Laughter is returning

 I am sure anyone reading this will know what worry and stress does to you and one of the first things to disappear is happiness and laughter.  We haven't been doing much of that since this selling process began.  It has been GRIM.  The occasional grin or short laugh, but in the past week we have all seemed to be merrier and were hooting with laughter on one of the answers to a Pointless question tonight (getting quite addicted to that programme) - it was Philomena Cunk if you must know!  We got the giggles as it was just such an absurd name.

We have also been watching Shameless on Netflix.  It's not to everyone's taste - I'm sure some would find parts quite vulgar but once again, it has tickled our funny-bones and distracted us from reality and we have laughed until we cried sometimes when watching it.

We've been rewatching the 2nd season of Britannia too, which has lighter moments and some powerful character acting as well.  The Donovan music (Season of the Witch) and psychadelic bits take me back to the 60s! 

Earlier this week, I just missed the really warm light in the trees at the edge of our paddock and on the slope behind.  Not a view we will be seeing much longer.

    This morning saw another Trip to the Tip, and we had to have the windows wide open on the car as it contained an old plastic greenhouse cover which a certain wee mostly white tomcat had "annointed" in passing.  We got rid of broken mirrors and a non-broken one in a very heavy wooden frame, and something that Keith used when he worked as a Draughtsman - it was a solid steel (think it was steel though it felt heavy as lead) rectangle which was used to weight the paper so that you could draw very accurate straight lines along its edge.  Well, Keith said it must have weighed nearly half a hundredweight, though it was small and looked innocuous.  There were two lads who work there, stood by the metal bin which Tam would have thrown it in had she been able to get it high enough.  They saw her get it to her waist, and taking pity (and thinking she must be pretty feeble) said to hand it over and they would chuck it in.  The lad got the shock of his life when Tam DID hand it over and reckoned it must have dented the bottom of the skip!

    We thought we had sorted out all the things to go to the Charity shops, but just the start of a new Sweep (down in what was mum's flat and my larder) has already provided at least two boxfulls and there will be MORE!  1940s greaseproof paper anyone?! We need to get this sorted just in case they shut the Charity Shops/Tip soon.  They almost certainly will in January, as I am sure we will go into total Lockdown again then - just when we will be actually MOVING!

Current reading and re-reading

Blown the dust off this one:

Sorry, I took the photo twice and both were blurred!

    Here's an extract:

    CATS AND TOMATOES:  "Our cat's eagerness for the fruit caused a breach of its usually impeccable manners: it would reach up a paw and try to snatch tomatoes from our forks while we were eating.  Thinking to satisfy its remarkable appetite less expensively, we bought for the cat the cheaper imported variety.  Puss was neither amused nor interested.  We had to eat them ourselves." - E E Gilbert, Llangollen (1950).

DISCIPLINE (as it once was):

    "The records of the Sidcot (Quaker) school show that, in 1821, the governing committee was seriously concerned about the frequency of flogging.  Accordingly Joseph Storrs Fry, an active member of committee was requested to procure three boxes for the solitary confinement of refractory boys.  Seeing that these boxes measured 5' 6" high, 20" across and 21" deep, they might almost be described as coffins.  There was no seat, and not much air, though a boy was sometimes sentenced to "reflect" in one of them for two days."  (I would have thought the boys far preferred the flogging).

    Today I treated myself to this:

It's always good to learn a bit more about antiques (though the ones in here are generally WAY out of our price range!!) and I love to look at room settings in houses where antiques are collected and cherished.

    Well, looking up Donovan's Season of the Witch has led to lots more sidebar plays and I am currently greatly enjoying Peter Green's (Fleetwood Mac) The Green Manalish. Those were the days.