November colours

A short walk at the weekend along a local canal and 2 pictures:

Love the way the heron and the houses in the background go together so beautifully, and one of those heron legs is actually something in the street behind. This photo was taken < 5 minutes from the local railway station.

Mutterings - Sept 18

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Medical :: Procedure
2. Half :: Better
3. Purpose :: Defined
4. Committed :: Relationship
5. Month :: November!
6. Focal :: Length
7. Coconut :: Shy
8. Confusion :: Embarrassment
9. Separation :: Divorce
10. Officer :: Gentleman

Defying International law

A letter I've sent to our MP (David Rutley) on the subject of the UK government proposing to discard bits of the Brexit withdrawal agreement Johnson/Cummings are not keen on:

I'm writing to you to express my dismay that the government is proposing to break international law in 'a very specific and limited way' - whatever that means! - over the Brexit agreement.

If I were to break the law even in a very specific and limited way, I'd expect to find myself in trouble with the police. I realise that our prime minister has trouble with honesty and integrity (and especially via his unaccountable and unsackable 'advisor' Dominic Cummings) but I would hope that you have higher standards and will argue against this breaking of the law and if it is brought to the commons will vote against it.

If we do this - despite Johnson claiming his deal was 'oven ready' and all conservative candidates signing up to it at the 2019 election - to discard the inconvenient bits sends a message to our international partners that it is not worth agreeing trade treaties with us which can be thrown away on a ministerial whim. You are also all breaking your word to the electorate as well as ignoring the very recent manifesto.

If we do this how can we possibly criticise the government of China for not sticking to the Hong Kong agreement?

a paragraph of more personal information elided!

feel free to borrow bits of this!

Mutterings - Sept 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Jealous :: Dog (kd lang )
2. Lucky :: Strike
3. Road :: Journey
4. Pushing :: 50 (or some random age!)
5. Joint :: Pain (see above)
6. Knocking :: Door (heaven's)
7. Confused :: Drinking
8. Happening :: 60s
9. Stellar :: Reputation
10. Jump :: Shift (oh is that a bridge link - I thought it must be SF)

By the canal

I've been walking most days during lockdown and the following restrictions, there's old railways lines - now footpaths - and a canal very close to home. Today a heron was gently swimming on the canal watching passers by closely but not being alarmed!

And one from a few weeks ago:

Mutterings - Aug 31

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Broken :: Glass (maybe spectre but that's a mis-spelling!)
2. Sabotage :: Criminal
3. Pass :: Card
4. Corn :: Sweet
5. Strangle :: Lock
6. Books :: Shelves
7. Relief :: Exhale
8. Mountain :: Path
9. Tomato :: Trellis
10. Tablet :: Android

..catching up (again!)

Mutterings - Aug 18

This week's free word associations from Unconscious Mutterings are:

1. Alexander :: Graham Bell
2. Driver :: Device (geeky!)
3. Suck :: Blow
4. Approach :: Landing
5. Votes :: Up
6. Mister :: Sir
7. Low key :: Withdrawn
8. Cameras :: Press
9. Stint :: Arduous
10. Carpenter :: Plane

Mutterings - June 11

This week's free word associations from Unconscious Mutterings are:

1. Dish :: Spoon (nursery rhymes..)
2. Crunch :: Bang
3. Fire :: Sack
4. Alaska :: Pipeline
5. Heights :: Balance
6. Force :: Luke
7. Birthday :: Cake
8. Sauce :: Gander
9. Gift :: Wrap
10. Winner :: Raffle

Mutterings - May 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious Mutterings are:

1. Baby :: Computer
2. Quarantine :: Lockdown
3. Self :: Care
4. Backpack :: Heavy
5. Digital :: Computer
6. App :: Jit.Si
7. Home :: Page
8. Show :: Boat
9. Cereal :: Bowl
10. Contract :: Bridge

Mutterings - 26 Apr

This week's free word associations from Unconscious Mutterings are:

1. Vanity :: Fair
2. Healthy :: Lifestyle
3. Tooth :: Ache
4. Mug :: Coffee
5. Reach :: Out of..
6. Parenting :: Care
7. School :: Days
8. Whine :: Lunch (I get plenty of feline whines around their lunchtime)
9. Hotel :: de France
10. Nose :: Shostakovich (an opera!)

Mutterings - Apr 18

This week's free word associations from Unconscious Mutterings are:

1. Triangle :: Isosceles
2. Shining :: Tor (see Alan Garner Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and not too far from here!)
3. Bunny :: Boiling (I've never seen the film)
4. To do :: List
5. Stuffy :: Room
6. Shake :: Rattle (and Roll)
7. Mug :: Tree
8. Julia :: Thomas (knew long ago!)
9. Hobbit :: Frodo
10. Hope :: Tunnel (at the end of!)

