The Way of the Wombat

A to Z 2024 Part 2

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 10:36:24 GMT

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.

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A to Z of 2024. Part One

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 10:35:04 GMT

I have done the 365 picture challenge twice over the past 10 years or so. And when I read, in heleninwales' journal last January, about the AtoZ group on Flickr it seemed like a good idea to encourage me to actually look for a suitable picture each week. No commitment to actually take a picture each day, but a specific prompt every week, covering the alphabet twice through in a year.

Below the cut are the 26 pictures from the first half of the year ( Read more... )

All the pictures can be clicked on to see them at a better size.

And HERE is the link to the group if you would like to join in this year.

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Update, with pictures...

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:33:30 GMT

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!

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From Latvia with... love?

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 21:05:06 GMT

This is probably my favourite news story of the week;

Latvia sends cars seized from drunk drivers to help Kyiv

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Snow Day.

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 14:52:45 GMT

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.

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I aten't dead.

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:33:48 GMT

For anyone who needed their day brightening a little -

Yesterday morning the first two flowers on Barbie the camellia opened;

In one of the pots there are anemones in flower;

And this is my favourite snowdrop picture from this year;

And in the kitchen the gerbera that is now 4 years old, has had a new lease of life since I re-potted it;

( Read more... )
So that is the current state of the wombat.

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Snowy View from the windows...

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 13:09:58 GMT

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.

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Belated Good Wishes.

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 18:50:01 GMT

Blein feer vie! Seihll as slaynt d'an slayn lught-thie!

Which, being translated from the Manx, is a slightly belated

'A very good year! Long life and health to the whole household!'

The decorations all came down on the evening of 12th Night as is traditional, and now the house is back to normal and the neighbourhood is darker at night.

I was thinking we ought to see about cutting the grass out the back before the bulbs start to come through - only to see that the very first ones are already through.

And here - to brighten your day, and some hyacinths I won in a raffle in early December as 3 spikes each about 5cm long;

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Christmas Greetings.

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 23:21:24 GMT

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

May you all enjoy your celebrations!

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Christmas deliveries.

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:48:27 GMT

To make you smile - or not, depending on the state of your deliveries!

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Another month gone...

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 14:19:21 GMT

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!

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Hop-tu-Naa

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:58:05 GMT

We had so many 'visitors' last night that I have run out of sweets!

Here is the house ready to greet visiting singers;

My crocheted spiders at the door;

And my bowl of goodies;

That was refilled a couple of times before we ran out!

Here were some early visitors - they were greeted by S2C in his knitted Viking helmet and hair, complete with double headed axe - this is a picture I took of him at Hp-tu-Naa a few years ago;

I loved the simplicity of the lad at the back - all in black with his hood up - and a blank, reflective, face. There were others I should probably have taken pictures of - one of the scariest was a 4ft high Boris Johnson. But by the time I thought to get the camera he had gone.

And, finally, here is a sample of Hop-tu-Naa singing to give you a taster;

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Messy Church!

Sun, 09 Oct 2022 19:54:06 GMT

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!

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Quick Garden post to prove I aiten't dead!

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 16:41:29 GMT

October! Soon be Christmas...

Here is a quick garden post - pictures taken on Thursday before we were hit by heavy rain and 55mph winds. Although almost everything survived ok, as it happens!

These were growing on the remains of a tree stump;

There are still roses in bloom, and still buds to open if they survive today's storm;

(That's the one that grows in the middle of the lavender.)

And here is some of the lavender with some of the nasturtiums in the background;

Dotted around the garden, the hesperantha are beginning to flower - a sure sign of autumn;

The cotoneaster is heavy with berries - my grandmother would have said it was a sign we were in for a hard winter. If today is anything to go by she might have been right. The birds are glad of these.

And the new Clematis Montana Marjory planted last summer as little more than a twig with some leaves has grown beautifully up and onto the railings around the decking, just as I had hoped;

A spot of yellow, still; this is one of the evening primroses, although they have not done as well this year as last.

