Richard's 64th birthday today!

Well, when you reach a 'certain age', you're entitled to start growing old DISgracefully! So for my 64th birthday (today!) Ann and I, and a couple of good friends, went to MK Centre to see the "IF Festival" - which had all kinds of 'artistic' displays going on across the centre of Milton Keynes. And one of those exhibits is called the Magical Menagerie - a 'square' roundabout where all the rides are fantastical animal or insect creatures... and yours truly had a birthday treat bought him, and took a ride on the praying mantis! It was a bit of sillyness, and magical fun, that was as much fun for the dozens of mums-and-dads spectators watching their children going round and then seeing me! "Wave to the fat-bearded one!" I heard one of the dads saying as I went by... so I turned the head of the mantis toward him and laughed.

And to think, I was just going to sit in the summerhouse and chill-out today, and now I've enjoyed being a big kid riding a roundabout again! Wonder what I'll do for my 65th!?

Rain & Shine - Day 2

Oh dear, that first post of mine really was a bit of a ramble, wasn't it? You might say, and I wouldn't blame you, that it was a disaster! Ah well, I suppose I'll get better at this blogging... But DO tell, dear Reader, though be gently in the telling, please!

Rain: I've been limping all day today because my 'Plantar Fasciitis' (that's Plant -er Fass-ee-itis), has been playing me up something rotten. [What ever is Plantar Fasciitis? Well, it's basically a nasty case of a very sore heel, caused by inflammation of the Plantar Fascia ligament along the sole of the foot: usually manifesting itself in a very sore heel]

So a walking stick and swaying along like an old-time sailor has caused plenty of mirth at my place of work today! "He's cracking up", "Poor old soak, look at him - drunk as a skunk before midday!", "Just come off the Cutty Sark, have we?", "He'll never make it in that state to next July when he retires..." And much similar ribbing each time I had to get up from my desk and walk down through the office to the printer or the kitchen area...

Shine: But this limping, swaying, poor old boy also generated considerable generosity of spirit from these same colleagues as the day wore on, and several acts of kindness were freely given. "I'll get that print-off for you", said one; and at afternoon tea-break, "I'm going down to the kitchen to make the tea for our lot, can I bring you one back?"

And so there was that "silver lining" that is spoken about "behind every cloud", and it was a real joy to be blessed by them, and see their kind nature shine past their waggish teasing! Perhaps it was also good for them... giving is good for the soul, they say...
"Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, so it will be measured to you." (St Luke chapter 6 verse 38)

Of course, Jesus was talking to his disciples about very much more than fetching my print-offs, or a 'cuppa' for my tea-break because my colleagues could see it pained me to walk! But I trust in the Lord that he will bless my fellow workers for their kindnesses to me today... but will it last all week! LoL!

The First "View From The Summerhouse" - July 11th 2010

A View From The Summerhouse

This is my first ever blog, so, dear Reader, do, please, bear with me, as I’m bound to get something wrong!

Why have I called my blog “A View From The Summerhouse”? Well, because I’m sitting in our summerhouse as I write, watching the evening sky darken as sunset approaches, and having heard on the weather forecast that rain is finally on its way for us, tonight, and this may well be the last day of this - very long - summer’s warm, dry, spell… or at least until later next week.

We got this summerhouse last Autumn, and since late Springtime this year have made good use of it on fine days. Soon, it will have electricity laid on, so I can use my laptop on mains, and have a table lamp on for when the evenings draw in but it’s still warm enough to sit out.

The view from the summerhouse is rather pleasant, we think, in a “townie” kind of way. We live on the north of what, for the past forty years, has been optimistically called “The New City of Milton Keynes”; firstly by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, who planned and built most of MK, then by MK Borough Council, and latterly, since becoming a ‘Unitary Authority’, autonomous, rather than part of Buckinghamshire, (which, of course, we are still in!) by Milton Keynes Council.

So… back to the view…

Once I’ve got the drop on this blogging lark, I shall post a photo of our tiny garden, and its summerhouse, but for now, a brief description. About thirty feet square, with a wild-life pond in the centre, currently lush with rosebay willow herb, purple loosestrife, and watermint.

Our home is a terraced bungalow, with the back garden south facing, so we get the sunshine most of the day; and the summerhouse is in the far left corner, facing west, and so it is that here I am, with the sun just set, this July evening. But the sky is greying as the rain clouds approach from the south on a gentle breeze. A blackbird has been singing all evening. A gorgeously velvet song, he’s been with us all year, appearing first when the snow lay thick during the coldest winter in MK for many years, and we had two bird tables and many hanging bird feeders, stocked up with all sorts of goodies for our lovely feathered friends. Robins, Wrens, Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves, even a Spotted Woodpecker and a Goldfinch made an appearance before that long cold spell was out! And we were rewarded for all our feeding with blue tits nesting in our boxes, and the blackbird bringing his fledglings “in to see us”, this spring, as the pair raised first one, and now a second brood, in the trees which stand behind our garden.

What was left of the last of the sunset has now disappeared, and the sky is a dull grey, with a ‘mackerel’ cloud effect in darker grey - the portent of rain approaching. But still I’m kept company by “our” blackbird singing happily and now echoed by another farther down the tree line behind our garden.

Oh happy days! Warm and tranquil, hardly but a touch of breeze, but oh so much cooler than the past few nights when temperatures stayed at the dizzy heights of 15, or 16 degrees Celsius even in the coolest of the night!

Next door’s cat has just jumped onto the top of the fence: he hasn’t seen that I’m sat in the summerhouse, or he’d have thought twice before dropping down into our garden. It’s not that I don’t like him, or pussy-cats in general; on the contrary, but next door’s cat is a true hunter, and had the very first blue tit fledgling from our nest box this spring. Aha! He’s spotted me now I’ve moved in my chair… and off he goes, back over the fence.

It’s the World Cup Final this evening on television, and our next door neighbours are watching it. I can tell because with this hot weather, we’ve all had our back doors and living-room doors open to our gardens, so I can hear their shouts as the football match progresses. And their cat has took flight to home and is being welcomed in by his “mummy”. I have no interest in football. Indeed, I think it has become grossly over rated, over paid, and over bearing. There never seems to be a moment’s respite from it on the TV and radio news, or in the newspapers… footballers, footballers wives, who’s playing who, and why it’s SO important… Ugh! Here we are, at the height of the cricket season in England, yet hardly a mention of it – just the blasted World Cup… and in a few weeks time, the next football season starts in Britain and all we’ll hear for the next 10 months will be football, football, football… aaaaggghhh!!!

And that was the view from the summerhouse today.