New Year's Eve wishes and adopt an animal

Hi all its New Year's Eve here in notes with snow lingering but melting fast today in the lovely sunshine.

Yet another completion today of a challenge in that I have for one year sponsored jock the lowland gorilla at Bristol zoo for one year in the names of Isaac and Esther.

Paperwork will come here to me.

I did just about spit out 

Somewhere Amongst thorny brambles

Is a Magic Kingdom of elves and fairies

Everyone here is very small

My name is Ben elf woof woof

And my name is princess holly 

Come on let's play

However I could not sing it or play the tune on my guitar

I did play that at xmas and enjoy it so much am carrying on with a daily riffle/tune etc

I have the loom kit so that will follow.

Much more complex is finding a course but that will follow too.

Remains to say happy new year as of midnight tonight.

Changing seasons

 

Well look what we found on arriving back from charmouth after the most wonderful xmas with the Robinsons. We knew it was cold we even had two nights of frost in Charmouth but had no idea that Notts Leics  and Derbys had snow.

It persists into today too.

The proof is in the eating!

Where's the coffee John?

ISS over Long Aston

We have all just watched the international space station fly overhead. Using eyes alone however Star Chart  shows the route of Santas sleigh and the I S S . 

Even Isaac and Esther could see it. Fantastic. Remember satellites in Portugal Jon?

Icing the cake xmas eve 2015

Hi all

Yes it's xmas eve one third of the way through my 70 challenges.

Rach and John are at work.......how did they wangle that.....so we have been xmas food shopping.

Later we have iced the cake and put some trimmings on it see photo.

Clearly Isaac and Esther loved being involved.

Merry Xmas everyone. 

We spent the morning collecting different kinds of leaves around the long ashton house.

Proof of marzipan

Christmas is coming

9 sleeps until January's challenges.  Are you ready ...?

Hi

Still coping with the Guardian Issac and i did Fridays crossword all but one clue.

Interesting quote from Saturday's Guardian Review

"The climactic scene of the 'Sleeping Beauty' story sounds like date rape today"

How downtrodden and suspicious can we be.


However what about this from the letters page so upbeat and meaningful

"It amazes me that i am alive. I fully intend to remain so.Most women in the world do not have access to this ( sic.incredible NHS staff including handsome surgeons and wonderful ward teams)
level of expertise. Even in the US on my income my insurance would not have covered the operation. The x-rays scans, medications that have been given to me because i am British leave me speechless........thank you for  the kind way my decrepit body was washed how in the middle of the night a nurse stopped what she was doing and held my hand.........."


Mum has purchased a very posh memory box and after today i will be able to print a picture of my bestest grand-daughter at Ballet to keep in it with many many happy other memories.

Guardian catch up

• Hi the guardian is unusual to me in that it's opinion is hidden away at the back and is surprisingly balanced for example today Friday 12 
• Labour is preserving room to do things differently but it won't explain how before polling day and 
• Why Britain is calling out for good Tories

I particularly like although unnecessarily in your face the centre spread of a single daily photograph although naked men in a cell did not impress. clearly staged.

Like today's article "immigrant pupils in London outperform native class mates.

No doubt why immigrants work harder throughout!

Are we going well?

So we have evidence that the pudding has been stirred, the cake is in progress, we have seen work on the cross stitch, the guitar and the blog …..

What now for December?

SO no.s 12 - 17

• Read The Guardian for a week
• Make a loom band bracelet with Ben
• Make some candles.
• Adopt and an animal or an overseas child
• Teach John to tweet
• Enroll in a degree or other course working for a qualification

Next came November

So moving on after a slow start in October, perhaps induced by the party over indulgence, things picked up in November.  Thanks to Jon we can now successfully POST on the BLOG.  We await with bated breath October, November and now December's photographs of the garden through the front door but the guitar playing appears to be going well…

November brought the following

 6 Sign up to and do the plant life survey NOV http://www.plantlife.org.uk/things_to_do/wildflowers_count/wildflowers_
7  Make the Christmas Cake NOV
8  Make the Christmas Pudding 23/11/14 is stir up sunday
9  Learn the Ben and Holly introduction
10 Balance a book on your head and walk 20 metres
11 Do a mini cross stitch (buy them from Hobbycraft). 

The challenges start ...

Just to be clear - these challenges have been carefully designed by all members of the family to enhance  your 70th year.  They may test your patience (and Mum's!) but they are meant to be enjoyed.  Some are simple and take an hour or less, others are designed to be built on throughout the year.  They cover many areas - science, nature, learning, craft, charity, travel, politics etc

So for October we had:

1.  Set up a blog to record these challenges
2.  Create a memory box of your 70th year
3.  Buy a guitar (ebay sell cheap ones) and learn to play (they also do teach yourself books and discs or you can find lessons on youtube).
4.  Take one photo or do a painting at one location every month to track the changing seasons.
5.  Write the Kosinowskis a letter in German

First day and subsequent days with the Guardian

Hi all

Well the primary problem is getting used to read a newspaper at all having given up the Telegraph after 30 odd years.

Oddly the guardian is not so different

• Wealth gaps 
• potential murderers set free
• jumping on a man who says theatre was a white invention 

Most impact on my eyes

•  page 2/ PWC deny lying over tax deals to save their clients millions in uk and other taxes through Luxemburg. Of course they actively sell such schemes that is their role just like a good defence lawyer gets Dewani off the murder charge page1/.
• Conservative laughed at for suggesting poorer people can't cook the biggest article in the paper page 3/ more to the point and that is what was intimated that too much junk food is being eaten at great cost to the poorest through a lack of sound education ruined by the left by continually driving down standards and replacing cookery with bland no good subjects like drama that of course has a place but not in preference to home economics and how to save when living on state aid by buying using ingredients and getting rid of the madly expensive sky as well as birds !!! stodge.
• A feature page17/ "Breastfeeding in European Art" makes the paper look like top shelf perhaps that is the closest it can get to page 3 girls that I think are as equally meaninless.
• Of course it berates conservative liberal and UKIP Mp's, why wouldn't it except for balance?
• Hooray i wholly agree page28/ "EU must tackle Luxembourg on Tax" and how many left leaning countries are there in the EU? We HAVE to get tax legislation AND benefits systems properly aligned here and in the rest of the EU.
• Didnt like Polly Toynbee Page35/ at all.
• Best letter from Beeston Notts looking at Ed Milibands card why does he not ditch his everpresent suit, maybe because he IS the leader of the opposition and dress still counts.

Don't expect this amount every one of the 7 days as i have work to do other days.

My favourite Grand daughter

Good morning all we had a great meal at jon and sarah's local pub last night. This morning i could even remember how to do a post.

For rachel welcome

Rachel Jon has added you as an author so you can put posts on MY blog eg next months challenges. ;)

Jons educational session

Y

Hi all now I know I do not post a blog because a blog is a bit of a website,


What I really am needing to do is a Post . 


So I don't blog you all any more I post you.


Now I get it??????


so here is a picture of a very successful stir up sunday when I did a cake and pudding and ASC invited all the wine group to stir it.