Wednesday March 17th 2026 "Are YOU "entering a new era" without being 100% sure of what you're getting into exactly?!"

Yes, Friends, are YOU suddenly conscious that you're entering a new era, without being 100% sure what that "new era" is?

If so, well take comfort - there's a lot of it about! Witness this typical report in today's local Onion News for East Hampshire!

And reading that story this morning, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, brings a bit of a "wonky" smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, to put it mildly!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

You see, Lois is definitely entering a new era. She's very much in tune with the seasons, and she tells me that it'll be officially "springtime" later this week, and also that she's already stealing a "March" on it - no pun intended!!!! - by moving into some of her multiple springtime tasks, planning her gardening work and thinking about plans to process the fruits of her labours, all that kind of stuff!

Contrast Yours Truly, who avoids any "seasonal" duties pretty much, and who is only conscious of the changes of season when either Lois tells me about it, or I read about it in a magazine or on a website, or if I find I need to put one less, or one more, pullover on. I'm still routinely wearing three at the moment, would you believe! 

What madness, isn't it! 

a typical news story for the time of year - what madness!!!!

Tomorrow, Lois will be starting work on our tiny garden, possibly after a visit to Rake Garden Centre - once more, no pun intended!!! - Rake's just the name of the village, which is a bit mad too!

(left) the approximate position of Rake, which has been called 

"a village in the middle of nowhere", and (right) Rake Garden Centre

But today Lois's job is her marmalade-making, one of her interests that has a special appeal for me as I contemplate what to me is very much a "breakfast essential", which is nice! 

And later in the day, I count the number of 1 lb jars which Lois has produced - six, which should keep me going for at least a week haha!

flashback to this morning - Lois uses a traditional recipe to somehow

produce six one-pound jars of marmalade, just like that - what a woman!!!!

Yum yum!!!

And you can tell how successful that hand-written recipe has been over the years by the number of orange-coloured "splatters" that have been "splatted" on it through the decades - see picture above haha!

[Is that all you've done, today, Colin - watched Lois produce another six one-pound jars of marmalade? - Ed]

Well no, actually, seeing as how you're asking. I've got piles of reading to do, because my fortnightly copy of political magazine Private Eye, has "plopped" through our letterbox just this morning, and, as usual, I have to check on the never-ending lunacies of some of our "wonderful" national newspapers, which Private Eye documents so meticulously. Read ye these extracts here - read, and weep.

What a truly crazy world we do live in, no doubt about that.

And I don't think it's ever been "not crazy", to judge by this evening's re-run of a classic programme in  historian Simon Schama's series, "History of Britain", which tonight is covering the period 1087 to 1216, ending with King John being forced by his barons to sign the Magna Carta.

Henry II (1154-1189) will always be remembered as the founder, and first champion, of our English "common law" system, which is ironic, considering that Henry incited the murder of his own Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Henry's been called "the biggest of England's crowned criminals" - so felons in positions of power are nothing new, in other words!

At least, considering all the events of Henry's reign, our common law system is at least something to be thankful for.

Henry lived and reigned for another 20 years after the "murder in the cathedral" that he had incited, but by the time of his death, his legal framework for England had been firmly established.

It was left to the reign of Henry's son John (1199-1216) for legal curbs to be placed even on the king himself. This was when John's exasperated barons forced John to sign the Magna Carta document in 1215, a year before his death.

And it's fascinating tonight to hear presenter Simon Schama's take on the different personalities of the two kings, the charismatic Henry II and his edgy, vindictive son, John.

Sound familiar? The end result of John's "vindictiveness" was a good one, however - the Magna Carta document of 1215.

A generation before, Schama tells us, the barons couldn't have cared less, for example, about men being held in prison without charge, for unstated causes - that was just something that happened to commoners. 

But under John, bad things like being arrested and held without charge had happened to them, the barons, and they hadn't liked it! So suddenly they were all in favour of reform.

And when, in the following year (1216), King John died, fighting some French invaders in Norfolk, the barons rallied to John's 9-year-old son Henry, who had just been crowned Henry III in Gloucester Cathedral.

However, they "rallied" to him with a difference - because there was also now a multi-page 'contract' for the poor little lad to sign!

As Schama says, "the ramshackle conglomerate [of Henry II's dynasty and empire] had fallen apart almost as quickly as it had arisen... but something solid was left, something that's best measured not in masonry or mileage, but in magistrates!".

Fascinating stuff, isn't it!

But what a crazy country they lived in, back in those far-off days!!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!