Mutterings - Apr 12

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Ball :: Bouncing
2. Simplified :: Notation
3. Wash :: Rinse
4. Relative :: Safety
5. Calls :: Home
6. Lotion :: Suntan
7. Compassion :: Generous
8. Swipe :: Left (or is it right?!)
9. Burning :: Bush
10. Safe :: Deposit

Mutterings - Apr 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Baby :: Steps
2. Telework :: Remote
3. Sleeve :: Record
4. Corner :: Shop
5. Ordered :: List
6. Grasp :: Wrist
7. Plastic :: Model
8. Slide ::
9. Communicate :: Face
10. Pant :: Short

Mutterings - March 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Good man :: Saint
2. Static :: Electricity (or Variable!)
3. Anxiety :: High
4. Watched :: Variable (again - a debugger keeping watch on the value of a program variable)
5. Heart :: Aorta
6. First day :: Rest (of your life)
7. Certain :: Love
8. Forever :: Ring (Tolkien or Wedding?)
9. Impressed :: Ironed
10. Nervous :: Twitch

Mutterings - March 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Wash :: Hands!
2. Finish :: Smooth
3. Veneer :: Respectability
4. Symptom :: Cure
5. March :: Scaffold (Berlioz!)
6. Correction :: Facility (such a nice euphemism)
7. Link :: Pointer (softwarey!)
8. Chapped :: Hands
9. Control :: Freak
10. Licked :: (into) Shape

Mutterings - 8 Mar

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Decent :: Wholesome
2. Hypnotize :: Watch
3. Whirr :: Clock(!)
4. Baby :: Bird - the cats are getting ready!
5. Solid :: Space (not sure what's going on here!)
6. Take :: Heart
7. Discreet :: Email
8. Symbol :: Wagner's Ring
9. Orange :: Peel
10. Informational :: Sign

Rendering

I had space on the train up from London this week - and needed the relaxation to create this terragen render:

Not much apart from the lighting but it went well with my mood!

Mutterings - Feb 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Welcome :: Mat
2. Importance :: Of No - I think I was thinking of this play which I've never seen.
3. Painless :: Procedure (but usually not!)
4. Scramble :: Bike
5. Election :: Rigged
6. Message :: Telephone
7. Providing :: Comfort
8. Evidence :: Preserved
9. Talking :: Book
10. February :: Snow

Mutterings - Feb 18

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flu :: Jab
2. Betrayal :: (of) Trust
3. Frustration :: Crying
4. 7:30 :: Alarm (but I'm usually up before this!)
5. Backward :: Looking
6. Vision :: Clouded
7. Freezing :: Fog
8. List :: (to) Starboard
9. Need :: Emotional
10. Cougar :: Claws

Teaser Tuesday - 13 Feb

Well a bit late but lets try to bring this back!
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Mrs Ellis had spotted them: Tom and Gabiella. She'd been a witness, one of the last people to have seen my sister.

From our BATS (book group) book of the month - `The Missing Girl' Jenny Quintana - we're currently working our way through the Author alphabet and this month is (surprise!) Q. I think this is heading to be traumatic if it isn't there already!

I see Teaser Tuesday is now hosted here if you wish to go and thank Ambrosia or get other ideas.

Mutterings - Feb 13

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Burn out :: Emotional
2. Swallow :: Summer
3. Tiger :: [came to ] tea
4. Cough :: Audience
5. Notes :: Postit!
6. Balloon :: popup
7. Signal :: catch (an IT computer language connection!)
8. Cast :: Line (fish rather than chorus)
9. Push :: Over
10. Shiver :: Fear

Mutterings - Jan 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Constant :: Gardener
2. Tragic :: Muse
3. Cougar :: JLR (Jaguar Landrover)
4. Inspect :: Clouseau
5. Stale :: Bread
6. Verbal :: Abuse
7. Annoying :: Tic
8. Pace :: Even
9. Friendship :: Lasting
10. Jade :: Green

A few weeks missing and I will attempt to beat more life into this blog with different posts!

Mutterings - Jan 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Pathetic :: Symphony (but better as pathétique!)
2. Snapshot :: System
3. Start :: Menu (oh dear this is getting very geeky!)
4. Combine :: Harvester
5. Assertive :: Manner
6. Think :: Storm (maybe via brain)
7. Storm :: (don't think I saw this line, see above) Mental. But I was tempted by some half remembered lines from Cocteau's La Machine Infernale - I see Cocteau associated himself into the last one too!
8. Humor :: Sense (of)
9. Regain :: Ground
10. Resolve :: Firm