I love Christmas Carol’s and when I was a choir girl it was one of my favourite times of the year…Silent Night has always been a favourite of mine sadly no recording exists of that very first performance, but the song quickly spread through Europe. In fact, “Silent Night” has been recorded at least 733 times over the past 36 years alone.
Today I have a few more tracks of “Silent Night ” which I hope you enjoy! x
My first one is sung by “The Hound + The Fox…
They are a husband-wife duo from Oregon doing what they love most, making music! …Newly discovered by me I am entranced by this duo…Enjoy!
Next up is BYU Vocal Point...
I loved this it’s a brilliant version…
BYU Vocal Point is a nine-member, male, Acappella group at Brigham Young University (BYU). The group was founded in 1991 after two BYU students, Dave Boyce and Bob Ahlander, discovered the sound of contemporary Acappella during a visit to the eastern United States.
Next up it’s Tori Kelly…
An emotive, gospel- and R & B-influenced singer/songwriter, Tori Kelly initially attracted fans online before gaining wider fame…
One of my all-time favourite female singers ...Barbra Streisand…
Last but not least…7th Avenue…
I hope you have enjoyed listening to Silent Night in Acapella…
Welcome back to Saturday Snippets..where I indulge my whimsy and have a play with one word prompts…My muse has answered me and this week my word is…Wind…
High winds always scare the bejesus out of me… when I was a child during some high winds an Elm tree at the bottom of our garden dropped its branches and uprooted it fell directly on a neighbours roof luckily they were unhurt…
However, my favourite sight has always been a line of snow-white nappies blowing in the wind…no fabric conditioner was required as the wind made them super soft…Not a sight that’s seen often now in these days of pollution bearing disposable nappies…Millions of disposable nappies end up in landfills every day, and their manufacture uses finite resources and contributes to global warming…
Come with me and see what surprises the word “wind” has revealed…
Wind Chimes…
I adore the sound of wind chimes with bamboo being my favourite medium the sound as they gently move on a soft breeze is beautiful…The ancient civilisations of Asia can claim the creation of wind chimes as their own. The Chinese were casting bells by 1100 BC and they created the wind bell that they call fengling. Wind chimes were considered religious objects which could attract kind spirits and drive away evil ones.
Although the history behind the tradition is not clear, wind chimes are ideal memorial gifts for people who have lost family members or pets. Perhaps people are drawn to the present because the tinkling sound, always in the background, can act as a constant reminder of the one who died.
Wind Beneath my Wings ...Bette Midler is one of my all-time favourites.
Wind Erosion…
Wind is the movement of air, caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun and the Earth’s own rotation. Winds range from light breezes to natural hazards such as hurricanes and tornadoes. … Wind is the movement of air caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun.
If you’ve ever seen a sand dune, it can be a magical experience…The most spectacular sand dunes I have seen were the ones at Lancelin W.A….the sheer magnitude and vastness is breathtaking…
However, did you realize that sand dunes were caused by wind erosion? Quite a few fantastic natural features have been caused by wind erosion…The Wave – wave formation made in sandstone rock in Arizona, Sleeping Bear Dunes – unique sand dunes found on the lakeshore of Michigan or Yardangs – rock formations in various locations sculpted by wind erosion…All are very beautiful and unique in their own right.
The Wind In The Willows…
The Wind in the Willows is a children’s book by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908…a classic and loved by children and adults around the world…Featuring Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger it has delighted book lovers and film lovers for decades…
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough…
Windmill…
A windmill can be a tiny handheld toy or a big construction originally used for grinding grain…
The most important use of the windmill was for grinding grain. In certain areas, its uses for land drainage and water pumping were equally important. The windmill has been used as a source of electrical power since P. La Cour’s mill, built in Denmark in 1890 with patent sails and twin fantails on a steel tower…
There are about 140 windmills left in the UK today — of these, about 40 still work. By comparison, explains Mildred Cookson, chair of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)’s mills section, there were more than 1,000 in the 1890s…some of these beautiful buildings have now been converted into homes or restaurants…
Wind Pollinated Flowers…
Anemophilous, or wind-pollinated flowers, are usually small and inconspicuous and do not possess a scent or produce nectar. The anthers may produce a large number of pollen grains, while the stamens are generally long and protrude out of flower.
