North and south weather divide. Hallowe’en pics. Election stuff here and there. Revloting cyclists.

 As we are in storm season, here is a weather warning!

I have just travelled back to the North of England with my daughter and her various offspring. The journey was uneventful but very wet. Visibility on the motorway was very poor with huge lorries sensing up spray constantly. So it goes!

Oddly enough the weather was better in the North than in the South but still nothing to write home about. I have been able to put our dustbins out for emptying tomorrow without being blown away or getting soaked.

But here’s a picture of what the storms are capable of.  This is Newhaven Harbour.

And it is reported that about 90,000 properties across northern parts of the UK are still without power after a weekend of stormy weather, with forecasters warning of more strong winds to come.

Two men were killed by falling trees after two named storms, Austen and Boelo, bringing widespread travel disruption, flooding, power cuts and event cancellations. On the whole, we got off lightly.

Here are the last two pictures from our Hallowe’en craft sessions. Pumpkins were carved.

And later, candles were lit inside them.

So that’s that! And a good time was had by all!

In the wider world, chaos continues and elections have been going on or are about to go on here and there. This is from the Guardian:

“Hebron, the biggest city in the West Bank, had paid little attention to Israel’s looming elections until it found itself suddenly in the midst of them, a proving ground for Benjamin Netanyahu’s security credentials in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

A gun attack on an Israeli military checkpoint on Friday in which two soldiers were killed brought immediate televised visits from Netanyahu and his finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, whose ruling coalition is narrowly trailing with two days of campaigning left.

They vowed abrupt and sweeping retribution, and the prime minister warned of imminent military operations on a scale the West Bank has not seen in nearly 60 years of occupation.

Within hours, the whole city of 250,000 people had been sealed off and the neighbourhood of Farsh al-Hawa, closest to the site of Friday’s attack, had been flattened. By Sunday morning, there was nothing left but rubble of an industrial area that had been full of car workshops, a big ceramics plant and other enterprises.

As the bulldozers were at work there, another district a few kilometres away was being systematically emptied. Ein Deir Baha was allegedly home to at least one of the two men involved in the attack (both of whom were killed on the spot), and on Friday its residents paid the price.

The imam from the local mosque, Fahed Ahmaro, was woken at about midnight by the loudspeakers from military vehicles patrolling the street, telling homeowners to vacate their homes immediately for their own safety.”

Rather more optimistic election news comes from Brazil. Again from the Guardian therevis this:

“Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has staged a dramatic election fightback, defeating his far-right opponent, Flavio Bolsanaro, to claim a historic fourth term in power.

With 100% of votes counted the 80-year-old leftist received 4.4m votes more than Bolsonaro, with a 51.79% share to his 45-year-old rival’s 48.21%. However, soon after Brazil’s electoral authority confirmed Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and asked for the results to be annulled.

Lula narrowly lost the first round of the election to Bolsonaro in early October, casting his political future into doubt and plunging progressive Brazilians into three weeks of despair. Never, since the return of democracy in the 1980s, has the first round runner-up won the second vote.

But Lula did precisely that on Sunday, prompting joyous scenes on the streets of São Paulo, where he had been following events, and at the hotel where he was watching the count.}

And in London they have been pedestrianising Oxford Street, including banning cycles, but apparently cyclists have been ignoring the ban today! Oops! Bicycle anarchy!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Stormy Sunday. An extra hour in bed. Crafty results from yesterday.

Yesterday disintegrated into Storm Austen or possible it became Storm Beolo. The wind howled all night and this morning dawned fine and bright but still windy. But at least we had an extra hour in bed as the clocks went back last night.

In view of yesterday afternoon’s dreadful weather we kept the children busy with a range of craft activities. And so we ended up with a range of clay creations, all Hallowe’en related.

And we had a hint of Mexico and the Day of the Dead, inspired somewhat by Frida Kahlo.

And the ten-year-old showed off her art appreciation with a Modrian-inspired collage.

Today, so far, all we did was walk onto the town centre where the children spent Waterstones book tokens they had received as birthday presents.

