Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings personal post:

When I first took up blogging seven years ago this year, everything was new. Blogs were new. When I mentioned the idea of blogging to family and friends, there was not one person that knew what I was talking about. “What is a blog?” They all asked. To explain that it was online space that could be either private or public where your interests could be published for either a small group of people or the world to read or look at and maybe comment on was so new, it was alien.

I have a wide variety of interests and could have created umpteen blogs to cover everyone of them individually. If I had chosen to take this route, I may have created a monster rather than a pleasure because even a small amount of blogging is time consuming. It is something, as a hobby that you have to love doing. I am not a paid blogger, I simply write my blog for the sheer joy of it.

I decided upon the name of ‘Random Ramblings’ for my blog because it opens the door for me to write about anything and everything. It also means that I can ramble on about any of my interests, which encompass almost everything. I can add unusual facts about anything whenever I come across them or when they are winkled out of my mind.

Of blogging, I will say – it is a most enjoyable hobby that can now be done almost anywhere not just in front of a computer and sat at a desk. I am so grateful to Google, not only in them creating Blogger but giving it to us all for free. Blogger blogs stand alone, which means that they can be used for any activity. Ticking a box instantly uploads them onto the Google Search Engine. Added to this they now have the option of having single stand alone pages with tabs so they may be also used as professional business sites.

Check out the various Random Ramblings links you can follow or join me here too:

• Random Ramblings …… Polly Dot Google + Page: Google+
• Random Ramblings …… Kloggers Twitter feed:    Twitter
• Random Ramblings …… YouTube page:                YouTube
• Random Ramblings …… Kloggers Photobucket:    Photobucket

 

Random Ramblings back-link and badge:

<a href="http://kloggers-randomramblings.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3123/3188155245_dd80a6319a_o.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>

 

Additional notes:

To have your own interesting hobby/to start your own website/to create your own blog/to write a story/to keep an online diary/to begin your own family photograph album sharing pictures and information: why not become a blogger? Start your own blog? The excitement all begins with just one click of a button!

Start your blog here: Click and begin a dream

•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

Bogglebo/Boggleboes

Several hundred years ago people without means had little option other than to beg for food, shelter, clothing and aid. There was no benefit system in place and the poor, hungry and needy had to rely on the generosity of others to survive. This was a time when women were lawfully beaten, sold, kicked and pushed around. Those who were widowed or had children out of wedlock were in an even more perilous position. If they were not taken in by relatives or kindly neighbours then they were spurned and many were left to wander from place to place as their stomachs and sometimes those of their children became emptier and emptier until often they felt as though they wanted to vomit for lack of nourishment.

Women often were so bedraggled that they wore nothing but rags and were regularly mistaken and feared as they resembled boggleboes or old and bent witches. If these poor bedraggled creatures asked for help they were often refused and could do nothing but mutter as they went on their way. It was often claimed that these mutterings were in fact curses and any old crone was pointed out as a witch. It was claimed that boggleboes were so close to the devil that every curse they made would come true.

 

 

Bogglebo/Boggleboes

“A penny, a crust if you please for a hungry soul?”

Even to this day, it is believed that they may come near and ask for a penny or a crust of bread. If a person offers the penny or a portion of loaf they will simply disappear often to be replaced with a cat or other type of familiar. If the bogglebo is refused her request then – watch out – for she may choose to haunt for a very long time and she especially blows a very icy draught!

The Wars of the Roses

It was Sir Walter Scott who first used the term 'Wars of the Roses' as an explanation of the bloody skirmishes, plotting, violence, revenge and lastly murderous war that took place between the two houses of York and Lancaster.

Whenever they are mentioned in films or on television programmes it appears that everyone makes the assumption that it was a war between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Even to this day, the white rose is used to represent Yorkshire and the red rose, Lancashire. The actual event however not only took place over many years but was between two households and their supporters: The House of York and The House of Lancaster. The recordings of disagreements began before 1400 but the first major battle happened in 1455. The then Duke of York owned land and estates throughout South Wales and along the Welsh border but his most passionate and committed supporters were from the Midlands area. The Duke of Lancaster owned land in North Wales and swathes of land and estates in parts of Cheshire and Gloucestershire.

The bad blood boiled over when Richard II a York Plantagenet was overthrown by one Henry of Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster who was also a Plantagenet. He was crowned Henry IV in 1399. The two households plotted and raged between themselves and the crown bounced from one side to the other many times until it landed upon the head of Richard III who was a King of the House of York. Richard went into battle to fight alongside his men to protect the crown but he lost both his head and the crown on the battlefield as it was taken from him by Henry and his supporters from the House of Lancaster. Henry was duly crowned Henry VII but he had a plan to keep the crown by beginning a new house and by using his wile. He had a new design to depict both York and Lancaster and he commissioned it to be both white and red, it would be known as ‘The Tudor Rose’ and it would represent the symbol of a ‘United Kingdom.’ The Royal family would merge and become ‘The Tudors.’