The flowers of wind-pollinated plants don’t have to attract insects for fertilization to take place, so there is no biological advantage to having a colourful and aromatic flower. As a result, most wind-pollinated flowers are green or dull-coloured. They usually lack the sepals and petals that most flowers have. One large group of plants where wind pollination is common are the grasses, especially the cattails and rushes that grow in wet areas. The flowers of these plants aren’t very colourful or noticeable. Also, they often form spikes of small flowers. Wind-pollinated grasses tend to produce large amounts of pollen, which can cause allergy problems in people.
Chicago...also known as the windy city…How do I know? Years ago my eldest daughter got married in Jamaica…a beautiful wedding with a Steel Band and a carrot cake wedding Cake beautiful surrounding it was surreal… the hotel we stayed in Ocho Rios was an all-inclusive hotel and we started the hen night in one of the restaurants and did the rounds picking up people on the way as we were having so much fun everyone wanted to join in…A bit like the conga…are you with me…all nationalities and a lovely lady and her friends who came from Chicago…my drink of choice was??? a not sure of the size bottle just that it was red wine…which I was drinking from the bottle…I was not my normal refined and gentile self at that point…lol…
Well...the wind it was and you know how when you pray for a quiet one …this was not by any stretch of the imagination…it caused much mirth and my new friends from Chicago started singing their original rendition of ” Carol comes from the windy city, the windy city” I’m sure by now you get the drift…it was one of those moments but it was fun..at my expense I believe…x
The Winds of Winter George RR Martin…
The Winds of Winter will be the sixth book in the series, and Martin has thus far spent nearly 10 years bringing it to life. For a while, he stopped providing updates about the book on his blog but in recent months he has been providing updates for fans and it looks like he’s making some good progress. The Winds of Winter sees a target date of release on November 13th, 2023. In April 2021,
Defi Wind …France
The Defi Wind event, or Le Defi as it’s more commonly known, is held each year at Gruissan Plage, Narbonne, France and has run for 18 years (as of 2019). A mass participation windsurfing race event it’s the biggest in the world of type with epic photos of hundreds of windsurfers tearing along the Occitaine Region’s coastline.
A Le Man’s style start, before a 10kn dash and back, is what makes Le Defi unique and its draw for large numbers of windsurfers from across the globe is tangible. Relying on the region’s Tramontane wind gusts during particularly blowy years can be savage. Combined with so many other riders on the racecourse this makes Le Defi a challenge, but a doable one none the less, for any competent windsurfer.
On top of the actual sailing, there’s a carnival/festival vibe on the beach with exhibitions, pro rider talks and coaching sessions, plus parties, which makes it one not to miss.
Gragnano…
Located on a hilltop between Monti Lattari and the Amalfi Coast, Gragnano is celebrated for its air-dried, bronze-extruded pasta across the world.
Pasta has been made in Italy for thousands of years. Although there is evidence that the Greeks once cooked sheets of dough made of wheat flour and the juice of crushed lettuce, the first real document that describes modern pasta can be traced to 13th century Italy. Until the 16th century, pasta was homemade; in fact, it was the most consumed meal in the house throughout the peninsula. It was in these years that pasta became an industrial product, thanks to a small number of Italian pioneers. And Gragnano is where it all began.
What is so special today about Pasta Di Gragnano?
In 2013, the European Union declared PGI (Protected Geographical Indication): the pasta made under the name “Pasta di Gragnano” must be produced in a legally defined area that still corresponds to the territory indicated by the king of the Napoli about two centuries ago.
Finally, the dough must be extruded through rough bronze forms and, once it has taken shape, dry at low temperatures in the mountain air. The result of this long and traditional process is one of the finest pasta in the world.
