The Way of the Wombat

As the alphabet has 26 letters, and the year has 52 weeks, logically we can do the weekly A - Z challenge twice in a year.

My previous post was for the first time through last year - this is the second run;
A is for ANCIENT, B is for BENCH, C is for CHARCUTERIE, D is for DAPPLED LIGHT, E is for EVENT, F is for FRAGMENTS, G is for GRASSES, H is for HOT DOG, I is for INSECT,J is for JUNK, K is for KINKY, L is for LAVENDER, M is for MISMATCH, N is for NARROW, O is for OBSTACLE, P is for PICKLES, Q is for QUILTED, R is for ROMAN NUMERALS, S is for SPARKLES, T is for TWIGS, U is for UNDERNEATH, V is for VOTIVE, W is for WREATH, X is for XYLOGRAPH*, Y is for YEW, and Z is for ZUCCHINI!
*Xylography - printing with wooden blocks!

The pictures are here ( under this cut... )

If you click on any of them you can see them full size. You can also see the whole album for 2024 by clicking here.

Rejoice, for that which was lost is found!

When we moved house five years ago, as we unpacked we found most things, although for a couple of weeks the bag with most of my knickers in was mislaid and I had to buy some new ones. But the other thing that went missing was my peg-bag. We never did find it and eventually I went and bought new clothes pegs too.

When we had the electrician in a couple of weeks ago, adding some new sockets and light fittings and replacing the fuse board, I emptied out a couple of cupboards in the utility room for him, and in one there was a box with some bottles of wine and spirits in, still as it left the old house. When D-d was here last week I suggested she went through it and took some of them as she was more likely to use them. As we took them out we realised that something had been wedged at the back to make sure they didn't move... yes - it was the canvas bag full of clothes pegs!

Night out - the food was fine, the music fascinating...

My sister gave me a gift voucher for a fairly new restaurant for my birthday. At first I thought it was Spanish in style, then realised it was Argentinian. For various reasons we only got around to going last week.

It is nicely laid out and comfortable, the service was very good. The food was, not surprisingly, very meat oriented, although I did have a Mediterranean vegetable quesadilla as a starter (S2C had meatballs wrapped in bacon!). Then S2C had a posh burger as his main, I had a pulled pork ciabatta, with fries; they were nice, although not earth shattering. Then he had a chocolate mousse trifle and I had flambéed pineapple and ice-cream. We enjoyed the food, but may well not go back as we thought that, for what it was, it was rather over-priced.

The only reason we might go back is the amazingly odd background music. Which was at just the right volume, by the way, you could hear it but it didn't intrude into conversation. Except it became one of our main topics of conversation. We began to realise that the music was a series of pop and rock songs hammered into the rhythm of the Bosa nova. We recognised Coldplay's Viva la Vida, All Saints Pure Shores, the Cranberries Zombie (probably the least suitable as it is about the IRA), Amy MacDonald's This is the Life, and Lionel Ritchie's Hello, amongst others. Then we began to play 'what would be even worse?' How about One by Metallica? The Green Fields of France? At which point we recognised AC/DC's Whole Lotta Rosie!

On Friday we went to Peel, and did some shopping in the Manx National Heritage shop, mainly for birthday presents for our daughter. While we were there we got some cushion covers for ourselves simply because we loved them.



Oystercatchers! Aren't they great?

And when we had snow a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the most damage in the garden was to the enormous marguerite. This is the part that was damaged, the branches broken off at the base, that I had to cut out.



On the left of the next picture is what remains - you can see why I am not too worried about it. And actually it has opened up the view of the end of the garden from the conservatory. (On the right is a smaller bushy marguerite.)




And here are a few more garden pictures taken last week;










And one taken on Monday;




The forsythia is coming into flower - and Archie, the neighbouring cat, is ever hopeful that the birds won't see him!

It snowed from late morning yesterday, but wet flakes that melted when they hit already wet ground. But around 7pm the temperature dropped below freezing and the wet ground began to freeze, providing a base for the still-falling snow.

So this was the view from our front porch at 7.30 this morning;






And this is the view from the back door;






As you can see from that last picture one of the local cats had already been out on patrol. So much for them not wanting to get their paws wet...!

It is not unusual for us to get snowfall in March, so I am not too worried about the plants, Barbie has already shaken her snow-shroud off by now, but my miniature daffodils have all been completely buried so I think they may well be broken when the snow thaws. There have already been a number of birds at the fatball feeder, which I filled yesterday - it is all very peaceful.

When I did the year of weekly pictures from the windows it was usually taken on Tuesday mornings.

Well here is the view on this Tuesday morning:)





It has just stopped snowing but I think that today is still a day for staying home.

It is Christmas Eve - and all is calm, all is bright.

May you all enjoy your celebrations!

Sorry for those who are only here - I keep forgetting to copy things over from LJ now and again.

So - quick potted version of the last month;

A few trips to the hospital for S2C and I to both go to blood clinic, and for him to see the urologist.

Coffee with friends a few times.

A Remembrance Day service in which we considered the repercussions of war on the whole world.

Held a small social event to raise funds for Christian Aid, during which I showed people how to make needle-felted Christmas cards.

