End of the World? ... Not yet, friends!

So we 'survived', then!

The 400 year old, 13th Bak'tun Mayan Calendar, ran out today, and the so called prophesy - that today, 21st December 2012, would see the End of the World - did not occur!  Yippee!

 

"The world keeps turning, the grass still grows green..." (sang Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, in the song, Under Moonshine, from the album 'Octave') ... and so it does... keep on turning... Well, at least for now!

 

But so close to Christmas!  I ask you, fancy putting the end of the world just 4 days before Christmas!  Not that you'd have noticed if you were trying to do the last bit of shopping in Tesco or Morrisons, today... Manic!  No car parking places, people getting up-tight cos of the queues of cars waiting for a space in the parking aisle "they" always park in... pure mania!

 

But the End of the World 'thing' does strike a chord with Christians, leastways, cos the New Testament clearly says that one day (but not like the Mayans, a *specifically known* day!), one day, the world - as we know it - will come to an end, when Jesus comes back to claim His Own and begin the time of the New Earth and the New Heavens, (see Revelation 21:1 and 2Peter 3:10 amongst many other references).

 

So don't crow about "surviving" too much, because, like London buses, there'll be another prophesy coming to fruition soon!  Happy Christmas, folks!  And a Peaceful New Year 2013!

Where have all the days gone this year!

Where have all the days gone this year!
"Suddenly" it's December and all my good intentions for re-vamping this blog, back in January, into a social comment blog on what's going on in my bit of good ol' Blighty have disappeared like frost on the grass as the sun gets up!

Hey-ho...

Certainly, as Christmas is fast approaching, and currently I've got a rotten head-cold, I somehow don't think there'll be another blog this side of New Year...but we'll see... and hope that 2013 might see me get into blogging 'properly'!

TTFN - Richard-the Beard!

More Expense!!

In my last posting, 17th May, I mentioned how I'd managed to spend a small fortune getting a new clutch fitted to my car, and the 'lost days' that occurred because of using 'Mr Clutch' in Bletchley to do that job...  Well, within a week of Mr Clutch repairing the broken exhaust (which they caused), I heard 'orrible graunching noises coming from the engine / driveshafts / front wheels...whatever!

And we were just about to go on our second holiday - house & cat-sitting for our friends in Sussex.  So the day before the hols, I dashed over to my own garage mechanic, (who's original price to fit a new clutch had [then!] seemed too high for me to afford); to plead for him to check-out my car as suitable to still go on holiday!

Bless him, he put my car up on a lift, and, with me looking as well, showed me some of the visible "This is what you get from going to a cheap-skate garage", faults which Mr Clutch gave me free-of-charge whilst jerry-building my clutch! ;-(

Missing bolts, use of exhaust paste to seal the joint between exhaust and catalitic converter (a definite 'no-no' according my mechanic!), and a damaged oil seal on the gearbox, so I'm leaking oil... Deep joy! Deep joy!  "So is it safe to go on hols, Martin?" says I.  "Should be ok," says he, "but keep your eye on the oil level and put a tin or something underneath so you don't leave an oil-spill on your friend's driveway."

Before leaving, I booked myself in to his schedule for the earliest date he could fit me in to re-do what Mr Clutch did... and put the car into working order... and, yes, I know that'll be another couple-a-hundred quid or more, but I wouldn't trust Mr Clutch to put the car right, even if they accepted that they'd messed it up!!

So once again, today, I'm car-less, as Martin, my mechanic, has my car for repairs... And I'll be approximately £300 quid overspent on a new clutch, which, if I'd had my own garage do it in the first place, I'd not have had wasted days, nor sleepless nights worrying if the car would last the holiday.  Moral?  If you've got, and used, a good garage mechanic for over 15 years with no problems... don't waste time and money looking for "bargains" when it comes to engine repairs!  It's just a good job I'm at "bus-pass" age, so travelling today or tomorrow will be free!

A car = a money-pit

Last week, it was a new car exhaust... cost - £173 - and one day without my car...
This week, it was a new car clutch... cost - £255 - and two days without a car...

And to be "car-less" in Milton Keynes is like being on holiday without any spending money!

Then this morning I had to take my car back to the 'clutch garage' cos they'd done summat to my new exhaust and it was sounding more like a Lola! ... a further 2.5 hours kicking my heels in their waiting room... and while they fixed it (f.o.c) they told me I had two front tyres that were below the legal limit for tread!  Oh, deep joy!!

So on the way home this morning, I had to call into the 'tyre fitting garage', and spent a further £129!

£557 spent in a week!! Not bad for a pensioner is it! ;-(

If you go down to the woods today...

At last, the rain stopped and we were able to get out for a half-decent walk round Linford Wood, which is a about 100 acres of ancient woodland not far from our home.