Later we’ll have a roast dinner together. But now I have to get involved in craft activities again. 

Tomorrow we head for home. More normal service might be resumed. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Half-term. Dodging the storm to pick pumpkins.

It’s the half-term holiday. Not that half-terms really mean much to me any longer as its more years than I can remember since I was really ruled by the academic year. But the two smallest grandchildren are still at school and our daughter is a teacher, and so my life is still impacted by the school calendar. 

So, in appreciation of how hard teachers work, here’s a quotation from one of Terry Pratchett’s books:

‘You sound like a very educated man for a barbarian’, said Rincewind

‘I didn’t start out as a barbarian. I used to be a teacher. But I decided to give it all up and make a living by the sword.’

‘After being a teacher all your life?’

‘It did mean a change of perspective, yes.’

But … well … surely … the privations, the terrible hazards, the daily risk of death …

Mr Saveloy brightened up. ‘Oh, you’ve been a teacher, have you?’

Yesterday my daughter and I, accompanied by Granddaughters Number Two and Number Four and Grandson Number Two, drove to Buckinghamshire to spend the weekend with my son and his family. Granddaughter Number Four and Grandson Number Two were delighted to be reunited with their cousin, Granddaughter Number Three (and her two cats).

This morning we all set off in two cars as soon after 9.00 as we could organise ourselves so that we could have some fun and games before Storm Austen hit this part of England later in the morning.

We were going to a pumpkin patch - well, a farm that has turned itself into a pumpkin-growing and -selling place, with a plantation of Christmas trees nearby ready for when Hallowe’en is finally put away. As far as eye could see-there were fields of pumpkins, with pumpkins of all sizes and colours.

There was a mystery door leading nowhere.

And a spooky piano waiting to be played. 

My son and Grandson Number Two loaded wheelbarrows with pumpkins.

We then had to select which we would actually purchase, much to the chagrin of Grandson Number Two who would have happily kept the lot. Granddaughters Number Three and Number Four and Grandson Number Two will carve them artistically this afternoon. 

Alongside the pumpkin patch there was a churros van. Two portions of sugar and cinnamon churros were purchased and consumed. i am not as a rule a great fan of cgurros but freshly fried rhey were fine.

There was also a gift shop and a farm shop selling all sorts of food fproducts. Someone has turned the farm knto a going concern by the looks of things.

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

Stormy weather. Calm stitxhing. Odd animals.

 It seems to be storm season. Storm Austen has battered Cornwall. Storm Adam has flooded some places in eastern Spain and storm something else is apparently on its way to Scotland.  We had heavy rain in the night but not really what you would call a storm … yet. Round here this week it’s mostly dull and damp season.

Yesterday afternoon I picked the smallest grandchildren up from school as usual. At some point after we had arrived home, Grandson Number Two discovered a hole in his sock. Could I fix it? he asked. Well, yes, I could and almost certainly should in order to prevent him from deliberately making it any larger. So we found the sewing kit and my grandmother’s darning mushroom. Every child should see a darning mushroom at some point! 

And then, after rooting about in my sewing kit, he declared that he wanted to do some stitching, if I could find him some fabric. His sister joined in: she too wanted to stitch. Well, that would have to wait until after we had eaten and his mother had taken Grandad to chess club. Over dinner, the small boy demonstrated his creativity by raiding the fruit bowl to make a fruit salad. A rather diminished fruit salad: tangerines, which he could peel himself, grapes and apple -if I could make apple slices which he would then chop into smaller pieces. What? No nectarines? All the nectarines I have bought lately have been disappointing. It’s no longer soft-fruit season. So he made do with what he had, carefully wielding the fruit-paring knife. This gave his much older sister, 23 year old Granddaughter Number Two, a panic attack but he and I explained that he had been told exactly what he could and could not do with said knife.