Thank you for joining me today for Saturday Snippets I look forward to your comments as always…Tomorrow it’s my weekly roundup I hope to see you then… in the meantime have a fabulous Saturday xx
This weeks one-word prompt is…Shoes… a suggestion from the lovely Jennie who writes “A Teachers Reflections“ Jennie has introduced me to some wonderful reading books for children and has also given me hope that there are some wonderful teachers out there… after all they are the teachers and custodians of future generations…how and what they teach these young, thirsty minds is important and to Jennie, it is her life’s work…which has now been recognised By Kelly Clarkson and appeared on her show…Very well deserved, Jennie “You rock”!
One word prompt…Shoes!
The history of shoes is a fascinating one from the very first shoes in the earliest times, shoes were made with an important function in mind: to protect the bottoms of the feet. But as society evolved, shoes found their place as both costumes and for ceremonial occasions as well as everyday wear.
Come with me and I will show you what else has a connection to the prompt…Shoes...I hope you enjoy the tour…
My first ideas about shoes as in Stillettos, Louboutins, all the different types of trainers, colours …heels or flats…and then my thoughts turned to Red Shoes…
I thought of “The Red Shoes” published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1845… one of my favourite folktales as a child as was watching the film… “The Pope” wears red shoes as they symbolise the blood of Catholic martyrs spilt through the centuries following in the footsteps of Christ. ..and there is also the reference to the liberation of women’s desires by the wearing of redshoes…
Of course, most famously Dorothy wore red shoes in the”Wizard of Oz”…However In the original book by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy’s magic slippers are silver; for the Technicolor movie, they were changed to ruby red to show up more vividly against the yellow-brick road…
Shoes come in all sizes, colours and heel heights but who wears the biggest shoes?…none other than ” Lady Liberty“…who wears a size 879 in shoes…
Did you Know?
Ones and Two’s are Cockney rhyming slang for “shoes“…
Plain Clothed Detective’s used to be known as “Gumshoes”…it was a reference to when shoes or boots were made of gum rubber. Soft-soled shoes allowed for a quiet step. “To gumshoe” came to mean to sneak around quietly …It did not initially only apply to detectives; it could mean anyone being sneaky or stealthy, robbers and thief-catchers alike.
Van Gogh made a number of still live paintings depicting old shoes. It is said that he used to buy them from flea markets and then wear them until he thought they looked old and worn out enough for still life paintings such as “A Pair of Shoes”, 1886 by Vincent Van Gogh.
No corkscrew? and you need to open that bottle of wine…Easy!
How easy was that..Science prevails!
Horseshoes…
Horseshoes have long been considered lucky. They were originally made of iron, a material that was believed to ward off evil spirits, and traditionally were held in place with seven nails, seven being the luckiest of numbers.
A horseshoe hung open-end up is meant to collect luck. No matter which way you hang a horseshoe, it’s designed to bring luck and prevent misfortune. Hang it open-end up to collect good luck above a doorway or on an exterior wall of a barn, home or other structure.
Brides are often given a symbol of a horseshoe to carry for luck, there is also a game called Horseshoe pitching, a game for two or four players, most popular in the United States and Canada, in which players attempt to throw horseshoes so as to encircle a stake or to get them as close to the stake as possible…
A horseshoeis a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horses hoof.
It is also the name of a crab...a weird-looking crab which is not really a crab but is very valuable in the medical field…Horseshoe crab blood is blue in colour, due to the presence of copper. But that’s not why it’s valuable. It’s valuable because it contains an “amebocyte” used in the field of biometrics to identify bacterial contamination in vaccines and all injectable drugs.
Sadly though because the Horseshoes Crab is a crucial resource for making human medicines safe it is in danger of being overfished…Every year, pharmaceutical companies round up half a million Atlantic horseshoe crabs, bleed them, and return them to the ocean— after which many will die. This practice, combined with the overharvesting of the crabs for fishing bait, has caused a decline in the species in the region in the past few decades.
Walk-in Their Shoes…Can One Person Change the World is the powerful, personal story of Jim Ziolkowski’s inspiring mission to change the world one community at a time, hailed by the Dalai Lama as “an inspiring tribute to the power of compassion and education: the keys to leading a meaningful life.”
