Last of April

Summer is coming!

 Beautiful morning for a walk with Finn through some Barracks Lane meadow greenery...

Double Finn - worn out!

Dogs either look ecstatic or full of sorrow. Melts my heart.

Then I arrive at work, greeted by more beautiful colours...

"...reason for my existence."

Today it was so beautiful outside I decided to go for a little walk on my lunch break. Came across some beauty worth capturing:





Today I also came across the most beautiful love letter written by Johnny Cash to his wife June Carter on her birthday...



“June 23 1994

Odense, Denmark.

Happy Birthday Princess,

We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.

But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much.

Happy Birthday Princess.

John”

YES Frankie

Excellent little article written by Frankie Boyle on "Britain's criminally stupid attitudes to race and immigration" in light of this years General Election.



'Let’s not forget where coffee and tea come from: this mug is bitterly opposed to its own contents’

Happy Friday

This was taken on or around the 5th April.

I wonder how old this thing is... Looking forward to revisiting in a few weeks.



14th April

 

 

Close up 14th April



This beautiful Friday morning.

Painful world

The night before last I watched a show about ISIS recruitment, specifically a look into the way the radicalisers brainwash and groom girls, encouraging them to decide to leave their entire lives to join ISIS as Jihadi brides.
This World: Britain's Jihadi Brides

I also watched the first quarter of a show (I couldn't bear to watch any more) about people who own Pitbulls and train them up to fight, usually to defend their owners. The show highlighted the sweet nature within the dogs while showcasing the absolute incapacity of these people to look after their dogs responsibly. I only watched about 15 minutes of it so there is a chance it may have become a beautiful story for all I know.
Dangerous Dog Owners and Proud

The next morning (yesterday morning) I experienced some unpleasant road rage on my way to work, an ignorant self-righteous man thinking he was the only person trying to get somewhere, I won't waste my energy typing the details.

This unpleasant chain of events and my deepy impressionable ways left feeling a little hopeless about the state of humanity. I told my dear mate Dave all about it, and he sent me this perfect quote, now I'd like to share it with you if you haven't seen it before:
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Howard Zinn

Sixty years

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA !

  

Today my mum turned the grand young old age of sixty, how cool. 

Keep going gal!

Just tried searching a decent perhaps inspiring article to send her about turning 60, on my way I found this funny piece by Ian Martin, worth a read if you have a few minutes..

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/29/sixty-things-learned-turning-60

Barracks Lane meadow Blossom

Mid January

Early April

Easter break

I have two homes. Windy Ridge will always be home home, it's the house my father built that my family have lived in all my life, since I was a sprog in a baby seat inhaling the fumes as mum painted and decorated the place for the first time. Memories fill my mind whenever I think of home home, where everything began and where life still goes on. Home home is a place I can always go back to and feel safe and warm, to love and be loved and fed (too much).

My other home is where I'm with Dara and Finn, Oxford, it really does feel like home to us now.

I like Easter and Christmas, not for religious reasons but because it means most people head home home for some time from their various other homes, so you get to catch up and spend a bit of quality time together with the people you love love love.

The weather was so good in Pembrokeshire. I got a few snaps on our trip down to Broad Haven to let the hounds run wild...

Spring sprung in Spelsbury

Chequers in bloom.