Laughing Fit To Burst ...

When was the last time you had a really good laugh.  The sort of laugh that just keeps bubbling up long after the event.  Why does something strike you as so funny that just thinking about it makes you start laughing all over again.  This happened to me as I watched this video.

Did you find it as funny as I did?

The Road to Little Dribbling

I have almost finished reading 'The Road to Little Dribbling' - the first Bill Bryson book I have ventured to read.  I do love the fact that he likes England with all its faults and  idiosyncracies.  I also like his sense of humour, the nuggets of information that I wouldn't have otherwise known, and the way he has imaginary conversations with people and things that annoy him.  I would never have thought that I would enjoy such a book, but I did - very much - it made me laugh.  He seems quite a jolly fellow that I would enjoy sitting next to in a pub and having a good old natter. I just wonder how he finds time to see his family when he is on the road so much; all that walking  that he does tires me out just thinking about it.

THE FUNNY THING ABOUT WOOD PIGEONS

 The funny thing about wood pigeons is that they don't mind getting wet - in fact, they positively relish it and don't fly for cover like the other less waterproof birds. These two visit our garden regularly and sit on the greenhouse roof for what seems like hours.  If it rains, the harder and stormier the better, it seems - they use it as an opportunity to take a shower, as it were.  Preening and sorting their feathers out ,but the weirdest thing I have seen is the armpit  or wingpit manoeuvre. Lifting each wing in turn and arching it over their back, letting the rain get in there and giving the wingpits a good old wash.  Tweaking a little with their beak, you know, to get the grungy bits out.  Then doing the same thing with the other wing; lift, arch, nibble - till they are satisfied that nothing is lurking under the feathers.  Giving themselves a good old shake - like water off a duck's back.  Till each feather is back in place.  This went on for quite a while - watching the bathing habits of a wood pigeon is fascinating stuff - better than watching the telly. (Sorry, they refused to do the manoeuvre while I had the camera out) I expect they just needed a bit of privacy, and didn't want to be featured on Twitter or some such.

FANS

I am a two-fan woman.  I have an upstairs fan and a downstairs fan. 
The upstairs fan is hideous - from Greece - a gift.
The downstairs fan is less hideous - from Spain - a gift.
Ever since the menopause my body thermostat has gone haywire.
I have hot flushes even when I am freezing cold in the depths of winter.
I never go anywhere without a fan.
I have a handbag fan too - battery operated.
This morning I put the upstairs fan down on the bed after a 'waffing' session.
I sat on it.
Now the upstairs fan is broken on the end shaft.
Not sure if I will be able to 'waff' with it any more.
Darn.
It is hideous but useful.
Now I will have to take the downstairs fan upstairs with me.
Most inconvenient.

CROSSWORD

I like to do the quick crossword over breakfast to see if I can complete it before I finish my toast.  Sometimes yes.  Sometimes no.

ME:  Percussion instrument 4 letters - not DRUM - ends in G.
HIM:  BONG
ME:  What's a BONG?
HIM:  Singular for BONGO
ME:  The answers GONG you idiot
HIM:  It could have been BONG
ME:  No it couldn't
HIM:  A GONG isn't an instrument
ME:  Neither is a BONG

I Long for a Life I have Control of

Quote by David Hobson

Heart-Shaped Sheep

 

Well, almost.

My Top Five Favourite Dickens Novels ...

My Top Twenty Favourite Novels ...

 

1. The Silver Dark Sea ~ Susan Fletcher
2. The Orchardist ~ Amanda Coplin
3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum ~ Kate Atkinson
4. The Orchard on Fire ~ Shena Mackay
5. The Hours of the Night ~ Sue Gee
6. Into the Forest ~ Jean Hegland
7. The Shell Seekers ~ Rosamunde Pilcher
8. Four Letters of Love ~ Niall Williams
9. Once Upon A River ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell
10. Blackberry Wine ~ Joanne Harris
11. Cold Mountain ~ Charles Frazier
12. The Innocents ~ Margery Sharp
13. Q : A Love Story ~ Evan Mandery
14. Station Eleven ~ Emily St. John Mandel
15. The Wall ~ Marlen Haushofer
16. The Ocean at the End of the Lane ~ Neil Gaiman
17. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy ~ Laini Taylor
18. Year of Wonders ~ Geraldine Brooks
19. The Language of Flowers ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh
20. Salt ~ Jeremy Page

