don't give up hope! Look at this "splash" from this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire, and take heart!
Fertilisation - it's a funny thing, isn't it, because not just human embryos, but even plants need it too, would you believe! And they don't do it well enough by themselves, apparently, because it turns out that keen gardeners need to "top them up" with a massively heavy bag of this and that, so-called "compost" or whatever, which is totally mad!
some typical "super-gardeners" welcoming the much-anticipated arrival
of a heavy bag of compost, sure to aid their efforts, which is nice!
And the value of compost is something that my super-gardening wife Lois knows only too well, and even Yours Truly knows it now after our morning's exhausting visit to the remote village of Rake's very own Garden Centre, a few miles from our semi-leafy hometown of Liphook, Hampshire, and, before I know it, I'm lugging big bags of compost about, and I don't know what else, to put it mildly!!!!
Yes, and that's Yours Truly there pushing the increasingly heavy "trolley" around (see photos!!!) - what madness (again) !!!!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
flashback to this morning - my wife Lois and I make a crazy visit
to a local garden centre to make "a few purchases" - what madness, isn't it!!!
And the madness continues even after we get home to semi-leafy Liphook, when poor Lois has to get down, almost to her knees, to do some "fiddling about" with some plant/shrub or other, a weed or tow possibly, right there, just a couple of feet away, outside our front door, would you believe!
It's a bit of a crazy day all round today, and even Yours Truly has a hectic time of it, watching Jason, our window-cleaner Jason, cleaning our windows with his long-distance pole, and then I'm selecting and ordering, my birthday gift from Lois for my "big" birthday next week - the big "Eight Oh", which is mad too! I'm going for gin again this year, and I'm going to try and make it last till my 81st next year, "if I'm spared", as Lois's dear dad Dennis used to say! It's my special favourite Wicked Wolf Gin from Exmoor, manufactured by a husband-and-wife team, the gin that we discovered long ago on one of our holidays in North Devon.
So, yes, busy busy busy, yet again! And, no peace for the wicked wolf haha!!!!
But first - here's the "gin gen", as I call it, "distilled" (no pun intended!!!) into some notes from those clever chaps at "Masters of Malt".
flashback (left) to 2018, when I buy my first bottle of Wicked Wolf Gin,
at the annual Lynton Food Fair in North Devon, and (right)
my obvious delight at receiving a second bottle, on Father's Day 2019
So, yes, today it's been "busy busy busy" all round, yet again, to put it mildly!!!
[You lazy so-and-so, Colin! - Ed]
20:00 Well, after all that "hard graft" today, you can't say that Lois and I haven't earned a relaxing evening on the couch tonight, watching a bit of "telly". Even "hard grafters" like us need to relax occasionally - there's bound to be another "hard day of it" tomorrow, so fair enough, we say !!!!!
And for our viewing choice tonight, we're focussing on the re-run of the third and final episode of Professor Robert Bartlett's fascinating series on The Normans, a busy people, very much like Lois and me!
Nothing lasts for ever, however, and eventually the Normans lost all their conquered lands, and even, eventually, their homeland of Normandy in Northern France. Nevertheless, they didn't "bow out" of history without leaving a legacy that's with us to this day, so that's a comfort!
"For 300 years", says Professor Bartlett, "the Normans were among the most dynamic forces in Europe. They colonised countries, and created new states and kingdoms." They also became patrons of art and learning, Bartlett adds, rediscovering and bringing to light ancient documents of Greek mathematical and astronomical works, significantly furthering medieval European scientific research. And of course, the Normans also transformed the landscape with their magnificent castles and cathedrals, amongst other things!
Nothing lasts for ever, nonetheless. In England, the Norman dynasty was supplanted by the Plantagenets in 1154. And there was worse to come:
Poor Normans !!!!!
But even teenage historian Anna could be reduced to a pool of cold sweat by the occasional hunky Norman invader, it appears, like muscle man Bohemond, for example!
female historian whose works have come down to us, and (right) Bohemond,
the "hunky" Norman invader who catches Anna's eye and conquers (!) her heart!
In this sequence from her memoirs ("The Alexiad"), Anna records her reaction to hunky Norman invader Bohemond, as follows:
[All right, we get the idea, Colin! - Ed]
Yes, always a bit of a "red flag" isn't it - a laugh like a snort of rage!
But apparently, Bohemond wasn't quite "every Byzantine teenage girl's dream", and Anna seems to have realised that fact, as Prof. Bartlett points out in this sequence:
What a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days!
But fascinating stuff, isn't it!
[That's enough Normans! - Ed]
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment