Schooling

Following on from my post yesterday about the shape of things in the natural world, I admit that I hadn`t thought about crystals and minerals and all that kind of thing. But, then.... I never did science at school, so it`s outside my sphere of knowledge.

When I went to school (alright I admit it`s a good number of years ago now) Girls didn`t do science.

Infact the subjects were very much divided into some for boys and some for girls.... girls did - Needlework, Domestic Science.. which was cooking, and Biology (plants and animals), whilst the boys did Science, Woodwork and Metalwork. And, there were no computers and calculators. I wonder how we managed to add up and subtract sums!

What a difference to todays schools.

Square Peas?

Chasing some peas around a plate with a fork the other day, I heard someone say,, "Why don`t they make square peas?"!

That set me thinking... what in the natural world is created square?

I couldn`t think of any plant, flower, leaf, clouds, mountain, sea, lake, star, planet.... and so the list goes on, they are all spherical, or oval, or rounded in some way. Why isn`t there anything square - or will someone correct me with something that is?!

And, then I went a bit further in my thinking - and thought of all the things we construct and have around us,.... what shape are they.... all mainly square or at least objects with angular sides.. houses, furniture, books, cars (roughly square), and so on....

Why the big difference?
So, why do we put square items in a round world?

Another Bird

Driving along this afternoon, down a country lane, having passed some nice patches of daffodils, my attention was caught by something big, black and white sitting on a wall. So, checking that no other traffic was coming I backed several yards back up the road to investivate, and found this looking at us. We stopped and sat looking at a bird. We couldn`t decide if it was a duck or a goose. (anyone know?)



It seemed so unusual to find a web footed bird, and a fairly large one at that, sitting on a low country garden wall. It was totally unafraid of the car and as we sat there it continued with preening its feathers, giving me a chance to get my camera out. Dare we open the window, we wondered or would it fly away? After taking some pictures with the window up, we gently opened the car window...

...the bird took not the slightest bit of notice and continued alternately preening its feather and stopping to give us a quizzical look.

But, what was it, and why was it sitting on a wall... we looked at it as quizzically at it looked at us!

Wednesday

I took a movie on my camera yesterday evening of the rough sea. It was difficult standing against the wind, but I succeeded. I was going to share it on here but can`t find a way to get it to load up. So I`ve not much else to write about today.

What a Contrast

Well, what a contrast... last week was so springlike, warm and sunny. The sea was calm and blue... now look at it a couple of days later. So very rough and grey. These pictures don`t really give a full picture of the force and power as one cannot feel the strength of the wind nor hear the roar of the sea.

Fortunately the seaside place I live in is fairly safe from any flooding, but there is a great risk of it for others living in villages along this coast. What an awful thing if must be for those people tonight, as with the gales blowing in from the sea and the extra high spring tides who knows what could happen, there is such a trememdous power and strength to these elements of nature.

These pictues I took about 2 hours before the high tide, and already the sea was far higher up the beach than normal.

Blessed

I feel so blessed..... last week I had a week`s holiday from my place of work, and the sun shone every day, all day long. For the time of year too it was quite mild, and very pleasant to be outdoors, to visit several different coastal destinations and to have some good walks.

This morning, as I prepare to return to work what a change....its windy, its cold and its wet and even snow is forecast.

I thank God for the beautiful week I had last week.

Going Quackers!!

Having some bread to spare today, we decided to go for a ride and feed some ducks on a nearby pond this afternoon. As we approached the pond we could see that the ducks were all on the water gently paddling/swimming along. As we drew into the side and parked by the grassy bank the started swimming quickly towards the bank, quacking as they came jumping up the bank and waddling as quickly as their little legs would carry them towards the car. Looking up at us in great expectation! Do they expect every car that stops there to feed them I wondered, they surely can`t remember our car as feeding them before, can they?


They quickly devoured all the bread we threw out of the window for them (it was too cold to get out to feed them today!) And once it was all gone, they seemed somehow to know and waddled back to the water... apart from these two who still stood looking up at the window hoping for more!

Golden Daffodils

Having been able to do more driving this week than I normally do, I`ve been amazed by the amount of daffodils I`ve seen flowering. Not just in gardens, but in banks, roundabouts, tubs, verges, beside busy roads and even on remote country lanes, somehow everwhere you go there are daffodils nodding their head cheerily as you pass. Some in big patches, others just a single flower or two together, all delightful.

It makes me wonder how the ones in country lanes or beside the main roads got there. Has someone gone and purposely planted them to delight those that pass by, and if so what a lovely thoughtful action that was.

If anyone of you who planted daffodils reads this..THANK YOU !

Birthday Treat

A lovely spring day today, no work, so I said to my Mum this morning would you like to go for a ride? Knowing ofcourse that she would immediately say "Yes".

Unbeknown to her, whilst she was getting ready, I put her wheelchair and coat into the car. I had a destination in mind that I knew she liked, and thought it would make a nice birthday treat for her. I lightheartedly said to her as we went along the road with her thinking we were just going a short way and then back for dinner, "Where shall we go?" "Lowestoft" she replied, equally lightheartedly, not having the faintest idea that that was the destination I was heading for.