 Wars of the Roses animated gif

Men from all backgrounds fought in these battles and 3% of all the males in the land died during this bloody conflict

Crucifixion Thorn, Crucifix Thorn, Anchor Plant, Colletia Paradoxa

A few years ago whilst holidaying in Ireland I came across a most unusual plant. It had juicy leaves like a succulent. It was furnished with spines like a cactus. It was shaped in some places like thick vicious thorns in other areas it appeared to resemble a ship’s anchor. It was both soft and yet firm to the touch almost like a thick animal skin.

I later learnt that there are several types within the family or genus of Collectia. They all originate from South America and each variety has small white flowers when in bloom.

 

The beautiful Crucifix Plant also known as the Crucifixion Plant or the Anchor Plant, which originates from South America and is part of the genus Collectia – they produce tiny white bell shaped flowers. This plant helps to enrich nitrogen in the soil where it grows.

Achieving tranquillity

Wherever a person may reside in the world, the one way to achieve everything of value in life, is to know tranquillity. True tranquillity comes from within. It is part of the soul.

The easiest way that an ordinary person can acquire tranquillity is to understand what makes them feel safe, contented and free. The best way I have found for this, which is surely the most valuable of jewels that a person can ever posses is to find a lovely little garden nook where I can sit and let the world go by. A place where you can hear a trickle of water, a wealth of bird song, scurry of little mammals, the hum and soft swirls of the insects, the sweet and gentle perfume of the flowers and herbs, the tickle of the breeze as it gently caresses your skin. A treasured small space of land where you are in a sense at one with everything. This is the place that heals your very core. It is what some call ‘The Holy Grail’ and it will serve you like the ‘fountain of youth.’

So, think what you most like. Which plants and flowers lift your spirit? What sculptures are enjoyable to look at? Treat yourself to the greatest diamond the Earth can produce a place where you can feel safe. A place to relax. A place to feel the love of life itself gently wrap around you. Find somewhere, either in your garden, back yard or not too far away for you to just enjoy breathing in and breathing out. We are after all living in Paradise!

 

A few examples and aspects of gardens that ooze tranquillity above

The most essential and important thing to always remember is that your own ‘tranquillity garden or space’ must be a little bit of land that is what you find to be your own precious jewel and where you most feel at peace with the world.

Investment of flowers

I have decided to infuse the garden with many more flowers this year for two separate reasons. Firstly, I thought it would be lovely to see (hopefully) many more flowers than there have been in previous years. Secondly, I am hoping that new flowers will attract many more insects some of which could, if I’m lucky, be butterflies.

So far the flowers that I have chosen in my quest for improving the garden are: The Peace Poppy which are otherwise called Papaver Rheas Bridal White – this was a fairly common wild white poppy hundreds of years ago that is also the White Flanders Poppy and is recognised as a tribute to peace. Sadly, I can honestly declare that I have never seen one of these beautiful poppies either growing wild or even in a garden, nor is there another person I know who has witnessed the site of these pure symbols of joy growing where they belong. If I am successful then maybe a few will spread out away from my garden on the breeze to live in the open countryside once more. It would be certainly tempting to sprinkle a few seeds when I visit a new area of Worcestershire. (Perhaps we should all be tempted to grow a new wild flower each year in our gardens to help to re-introduce some of the old favourites that have been lost over time through previous generations carelessness.)

Amongst the flowers I am hoping will germinate is a biennial (these are planted one year to flower the following year – some, when a gardener is truly blessed even last a full five years before they die), a short stocky soft furry leafed foxglove called ‘Foxglove Silver Cub.’ To my new collection of plants to trial growing I have some seeds for Purple Creeping Thyme, Common Thyme, Bergamot, Ladybird Poppies Papaver Commutatum, Caucasian Scarlet Poppy, Peony Poppies Papaveer Paeoniflorum Huge Doubles Mixed Colours, and lastly some wild strawberries. This mix of varieties is to hopefully encourage more bees to visit daily. All I have to do now when the year warms up a little is to plant them and keep my fingers crossed that a small percentage of them will grow and form a lovely show of blooms. (They are all scatter seeds so need now expertise to grow – they just require planting after a shower of rain.) Always remember that anyone can grow poppies and foxgloves and they are the two flowers that enhance any little plot of land.

