ABC Wednesday - X

Oh Dear I really struggled for a photo that I have taken beginning with X, but here is a brave attempt!
This is a photo taken in 2002 at a local Steam Fair. It is of course actually a photo of a steam driven organ, but included in the array of steam driven percussion instruments that accompany it is a Xylophone!

Is it all over for another year?

Well not in this householed its not!
Would you believe it, its Boxing Day lunchtime and we still haven't exchanged our Christmas presents!!
Yesterday was sooo busy with a visit from Mrs DeeJay's mother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece as well as her son staying for the holiday, plus the fact that we overslept that we did not have time to exchange presents before the visitors arrived. We of course exchanged presents with them, but did not feel that it was fair to make them sit through Mrs DeeJay, me and stepson exchanging ours that we decided to wait until today and are looking forward to this afternoon to have Christmas all over again!

Mrs DeeJay is running a 10K race on Sunday whilst I journey 230 miles to Somerset and back again to collect my mother for a week with us over the New Year. So she is out getting some race practice this morning and I went to the allotment to clear the dead runner bean plants and canes. Like always when I want to do a job, there is always another one to get in the way! Before piling the dead shoots etc in the compost bins, I decided that it really was time to empty them first. So 2 hours later I now have a mountain (well small hill) of super compost to spread when we dig over. I was also joined for most of the time by a beautiful thrush who came so close to me while I was turning out the compost bin and was not at all afraid whilst he feasted on the worms and grubs that I was exposing.
Unfortunately once again I did not have my camera but took these shots of my compost 'hill' and the thrush with my mobile phone

ABC Wednesday

For today's special Christmas Eve edition of ABC Wednesday and the letter W, I seem to have found rather a lot of W photos in my album
So in no particular order we have :-

W for WHITE Cat whose name is actually Ceefer ( C for Cat - get it? He also has Nelly "Furtado" and Cat "Deeley")
He is my youngest son's cat and the story behind the picture is that he was entered into the RSPCA's 2009 calendar competition and won - guess what Christmas presents YS and his girlfriend are giving?



Back to the Safari theme again with W for Wildebeest


and also W for Water Buffalo


I also have pictures from the visit Mrs DeeJay and I made to the 2007 tennis tournament with W for Wimbledon




and lastly back to nature with a relatively frequent visitor to our garden W for Woodpecker ( strictly speaking I suppose a Green Woodpecker but hey what the heck)

If you want to participate in ABC Wednesday Round 3, then pop along to Mrs Nesbitt's blog of the same name and either share some of your own photos or simply visit the other participants and enjoy their stunning photos

Hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year

The Missing Picture!

Regular readers will have read of my chagrin (I like that word) earlier this week when I bemoaned not having my camera to capture a funny roadside advertisement.
Well it is still there, obviously no one has told them yet (tee hee) and today I had my camera with me

I wish I had my Camera!!!

On the way into work this morning I saw a sign on the roadside advertising "Christmas Reaves for sale"!!!!! Not even REEFS :-)

Oh well I suppose they didn't compound the error with a misplaced apostrophe

ABC Wednesday - V

V is for Vervet Monkey
Pictures taken in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania






If you want to participate in ABC Wednesday Round 3, then pop along to Mrs Nesbitt's blog of the same name and either share some of your own photos or simply visit the other participants and enjoy their stunning photos

Man 'Flu

I thought I was managing to fight it off all weekend when younger son and his girlfriend came to stay. Maybe it was all the cold and rain at Hever Castle on Saturday or the cold and wind on Sunday morning walking on the beach at Greatstone. I know my Mother would put it down to that despite me telling her so often that cold temperature does not give you a cold!
Or maybe it is simply the dozens of people in work who are coughing and spluttering that I have caught it from, but today I am feeling decidedly rough. I moved to the spare room at about 2 a.m. last night as I was keeping Mr DeeJay awake however I don't think either of us went back to sleep after that. Hopefully I will be back to work tomorrow assuming I get some sleep tonight

ABC Wednesday - U

You will no doubt have noticed my inability to get prepared for ABC Wednesday posts over the past two weeks when I left my chosen photos behind on another PC and did not have access to them when I posted
Therefore this week's letter U for me signifies UNREADY
Rather ironic really when you consider that for once I am actually very ready!

So here are the two missing photos that I planned to post under S for Shadows and T for Trabant
However this week they are posted under my UNREADY banner as

U for UMBRA
a picture of shadows cast by a collage of trash - amazing talent!


and

U for UTILITARIAN
A picture of a very enterprising initiative in Berlin where you can hire a Trabant from Trabant Safaris :-)

Last weekend

Last Thursday was Mrs DeeJay's birthday and I was away in Berlin not returning until Friday.
So, I arranged a surprise weekend away for her at a fairly local hotel near Dover that has a fantastic gastronomic reputation and a spa.
So on Saturday morning we set off after I had made it obvious to her that I had been looking for her passport so as to throw her off the scent, otherwise she would probably have been wise to our final destination as we have often discussed spending a night there. After approaching Dover with the ferries clearly in her sight, I turned off the main route to the docks and took the road around the castle.


We arrived at the hotel where I had previously booked in for an aromatherapy massage in the afternoon, followed by afternoon tea, a leisurely preparation for pre-dinner drinks in the bar and a splendid dinner followed by coffee and brandy.

On Sunday morning we awoke to an incredibly crisp morning with the frost looking almost like a thin layer of snow. It was at that point we quickly disposed of my suggestion that we take a day trip to Calais for some Christmas market shopping and some lunch and replaced it with a decision to take a walk along the cliffs into Dover. No competition really, the crowds in Calais versus a bracing walk that took us almost 3 hours for the return trip.
Here are some of the photos I took en route.

Exmoor ponies brought in to help graze the clifftops and encourage the wild flora


I just had to take this as I am currently reading a book entitled Sun Road after just such a scene

The South Foreland Lighthouse. There is a North Foreland Lighthouse several miles away near Ramsgate / Broadstairs



Cliff view

Oooh look at me - I'm famous!

This lightens up a dreary Monday morning.
I found this on Merleyme's blog and had a really good chuckle at the result


If you want to have a similar laugh go here