R's rue

Once again, courtesy of my digital  photograph files, I am looking back to a year before the war pandemic. Today I am recalling 2008 - thirteen years ago. The happy fellow shown above was strolling around the market that Shirley and I visited in March of that year. We were in Goa in western India. Staying in a small hotel beyond the sand dunes of Candolim, we enjoyed a happy holiday which, if you are interested I blogged about here . Early in May, I visited the west coast of Ireland - mostly to see my niece Katie and her then husband Seamus with their brand new baby girl - Cait. Hell, she'll be thirteen now... On the 24th of that same month, a dream came true for Hull City supporters everywhere. Down at Wembley Stadium in London, our beloved team finally made it to the top flight of English football with a  scorcher of a goal from local legend - Dean Windass. We beat Bristol City and there's Mr Windass after the match - shown on the big screen at the Bristol City end of...

  I finally caught up with the first two episodes of The Walking Dead this afternoon. I watched it on my iPad in my office with the curtains shut…the action was set underground for the most part, so was hard to follow The genre is gone full circle …for its back at its horror roots again with the large cast of characters ( with too many red shirts in tow) battling the undead and the nasty living in the sewers and subway of Washington DC  It’s reinvented itself yet again Maggie ( Lauren Cohen) is back and her character is now rather unexpectedly harder and more anti Negan  than it was in previous seasons which has made her a new fan hate figure which is interesting. Cohen has some powerfully acted scenes in the first episodes which were a revelation and a sure lesson to the writers who so often have underwritten the main characters  to the detriment to the drama. The Walking Dead is how heavily reliant on its female characters, which is fun Yumiko ( Ele...

 I’ve lost track of days, but you get the gist. Tired from a good workout yet mentally energized. Something about moving the body. It’s so true. I made it through the entire workout without stopping. How many times have I quit before the finish line. I’m in the valleys, and it’s not where I desire to be.  I’m accepting that daily. I don’t multitask at all. Certain tasks if not all take my undivided attention. I must be fully present walking, talking or doing anything.  If I don’t there are consequences. I have taken spills because I wasn’t watching where I was going. Every action requires a precise reaction. I think I programmed myself to always be on the move, without regard to what was best for me. I took societal cues, ran a race not designed for a me, and played a game where the odds weren’t in my favor. I took gambles’ I shouldn’t have.  Run my race, not the one I wish I had. Success will come when it wants. The path is long, but taking the shortcut is rougher i...

 I met a couple new to the village last night.  They were walking their dog up the lane and I was watering the sweet peas which had climbed nicely over the garden arch. The wife said something that pleased me greatly “ I always love your flowers” she said “ The ones in your side window” Ive said this before but Ive always had at least one bunch of flowers in the cottage at any one time. Ever since I bought my first home back in the 1980s flowers have always been my constant. Even when I was low on money, I would always have enough for a bunch of something bright to fill a vase or a gap on the window sill.  Flowers make a home, homely.  In that sense they are very much like a cat, for cats warm a house by nature of perching happily in the background.  I’ve just heard that the ponies are returning to the field for a little while This pleased me too, as their presence, for a few weeks, will bring a lot of happiness with it. There is a great deal of sati...