Travelling several miles along the road and about half an hour later, she realised that we were actually heading there - "I`ve not get a coat, or any money, or the wheelchair" etc.. she started to say, and was surprised when I said "Oh yes you have!" - well, I had some money, even if she didn`t.

After enjoying a fish & chip dinner at a restaurant by the pier, I pushed her right along the prom and up into the town and around the shops which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Maybe not everyone`s idea of a birthday treat, but it certainly was for her.

Modern Mailing System?

I know we must move with the times, but I didn`t realise things had got quite as advanced at this.

Whilst out this afternoon I came across this post box in a small Norfolk village. It was in the wall of a building which looked as if it had been a post office at one time. Pretty colour I thought, but a bit unusual for a post box, wonder what made them paint it that colour instead of the traditional red. About to drive off, something caught my attention about it, and I backed and looked again for the clearing time for mail from the box.

"From Owl Hoot to Cock`s Crow", it said. Intrigued I read further down the script on the plate on the box. It seemed that you could post your emails via the box for delivery. Now, that is a new I thought.

And it seems as if Bank Holidays are not a good time to post your emails in the box as they only deliver them if they remember.

I think I`ll stick to sending my emails by my computer for the time being, but it`s useful to know that this box exists isn`t it?!

Waste Paper

Why do newspapers put lots of extra suppliments in them now-a-days? Today alone I`ve discarded straight into the rubbish bin, or I should say recycling bin, at least 58 pages of unwanted unread junk from today`s paper alone. That`s on top of the Property suppliment, Motoring suppliment , sports suppliment discarded during the week... all several pages thick. What a waste of trees and resources. I wonder how many trees we could save a week without this?!

Why, oh why, don`t they, if they want to produce these extras just do a few so that those people who want them, could select the relevant ones and pick them up with their newspapers, instead of us all having to carry them home to put straight in our bins?

And, I really pity the poor paper girls and boys who have to deliver all this weight of useless printed matter.

Maybe we should do like I do with junk mail, (which I return it to sender in their prepaid envelope) and leave all the junk out of the newspaper at the newsagents and just take home the actual newspaper. Now there`s a thought!.... wonder what would happen if we all did that.... or is it only me that finds no use for all these suppliments?

Me and My Shadow

Me and my shadow.... that`s a bit how it`s felt for me today.

Normally on a Friday I have a day to myself but today was different. Today my parent couldn`t do what she normally did, so she was here with me. So, no walk by myself (this picture I took last week), no relaxation, no doing things as and when I pleased. It even felt almost that it was intrusion having someone else in the house, in "my space" on my day at home.

I hadn`t realised until then, just how much I`ve got used to having the time to myself, to enjoying this day on my own, to being content to be alone.

Old Age

Talking to a colleague today about my parent`s forthcoming birthday on Monday, she asked me how old my mother would be, and I automatically replied 88. And then it struck me... that is Old...it`s almost 90. And I found it a really startling thought. Quite a shock really. A very frightening thought.

We know we get older ourselves, but somehow we don`t expect our parents to get old, we expect them to stay the same, it`s in a way very hard to think of them as being that age.
Do others find the same, I wonder.

Water wise

I wonder how much we all take water for granted. How surprised we`d be if we turned on a tap and nothing came out of it. It set me thinking... how much water do I use in a day, and how much of that do I waste by letting a tap run when I don`t really need to. I came across this. It turns out that we use 97 litres of water per day, under the average of 150 litres. It was an interesting exercise to do.

Survival of the Fittest

Well, a wet Sunday afternoon, so no walk for me today, so I`ll share with you this photo I took on my walk round one of my favourite places on Friday afternoon.

I know it`s nature, but I don`t like to see what the stork has fished out of the water, and he ate it in a flash. I did wonder though how it came to be in the water in the first place.

(If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see clearly what he`s eating. I just wonder if its one of his own, or of another birds. Either way, to me its not nice)

Sky

Sitting in my car eating a bag of chips, (well, I say a bag of chips they were actually on a polystyerene tray. I wonder why chips taste so much different and nicer out of doors and eaten with the fingers?), by the quayside this evening, I looked up at the sky and saw what beautiful unusual colouring it had.... so.... out came the camera, and this is the result.

Single Shopper

Looking around supermarket shelves, the pack sizes of everything seem to be getting bigger and bigger. What happened to the small packs of items, like cornflakes and cereals? or small size washing powder? and many other commodities?
On the few exceptions like where one can buy a tiny jar of jam, why is the cost not in proportion to the cost of the larger size? Again it seems to be exploitation.

Do manufactures all assume that everyone lives in large families? Do they not realise or stop to think that lots of people, particularly elderly people live on their own, and besides not wanting a huge quantity of something which they can`t eat all of before it goes stale or out of date, or they get fed up with the same thing day after day, they probably cannot afford to lay out the cost of a huge pack.

I`ve often day-dreamed about setting up a "Singles Store", where one could buy items in sizes just big enough for one person. Like individually selling the packs from Variety packs of cereals, individual catering style packs of butter, sauces, jams and even enabling customers to buy a single egg, instead of 6 or 12 or 18. All items ofcourse without being penalised in price for only wanting a small item.
Would it take off, I wonder?