Here's to you Autumn

In my mind, Winter begins on the first of December, when I start my Christmas advent calendar :) So going by that reasoning, this is the last day of Autumn.

 

I collected and pressed some beautiful leaves this season - the colours are lush!

 

Here's to you Autumn, see you next year!

 

 

Teddy bears, when the humans aren't looking!

When the humans aren't looking, cheeky teddy bears Edward and Bertie nick the remote!

Words of the Week: Week 9

17/11/14 to 23/11/14

Monday: denouement - The final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved: e.g. 'the film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous'

Tuesday: inosculate - Join by intertwining or fitting closely together

Wednesday: peccavi - (archaic) Used to express one's guilt

Thursday: vigesimal - Relating to or based on the number twenty: e.g. a vigesimal mathematical system

Friday: vicarious - Experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person: e.g. 'this catalogue brings vicarious pleasure in luxury living'

Saturday: verbose - Using or expressed in more words than are needed: e.g. 'much academic language is obscure and verbose'

Sunday: ingratiate - (ingratiate oneself) Bring oneself into favour with someone by flattering or trying to please them: e.g. 'a sycophantic attempt to ingratiate herself with the local aristocracy'

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.

Playing with this week's words!

• The play's denouement was verbose
• The denouement inosculated the various storylines

The rain as pretty as the sun

It's been raining A LOT the last couple of weeks. That, along with the shortening days, could be seen as a reason to be miserable... But it's all in your perspective.

It's a chance to cosy up inside, enjoy soft blankets, fluffy duvets, hot drinks and comfort food - and the rain can be pretty! The fairies think so, and so should we ;-)

Fairy Lore

Fairies learn to dance before they learn to walk;
Fairies learn to sing before they learn to talk;
Fairies learn their counting from the cuckoo's call;
They do not learn Geography at all.

Fairies go a-riding with witches on their brooms,
And steal away the rainbows to brighten up their rooms;
Fairies like a sky-dance better than a feast;
They have a birthday once a week at least.

Fairies think the rain as pretty as the sun;
Fairies think that trespass-boards are only made for fun;
Fairies think that peppermint's the  nicest thing they know;
I always take a packet when I go.

From The Rose Fyleman Fairy Book

Beard wish granted!

Words of the Week: Week 8

10/11/14 to 16/11/14

Monday: adultescent - A middle-aged person whose clothes, interests, and activities are typically associated with youth culture

Tuesday: bethink - (bethink oneself) (archaic) Come to think: e.g. 'he bethought himself of the verse from the Book of Proverbs'

Wednesday: gosling - A young goose

Thursday: whitesmith - A person who makes articles out of metal, especially tin

Friday: disconcert - Disturb the composure of; unsettle: e.g. 'the abrupt change of subject disconcerted her'

Saturday: assuage - Make (an unpleasant feeling) less intense: e.g. 'the letter assuaged the fears of most members'

Sunday: paramount - More important than anything else; supreme: e.g. 'the interests of the child are of paramount importance'

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.

Playing with this week's words!

• It is paramount we assuage these disconcerting feelings
• An adultescent may be disconcerted by the idea of 'acting their age'

Remembrance Day 2014

Two poems for Remembrance Day:

I Am Not a Badge of Honour

I am not a badge of honour,
I am not a racist smear,
I am not a fashion statement,
To be worn but once a year,
I am not glorification
Of conflict or of war.
I am not a paper ornament
A token,
I am more.

I am a loving memory,
Of a father or a son,
A permanent reminder
Of each and every one.

I'm paper or enamel
I’m old or shining new,
I’m a way of saying thank you,
To every one of you.

I am a simple poppy
A Reminder to you all,
That courage faith and honour,
Will stand where heroes fall.

By Paul Hunter

The Inquisitive Mind of a Child

Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?
Selling poppies in town today.
The poppies, child, are flowers of love.
For the men who marched away.

But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died
In the fields where the poppies grow.

But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?
Why are the poppies so red?
Red is the colour of blood, my child.
The blood that our soldiers shed.

The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.
Why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.
For the men who never came back.

But why, Mummy are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child.
For the world is forgetting again.

Author unknown

Golden Autumn

Autumn can be such a beautiful season.