I’m sure most of us have had or heard of shoestring cheese..not only does cheese have a connection to shoes but so does the lovely flatfish called sole…The beautiful lemon sole is lovely lightly dusted with flour and cooked in butter…the Dover sole is a tad bigger and very nice indeed…You’ll find that Dover sole is unlike other fish. It doesn’t have the texture of a normal fish. Its flesh is more like meat, with a delicate, mild, and sweet flavour.
I could listen to Elvis for hours…my kind of music…
The crisis of plastic waste is at a tipping point. Now more than ever before, we have a responsibility to the future of our planet. Everything we do, however big or small, impacts our world and our future. Every day, the equivalent of 1440 dump trucks of plastic waste enters our oceans. For every person on the planet, there is one ton of plastic in the ocean. If we continue on the way we are, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
This weeks one-word prompt is…Fishing… a suggestion from Clive who writes “Take it Easy“ blog and has introduced me to some wonderful music from artists who were previously unknown to me…The other week I mentioned Brighton and family holidays which was when Clive suggested fishing I know now that the West Brighton Pier burned down and has not been rebuilt (Thank you), Pete for drawing my attention to that I now know Brighton is on its 3rd pier…Thank you again, Pete ..it has been through the wars and as long as it stays safe and is not a health and safety issue it will eventually be claimed by the sea..literally unless of course someone comes up with the funds and rebuilds It. Brighton Palace Pier (the 3rd) pier or as it is now known Palace Pier…is a pleasure place which lays claim to some famous visitors over the years… it has also been the setting for numerous films and tv series and has been featured in many works of British culture, including the gangster thriller Brighton Rock, the comedy Carry On at Your Convenience and the Who’s concept album and film Quadrophenia…
Sadly, however, “fishing” is now no longer allowed off the pier…in 1975 all the landing stages were removed, making fishing difficult, especially when it was busy. Finally, In 1984 fishing was phased out…the end of an era however there are still some great spots to fish in and around Brighton.
I don’t think this is going to be as easy a word as some of my previous word prompts…But come with me and let’s see what the catch for today is…
Animal Crossing New Horizons…the rarest and most expensive fish in the game…Nintendo Switch of course!…
Have you played? What was your rarest catch?
Phishing email…Phishing is a cyber attack that uses disguised email as a weapon. The goal is to trick the email recipient into believing that the message is something they want or need — a request from their bank, for instance, or a note from someone in their company — and to click a link or download an attachment.
Verb: If you say that someone is fishingfor information or praise, you disapprove of the fact that they are trying to get it from someone in an indirect way.
Koh Panyee is a sea gipsy fishing village in Phang Nga Province, Thailand. It was built on stilts by Indonesian fishermen some 200 years ago, although it is quite isolated this thriving fishing village is a popular tourist attraction.
The population of about 360 families or approx 1,685 people are all descendants of 2 seafaring Muslim families from Java, Indonesia.
Descendants, directly or indirectly, of a man called Toh Baboo, his family and friends. They were the first people to settle on Koh Panyee over 200 years ago.
There are tons of great bands named afterfishing…Reel Big Fish,(Take on Me) Hootie & the Blowfish, Sports Team-Fishing…
Loud enough for you?…
Star Gazy Pie…Stargazy pie is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards, along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust. Although there are a few variations using other types of fish, the unique feature of stargazy pie is fish heads protruding through the crust, so that they appear to be gazing upwards towards the stars.
Did you know? Many fishermen prefer pasta as bait? Pasta is one of the many baits on which you can catch white fish with good success. Bream is the main lover of this product. This attachment is mainly used when fishing with bottom tackle – feeder.
The pasta should only be slightly soft so that it doesn’t fly off when the line is cast…who knew?
The Best Fishing Boat Names…
A-Fishy-Nado
Aqua-Holic
Aquaquack
Bacon in the Sun
Baits Motel
Beeracuda
Bent Rods
Berth Control
Breakin’ Bass
Bye the Nauts
Called in Sick
Chum Bucket
The first Fishing Hook…the first fishing hook was called a gorge. It was a short, straight piece of wood, bone or stone that was pointed on both ends.
