The Organ Grinder's Monkey

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What sort of society are we all going to end up living in?

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“Why do people think their 'supremacy' gives them the right of life and death over other creatures?”

A good question Foody.

Do you know, I've been lying awake at night thinking "God, please give us a Tory government so that they can urgently give people the right to chase animals around for a laugh before ripping them limb from limb, just for a jolly good bit of fun".

Well, my prayers have been heard!

How can a party who in certain other fields argue so strongly for the right to life, put as their priority the right to murder other creatures "for fun".

Would that be because human life is far more important than any other form of life?

In which case, anyone mind if I come and chase their cat or dog around for a bit with a baying pack of hounds before having ripped to shreds?

Step on a dog's foot and watch it yelp out in pain.

Oh, that’s ok then, the rights or wrongs of something are irrelevant if its a tradition.

How bloody stupid.

12 years in the wilderness, worst recession since the 30s, unemployment rising, businesses going under, for which our policy is "wait and see", but......

....... one thing we can promise we can do is make murdering foxes for fun legal again.

Is this their priority?

I really despair of this opposition party at times.

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Seen a few at a distance, but that's not quite the same as meeting them.

I can remember as a child being taken out in the car with my two brothers for a picnic. At one point a policeman stepped out, stopped us and told my father to pull over onto the grass verge.

The Queen's car was coming this way and the 'serfs' had to step to one side. However, it made dad's day, for as she passed, he waved and she waved back.

I have, I think, only met two Members of Parliament, but after all this expenses scandal, I don't think we could consider them to be 'famous'!

But I have met a Lord.

Does anyone remember Lord Carrington, the former Foreign Secretary?

Well, his home is not far from here at Bledlow and I met him and his wife there on one of these "Open Garden Schemes".

His wife, Lady Carrington was a very keen gardener but sadly to say I have just read that she has passed away aged 89.

It was in 1943 the Carringtons took over part of the Manor House, Bledlow, in Buckinghamshire, an almost derelict house on the family's estate, half of which was then occupied by a tenant and half by evacuees. (The village of Bledlow was later the setting for some of the episodes of the television series Midsomer Murders). They set about renovating the house, finally moving in in 1946.

Lady Carrington was especially fond of the garden which she and her husband created at Bledlow, where she was invariably deep in some gardening book or catalogue. In the late 1960s, during a period when Lord Carrington was Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, a fire, which started in an old barn, devastated part of the grounds, giving them an opportunity to design and redevelop a garden which eventually covered some 10 acres. Wooden bridges were constructed to span the ponds, which were fed by springs that in turn flowed into the river Lyde.

"My wife," Lord Carrington always said, "is the plantswoman," adding (in a reference to her encyclopedic knowledge of botanical names): "She doesn't really talk English, she talks Latin."

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Now I was sure I had this on one of many old LP's, but do you think I could find it?

I thought it was sung by a group called 'Peter, Paul and Mary', and then I thought it may have 'Nina and Frederik' ......

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You joke about repairing flutes, Deb.......how do you fancy a piccolo?

The question I have to ask myself is.....where do I start?

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Guess I'll just listen to dear old Pete Seeger whilst I decide.

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What the Butler saw when I was a lad.

I wonder...... what can it be? ....after 60 years, are there any naughty bits left that we haven't already seen?

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I wonder how long it will be before they extend this to include other pets like dogs?

And what about all those people who keep snails?......or frogs?

Lets finish with a smile.

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This first one is most likely to be of the type of bicycle in question.

So in simple terms....the lady in front had no idea of where she was going!

This little picture is not the best I'm afraid because it was enlarged from a cigarette card......but you get the idea.

It is just as well that there was not so much traffic about, as sitting out in front with no control of the steering or brakes, must have been a wee bit scary, to say the least!

If the lady was wearing a large-ish hat or bonnet, that would also block the view of the bloke doing the steering!

And now for a little humour to finish off.

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At the Marsworth Rally, Dennis was playing his home-built 26 note which you may not have noticed was named "Daisy Belle" after his mother, Daisy.

This is not quite the same spelling as in the song 'Daisy Bell'.