Here's a photo I took of the evening sun shining through gorgeous golden leaves:

 

It's the little things :-)

Words of the Week: Week 7

3/11/14 to 9/11/14

Monday: valuta - The value of one currency with respect to its exchange rate with another: e.g. 'He was accused of sending foreign valuta out of Germany'

Tuesday: bicephalous - Having two heads: e.g. 'On the main facade is an imposing bicephalous eagle'

Wednesday: effulgent - Shining brightly; radiant: e.g. 'In the night sky, nothing is brighter and more effulgent than the moon'

Thursday: ullage - The amount by which a container falls short of being full: e.g. 'In drastic levels of dryness, this damage may cause the ullage to increase'

Friday: simon-pure - Completely genuine, authentic, or honest: e.g. 'they were not so simon-pure as the image they presented to the public'

Saturday: indocile - Difficult to teach or discipline; not submissive

Sunday: abstemious - Indulging only very moderately in something, especially food and drink: e.g. '‘We only had a bottle.’ ‘Very abstemious of you.’'

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.

Playing with this week's words!

• I was abstemious and didn't increase the bottle's ullage
• The Aplans are bicephalous race in Doctor Who

Space Spot (Doctor Who)

It's the Doctor Who series 8 finale tonight! I'm really loving Peter Capaldi (or 'Capaldi Who') as the Doctor, and I've been a fan of Michelle Gomez since she was in Channel 4's Green Wing, so needless to say I'm VERY excited!
I can't watch it live tonight, so I'm going to have to avoid all of the internet until I see it.

In the meantime, a quick Doctor Who themed poem from My Very First Poetry Book:

Space Spot

Twinkle, twinkle little star
Up there in the blue.
How I wonder what you are,
Are you Doctor Who?

By Max Fatchen

Lamp comes to life!

Fairyland is anywhere, you know

Greengage Jam

When I came back from Fairyland
At five o'clock to-day,
Belinda hadn't noticed that
I'd even been away!
I looked at where Belinda stood,
Belinda looked at me;
And then she gave a yawn and said,
"There's greengage jam for tea."

The way I go to Fairyland
Is up the attic stair,
And through the attic door and round
Some boxes - and it's there!
It's just between the arm-chair and
The clock without a face -
And nobody would guess it was
A really fairy place.

But Mother says that Fairyland
Is anywhere, you know;
You've only got to think it's there -
And there it is. And so
I've thinked that this is Fairyland,
And so it has to be.
But no one knows it's Fairyland,
Excepting only me.

I like to go to Fairyland
And sit and wait - quite still.
Though nothing's ever happened yet,
But some day p'r'aps it will!
It's nice to feel that no one knows
I'm sitting on the floor
And all alone in Fairyland,
Behind the attic door.

Belinda's got no Fairyland,
And if I said I'd been
She'd laugh at me - I know she would;
Belinda is thirteen.
So when I came from Fairyland
At five o'clock, you see,
I only said to her, "I'm glad
There's greengage jam for tea."

From Marion St John Webb's book The Little One In Between

'The Little One In Between' is a sweet old book of poems published in 1929, all written from the perspective of a little girl who is the middle child.

I really like the lines in this poem: "...Fairyland / Is anywhere, you know; / You've only got to think it's there - / And there it is."

It reminds me of the idea of finding pleasure, beauty and peace in the everyday, and within yourself :-)

Words of the Week: Week 6

27/10/14 to 2/11/14

Monday: matutinal - Of or occurring in the morning: e.g. 'his matutinal jog'

Tuesday: anathematize - Curse; condemn: e.g. 'he anathematized them as ‘bloody scroungers’'

Wednesday: notional - Existing as or based on a suggestion, estimate, or theory; not existing in reality: e.g. 'notional budgets for hospital and community health services'

Thursday: noisome - Having an extremely offensive smell: e.g. 'noisome vapours from the smouldering waste'

Friday: bogle - A phantom or goblin

Saturday: katzenjammer - 1. Confusion; uproar: e.g. 'All of this criminal katzenjammer' OR 2. A hangover; A severe headache resulting from a hangover

Sunday: inanimate - 1. Not alive OR 2. Showing no sign of life; lifeless

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.

Playing with this week's words!

• Notional matutinal jog
• Noisome bogle
• Inanimate due to a katzenjammer
• I anathematize this katzenjammer!