Although the sun didn't shine - it remained grey all day - the wood was awash with colour, scent, and sound. We like to count the numbers of different kinds of wild flowers we see when we come here, and today we were absolutely thrilled to see several dozen Early Purple Orchids scattered throughout the wood!  Not many years ago, we were lucky to see one or two, let alone dozens!

The Bluebells are coming out now - some fully, some still all in bud - and what a wonderful carpet of vivid blue they'll be in a week or two, if we get some decent sunshine!

Coltsfoot are nearly over, now, and their white seed heads are getting 'fluffy'. There's still quite a few mauve Violets, even on the more exposed ditch banks, which is good to see them spreading across the wood again. Lesser and Greater Stitchwort show snow-white amongst the long grass and Ground Elder, and then suddenly, there's a few Red Campion (though quite pink), standing brightly in a shaded glade.

The shrill sound of a Hawk got me looking sky-wards, and we were rewarded with the sight of a stunning female Sparrowhawk alighting on the topmost branch of a very old Beech tree, hardly even in bud, so quite visible to us 30 feet above...  She took absolutely no notice of us as we watched her preen her feathers, and look at us, with those piercing yellow eyes!

Let's hope the sun shines soon, and we can go to the woods again!

We've got a new fox!

Last night, Channel 4 TV showed the first in a series of "live" programmes about urban foxes, called "Foxes Live" (dead original, yeah?)  Anyway, we had recorded the prog. and watched it whilst having our lunch today.  I'd had a roast chicken quarter, and, being on a diet, (??!!) I always (?!) take the skin off, and any other bits I'm not going to eat.

Lunch over, I took the handful of scraps down the back garden and threw them over the back fence, onto the greensward that lays between our row of bungalows and the tree-line behind us which runs the length of the main road, and screens it from view.

We feed a LOT of birds, both in our front and back gardens, and also "our" resident crows that live in the tree-line behind us.  They know when lunchtime is, so can often be seen waiting in the trees for any scraps I throw over!  Today was no exception, but I'd hardly got back into the kitchen, when one of the crows started up, "cawing" like mad!  This was so evidently either a distress call cum anger call, that I decided to go and take a look... ...

Peering over the back fence - and fully expecting to see one of the local cats (hiss! boo!) - I was astounded, but very pleased, to see the most beautiful ginger fox finishing off my chicken scraps!  She/He spotted me, even though there was only the top of my head peering over the fence, liked his lips, and as assuredly as any "top-dog", turned and loped into the cover of the tree-line!  Magnificent!  Real joy broke across my 'fizzog', and I came scampering in to tell " 'er indoors" the glad tidings!

Both Ann and I love foxes, and over the nearly 26 years we've been married and lived 'here', we've seen, and fed, many a fox that lopes along the greensward behind our bungalow - but rarely have we seen one in broad daylight (well, grey, drizzle, today!)

Only 2 weeks back our previous resident fox, an outstandingly handsome dog-fox, had been run over and killed on the main road not 50 yards from our back garden.  I'd been driving home from a meeting, and saw his poor, mutilated, body, in the middle of the dual carriageway, facing east, so he was probably trying to turn away from the fast-approaching motor, as he'd attempted crossing the road.  Saddened, I'd pulled over, and ran into the road to retrieve his body, onto the verge, before his beautiful dark-red coat, and handsome 'mask', was crushed further by the traffic.  So seeing this 'new' fox on the block is wonderful news!  I shall probably celebrate by buying another chicken quarter which I'll save especially for our new "Reynard"!  ;-)

Well, the Field Mice have been multiplying, and there are now two families regularly coming to the scattered peanuts I put out for the birds each day. The original family of field/wood mice under the summerhouse are still there, and are distinct from the new family, who live under the patio slabs, by being somewhat larger, and less timid.

The newcomers are quite small, possibly the "ejected" litter of the summerhouse ones. They pop up through a hole in the cement grouting between a couple of patio slabs, and I notice that even when the summerhouse family are out, neither set of mice meet up. Fascinating watching them forage - they're SO quick! Dashing out of cover, or up from the slabs, grab a nut of sunflower seed and dash back.

However... the past couple of days has seen a lot of heavy rain, and today, only the summerhouse mice were foraging... Have the patio mice been flooded out?  Who knows... but I'll keep watching through the lounge windows to see "the next thrilling instalment of Mouse Manor!"

Did you know that A Field Mouse is also known as a Wood Mouse?

We've added to our back garden managerie, now, ... a family of Wood Mice have moved in under our summerhouse plinth (concrete), making a burrow that comes out against the garden fence. So one or other of them comes foraging under the bird table at various times during the day. This morning, I was out there in the lovely morning sunshine (oh I DO love retirement!), filling up the hanging bird feeders and spreading a few peanuts on the flagstones ready for the collared doves and "Woody" Woodpigeon, and out came the adult male Wood Mouse! His huge, jet-black, bead-like eyes spotted me and he stopped ... so I stopped... both of us stock-still...

