All Creatures Great and Small

image Jeff Moore for Daily Mail

I do love all creatures, yes I eat meat but I'm very particular about where it comes from and how the animals and birds have been treated and raised before they arrive on my plate. I do have friends that are vegetarian and I respect their attitude to meat. I myself believe that everything on the planet eats every other living thing on the planet, and that includes living plants. I feel it is the natural order of things. I know there are others who would disagree with me and I'm totally cool with that.

What I can't abide is cruelty to any animal or bird. It's never ok and it's never necessary.

So I was pleased to read that finally a gamekeeper has been given a custodial sentence for killing a bird of prey. Actually he trapped it and then battered it to death. You could be forgiven for thinking it is not illegal to kill raptors in this country, it happens so frequently. But it is against the law.

The Scottish man in question is the 28th gamekeeper to be convicted of wildlife crime in the last 3 years, but the first to receive a custodial sentence.

The big surprise during the trial, and it is to be applauded, is the Sheriff's ruling that covert video footage taken by the Scottish RSPB, was admissible evidence.

The list of birds, trapped, poisoned and shot is huge and includes Buzzards, Red Kites, Barn Owls, Tawny Owls, Peregrines, Hen Harriers, White Tailed Sea Eagles, Golden Eagles and Goshawks.


John over at his blog wrote a piece a couple of days ago about Badgers being persecuted, and the dogs that are injured too during this barbaric activity. You can read his post here.


Finally I would like to ask you to consider signing a petition to stop another illegal activity that is cruel beyond words. That is the trade in dog meat. Please take a look here and see what is going on and how we might put an end to it.

New Rooms for Old

I've had a bit of a shifty around today and I'm feeling mighty pleased with the new arrangements. The 'let's move a whole lot of stuff around seed' was sown on Saturday. The Mister was up t'big smoke with some chums overnight guzzling beer and eating greasy food, celebrating a birthday. I took myself off early doors to a jumble sale with my good friend prof, who I didn't know until Saturday is actually happy to frequent such lowly places. Anyhow we didn't find much but we had a nice brekkie together and popped over to her local high street, which has some lovely shops and quite a few chazzas too. In one of the antique shops I saw a beautifully upholstered chair, priced at £395. I was totally smitten with it and thought how nice it would look in our kitchen. But as we have two sofas in there already one would have to go to fit it in. I pondered this for a while. And then a light bulb moment. Ping. I didn't need to buy a new chair because I already had a beauty in our bedroom that has probably never had a bottom parked on it. I could move that downstairs and it would be perfect. And it is.

I had thought to put our small leather sofa on ebay but then I remembered a good friend had said her son was looking for some furniture for a new flat. He came and picked it up this morning.

He's super pleased, we've got some money in the coffers, more space and the chair is perfect under the standard lamp for reading and knitting.

Needless to say because I moved the armchair out of our bedroom I've moved a lot of things around in there too. It's all looking fresh and different and not a penny spent.

Goodbye to Anita Ekberg

As so often seems the case with glamorous film stars from the golden age of Hollywood, Anita had a sad, lonely and poor old age.

A tremendous fall from grace and a tremendous shame.

She died today aged 83.

She will of course always be remembered for the iconic Trevi Fountain scene in Fellini's 1960 film, La Dolce Vita.

Fantastico.

A welcome also today for my latest Google Friend Connect follower Coco Jayne, who blogs here.

A Smile to Beat The January Blues

Photo by Snowdon

I read a very funny letter a while ago now in the Mister's 'This Week' magazine. Concerning the use, back in the day, of the old noble fax machine.

The letter recounted the tale of an incident at Stirling University which happened many years ago during a visit by Princess Margaret. She was due to speak, but confessed to having forgotten her speech. A professor said to her "fax it up", and Princess Margaret, quick as a flash, responded with, "it does rather."

Another rib tickler was provided this week by Libby who comes to my weekly knit and natter group. She's 80 this year, and was complaining that when she visited her daughter's house over Christmas, she felt very cold.

I helpfully suggested (because I'm like that), wearing a good pair of bloomers may have kept her warm. "Oh those things" she said, "when I was young we called them Harvest Gatherers, as they kept everything safely in".

Did I Say..................

I'm learning Italian. Back to night school Monday 12th. I've just written out the lyrics and translation to this mighty song. Domenico Modugno singing Volare, on the Ed Sullivan show 1958.

Elvis at The O2

I spotted details of this exhibition a while ago now, but haven't heard much about it in the meantime. I thought I would do a small post about it here, in case you lovely blogging chums have missed it on your radar.

Graceland is on my 'must see' list, the only problem being, I'd like to go without all the crowds, which let's face it is unlikely to happen. I will get there one day. Although it looks like they're now building an enormous hotel "just steps away" from the house, so I suspect I will have to break in, Ninja style, to see it without being crushed. Unless of course I can become besties with Lisa Marie, who is rumoured to have a house about 20 minutes drive from me. Now there's a thought.

image New York Post

This O2 event is billed as the largest retrospective ever mounted in Europe, with over 300 artefacts from the Presley family's Graceland archive. A visit should tide me over until I can get to see the real thing, who knows, it might even be better than the real thing, if I pick a quiet time to go.

A warm welcome to my newest Google Friend Connect follower Lisa Hills. Thank you for taking the time to press the follow button, it's nice to know who I'm 'broadcasting' to.

Saving and Spending

So the best bit for me over the Christmas period was spending time with our son. Back home from Uni' for a few days. He wasn't with us on Christmas day, so the day itself lacked sparkle for me. But next Christmas will be organised early doors, so I have all my family with me, for a change. Even my lovely brother who hasn't spent a Christmas day with me for about 40 years has already been invited.

Mind you, the Mister and I are planning a bit of an adventure in 2015, and so may well be living in Italy by December. We shall have to wait and see what fate has in store for us.

As usual we mainly bought presents for the children in the family, and a few other folk. Small gifts between us and of course some hard cash for 'the student' in the family.

I did get one fabulous 'big' present from the Mister. Which we went out to buy last Friday, just in case the store had January reductions. It didn't :(

As you know dear reader I've been experiencing a bit of a Scandi crush of late and these Danish, Ilse Jacobsen rain boots (all right, wellies), fit the bill. I'm super pleased with them.

Last of our Winter veg, harvested today.

We popped to Tunbridge Wells to buy the boots, which is our nearest big town and luckily for me, is home to the only Ilse Jacobsen store in the Uk.

One of my knitty group friends, Libby, also tipped me off that the big department store in T Wells had a brilliant bedlinen sale on. We took a peek, of course. So glad we did.

We bought this gorgeous Sanderson king size duvet set for our bed, reduced from £150 to £15. That's the sort of discount that keeps me smiling for a day.

Now we shouldn't need to be buying anything other than necessities for quite some time. Back to watching the pennies and making our money and resources stretch.

With that in mind I'm really keen to cut our food bill this year, without compromising on quality and taste. I think growing more vegetables and eating more meatless meals will be a good start, coupled with no food waste.

Tonight I will be using some home grown chillies which I froze at the end of October to pep up a home made chicken Jalfrezi. Just the ticket in this bitter weather, my mouth is watering already.