The gorge was tied to a line. Then bait was placed over it, and the hook was thrown into the water to catch a fish. Eventually, a curved fishhook made of bone, shell or wood was invented.
The oldest fish hooks ever discovered were made of sea snail shells and thought to be about 23,000 years old.
Did you Know? Singapore used to be a Malay Fishing Village? the name Singapore comes from the Malay words “Singa” for lion and “Pura” for city. Prior to European settlement, the island now known as Singapore was the site of a Malay fishing village and inhabited by several hundred indigenous Orang Laut people.
This Ancient Japanese Tradition uses birds to catch fish…
Ukai Fishing using this method has been around for some 1300 years…While the practice has become a popular tourist attraction, it has also invited controversy.
Every year, thousands of tourists visit the Japanese city of Gifu in central Japan to watch ukai, in which fishers attach tethers to cormorants, birds known for their skill in diving underwater to hunt fish.
Making your own curd cutter using some fishing line…
Really simple instructions on how to make your own curd cutter using some fishing line…
If you are still with me, thank you for reading I hope you have enjoyed my selections for the prompt word…Fishing… was not easy but stretched the old grey matter somewhat…Thank you, Clive it seems that you and my son are the only ones giving me a word prompt…All those self-professed word nerds out there and no one has given me a prompt…
The fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. … The fishing cat lives foremost in the vicinity of wetlands, along rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, in swamps, and mangroves. The fishing cat is the state animal of West Bengal.
It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Fishing cat populations are threatened by the destruction of wetlands and have declined severely over the last decade. The fishing cat lives foremost in the vicinity of wetlands, along rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, swamps, and mangroves.
See you tomorrow for my weekly roundup…Have a lovely evening xxx
My first thoughts were Birds Custard, Bird’s Eye Chillies, Nelly Furtado…I’m Like a Bird…The Byrds and not a feather insight…
Come with me and see what else I have found…as the saying goes ” A Bird in the Hand is worth two in the Bush…Its current form first appears in John Ray’s Hand-book of Proverbs (1670):
Guatemala…The countries National Flag, Coat of Arms and currency all feature the beautiful Quetzal Bird…
There are also a few very famous cartoon birds… Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Woodstock, Road Runner and Tweetie Pie to name but a few…
A tune…
Some more tunes featuring Birds coming up later in the post…
Did you know?
Bombay Duck is really a fish? A species of the lizardfish…which is dried and has that love it or hate Mumbai smell. It got its name in the days of the Raj, from being transported on an iconic train, the Bombay Daak, daak being the Hindi word for mail. The term was then bastardised to duck, which stuck.
Hen of the woods is a type of mushroom…a mushroom which is safe to eat, delicious, and nutritious a wild variety prized by mushroom hunters…it grows at the base of trees particularly oak trees…it is also commonly called “Maitake”
Urban Dictionary…Cheese-Bird.
A term for a mousy-type woman, who might wear glasses and have a beak-like nose, and somewhat pretentious about films and stage performances, very dorky about such things and all, and has a preference for melted cheese on almost any other type of food other than unmelted cheese…There’s more…
Did you know?
Bird Ekachai Chiarakul… “World Champion – Classical Guitar” won 1st place in America in the International Classical Guitar Competition 2014 at the GFA Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition stage…he is considered the first Asian person in history to win this prestigious accolade.
There are also some spectacular flowers like the “Bird of Paradise”
Swan Lake…the ballet is a tale of a timeless love story that mixes magic, tragedy, and romance into four acts. It features Prince Siegfried and a lovely swan princess named Odette. Under the spell of a sorcerer, Odette spends her days as a swan swimming on a lake of tears and her nights in her beautiful human form.
