07:30 Lois gets up and makes 2 cups of tea and brings them back to bed. I look at my smartphone and I see that Jessie, one of our two 7-year-old granddaughters in Perth, Australia, has sent a picture of the rock they climbed today - I think it's the rock at Lucky Bay, but I'm not sure - perhaps we'll get more info later.
the rock that our twin granddaughters Jess and Lily (7) climbed today
- with their mummy and daddy needless to say!!!
Later we retrieve yesterday's post after its 24 hour quarantine, and find the family's Christmas card to us. What a great collection of photos (to us, anyway, as doting grandparents):
09:00 Our neighbour Bob calls at the front door. One of his huge family gave him a brace of pheasants yesterday, which he had immediately put in the freezer - a cock and a hen. He is offering us the cock and he is keeping the hen, which is nice of him. Good old Bob!!!
10:00 It is raining hard and the forecast is for it to continue all day. Connor, my telephone-physiotherapist, scheduled a walk for me today, but I substitute the vacuuming of the house in preparation for Christmas - that's quite a work-out in itself, to my way of thinking. Let's hope Connor agrees - although I won't be talking to him now till mid-January. He had to cancel our December 31st call for some reason: his secretary rang me yesterday.
15:00 Lois sees a rainbow outside over our back garden.
Lois sees a rainbow over our back garden and takes a couple of pictures - nice!
After she has taken this pair of pictures, she starts making our home-made Christmas cookies. I settle down on the couch and look at my smartphone.
I get on the quora network and try to make sense of Mark Hirstwood's description of the English people's genetic make-up, but I am struggling.
Mark says it all started when members of the R-L48 genetic group went up the
coast from around ancient Friesland and took over Scandinavia around 1,700 BC, making the Scandinavians Germanic. The R-L48 guys are a major part of the R1B-S21 group
OK, I understand that.
prevalence of the R-S21 genetic group's DNA, of which R-L48 guys' DNA is a major component
Those R-L48 guys who were later to settle in England had, nearly 4,000 years ago, gone north and blended with the I1
Scandinavians [who they? - Ed] and formed into groups with their distinct language, a northern
branch of Proto-Germanic. However their language, which was later to become English, first arose long before they arrived in Britain. And though these guys were originally from Friesland, they were no longer specifically
Frisian; they’d become Germanic-Scandinavians.
Er right..... I think!!!
prevalence (?) of the mysterious I1 Scandinavians group's DNA
Although some R-L48 guys had remained in Friesland since about 1700 BC, the bulk of the group have a 3,700 years history in Scandinavia. For those of this group that eventually went to Britain, some of the group have been in England now for nearly 1,600 years, i.e. since the first big migrations here in around 449 AD. Others of the group have been here for rather less time, about 1,000 years, i.e. since the 800–900's, if they came during the Viking Age migrations.
Around 200,000 coastal North Sea people came to Britain in the "Anglo-Saxon" Conquest of the Fifth Century AD. The native British or Celts at that time probably numbered between 1–2 million. Many Celts (mostly men) died trying to fight off the "Anglo-Saxons", while others withdrew to Wales and Cornwall and others mixed in many areas with the English. The English in England today average a component of around 22% Celtic DNA.
At least 35,000 Danes came and settled during the Viking Age (800's and 900's AD), plus some Norwegians and a few Swedes. fewer in number than the Danes, says Mark: his guess is about 8,000 Norwegians and Swedes altogether.
Mark says you can view the English today as Germanic-Scandinavian-British (Danish) and Germanic-British (Frisian) hybrids; a Germanic-Scandinavian/Celtic-Germanic hybrid island race.Right, that's cleared that one up then haha!! I must remember Mark's concluding description, in case anybody asks me haha (again) !!!
15:45 Meanwhile, while I've been struggling with Mark's words of wisdom, Lois has made her cookies, although they haven't been iced yet.
Lois's freshly made cookies - prior to icing: yum yum !!
16:00 I see that Steve, our American brother-in-law has sent out electronically a ho-ho-ho Christmas card, which is a cheering image. Cheers, Steve!
Steve's ho-ho-ho Christmas card
18:30 Our daughter Alison in Haslemere sends this picture of her daughter Josie (14) leaving the local swimming pool - these swimming sessions will have to come to an end now: the Haslemere area is being moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 4 restrictions from Saturday, so they'll now be the same as the rest of the county - oh dear.
our granddaughter Josie (14) leaving the local swimming pool this evening
20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, the latest instalment in Danish-born presenter Sandi Toksvig's series on "Hygge".
One of Sandi's guests tonight in her Danish wooden cabin is Professor Brian Cox, who Sandi calls "the thinking woman's eye-candy". They talk about what constitutes the warm, calm, cosy feeling of "hygge" for them - it's interesting that Brian says he finds it calming to think of our insignificance in comparison with the size and age of the universe: this is something I find strangely calming also.
At some point in history, Brian reminds us, the human race discovered that we ourselves were not the centre of the universe (although Sandi comments that some individuals have still to acknowledge this fact in practice, in their daily interactions with their fellow human beings!).
Brian reminds us that the most distant object we can see in the sky with the naked eye, the constellation Andromeda, is over 2 million light years away. So the light we see arriving from there tonight started its journey before there were any humans at all on earth.
Nice one, Brian !!!!
21:15 Lois emerges from her Bible Class and we decide to watch the latest programme in the special Christmas University Challenge series, that features not current students but "distinguished alumni" of the institutions concerned.
We always feel pretty brain-dead by this time of night, and we normally avoid these quizzes after 9 pm, but there's an episode of this series every night over the holidays, so we have to keep up somehow - yikes!!!
As it turns out we don't do too badly, although not as well as last night's record-breaking run. Tonight we get 7 answers right that the "distinguished alumni" strike out on, so at least we're holding our own, to put it mildly.
1. In 1871 the National Gallery bought 77 paintings, including works by Van Dyck and Rubens, from the collection of which Lancashire-born Prime Minister who had died in 1850?
Distinguished alumni: Gladstone
Colin and Lois: Peel
3. Born in Aberdeen, which singer released the 2010 album "A Christmas Cornucopia" that includes "In The Bleak Midwinter" and "Angels from the Realms of Glory"?
Distinguished alumni: [pass]
Colin and Lois; Annie Lennox
3. Donating all proceeds to homeless charities, which US singer-songwriter released the 2009 album "Christmas in the Heart" featuring "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Must be Santa"?
Distinguished alumni: Bruce Springsteen
Colin and Lois: Bob Dylan
4. Name this island. Allied forces retook it from Japan in July 1945 following a 3-month campaign.
Distinguished alumni: Sumatra [Say what?!!! - Ed]
Colin and Lois: Borneo
5. The traditional version of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" features which bird of the genus streptopilia, whose name is partly onomatopoeic of its song?
Distinguished alumni: Calling bird
Colin and Lois: Turtle dove
6. The various species of which bird in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" include white-fronted, snow, brant, pink-footed and greylag?
Distinguished alumni: partridge [Say what?!!! - Ed]
Colin and Lois: goose
7. What do we call the study of ancient inscriptions - that is, written matter recorded on hard or durable materials, such as stone or metal?
Distinguished alumni: epigraphology
Colin and Lois: epigraphy.
So - not bad for us at 9.15 to 9.45 pm at night, in our weakened state - my god!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!
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