All Things Nice . . .

 

Art by Andrea from Spain.

Isn't her work lovely?

Today I am flooding my page with all things that are nice, because in the light of what we have been going through in the year 2020 to date, we could all use a little bit of nice.  

MUSIC 

   

All Creatures Great and Small

It's 1937 and Glasgow is in the grip of depression. James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, moves to the magnificent Yorkshire Dales for work, and soon discovers that treating the animals is as much about treating their owners.  Yes!!  An update for 2020 of an old favourite that looks to be every bit as wonderful and entertaining as the original.  If you were fond of this program in its original form, prepare yourself to fall in love all over again. I love nice television.  The scenery is spectacular and the acting is ace.

  

When I was a little girl my favourite Christmas ornaments of all were the little red and white toadstools which my mother had bought in Germany.  I was totally fascinated with them and to this day have a love affair with them. If ever there was a fairy kind of a toadstool, these are it. 

Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita. It is also a muscimol mushroom

The distinctive red and white fly agaric is said to have inspired both Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Caroll’s hookah-smoking caterpillar and the colours of Santa’s suit – but is also a useful indicator of the changing seasons.

Fly agaric is toxic and was traditionally mixed with milk and left out in bowls to kill flies, which is where it gets its name.

"Fly agaric can be dangerous, so the 

best advice is to look but don’t touch." 

Five facts about fly agaric: 

• Fly agaric was traditionally used as an insecticide, the cap broken up and sprinkled into saucers of milk. It’s now known to contain ibotenic acid, which both attracts and kills flies
 • The ‘spots’ are actually remnants of a white veil of tissue that encloses the young mushroom, and can sometimes be washed off by the rain
 • It was commonly found on Christmas cards in Victorian and Edwardian times as a symbol of good luck and its colours may have been the inspiration for Santa Claus’s red and white suit.
 • Fly agaric is mycorrhizal, forming a mutually beneficial relationship with its host tree. This association provides the tree with increased absorbtion of water and minerals, and the fungus with constant access to carbohydrates
 • One of the effects of consuming fly agaric is a perceived distortion in the size of objects. It has been said that Lewis Carroll’s hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was inviting her to take a bite from a fly agaric.

 

(source)  

Oh my, can you imagine all ten nails being painted in only the red and white ones?  I would be so in love with that.  Every time you looked at your hands you would fall in love all over again, and your heart would smile. 

  

Harden Hollow, by Gustave Baumann 

I love the artwork of Gustave Baumann.

German artist Gustave Baumann (b.1881) immigrated to the United States in 1891 and lived in Chicago. After his father left in 1896, he took on the responsibility of caring for his family. He sold his drawings to make money, and eventually he became an apprentice at the Franklin Engraving Company. Artist Gustave Baumann did all of his own carving, ink mixtures, printing, and careful selection of handmade paper to print on.

 

One of my favourite childhood memories is the sound of the milkman leaving milk on our doortstep early in the morning.  The rattle of the bottles as he carted the empties away.  For a while after we moved back here to Chester I got to listen to the milk float go down the street early in the morning, but it hasn't gone past here in a long while now.  I am sure Home Milk Delivery still exists but I am not sure where. 

Here in the UK, the Tits (a small bird like a chickadee) are milk bottle ravagers.  They are known for cheekily stealing the foil caps off of the  top of the pint bottles and dipping into it.  I guess they know a good thing when they see it!

My mother always gave us money to buy a pint of milk at school. It came in a small wax carton. The chocolate milk cost more than the white milk. We only ever got money to buy the white.  I hated it.  It was always warm and tasted of wax.   To this day I do not like milk from a waxed carton. 

I wish all milk would go back to being offered in a refundable glass bottle. It would be so much better for the environment.   

  

 Come said the wind to the leaves one day,

com o're the meadows and we will play.

Put on your dresses of scarlet and gold, for

summer is gone and the day's grow cold. 

There is a distinct change in the air and our mornings are now very cool.  I haven't noticed much in the way of leaf change in our garden as of yet, but it will come. I am now getting up and going to bed in the dark and it seems to have happened overnight, this rush towards the cooler months.  We haven't really had much of a summer.  We had beautiful warm and sunny weather back in April and a few unbearable days near the middle of July, but for the most part August was quite wet and dull.  Some years are like that.  I hope we have a dry and sunny Autumn.  

 

This was the sky outside my back door about half an hour ago.  The moon was still clearly visible in the early morning blue of the sky.  So far the day looks like it will be a fine one.  

 

It is hard to believe that man has danced on its surface,

and yet, he has.

I managed to zoom in.  I missed seeing the full moon on September 2nd. I expect it was raining. There will be a new moon on the 17th.  The full moon of September is called the Wine Moon or the Song Moon.  This suggests a time of hard work and hard play. Harvest time would have meant a great gathering of people from neighbouring villages to do the most important farm job of the year in a short time, and those people needed to be fed, wined and entertained.  The light of the full moon would have extended harvesting hours as well as carousing ones. 

When we lived on the Estate the air would be ringing with the sound of the apple pickers in the Orchards which surrounded us during the daylight hours.  This would be mixed with the sound of the children playing in the school yard at the bottom of the hill. It was a very busy time of year.  

 

Good news on the Book front.  My book will soon be back in print according to my editor and hopefully at a better price. I think they have gotten their print company sorted out. Also he is keen to get my second book published so that will be a go ahead as well.   My patience is being rewarded I guess.  I have my fingers crossed that I will not be disappointed again. 

When I think of it, having my first book published was quite an achievement I suppose. I guess I can be proud of that. I am grateful that my mother was alive to see it, and, God willing, my father will still be alive to see the second one. 

 

(source)

This photograph made me smile.  I hope it makes you smile also.  I wonder what kind of story he is telling the bear.  Whatever it is the bear looks completely enraptured.  Or maybe it is a dog.  Dogs are man's best friend.  I sure love mine.  

 

I have only just discovered this breed. It is a Puggle.  A cross breed between a Pug and a Beagle. 

"In a perfect world, the Puggle is a robust, healthy little dog with a playful spirit, a sense of humor and a desire to please. On the down side: the Puggle has the potential to be stubborn, selectively deaf, uncooperative, and just not that into you. You pay your money and you takes your chances."

They make for a very cute puppy, but not quite so cute as an adult.   

 

This picture came up in my memories on facebook yesterday. It is from 2012.  Hard to believe that eight years has passed since then.  I am a lot more grey haired now and probably somewhat larger in size. (How did that happen? Oh yeh, things get into my mouth that shouldn't.)  So much has happened since then. Life, with its ups and downs. Mostly ups and some really great ones, but some really bad downs as well.  Life is like that.  Filled with ups and downs. Hopefully at the end of it we will all be able to look back and say to ourselves it was much more up than it was down. 

And with that I best leave you with a thought for the day . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *Not all storms come 

to disrupt your life.

Some come  •。★★ 。* 。

To clear your path.•。★★ 。* 。 

  

In The English Kitchen today, a small batch recipe for a Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Cream.  It makes four perfectly delicious and moist squares of scrumminess.  

Have a brilliant Saturday.  Be happy. Be safe.  Be kind. And don't forget!  

 

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And I do too!