Kiwi Fruit…thus named as its fuzzy outer is similar to the feathers of a Kiwi Bird…it was first known some 700 years ago in China as “Yang Tao” Then around1906 some seeds were shipped to New Zealand and it was re-named Chinese Gooseberry…
At the box office, the word bird features in the title of many films over the years…The Hitchcock thriller “The Birds“… one of my all-time favourites is” Bird on a Wire” is a 1990 action comedy film starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, directed by John Badham, and shot mainly in British Columbia, Canada. The title refers to the Leonard Cohen song “Bird on the Wire”. The alley motorcycle chase scene was filmed in Victoria, BC’s Chinatown, in Fan Tan Alley…
“It’s Tough to Be a Bird “is a 1969 educational animated short made by Walt Disney Productions. It won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons in 1970 and was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Animated Film in 1971. This was the last animated short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios to win an Academy Award, until Paperman in 2013.
“The Blue Bird” is a 1976 American/Soviet fantasy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes, and Aleksei Kapler is based on L’Oiseau bleu by Maurice Maeterlinck. It was the fifth screen adaptation of the play, following two silent films, the studio’s 1940 version starring Shirley Temple…
Not forgetting Sesame Street and…”Follow That Bird” a 1985 American musical comedy-adventure road movie, directed by Ken Kwapis, starring many Sesame Street characters.
I like a bit of Jazz at times…of course, I could have played Paul McCarty and Blackbird or Sia with Birds Set Free or even Bob Marley and Three Little Birds but thought let’s listen to this lady…Enjoy!
That’s enough music for today methinks …
Beauty Spots…around the world there are so many places too numerous to mention with a connection to birds….we have Turkey, the Canary Islands, Pigeon Island, The Isle of Mayon Scotland which is home to the beautiful Puffins…The Falklands where there are over 200 different species of birds, 5 different types of Penguins…
Around the world, there is Bird Creek, Alaska, Bird Key Island, Sacramento very swish and expensive, the White Bird Battlefield is the location of the first battle of the Nez Perce Flight of 1877. On June 17, 1877, Captain David Perry and his troops moved into the canyon to strike the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) who were sheltering in one of their winter villages, which they called Lahmotta…
That’s all for Saturday Snippets…I hope you have enjoyed the tour with the birds…I have a couple of one-word prompts now but would love some more.. it is fun researching a word and I learn something new all the time so please send me a word or two…
See you tomorrow with my weekly roundup...Have a brilliant weekend everyone…xx
Welcome to Saturday Snippets where I indulge my whimsy and my passions… maybe a tune or two…something which has caught my eye this last week…just anything out of the ordinary or extraordinary…I am enjoying just taking a prompt from one word it opens up a whole world and never ceases to surprise me as I hope it does you too…
Come with me and see what I discovered…my word today is…Darling!
The prompt was a suggestion on a post I wrote about varieties of Oranges…’ My Darling Clementine”…clever to make the connection, Clive...I was a tad slower…sigh
Let’s see what I found…
There are lots of films, shows and music tracks to pick from and I mean lots…but what else has a connection to the word “Darling”
Darlingtonia Califormica…is a carnivorous plant…named after botanist William Darlington(1782-1863)
More commonly known as the California pitcher plant, cobra lily, or cobra plant…it is also the sole member of the Darlingtonia genus. A striking plant the winged leaves are the reason this pitcher plant is sometimes referred to as the cobra pitcher plant…Insects are lured by the plants colour and nectar then trapped inside the tube they slide down and get dissolved and absorbed as nutrients by the plant…makes me shiver at the thought…
Let’s start with a few films…
Move Over Darling (1963) starring Doris Day and James Garner…Doris starred and sang the theme tune which was written by her son…The song was banned by BBC Radio in England because Doris sang “make love to me” far too suggestively for “‘Auntie Beebs” delicate ears…
Darling(1965) starring Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey and Dirk Bogarde, is a British romantic drama…a commercial success at the box office the film won many awards whereas today it seems to have a mixed reputation..a film of its time.
