“A Paper Parasol With Your Wassail ?” Enquired The Diligent Landlord

So.

End of year and all that. Janus (i) looking back and forwards. Resolutions and Regrets.  Choices made and Opportunities lost. Time for a bit of soul searching: learning from the mistakes of 2010 and consolidating plans and ambitions for the Twelvemonth yet to come.

Or not. I think that would just depress some, delight others and bore the majority. And distress me unnecessarily.

What else? Christmas already and, if you needed actual proof, the Three Men Went to Mow festive offering is here for your mild delight. Another one filmed at Kew Gardens.

[youtube clip_id=”O2GP3XxJbKg”]

As everybody I have encountered recently has but one main topic of conversation viz. Snow: I feel that I should fall in step with the majority. The A43 has been pretty dreadful but everything looks very pretty….

Enough about the snow. No matter how much falls here we will always get outdone by Canadians so there is not much point trying to compete.

This picture is my contribution to the growing canon of Blog published snow shots. It is interesting how very similar they look to other snow pictures that I have taken on previous occasions. Sue said the same thing about frost. I have about 25,000 photographs on my computer. Most of them are completely pointless but I never seem to find the time to do anything but the most elementary editing. I suppose it is the inevitable side effect of digital photography. When I was younger (stop yawning at the back) it was drummed into me that pictures should not be wasted. Every shot on the 12 picture roll of my 126 Instamatic was precious: not surprising as the cost of developing six pictures of a very distant seagull sitting on an indistinguishable bit of field was considerable. If one balances money against artistic achievement.Today it is wonderful to be able to take 200 pictures of something in the hope that at least one of them will be good. Except that I still end up with 199 bad pictures cluttering up my hard disk.

The thing about snow (and I know I promised not to go on about it but bear with me a moment….) is that is rather stops things happening. I know that is quite an obvious statement but it is true. I have a couple of thousand bulbs loafing around the barn waiting to be planted. And some roses. And we need to get some trees in and a couple of other clients are inaccessible except by tractor. And everybody wants it all done by Christmas.

And it is not going to happen.

But the other interesting thing is by about now people (and I include myself in that group) realise that it doesn’t actually have to be done by Christmas. It will be fine if done in January. Or February. Everybody becomes much more relaxed. And bonhomie takes the place of panic.

I thought I would supplement the Three Men thing with a short film of my daughter dancing in the snow for those discerning folk who have had quite enough of Joe, Cleve and I swanning about.

So…. Happy Christmas to you all. Thank you for reading, commenting, participating in and supporting this Blog over the past year. I will endeavour to keep on providing drivel and elementary gardening for the discerning reader. Whether you want me to or not.

I am listening to Brownsville Girl by Bob Dylan.

The picture is of a slightly bewildered snowbound hen.

(1) Janus and hence to January. The Roman God of gates, doorways and time. A busy fellow all things considered. Especially as, having two heads (one forwards and one backwards facing) he has twice as much beard maintenance, eyebrow shaping and tooth brushing to deal with.