I was rather hoping that fruit-salad making would cancel out stitching but it was not be. So I found my collection of felt squares and the two small people set to work. The small boy designed a frog toy he wanted to create, a cuddly frog, provided I had stuffing, which I did,

He insisted on cutting the felt himself to the shape he wanted and managed to do he major part of the stitching round the body of the ‘frog’. We stuffed it - with strong words about how the stuffing was NOT to be thrown round my living room! While I did the complicated but of stitching the top to keep the stuffing in, he drew and cut out hands and feet in a contrasting green, and a pink tongue. With a little help from his friend(ly grandma) he successfully attached these to the body. 

Time was slipping past. Mummy had returned from taking Grandad to chess club, she had had a sandwich and some coffee and wanted to head for home. So I was requested/instructed to embroider eyes (we had considered large beads but we had no black ones and besides, he agreed, large beads would reduce the cuddlability of the frog) and stitched the tongue in place. Result: an odd but very satisfactory frog.

His 10 year old sister meanwhile had been busily making a little felt bag, with some help from her older sister, quite a proficient stitcher.

It was amazing how quiet it was with two small people stitching!

To finish off, here are a couple of interesting animal pictures.

Snakes on a plane … these are just a few of the 55 lizards discovered in the baggage of a man travelling to Cologne from Mexico City, along with 37 live venomous snakes, stuffed into shampoo bottles, plastic containers and balled-up socks. He claimed he had brought the animals back as a favour for a Brazilian friend, but customs officials were not convinced, and he was denied entry to Germany

Last week a black bear wandered through a library in Mammoth Lakes, California, US. The bear reportedly checked out the new releases, raided the snacks and helped itself to a jar of honey. A spokesperson from the education department said: “We can only assume the new Li-BEAR-ian was looking for a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, published 100 years ago today!”

That’s one of he things that can happen if you live near bears.

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone! 

Orson Welles and Leonardo DiCaprio. Having a “beach body”. Patti Smith winning prizes.

When Leonardo DiCaprio first appeared on the big screen Phil and I commented that he looked very much as though he could be the child of Orson Welles. Nothing in gossip columns or social media has suggested that there is any truth in such an idea.

Orson Welles

 Leonardo DiCaprio

    

Now according to this article Leonardo DiCaprio, now 51 years old, once a youthful heartthrob, has been photographed on the beach showing off his less than toned body and by all accounts does not seem too bothered about it. There are apparently more important things in life than spending hours in the gym to have a perfect body.

The media criticism of his “letting himself go” can be taken as proof that men (well, actors anyway) as well as women are expected to keep themselves in perfect condition or be mocked. But if Leonardo DiCaprio is having some weight problems it made me think again about Orson Welles. According one source, “Orson Welles struggled with his weight throughout his life, particularly in his later years when he became "perilously fat." 

There you go. It’s a hard life living in the public eye! 

As Harry and Meghan can tell us.

The singer Patti Smith has been awarded the Pricipessa de Asturias 2026 Award for Arts. 

“”Having become a cultural icon over the last five decades, Patti Smith’s career has, according to experts, transcended the limits of the strictly musical to become a multidisciplinary and iconoclastic communicator through different forms of artistic expression such as poetry, photography, performance and video installation. Endowed with extraordinary charisma, Smith has also linked her proposals to her commitment to different political and social causes and is considered an icon of activism and the fight for civil rights.”

Being the Prince or Princess of Asturias is pretty much the Spanish equivalent of being the Prince of Wales. It signifies that that person will become a ruling monarch eventually. Princess of Wales seems to be reserved to the wife of the Prince of Wales because we still have that rule of Male Preference Primogeniture. And so the late Queen Elizabeth was never Princess of Wales because her parents might have suddenly had a son who would have overtaken her in the race to be heir to the throne. As far as I know Spain also has the principle of Male Preference Primogeniture but Felipe and Letitia have two daughters and no sons so it’s all rather academic. 

The Prince or Princess of Austurias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain to individuals, entities or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs. They are presented every October in a ceremony at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias. Leaonard Cohen received the award years ago too. Patti Smith receives it for "her impetuous creativity that connects rock, symbolist poetry and the spirit of the counterculture with great expressive power". 

Good for her.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!