Alan Williams's Blog, page 49

Post A Day Review

I’ve been doing this post a day thing for nearly three weeks and I wanted to take stock of some of the things I’ve learned, and review where I go from here. There’ll be a final post tomorrow (my fourth quarter review), and probably one on January 1st, what happens beyond that I’m undecided.

I know a couple of bloggers / writers who post everyday, and mostly what they post I enjoy reading. Although I’ve managed to find something to post myself everyday for the last three weeks, it has felt a l...

Penguin Cubes

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One of my more novel Christmas presents. Plastic, water filled, penguins. Put them in the freezer, and then add them to your drink once frozen to do the same job as ice cubes, without diluting your drink.

Richard Adams (1920 – 2016)

The author of Watership Down was something of an inspiration to me. He died on Christmas Eve. As a writer, environmentalist, and also Hampshire resident, his books Watership Down and The Plague Dogs are two of my all time favourites.

He influenced my younger years and made me appreciate the natural world around me.

A Bonus Christmas Present

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I had several books for Christmas presents this year, many were from my Amazon wish list. One had to be bought secondhand, as there wasn’t an “in-print” copy available. Unbeknown to both the giver and receiver (and also possibly the seller), is that this copy was signed. A bonus Christmas present.

Quick Links 26th December 2016

Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.

Life

It’s been an odd week and very busy with family stuff. I can’t believe that when you read this Christmas will be over. Our celebrations haveobviously been different this year, and we’re didn...

Merry Christmas Everyone

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Christmas Traditions

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I can think of a few Christmas traditions and sayings. For example, we always used to be told that if we weren’t well behaved Father Christmas would only leave a lump of coal in our Christmas stocking. If we were good there was always a satsuma, and some nuts in the toe, underneath the presents.

Do you have any similar Christmas traditions? Leave me a comment below.

Garden Birdlist 2016

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Chiff-Chaff

Regular readers will know that I keep an annual garden bird list. The rule is simple to be on the list I must have seen the bird in, or from the garden for it to qualify.

The total so far this year is 28 species. Not a big number I know, but not bad for an urban back garden. The overall number of species, across all the years I’ve been doing this is 36.

I might get a couple more before New Year, but it feels unlikely. There are plenty of species a stones throw away, but they don’t...

A Couple of Films I’m Looking Forward To In 2017

Morning Dog Walk

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I’d planned to write about routine, but there isn’t much of that at the moment, life is a little bit inconsistent. The one thing that is though is my morning dog walk. Hopefully in the New Year things will improve.