2021

 


This beautiful hand painted card is my New Years Message

A dear blog reader sent it me a year or so ago,

 and it sits next to my favourite paintings in the living room

It’s  message resonates to this day.

Just take my name out and put in your own 

That’s all any of us can do, just keep swimming

It’s 6 am and I’m sat at my kitchen table with my bucket of coffee preparing for work

Winnie’s rubber Chicken is looking at me

And I’m sure he’s smiling 



from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3rDl4hM

Celebration

 

As another unremarkable year draws to a close, The Laughing Horse Awards Committee have been zooming like dervishes in order to determine who will be the recipients of this year's  coveted  blog awards. 

Recognition is important in the world of blogging in order to lubricate the industry's wheels and encourage talent. Blogging has become a worldwide pastime. As I write these words, 2,700,000,000  blogposts have been posted  on the internet this year alone.

Blogging is a vehicle for expression, for shared interests and for making connections with other people around the planet. Our blogs are not subject to the normal controls of government, publishers or the forces of law and order. No wonder blogging has become such a popular human activity.

Without further ado, let us move on to reveal who has been honoured this year before announcing the overall Blogger of the Year. Winners are entitled and encouraged to copy the widget shown below and paste it proudly  into their blogs - perhaps in the sidebar.

The Committee wish to recognise the excellent work of Dave Northsider in West Cork, Ireland. His blog, "Northsider" reflects his peaceful life upon The Sheep's Head Peninsula. He becomes Irish Blogger of the Year for 2020. Similarly, The Committee commends the good work of JayCee who resides near Peel on The Isle of Man. She becomes Isle of Man Blogger of the Year.

There was much argument in The Awards Committee over the work of three particular bloggers. Unfortunately, only one can be The Blogger of the Year. The other two have duly been "Highly Commended". They are Jennifer Barlow in Florence, South Carolina for "Sparrow Tree Journal" and Tasker Dunham in West Yorkshire, England for "A Yorkshire Memoir". 

Both are entitled to display the stylish 2020 widget displayed above.

Before arriving at the main announcement, The Awards Committee would like to commend visitors who leave thoughtful, friendly and encouraging comments on other people's blogs. Many of these visitors do not manage blogs of their own. They are not fawning sycophants but free-thinking people who see no purpose in trolling or seeking to occupy what military historians might call "higher ground". Instead, they tend to leave nice, supportive comments. After all, and this has been even more true this challenging past year, it really is nice to be nice.

And so we come to The Blogger of the Year 2020. (Cue beat of drums and dramatic pause). He is none other than Cro Magnon for his blog "Magnon's Meanderings" who posts from the Périgord  region of south western France. 

The citation was longer the new British/EU trade deal document but here's the summary:-

"Cro Magnon has been managing his eclectic blog for almost eleven years. It is what the French might call a bouillabaisse of things.  In "Magnon's Meanderings" you will find memories, opinions, hopes for the future and objets d'art, plates of food and family photographs. There's his vegetable plot, "Haddocks" and  tales of pet dogs and cats. Always present in the blog's peripheral vision is the love of his life - Lady Magnon.

People may sometimes forget the old adage that "life is for living" but Cro Magnon is not one of those. He has lived his life to the full and continues to do so. This is reflected in his blog. He notes many things and remembers many things. Though he posts almost every day of the year, he is never lost for something to say. For Cro, life is a veritable feast.

He handles reasonable comments with kindness and good humour. Visitors feel that they are being listened to and acknowledged but step out of line and he will whack you with a metaphorical cricket bat."
To visit "Magnon's Meanderings" Please go here.
Cro Magnon tends not to post pictures of his art or himself but here is a self-portrait he painted when he was a much younger man:-

And going even further back in time, here he is as a beardless boy. Cro is on the right:-
Congratulations to Cro Magnon!
&
Happy New Year Everybody!


from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/38PlJnN

New Year

 Cruising out

Of the year

Leaving disappointment 

Out the 

Rear view mirror

Saying hello

To hope 

And expectant

Peace

2021

Ready 

To meet 

You with

A smile



from R's rue https://ift.tt/3rHiM1d

The Laughing Horse Blog Awards 2020

STOP PRESS...

Announcement of  results delayed owing to technical issues. Please bear with us. It is confidently expected that the winners will be revealed later today.



from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/2WY9oIr

New Year Eve

The lane up to the village , my cottage is at the top

The cottage with her bluebirds


I got home last night to thick ice and some snow. 
The girls were safe at Trendy Carol’s so I picked them up, fed them and we all promptly went to bed.
I felt dreadful.
But overnight the antibiotics started to do their thing and by morning I didn’t feel too bad.
I’m resting today. 
I Bought a trashy Asian  disaster movie for this afternoon and I will go to bed early which is my want to do on New Years Eve. 
My long awaited turn around on day shifts have come around with a vengeance , I’m working the next two long days and the hospice staffing is pretty low.
Hey ho, be careful for what you wish for eh? 

Now my blog today, is passed over to you commentators, 
It has proved so often to be a good move on my behalf as often the comments are much more interesting than the post itself .

Of course it’s about New Years Eve, 
More importantly a New Years Eve

What what your most memorable New Years Eve? 

I have not really celebrated New Years Eve since the 1980s where it was common here to get dressed up in fancy dress and make a tit out of yourself at family parties and the local pub circuit 
In 1989 that was all finished for me when a friend, Ian Parry, was killed in a plane crash on the 28 th of December.
Frivolity and celebrations at New Year just kind of ceased after that

Perhaps it’s almost time to change this ......? 

Tell me your New Year stories.
 





from Going Gently https://ift.tt/37ZP5k0