And in the pots in the area between the house and the garden, there is still colour in some of the posts;

And the first of the winter cyclamens is coming into flower;

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The Great Suit Misunderstanding

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 18:13:51 GMT

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! 😄😄😄

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Christening and Cake.

Sun, 18 Sep 2022 19:59:50 GMT

My niece's baby, Edith, was christened/baptised during our church service this morning. Lizzy, the niece, asked if I would make a centre-piece cake for the celebratory lunch to be held in the church hall (everyone welcome, family, friends, all the rest of the congregation...)

She left me carte-blanche about type of cake and design. This was the finished cake, in my kitchen, before it went down to church.

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Lizzy was really happy with it - she said it was the perfect design for Edie. Inside there was a lemon and vanilla chequerboard sponge cake, sandwiched together with buttercream and lemon curd.

I have some lovely pictures of the baby as well, but as I have them set to friends only on LJ, and don't usually put family pics on Flickr, I can't post them here. But if you are also a friend on LJ you will find them here. I would be more likely to make DW my preferred site if it had a way of posting pictures directly.

And I now have a new title - my sister's brother-in-law (who I have known for many years) suggested that I should be known as The Dowager Aunt as he thought it had a better ring to it that Great-Aunt!

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And Now For Something Completely Different...

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:19:06 GMT

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.

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The Queen is dead... Long live the King.

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 11:06:10 GMT

I once wrote a story called 'A Powerful Absence' - I think that phrase sums up the effect of the death of Elizabeth II.

It is very strange to realise that I will never again hear, or sing, 'God save the Queen.' Whereas, up until now, I had never heard or sung 'God save the King'.

Here her title was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Lord of Mann. She attended Tynwald as Lord of Mann, and all the local tributes here include that title. A former Chief minister said, in his tribute, that whenever, or wherever, he met her she always asked, "And how is my island?"

She had looked so frail in recent photos, but even so her death is a shock. I am glad though, that what reports we do have, of what is such an intimate family moment and yet such a major public event, make it sound as if her death was very like my own Mum's in the end, peacefully, in her bed, with her children at her side.

I think I like this image best of those I have seen this morning;

She is walking behind a lady called Bernadette Williams, the Sword Bearer for Tynwald. This sword was her sign of office here. They are walking the ceremonial way to Tynwald Hill where The Queen was to preside over the annual, open-air, Tynwald court. The sun was shining, she looked happy to be there, Prince Phillip looks as if he is trying not to laugh - and I do like to see the police officers in their summer helmets!

On a more irreverent note, I did find myself wondering whether having to officially ask Liz Truss to form a government might have been the last straw for someone whose first Prime Minister was Winston Churchill, and who would, I think, have seen no need whatsoever to shorten the name Elizabeth to Liz for anyone but her husband.

Oh - and you know that this will be one of those 'Where were you, what were you doing, when you heard... 'moments? Well we were not watching live TV at the time; the phone rang, I answered it, and it was Revd. Dawn, who began "I think we will need to put something onto the website straight away."

The conversation then went like this; "About what?" "The Queen's death!" "Oh! Has she died?"

Revd. Dawn then slightly flustered and apologising to me in case it has been an unpleasant shock for me that she broke the news so abruptly, and me trying to tell her that's fine but can she tell me what she wants putting onto the website quickly, as I am about to go out to a meeting. And no, it is unlikely to have been cancelled at such short notice as some people would already have been on the way when the news broke!

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Wolf Totem.

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:19:14 GMT

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.

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A politician by any other name...

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:30:56 GMT

This quote is from a new sci-fi novel from Ilona Andrews (Sweep of the Heart - currently being published on their blog at weekly intervals.) It reminds me of current UK politics... I wonder why?

