"Who has seen the Wind?"

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I bet everyone is getting just a bit 'Snow-weary', so I thought I'd go back to the summer months.

To Turville.

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Seeing those graves and the windmill on the hill reminded me of a 'Grave Warning'.

Whether or not it was on a real grave I know not.

Let the wind go free, where 'ere you be.

For lack of wind was the death of me.

Well here in Bucks there is little wind at the moment but years ago there were many windmills in the English counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire.

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I have a leaflet listing not only the windmills you can visit but also all the watermills.

The windmills can be found at

1. Lacey Green 3. Chinnor 6. Wheatley 7. Brill 8. Quainton

10. Ivinghoe 14. Cromer 15. Stevington 17. Bradwell

There are also quite a few private ones not open to the public, which includes this one at Turville.

Being on private land it was not easy to photograph.

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And now a couple of hundred years on we get an announcement that more offshore wind farms to power 17m homes are to be built. I suppose this is being spun to put our minds at ease re gas running out in the future.

Will they be any help on freezing days like today?

I bet every windmill in the country is hardly moving. Foody will be able to confirm this as she does not live far away from a hill with eight of these on top.

And why are they not generating power....because there is no wind.

And there in no wind because there is a high pressure lodged over us which precludes the Atlantic winds from coming in.

High pressure......freezing cold......no wind......no power.

In order to provide the government target of 10% of UK electricity from wind power, we need to build around two hundred thousand turbines. Spread then out along the East coast and there will always be wind to power at least half of them.

Great these wind turbines, aren't they?

Yes and I found a bit of music.....Dutch, by the look of it.

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And now for something completely different.

Look away to avoid embarrassment.

Sorry to lower the tone but .....

I had to include this Victorian card in a post on 'Wind'.

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And I thought ladies never did this sort of thing!

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A Mug without a Handle.

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January Man

Being cooped up in the warm is an ideal opportunity to see just what you have got in those old boxes. It’s a nice job in the warm and as Spring seems some way off I was not in the mood for Spring cleaning, although after removing all the decorations there is certainly a need for it.

I had just read all about ‘de-cluttering’. It said.......

“Declutter! Dejunk! Throw away!”

“Go on! Chuck out all your useless sentimental bits and bobs, and silly souvenirs.

In this digitalised 21st century, your home should be shiny, bare and minimalist - like those shown in television commercials and posh property magazines.“

This article is itself a load of rubbish!

If there is one thing I can’t stand - it’s a home that doesn’t look ‘lived in’.

Untidy….no. Lived in……yes.

I’m not untidy. I keep all my bits and pieces in boxes. Usually labelled.

Boxes of old photos, boxes of old musical instruments awaiting repair, boxes of old postcards and boxes and boxes of old LPs.

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And there I found my old Folk records from 40 years ago. Yes 1970 this record by Dave Goulder & Liz Dyer. I had previously bought the album ‘Requiem for Steam’ and enjoyed Dave's songs very much so I followed it up with ‘January Man’.

Dave is now 72. His birthday was funnily enough 1st January so perhaps that is where the title comes from?

So should I be throwing all this out?

In fact, according to a new survey carried out by YouGov and a self-storage company, it may even be bad for us, leading to all kinds of later regrets.

"Should we really have thrown out that box of postcards?

To most of us, the baggage we collect through life brings with it little jolts of memories. And when we throw out that baggage, we're carelessly depriving ourselves of those constant reminders of how we reached this point."

No, we need to save something.

My Aunt she died a month ago,

And left me all her riches.

A feather bed, a wooden leg,

And a pair of calico britches.

A coffee pot without a spout,

A mug without a handle,

A baccy box without a lid,

And half a farthing candle.

Is there anything sadder than going into the bedroom of an old person confined to a care home and who now has space for little more than a few photographs?

But lets end with a smile:-

I’ve got a pile of rubbish

That doesn’t mean a thing,

In fact, each time I look at it

My eyes begin to sting.