Fascinating Facts - This is the story of My Life on Earth

• My heart has beaten 3 billion times since I was born (and counting).
• If I lived on the planet Mercury I would be 274.
• I have travelled around the sun 39,302,421,46,822 million times.
• A house fly my age would have a family of 24,815 generations by now.
• A squat lobster was discovered in NZ when I was 63.
• In my life there have been 307 major eruptions.
• A coast redwood's growth in my lifetime is 85ft.
• In my life there have been 147 solar eclipses.
• The population has increased by 4,901,776,667 since I was born.
• I will be 118 when oil runs out.
• 120 when coal runs out.
• 178 when gas runs out.
• When I was 56 the Black Rhino was saved from extinction.
• When I was born there was 11.6m acres of forest cover.
• Today1.8m acres are lost.

My Father's Places - Aeronwy Thomas.

I have just finished reading a memoir written by Dylan Thomas' daughter, Aeronwy.  It is about her tumultuous childhood living in the boathouse, and the adventures she gets up to, at Laugharne in Wales.  The problems caused by her father's drinking and her mother's temper were written about with no malice - just acceptance - in childhood we just seem to go with what is normal for us.  Aeronwy adored her father and this shines through in her writing.  What surprised me though, was at the end of the book, when she was writing about his death, she showed almost no emotion.  It somehow left me feeling cheated.

icon -- nick cave

"Who knows their own story.
Certainly it makes no sense when we are living in the midst of it.
It's all just clamour and confusion.
It only becomes a story when we tell it.
Our small recollections that we speak again and again to ourselves.
First creating the narratives
Of our minds.
Keeping the story from dissolving.
Into darkness.
[...]
All our days are numbered.
We cannot afford to be idle.
To act on a bad idea is better than not to act at all.
Because the worth of the idea
Never becomes apparent until you do it.
Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world.
A little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand.
And cannot be extinguished by all the storm about it.
If you can hold on to that flame
Things can be constructed around it.
That are massive and powerful and world-changing.
All held up by the tiniest of ideas.
[...]
In the end I am not interested in how much I fully understand.
The words I have written over the years are just a veneer.
There are truths that lie beneath the surface of the words.
Truths that rise up without warning like the humps of a sea monster.
And then disappear.
[...]
To create a space where the creature can break through what is real and what is known to us.
This shimmering space where imagination and reality intersect.
This is where all love and tears and joy exist.
This is the place.
This is where we live."

~ from 20,000 days by Nick Cave

Icon - Patti Smith

I am sitting at the table watching the wind raging outside.  The pine tree in my neighbours garden is bending alarmingly, as though it will snap at any moment.  The hanging baskets full of bulbs are swinging to and fro like some sort of fairground attraction.  In front of me I have an unfinished crossword, my iPad and my new book - 'M Train' by Patti Smith.  I rarely buy new books, especially hardbacks, except when they are given to me as presents.  I love the woody smell of the paper, and the fresh ink; the untouched pages; and the way the book jacket creaks when I open it.  Full of words, as yet unread; words to inspire and marvel at; to encourage me to write the best prose I can; even if I am the only one who reads it.

Although I was hardly aware of Patti Smith at the time of her fame in the 70's; I am now enamoured with her; she has creativity oozing out of every pore; and I am already desirous of all her books which I will savour one by one until I have soaked all her writing into my bloodstream in the hope of producing something equally captivating.

I am also watching her DVD - 'Dream of Life' - filmed in grainy black and white; she records her life in words and pictures - so original - so creative.  I am smitten.  If you feel the need to read more about her, visit the wonderful website Brain Pickings here.  I am in no way trying to sell this book, or treat it as a review - that is not my job - I merely write as one who loves someone who is creative through and through - the kind of person I admire and strive to become.