***“My money is on Dulvia of Tar. She is aggressive and power hungry. Of all of them, she wants it the most, yet she’s shrewd enough to realize that she is the least qualified for it. That sense of hidden inferiority is priceless. If she ascends, she’ll spend years stomping out any opposing factions in the conservative block. She will go after anyone brighter than her to destroy competition before it has a chance to blossom into a threat.***

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I aten't dead.

Sun, 04 Sep 2022 20:36:32 GMT

Well August flashed by...!

I have been out and about, spent time with friends and family, pottered in the garden, and also knitted; here is a wee jumper for Edie that I finished yesterday - very plain pattern as I wanted the yarn to be the star -

And now it is more than 2 years since our daughter and son-in-law got married, it was their wedding anniversary last Sunday.

Quick wedding picture just because I love it -

The children go back to school on Wednesday, and this was the view from the webcam in Peel around 8.30 this evening - the nights are definitely drawing in.

Next thing you know it will be Christmas...

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The Straight Road.

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 14:53:55 GMT

I took this picture from the front of our house on Thursday. It made me think of The Straight Road.

I know now that it was the day that keiliss died - may you have found the straight road easily my friend.

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Tehi Tegi

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 09:20:07 GMT

I am cat sitting this week - this is our grand-cat, named after a great Manx witch of legend, but usually just called Tegi. As you can see, Tegi does a fair bit of sitting herself -

And has a good choice of window sills. Sometimes she deigns to play;

I hasten to add she also has a cat-flap, and comes and goes as she pleases, and not only in the back garden but also the fields behind the house.

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The Voirrey and Dawn Show Returns!

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 07:24:33 GMT

I forgot to post this link here yesterday.

Those who know my LJ will know that over the pandemic period I helped our minister to put together church services on video. It was a bit like the partially sighted leading the blind; Dawn didn't even realise a laptop had a video camera, and that you would need to put the video on Youtube to be able to share it with others. I had never tried to actually do either of those things - but at least knew I could figure it out!

Over time I learnt how to trim the video, how to cut bits out - and then how to actually add music!

I ended up as a participant as she felt a second voice was needed.

And we did the last one a year ago. So I had forgotten how to do most of that!

Then, due to a series of road closures for cycle racing it was decided that there would be no service in church yesterday but, instead, Revd. Dawn and I recorded our first one for a year. It is interesting - the reading is from Hosea and is one that is often avoided as there is definitely implications of an abusive relationship.

I was dashing around on Thursday before I went down to record it, and didn't think to change my top - something else might have looked better! Also I managed to misjudge a cut point and the first hymn cuts Dawn off mid-word - and then I managed to have the end music over the blessing :( But I couldn't face redoing it as I needed to get it uploaded by Friday evening as the lady who sends the link out to everyone was about to leave the island to go to Poland for a wedding.

You can find the video here.

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Wedding Cake.

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 15:15:20 GMT

One of the ladies from church married her partner on Tuesday. They are both 70, and only wanted a small ceremony followed a small celebration (less than 20 people) at Milntown.

Diane asked if I would make them a simple sponge cake as a wedding cake. I said I would, as my gift to them, provided that they really didn't want anything too complicated, and showed her a picture of the one I did for my daughter's wedding.

When Gillian, Diane's fiancée, saw it she asked if I could do them almost the same thing, just on one layer, as she loved it; as long as my daughter didn't mind. D-d didn't mind at all.

So I ended up doing my second wedding cake - to the same design as the first one! Here it is just before it left my kitchen;

Our weather for the days preceding the wedding were in the upper 20s (centigrade) - which was certainly too hot for buttercream, and even the thin fondant layer, to hold shape and not just melt and run down the sides leaving nothing but two plain sponges and a sticky sweet puddle! So between each step the cake went back into the fridge - and I did worry that that might have dried the actual cake bit out.

So I was very pleased to get an e-mail about a meeting, which was from someone who had been to the reception and, instead of starting with meeting related stuff, began Your cake was truly amazing - both flavour and appearance!

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