Despite its dreary presence

I’ve come to realise

It really would be suitable

To win the “Turner Prize!”

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Chair Legs and Mittens

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The gas was turned off for nearly 100 businesses yesterday to protect domestic power supplies after unprecedented demand brought on by the cold weather.

Business groups and politicians criticised the Government’s attempts to safeguard the supply and called for more gas storage facilities to be built.

Utter incompetence and total lack of planning. Other countries in Europe have loads more gas stored. It is only this government that is spending billions of pounds in overseas aid to India and Africa to combat global warming!

So we must...

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Keep the Home Fires Burning,

While your hearts are yearning,

Though your lads are far away

They dream of home.

There's a silver lining

Through the dark clouds shining,

Turn the dark cloud inside out

'Till the boys come home.

And do you realize that.....

We sit on 500 years of coal.

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Pam Ayres as always has something to say, bless her.

Sling another chair leg on the fire, Mother,

Pull your ‘orange box’ up to the blaze,

Hold your poor old mittens out and warm them,

In these inflationary days.

Sink your teeth into that dripping sandwich,

Flick the telly onto channel nine,

And if we get the sound without the picture,

Well, I’ll kick it in the kidneys, one more time.

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Topsy-Turvydom

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I‘m all out of sync. at the moment. It’s nice to have a bit of routine; at least you know where you are.

I can’t do the washing when I need to….well I suppose you can and end up with it all over the radiators!

I can’t go shopping when I need to….well I suppose you can….and I did!

Backed the car off the drive and away I went. Main roads were OK but on returning home do you think I could get back on the drive? Oh no. Sliding all over the place and it’s only a slight slope. It’ll just have to stay in the road where it ended up.

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It’s all Topsy-Turvy here. The above was taken on Wednesday and the one below on Tuesday. What a difference a day can make.

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Topsy-Turvy. I like that word…..or is it two?

Blogging is a bit like that at the moment. In the summer I had loads of ideas and loads of material and photos for posting, but what a shame to stay in on a lovely summers day staring at a screen. Now here I am, snowed up, needing to stay in the warm and hardly an idea left in my blog-chest.

I can always resort to a few jokes I suppose.

However whilst on the subject of Topsy-Turvy, I might mention Gilbert and Sullivan.

Their world was all TT. It was of course Gilbert who wrote the witty verse and nonsense full of word play, but did you know he was doing this sort of writing long before he teamed up with Sullivan.

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Long before the Savoy Operas were launched Gilbert was composing rhymes and poems. He seldom wrote about real people, preferring instead the fantastic or improbable. In one of his earliest poems, 'My Dream', he introduces us to Topsy-Turvydom:

Where vice is virtue - virtue, vice;

Where nice is nasty - nasty, nice;

Where right is wrong and wrong is right,

Where white is black and black is white.

So I have no idea what today has in store for me.

Hope your's is better.

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Fashion

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I'm very busy at the moment removing all this

"Global Warming" from my front steps!

Forgive me. This is a re-blog...but topical perhaps.

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I found quite a number of musical ditties related to fashion. 'Champagne Charlie' came to mind, as did 'The Man who broke the Bank at Monte Carlo' but after a bit I decided on Fred, mainly because the front sheet was in colour.

I am often told that I have no 'dress sense' whatever, but having never tried on a dress this is hardly surprising!

I'm the sort of person that makes things last until they drop off me or get relegated to 'garden attire'. In fact this little morsel sums me up to a tee.

I never cared for Fashion,

I find a trifle tame

My fellow creatures passion

For looking all the same;

Let those those who please

Be like two peas,

But spare this poor old man,

It pleases me

To look and be

As different as I can.

Especially when Organ Grinding.

And before you enquire......Yes I have appeared in public dressed like this!!!!

PS Can someone tell me how to get those three little pictures of previous posts to appear at the bottom of the page......"You might also like this".

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