R's rue

Earlier today, Steve at "Shadows and Light" posted a snowy photo of Liverpool Street Station in London. That snow keeps falling down - endlessly. Though Steve had snapped the original picture a few years back, it had been lifted and animated by Google. Steve played no part in the enhancement nor the selection. The same happened with some of my pictures. I snapped the photographs five years ago and soon afterwards Google got a hold of them and kind of processed them into a short but fast-moving slide show. The images go by pretty quickly and I have no means of slowing them down nor restoring their original colour and sharpness. The pictures flash by. The black and white one shows  a snowy scene in our garden in the winter of 2016. And there are those swans we saw in the boating lake behind Colchester Castle in Essex. The herd of cows are resting in the shadow of Hardwick Hall in the summer 0f 2015. This was the original image:- Google don't seem to provide this u...

It’s been a nice evening.  Before I watched the movie, I wrote the blog then watched this delightful video of National Treasure Olivia Colman  reading one of the original Queen Mum’s letters to her mother in law  Queen Mary. The applause pleased me as it wasn’t just for the scene stealing Colman. ( who deserved what she got) ……but it was also an affectionate nod to the Queen Mother , who always seems to have seen the best in people ( except for Wallace Simpson of course) The chef had the best line.. ”France Will Rise Again” The Last Duel was an excellent watch. Another swan song triumph for Ridley Scott  Jodie Comer was especially good in this gritty portrayal of middle age misogyny and male pride. from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3EyHiaN

  Siambr Wen  Foolishly I left around a dozen sprouts on the kitchen worktop last night This moment of utter madness allowed Albert to spend a happy few minutes after lights out playfully flicking a good portion of them onto the floor where Dorothy found them in the middle of the night. I knew trouble was afoot when I was awoken by a whole series of sprout flavoured burps followed by some immensely loud farts.  The kitchen floor resembled the La Brea Tar pits in Los Angeles when I got downstairs  And I won’t describe the state of my Egyptian Cotton white duvet cover I almost lost the will to live  This afternoon I have delivered the village Christmas cards, some 40 in all. The ones earmarked for people on the outskirts of the village, I will do tomorrow by car, (that’s another ten or so)  I don’t take the dogs with me as they never “get” walking up drives and paths they are not used to , so alone and with headphones in, the whole process last...

 Happy Monday my friends. How are you today?  What is on your heart? Gratitude list Exercise A good meal All of you Your turn? from R's rue https://ift.tt/3ptdy8V

T.W.Ratana Who is Ratana? He or she or it  has been knocking on the doors of Blogland for a while now but he or she or it suffers the same fate day after day - deletion. No matter what he or she or it says, we press the delete button and Ratana is gone. I felt that is was nigh time that I found out more about Ratana so I turned to The Holy Oracle for guidance. Who might  this mysterious being be and where might it reside? Has he or she or it left its mark in history? Google suggested that Ratana might be the founder of a mashed up Maori-Christian sect in New Zealand. He was Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana and he departed this earthly life in 1939 but back on 8 November 1918 Rātana saw a vision, which he regarded as divinely inspired, asking him to preach the gospel to the Māori people, to destroy the power of the tohunga , and to cure the spirits and bodies of his people.  The Ratana religion still continues in New Zealand and has exercised significant influence in the na...