Inevitably there had to be horror films…
Actress Tallulah Bankhead’s last film happened to be one of these horror films. Made in the UK under the title “Fanatic” and called “Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) in the United States, actress Stefanie Powers co-stars with Bankhead…Not only is “Die! Die! My Darling!” Bankhead’s last film, but also her first horror movie, according to the Life magazine article, “One Old Trouper Comes Back” by Conrad Knickerbocker.
Did you know?
President Clintons cat “socks” was a media “darling” during President Clinton’s administration “socks” was reported to have received more letters than the President himself.
Let’s have some music…Darling You – Julia Westlin, Dear Darlin’ – Olly Murs, Darling Nikki – Prince, Nobody’s Darling But Mine – Merle Haggard, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) – John Lennon, Happy Birthday Darlin’ – Conway Twitty…there is certainly no shortage of songs with Darling/Darlin in the title…my choice?
More to come later..so many songs…
After the light went on and I realised that Clive meant My Darling Clementine…a 1946 American Western film starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral.
My first thoughts were the popular British Comedy TV show “The Darling Buds of May”…starring David Jason, Pam Ferris and a young Catherine Zeta-Jones it followed the lively adventures of the Larkin family and the local tax inspector…
Peter Pan then popped into my mind…Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling, and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland. Wendy and her brothers join Peter and the Lost Boys in an exhilarating life–free of grown-up rules–while also facing the inevitable showdown with Hook and his bloodthirsty pirates…
Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up or Peter and Wendy, often known simply as Peter Pan, is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel.
From Peter Pan to the present day...as today is my birthday my 70th birthday to be exact…I will be partaking in a glass or two of wine…
The Darling Area in South Africa historically is a dairy area however over the last 10-15 years grape growing has come to the forefront and South Africa produces some great wines…The Best Shiraz 2019…Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Bordeaux-style red blends are also among the country’s top reds…I think mine will be a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon…
What goes better with a glass of red than a lovely slice ofDarling Blue Cheese…a newly created blue cheese made on Doddington Farm which borders Scotland using milk fresh from their herd of cows. This looks and sounds like a wonderful piece of cheese…
There will be a few tunes today...Just saying…
Did you know?
Weird Math...Is anything truly random? Does infinity actually exist? Could we ever see into other dimensions?
In this delightful journey of discovery, science fiction writer, astronomer and teacher David Darling and extraordinary child prodigy Agnijo Banerjee draw connections between the cutting edge of modern maths and life as we understand it, delving into the strange – would we like alien music? – and venturing out on quests to consider the existence of free will and the fantastical future of quantum computers. Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts and surprising solutions, this is for anyone who wants life’s questions answered – even those you never thought to ask.
The Murray Darling Basin…is Australia’s largest and most iconic river system, and is one of the biggest systems in the world.
The Basin is home to over 2 million people and covers about 14% of Australia’s landmass. It includes a range of diverse landscapes and complex ecosystems, including over 77,000km of rivers and more than 25,000 wetlands. These landscapes are home to at least 35 endangered species of birds, 16 endangered species of mammals and 46 known species of native fish.
The Basin is Australia’s most important agricultural region, producing around one-third of the national food supply…in recent years though there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this beautiful important river system all man-made…however I am going to leave all the problems for another day…
Darling…Dancing in the Dark…
Did you know?
Grace Darling(1815-1842) was a lighthouse keepers daughter in Victorian England…How did she become a national treasure and get a 50-pound note from Queen Victoria? On a stormy windswept night in 1838, The SS Forfarshire floundered on rocks and broke in half as the weather was too bad for a lifeboat to be put out her father decided they would take their sailboat as her brothers were away Grace and her father took the boat…This boat, called a coble, was used by Grace and William Darling to rescue nine survivors from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire. A coble is a type of boat specially designed for working in the shallow waters of northeast England. Originally it would have had a mast as well as oars…for their bravery they received silver medals from the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later named the Royal National Lifeboat Institution…subscriptions and money including 50 pounds from Queen Victoria were raised for Grace Darling…
I had fun writing this post as it prompted a few memories…I hope you enjoyed the read…
See you tomorrow for my weekly roundup, thank you for popping in have a great evening xxx
Retired? No one told me! 