2021 January – Happy 12,021!, Rose Manure, Hot Dog, Anyone for Tennis, Don’t Ask – Seriously, Ssschnowy

Happy 12,021 !

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love..…

Marcus Aurelius

 

Well Marcus, that’s all well and good but Mum is being her usual awkward self and has decided to support Cesare Emiliani in his proposed calendar for the Holocene by declaring that it is actually 12021 this year.

This is me giving Mum one of my ‘what are you on about now’ looks.

The view is that perhaps humanity should choose a new ‘ground zero’ for the calendar which encompasses all humankind and all cultures and maybe base it on when the first large scale human construction project took place.  Which was in Anatolia about 10,000 years ago, it appears.

Having such a calendar would probably drastically alter the perception of what humans think and how they feel about human history.

Which Mum thinks might not be a bad thing.

But that’s typical her really.

This is all very interesting but does it mean there will be more chicken?  If it does then count me in.   It also means that I must be very old and wise since I was born in 2013.   And Mum is positively ancient.

Perhaps I could sell her on ebay, old stuff seems to fetch quite a lot.

Just saying.

 

Rose Manure

This is a picture of me in the fields.  It was very nearly hot today.

As you can see there are a lot of horse hoof prints in the mud.  This also means there is horse poo along the way.  I managed to eat quite a lot of it before Mum noticed.   She seemed quite unimpressed.

Apparently horse poo is good for roses but someone needs to tell the horses that because there are no roses here as far as I can tell.  Basically the horses are wasting their time walking along this path.

I have a horrible feeling that the next time we are out here Mum will try to collect it or something weird.  I hope she doesn’t – she is embarrassing at the best of times.    Mum has said that she has her hands full with me and adding horse poo to the equation isn’t really high on her list of priorities.

I made up for the horse poo eating incident by barking very loudly at a cyclist as we were getting back into the car. Mum gave me a sharp look – at least she thought she did.

I ignored her because I can.

 

Hot Dog

This is a picture of Kobe – he looks after offspring #2 and her boyfriend.

 

I would say he has his work cut out but I am actually a little bit miffed. He hasn’t been with them as long as I have been with Mum and he seems to have got them better trained already.

He has his own special heater.

I don’t.

I may need to consider relocating.

 

Anyone for Tennis

This is a picture of me with some of my tennis balls.  I have more than this.

 

I do like a tennis ball. All mine are yellow.

Fun Facts: In the past tennis balls were either black or white, depending on the colour of the courts.   Yellow tennis balls were introduced in 1972 because it was easier for viewers to follow tennis matches on TV.  Wimbledon only adopted yellow tennis balls in 1986.   But they didn’t start awarding female tennis players equal prize money until 2007, although they did let them play with the yellow tennis balls.   So not all bad really.

 

Don’t ask…..seriously

This is a picture of me with Paul the Christmas Octopus.

 

I warned you not to ask.

Paul was a gift to Mum from offspring # 4.  They have clearly inherited some rogue genes.

Paul doesn’t say much and it is doubtful if he could do anything useful such as pick winning football teams like some other octopuses (english) / octopodes (greek) / octopi (latin) do.

(Feel free to take your pick of plurals).

 

Ssschnowy….

This is me in the snow.

 

Fun Facts about snow:

Snow flakes always have 6 sides because water molecules can only fit together in a certain way that produces a six sided ice crystal.

Snow is a naturally occuring solid so (bizarrely) it can be classified as a mineral.

The most snow ever recorded from a single storm was in the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl, N California which received 189 inches / 16 feet of snow (yup) in a 5 day storm in 1959.

It is a myth that no 2 snowflakes are alike.  In 1988 a scientist at the National Center for Atmosphere Research in Colorado, found two identical snowflakes that came from a storm out of Wisconsin.

Was it an accidental find do you suppose, or have they spent their entire scientific career trying to test that theory?

I hope for their sake (and sanity) it is the former……

 

 

Saffron’s recommendations this month:

Music: I’m opting for a bit of Steve Winwood.  (My go-to album, Back in the High Life).  Try these tracks out…

Higher Love

Back in the High Life

The Finer Things

Valerie

While you See a Chance

Freedom Overspill

 

 

Reading:  Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli, published by Penguin

A short book, elegant, readable and conveys the top line of scientific theory.  Bite sized but big ideas. Concise and comprehensible.

 

Film:   Kingsman: The Golden Circle with Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, released in 2017.

‘Manners maketh man’

Originally a Marvel Comics release, this is a full on, fun, spy movie.  This is the second in the series with a cast including Elton John, Pedro Pascal, Channing Tatum, Sofia Boutella (just incredible),  Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges  …….. need any more encouragement to watch this? 

I don’t think so.