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The Eton Boating Song is probably the best loved of all English school songs and yet it is not the official one for Eton College. Their ‘official’ one is a rather solemn affair called The Carmen and not surprisingly is virtually unknown outside the college.

The Eton Boating Song is, however, known all over world both for the words and its stirring tune.

The song’s lyric was written by an Eton master called William Johnson (1823-92), who was born at Torrington in Devon. The poem was first published as “A Song for the Fourth of June” being the day of Eton’s of river celebrations.

At this time there was still no tune. This was composed much later by a former pupil of Johnson’s called Algy Drummond.

The earliest recorded printed edition of the song dates from 1878 .....so it has been popular for quite a few years.

I have to admit that 50 odd years ago....before all this PC rubbish came about, we at school were heard to sing alternative words in the chorus -

I found this a couple of days ago and I was astounded at the size of the figures.

Now I realise this is a bit out of date, but can it be much different today?

"According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled."

A chief executive at Technorati, said that at any given time there are 7 million to 10 million active blogs on the Internet, but “it’s probably between 50,000 and 100,000 blogs that are generating most of the page views.”

He added, “There’s a joke within the blogging community that most blogs have an audience of one.”

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I'm not quite sure if this young lady has just got back from a Ball, or is getting ready?

Looks fairly complicated to me, with quite a bit of 'iron mongery' attached.

No 'Hanky-Panky in those days!

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Is it the weather? I just feel so tired today.

So tired…

So tired..... you can’t lie flat enough ;

But sort o’ wish that you could spread

Out like molasses on a bed,

And just ....... drip off the edges!

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This is just the way I like a Sunday afternoon...a good rake around the 'bric-a-brac' stalls, a time to catch up on news with old friends......beer....chips!...(well just the smell of chips) ....traction engines and the sounds of our wonderful little organs.

This is the Marsworth Rally, in a lovely village, just south of Aylesbury.

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Sorry to get political, but this is what the government has done to our "Green and Pleasant Land".

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With apologies to J.M. Robertson

And a English Rose in Kipper's garden this morning.

"Norman.......................

.......................We've changed ends!"

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At last good news — after the threatened flu pandemic, credit crunch and global recession, this summer in Britain could be warm and dry. According to Met Office chief meteorologist Ewen McCallum, it is “odds-on for a barbecue summer, and we can expect times when temperatures will be above 30C. Last year we had only one day of that temperature.”

Well here we are in June and this morning my central heating 'pinged' on again....as it did yesterday and the day before.

This global warming is very worrying.

Now we all think of Australia as a place of hot beaches, surfing, lots of BBQ's etc.

But all is not what it seems.

I have just received theses two pics from a friend in Australia which were taken yesterday.

Believe it or not, the BBC (ie taxpayers) and the Arts Council of England (ie taxpayers) have forked out for a brand new national anthem for England.

Forget 'Land of Hope and Glory',

reject 'I Vow to Thee, My Country'

and set aside 'Jerusalem'.

For the BBC and the Arts Council have commissioned Sam Dunkley to compose

Thumbing through the drawers of  sheet music, I noticed that some of the most common words are things like 'Love', 'Heart', and  as mentioned earlier, 'Rose'.

So when I decided to do a bit about lightbulbs I wasn't sure what I would find.

Nothing on the lightbulbs, as you would expect, but dozens with the word 'Light'. 

So many that I thought I could carry on the lightbulb theme.

 

  

Local councils say the free distribution is part of an 'outrageous' attempt by the businesses to shirk their responsibility to install more meaningful energy saving measures in homes

Well they would..... wouldn't they.  Profits come first don't you know?

 

 

 

OK well we have five digits on each hand and I expect there are some five pronged starfish ......but not many.

Nature seems to prefer ...fours, eights and sixteens.

Now how about fifteen?  The only things to come in fifteens are eggs from ASDA.

I went into our Post Office yesterday (closure threat lifted) and asked for a book of ten second class stamps.

"Sorry, they don't do a 'ten' " she said, "They come in dozens".

How nice to hear 'dozens' I thought.

Now you ask......why some sheet music with a clock face on it?

Well, the other day I came on this bit about "Metric Time".

God, will the eu leave nothing alone? 

Then I found out the year was 1792.