The wild Flanders Field poppies red associated with remembrance of the fallen and white for the peace that has been so bravely fought for. It is important to grow both of these and appreciate what they stand for.

 

Bereft of birds

When I was a little girl, my father would take me on long walks down winding country lanes. Every so often he would stop and point to a tree and show me a bird and tell me its name. I would ask him how he knew that the tiny bird was there on the tree? He would simply say “I heard it singing!” I was both enthralled and captivated – it was like a magic trick – to hear a bird, know which branch of what tree it perched upon and to be able to name it too all from its burst of song. My father taught me to love all creatures, to watch them and treasure them and to know that it is a gift to both hear them and see them.

It is now January of a new year but this year we are bereft of birds. Gone are the vast numbers of sparrows and starlings. Gone are the garden visitors the cheeky finches and the sweet tits. Every garden should have its own blackbird and robin, these are both territorial birds and they are noisy in their declarations of which gardens they have chosen to be their homes. Where has our blackbird and robin gone? Not a sign of either bird in this dawn of a new year can be seen.

We have one or two crows, an odd magpie, wood pigeon and ring neck dove. All of these are considered to be large birds. It is worrying to consider that none of the small and medium birds appear to be around. The fat balls hang like remnants from a bygone time in a museum. Even the squirrels have left the nuts alone and the bird seeds have begun to sprout!

Our Carrion Crow - Corvus corone (note the crows in our area often have a little bit of white on their tail or wing feathers) .. you may just about be able to see the lighter spot on this one’s tail feathers.

Happy New Year!

╔═════════ ೋღ❤ღೋ ══════════╗
║ Happy New Year–may 2014 be Healthy & Merry║
╚═════════ ೋღ❤ღೋ ══════════╝

 

Happy New Year animated gif

Swaddling bee; baby bee; bee abortion

Until we decided to become bee keepers and invest in a garden beehive, the only contact I had had with bees was purely observation from a distance.

Insects are the most successful of all life forms. Insects of all types, have been on the Earth much longer than most other life forms. They have changed little over the years and they are immeasurably successful because they always place the entire group as a priority over their own life and wellbeing. When living in a group or colony they reside in some type of nest and they have one purpose and that is to breed.

Since having the beehive, I have been privileged to experience the wonderful richness of the life of the honey bee. Many of the things that I have seen in this secret world of bees I have found to be both intoxicating and magical.

During the Autumn, a worker bee (the nurse bees are the younger worker bees that are not let out of the hive – the female bees just after hatching are referred to as the nurse bees) flew just in front of me. She was carrying a package with her front four legs. She gently laid the package down on the path, then proceeded to slowly turn the little bundle left and then right. She did this a few times, then with one of her front legs she softly poked it. She turned it over then back. Eventually she flew away and left the little bundle on the path. Curiously I went over to it and found that it was a swaddling bee – a bee that had been pulled out of the brood chamber – probably it had died in the cell. I picked it up on a sheet of paper so that I wouldn’t damage it and checked it over under a microscope. It appeared to have no wings. I was amazed by the tenderness of the worker bee and the way that she appeared to double-check for signs of life or to see whether a mistake had been made but she had to eventually give in.

Life is both beautiful and cruel.

Swaddling bee (the baby bee formed in the brood chamber)

Close-up of swaddling bee baby

Swaddling bee – under side

Swaddling bee – close-up of leg

The first picture that I took of a swaddling bee within a couple of minutes from being abandoned

The head of a swaddling bee

Close-up of the swaddling bee flesh

Detail of the skin and hair forming on the swaddling bee

The swaddling bee – aborted from the brood chamber and carried some distance away by a worker or nurse bee

O’er the hills and far away ….

Tom, he was a piper’s son -
  he used to play when he was young;
the only tune that he could play -
  was “O’er the hills and far away.”      

*O’er the hills and a great way off             (*over)
  the wind shall blow my *top knot off.     (*bonnet)

Tom with his pipe made such a noise -
  that he pleased both the girls and boys.
They all stopped to hear him play -
  “O’er the hills and far away.”

O’er the hills and a great way off
  the wind shall blow my *top knot off.

O’er the hills and o’er the dales,
  through England to the coast of Wales;
We’ll follow the tune as we march today
  o’er the hills and far away.

O’er the hills and a great way off
  the wind shall blow my *top knot off.

Note: This is an old English nursery rhyme – Author unknown. There are several versions that are all sung to the same tune which originates from the early 1700’s.

 

 

The above music sheet and further information is available from Flutetunes.com which offers free flute sheet music.