Who will move first? Bound to be me, as I can't stay as still as a mouse! But no, he moved - right up to my feet, grabbed a peanut and scrambled for the gap under the summerhouse! Aah... so sweet! So I put a few nuts down near where he comes out, that way he won't have to be in the open for so long... Yeah, I know, you silly, soft, old ##**!!... ain't I that one!! ;-)

I was born in 1946, not one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-forty-six!

It seems that, although for the last 1000 years, or more, we have spoken the year date as two numbers - e.g. 19 99 - the moment the millennium clock struck midnight, and the year 2000 arrived, everyone started speaking the year date as "two-thousand-and..."

Even twelve years into the new millennium, most of the media presenters, and the all-and-sundries on TV and Radio still continue to speak of "two-thousand-and-twelve". Why???

This year is the two-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1812... sorry, how did you just read that date in your mind? Did you read it as eighteen-twelve, or as one-thousand-eight-hundred-and-twelve? This year is also the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912... or did you read that as one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-twelve?

So why does everyone still insist on saying two-thousand-and-twelve?! Let's start saying it as we've said it for the last thousand years... this year is twenty-twelve (20 12). And next year is twenty-thirteen (20 13). "Simples!" as a certain meerkat might say!

I hate drivers who use hand-held mobile phones!

It could be said that, on the whole, hospitals are full of people who are not well, one way or another - agreed? Good. So this afternoon, as I was leaving MK Hospital, having been visiting a pal of mine who's got a very poorly heart, I was not best pleased to see a chap driving out of the visitor car park, drivers window down, his right elbow on the open window frame and chatting away on his mobile phone! "The dummy!" I thought, apart from it's illegal, one reason WHY it's illegal is that your concentration is on the conversation, not on the road, so an accident is more likely to be your fault - and someone might get hurt... maybe badly hurt... maybe hospitalised...

So this plonker is driving away from a hospital quite prepared to put some other poor b**g*r in that same hospital cos he wants to have a chat! See red? I went mental at him! Of course, I was walking, he was driving, but he heard me alright! He had to stop at the road junction 50 yards distant, so I yelled at him again, and he put his phone down... but I'm pretty darn sure that as soon as he'd turned at the junction he'd picked it up again - the poxy little tow-rag! Ooo! I hate drivers who pick up and use their mobile phones on the move!

They do say that hands-free mobile phone technology is just as dangerous, though I'm not convinced of that one, any more than if I had a car full of companions all chatting and laughing... should I wear ear-plugs then to stop me hearing, or taking part, in their conversations and revelry? 'Course not! It's the mobile-in-the-hand-to-the-ear that is the accident maker. The phone conversation is going right into the ear, and one hand is nowhere near the steering wheel. If anything happens, there are probably several seconds gone by (by which time there's been a big thump!) while the plonker on the phone sees what's happening, reacts, tries to put the phone down and gain control of the motor before... oops... too late... crash, bang, wallop... someone's hurt, and it's probably NOT the plonker on the phone!

Why can't cars / lorries (etc) be fitted with a gadget which automatically shuts-down any mobile phone within its confines as soon as the ignition is turned on? And don't tell me that a passenger may need to make a call, that's poppycock! We've had motors for a century but we've only had mobile phones for about 20 years, so what did everyone do before mobiles? Stop at a phone box. Same principle... NEED (?) to make a call on the move? Then stop somewhere and then use your phone. "Simples!" as a certain Meerkat might say!

It hasn't been a day for the Summerhouse, today... far too cold - even though, in the post-Christmas sales, I bought a lovely little 200watt fan heater especially so that I can use the summerhouse on a cold day. But today was never going to be one of those days. It was a miserably grey, misty, murky, day, besides being cold. And anyway, I had to go hospital visiting this afternoon.

A mate of mine was taken into Coronary Care last Monday and I've been in to visit him a couple of times since. Well, you know what it's like just laying in bed waiting...waiting...waiting...

Although, thankfully, he has a decent stream of visitors. So I went early this afternoon, when I thought most folks would still be having / "recovering from" their Sunday lunch. And by the time I got back it really wasn't a nice afternoon for the summerhouse. So that's that for today.
Praps tomorrow will be sunnier?

It seems I may have "lost" the ability to post to my blog, which would be a shame, but would also be entirely my fault as I haven't posted anything for over 18 months!

Anyway, New Year, new decisions, and one of those is to use my blog more than FaceBook to express some of the thoughts which pass through this ageing mind when faced with some of the exasperating "news" stories one hears, or sees. So first of all, let's see if this new post gets saved to "A View from the Summerhouse"... or if it just goes into the aether like smoke from an old car exhaust!