Helped NYK2 make a hat for Edith -



Went to a chocolate workshop with a WI group, where we made our own chocolate bars, and then had decadent hot chocktails. (Mine involved pain chocolate, maple syrup spices, biscoff crumbs and a shot of amaretto...)



Spent an evening with my daughter at a wreath making workshop. (We do this every year now - it is a sign of the beginning of the Christmas season.)

Mine is on the right, hers on the left -





Did the Advent ring for Church;




Attended a whole-village craft fair in a very wet Laxey (there were indoor and outdoor venues all around the village with over 100 different stalls). Both of us did some Christmas shopping.

Bought 25 small gifts to fill the family Advent Calendar



Which is now over 30 years old!

And yesterday we had Messy Christmas at church where our main theme was stars-









We told the story of the Star of Bethlehem, and added making night light holders and window decorationd.





And my contribution to the food was Christmas tree brownies -



Oh, and NYK2 had her 13th birthday, I have knitted small Christmas gifts to leave as anonymous surprise gifts here and there, and I have been involved with the all-island 'Warm Spaces' initiative; through the winter various places are committed to providing somewhere where people can come along, have a bit of company, hot drinks, and not need their heating on at home. Our church has opted in and we open our coffee room on Tuesday afternoons. So far some members of the congregation are coming along, and also some people who are not, both of which are good.

This afternoon the plan is to flop out for a while!

Saturday afternoon was Messy Church, where we celebrated Harvest. Our story was The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

The crafts were a mixture of autumn/harvest ones and a couple related to the story more closely.

It was really busy - there were around 23 children, with their families, and so I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, but there are a few here of finished 'messy stuff'.

There was printing with vegetables and paint;



Harvest wreaths to take home and hang up;



To be honest that was definitely not the best one - some had a lot of extra colour, cut out leaf shapes and words, but then the little boy who did this one was 3, and was very proud of it.

The edible craft was to make a hedgehog cake. This one is the only picture and it is a bit out of focus, I'm afraid;



A chocolate cupcake with a spoonful of chocolate buttercream some edible eyes, a tiny bit of fondant for his nose - and then broken up Cadbury's flakes to make his spikes.


I made paper plate flowers to match the enormous flower that grew from the tiny seed. These were really simple, but a big hit!





There was also a chance to plant tiny seeds in a tiny bucket, but I missed taking a picture of these. And Lizzy had tiny painted hearts for each child to write on two or three things they are be grateful for. She then hung these on a simple tree, and it went into church for the service today, when she asked the adults to do the same thing.

Then everyone shared food - there were hotdog sausages in rolls, crisps, grapes, slices of apple, cheese cubes and pieces of cucumber, then chocolate cornflake cakes, chocolate brownies, and caramel cupcakes!

My husband, speakr2customrs, bought an extremely smart, navy blue, suit for our daughter's wedding;



As he has had nothing to wear it for since, he decided to wear it for the christening on Sunday.

When he got up he pottered around and then went up to put his suit on just as we were about to leave. As he came down I remember thinking that his suit looked a bit crumpled, I thought he would have had it hung up better. As I thought this he said he was a surprised to find it was a touch tighter than he remembered, whereas if anything he had lost a kilo or two in weight, he thought.

Neither of us really thought about the suit again, went to church, had lunch... and when we came home he went upstairs to take his suit off.

At this point I hear a loud expletive from upstairs, and wonder what has happened.

He had just realised, as he took the suit off, that it was not the new one, but the older one that the 'wedding suit' had been bought to replace! No wonder it didn't look as smart as I had expected. No wonder, either, that it had felt a bit tight; he bought the new one in part because is old one was so tight it would no longer fasten!

So the good news is that he has most certainly lost weight since the new one was bought in January 2020!

But the funniest part of all this? For some reason it had not occurred to either of us that the suit he was wearing on Sunday was the wrong colour - it was mid-grey! 😄😄😄

My favourite patch of colour in the garden, to brighten up what is a grey and gloomy morning here.



Caravaggio, for his many fans 😁



And a picture I took over in Peel on Saturday when I was going searching on the beach in the picture for scallop shells. As you can see the castle has the builders in!





The little cove at the back of the castle is called the Fenella Beach and is the best place I know to collect scallop shells - the shells from the local scallop fishing are dumped back out to sea but the tides and currents bring a lot of them back to this one small spot.

Why was I collecting scallop shells? I was leading a family service at church on Sunday where our theme was Pilgrimage. It took me about 10 minutes to collect the 40 or so needed to give one to each member of the congregation.

Some of my friends here might remember that my husband and I are big fans of Mongolian group The Hu.

So when S2C showed me this you can imagine how happy I was!

It is a massed group dance using traditional moves and gestures - and then sort of expanded. Although it says it is a 'flashmob' I would think that is not exactly the right description, as there were clearly people waiting to see it - but it is fabulous.

There are verses in the song that speak of them coming like great birds, and of them riding over the steppes, and you can see this in the dancers. And no, I don't speak Mongolian, but I have seen the original video of the song Wolf Totem, and it had a translation.


Embedding is not permitted - but do go and look on YouTube.