My father taught himself to play the penny whistle when he was a young boy. As he grew older he also learnt how to play the mouth organ, concertina and piano. He was self taught and could play by ear which was a very magical experience for me.

This particular rhyme was one that I learnt to recite and also sing when I was very young. When I was eventually taught to read, I remember being very surprised and quite saddened that the rhyme didn’t, in fact, begin with: “Tommy was a piper’s son.” Perhaps Tommy had decided to leave and go ‘Over the hills and far away!’

Christmas animated gifs

Happy Christmas Everyone may the joy of the season bring health, happiness, joy, pleasure, understanding, tolerance and love to us all.

Here are some Christmas animated gifs to brighten up your days and nights ..

     

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

May peace and contentment fill your heart and love be the food of your soul

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Citric scald syndrome

Over the last few years we have been advised that there is nothing more essential to our health than five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Fruit and vegetable consumption has increased because of this statement and yet in many instances good health has started to crumble. The problem may well be simple. We are all individual with different needs. Some people adapt well to consuming raw fruit and vegetables whilst others stutter and somehow always feel below par.

I have always struggled with salads and so simply stopped eating them. After all, I ate cooked vegetables and raw fruits so that was surely all right.

Fruit is a peculiar food item. It requires separate enzymes to digest it. The body often has difficulties making a good job of this process and the result is a mixture (depending on the fruit) of indigestion, bloating, wind, burping, acid reflux or other uncomfortable reactions that occur usually an hour-and-a-half or more after consumption.

Oranges, lemons, grapefruit and limes or variations of citric fruits cause a separate issue. After consumption of foods containing citric acid some people experience a scalding or burning sensation of the soft tissues. This may be in the tissues of the nose lining, the throat, oesophagus, stomach, intestines, bladder, urethra and anus. It is more common when people have ingested a citrus fruit or drink over a period of two or more days. This is citric scald syndrome, it appears to be harmless but extremely uncomfortable to the person experiencing it. It heals when citrus fruit has been excluded from the diet for a few days. It does however return when these delicious fruits are resumed in the daily diet requiring a person to eat these particular fruits with caution.

 

Citric fruits causing Citric Scald Syndrome

Pet garden statue

Years ago the only statues available for the average family garden were gnomes. The name given to the little pixies that are said to protect the area of land where you plant and toil with love and joy, your garden, is gnome. GNOME means ‘guarding naturally over Mother Earth.’ Although no garden is really safe without their own special gnome it is also nice to have a few other garden statues to add your own special character to the little plot of soil where you spend so much time making it look so beautiful.

I have a couple of gnomes – nothing special but they watch over my work. Suddenly I felt it would be lovely to introduce a new statue. As yet that very special statue has not been found but whilst I’ve been looking I found what is often called a garden pet statue and I thought it looked so realistic that it would be a lovely small addition to the flower border. So here is a picture of it the ‘pet garden tortoise statue.’

 

 

Garden statue of a tortoise

Why we should all have a statue of a garden gnome – because of its wonderful meaning: it is a guardian of the garden as the word GNOME means ‘guarding naturally over Mother Earth.’

Retired and lonely website where people simply talk

Only a person with a whiter than white reputable background could pull off a wonderful idea such as Silverline. This is the website designed for people who are now retired and in desperate need to talk to another person. Someone who will listen, someone who will respond with the human touch. This website offers them someone to give them time and friendship on the other end of the telephone line.

Silverline is the brainchild of Esther Rantzen (a person who acts on a need, an angel to both young and old), who finding herself with the need to talk to someone, came up with this wonderful idea and slowly developed it into realisation. It offers a lifeline to the lonely. A voice to those who never see or speak to anyone day-after-lonely-day and most of all the means of being able to have a conversation with someone without any fear. It has its own free telephone number so people who need to talk to someone, do not have to worry about excessive telephone bills.

❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀

If you do need a friend to talk to then please do visit the site and see what it can offer you. It is backed by a lovely lady. This is her website, this is your website: Silverline

Free telephone line open 24 hours every day: 0800 4 70 80 90

 

 

Retired and lonely people finding friendship and someone to talk to ..

“Need help? Call us ANYTIME on: 0800 4 70 80 90

The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.”

Who is Esther Rantzen’s this is what Wikipedia advises

 

Please visit the Silverline website for more details: http://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

A little bit of light-hearted fun – Dr Who and the TARDIS

The BBC have produced a very special link for all Dr Who fans to enter the Tardis of the Time Lord and have an adventure. For anyone with a little bit of fun in their hearts here is the link:

• Enter The Doctor’s TARDIS and share the adventure