John Lennon MBE (9 Oct 1940 – 8 Dec 1980)

Thirty years ago on the 8th of December at around 10:50 pm on 8 December 1980, as Lennon and Ono returned to their New York apartment in The Dakota, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:07 pm. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.

The following photos are of my Uncle Don sitting alongside John Lennon at the BBC studios. John Lennon being the perfectionist he was had arrived early and they were working on setting up camera angles in readyness for a live TV performance that was broadcast in 1967.
My Uncle died in 1990 just before our wedding.
May they both rest in peace, both losses felt in many ways.

Here is the resulting video fimed Live at the BBC in 1967
with extra footage, I've never seen before. enjoy

I haven't forgotten you.......

...honest, just been very busy trying to get that blasted painting finished. I am in fact on the last of it today.

So I'm going to crack on with it and I'll be back soon, with photos......


In the mean time talk amongst yourselves and enjoy this.............

A true talent, Kseniya Simonova winner of Ukraines got talent

No it isn't a joke, this is just amazing and very moving. I saw it this morning on a forum I belong to Over the Gate. Jay one of the members posted a link to a You Tube video and put this:

Dont miss this amazing Video Clip . . first read it properly.. then click the link at the end of the description.

This video shows the winner of " Ukraine’s Got Talent", Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.


Kseniya Simonova says:
"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."



Please take time out to see this amazing piece of art.

Oxfam Unwrapped

It's around this time of year that no matter how hard you try you just can't avoid Christmas. And it's around this time of year that I plead with people NOT to send me Christmas Cards, I don't like them, consider them a terrible waste of money and then we go even go into the airmiles involved in getting them here, all for a bit of card with a Christmas scene that more often than not doesn't get here until after the event and ends up in a pile with all the other mail. When you add up the cost of a Card, and the postage the sender could have rung me for less, I would much rather talk to someone than get a card.
I don't send cards, I stopped a few years ago when the first year cost me over $60 in postage, at that time that was what our weekly food bill was (It's much more now!) So although my decision has proved a bit unpopular I've decided I can live with that.
Instead the money wasted on cards I put to better use. No I don't buy more food! :D I go to Oxfam Unwrapped I like to think that that money saved goes to buying a gift that will be of use to someone.
So before you buy that expensive card for someone and pop it in the mailbox, add up the cost and see what you could have bought instead for $5 - $29 at Oxfam Unwrapped.

Britons eager for return to past

At last people are seeing sense.

Nine out of 10 people would like to see a return to traditional values, a survey has found.

The majority of people think the UK has changed for the worse during the past 20 years, according to Chelsea Building Society.

Around 77% of people blamed the deterioration on a lack of discipline in schools, while 74% attributed it to family breakdown and 70% thought it was due to individual greed.

Three-quarters of young people aged between 18 and 24 also thought society had changed for the worst.

It was this age group turning back to tradition, saying they wanted less television and more family trips out and board games.

They also craved less fast food and more meals around the dining table.

Nine out of 10 people across all age groups said they thought it was important to say please and thank you, while 87% thought children should have good manners and be respectful and 87% thought people should give up seats to those who needed them more.

Other things which were rated as being important included receiving service with a smile, family meals, helping neighbours and children being able to play outside.

Tim Taylor, divisional director of customer services at Chelsea Building Society, said: "Although some aspects of modern society are obviously important, this research indicates that Britain wants to refresh cherished traditions and see them become an active part of life going forward

Click here to see the original news article

Friday 25th September

The weather is a bit better that it has been the last couple of days, but to be honest we actually needed a bit of rain, the paddocks needed it and our tanks are both full to overflowing. There are still rain clouds about but the sun keeps popping it's head out.
My view eastwards from where I sit on my laptop at the dining table


It ended up being a bit of a mini Spring clean this week, I have no idea what got into me but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the going's on at Down to Earth. It all started of quite innocently doing the usual housework, but it kind of went a bit beyond that and I ended up de-cluttering as I went' It's never ceased to amaze me how 3 people can generate so much 'stuff'. On Down to Earth there are some discussions about stockpiling, they are about foodstuffs. In this house there seem to be stockpiles of washing hiding in long forgotten corners, these corners seem more prevalent in teenagers rooms. Although Joe does have a corner like that too. I can't say too much though because no doubt my mum would be along soon and shout me down, reminding me of the piles of ironing she placed neatly on the end of bed waiting to be put away. I'd get into bed, wonder what that annoying thing on the end of the bed was and kick it off, that pile would stay on the floor for quite some time, well at least until I had worn them all and put them back into the wash! Needless to say this didn't last long and mum stopped doing my ironing, can't say I blame her really either. They say what goes around comes around, I can only think that my teenage son is now my payback time.

Oh do stop waffling woman and get on with it! So the mini spring clean continued and the downstairs has once again become my haven from the goings on upstairs, more of that news to come later. I even pulled everything out of the pantry cupboard, cleaned that and reorganised everything. Not that it took long to be honest, there wasn't that much in there. After more reading at Down to Earth I realised my pantry was a bit sad, in that it was a bit woeful. So now I really need to go shopping and work on that stockpile.

Everyone seems to be feeling the pinch these days and we are no exeption, so our immediate aim is to try and cut down on some expenditure, one of those being the grocery bill, we buy so much stuff that is not necessary and to my horror stuff sometimes goes to waste, and I hate waste. So if I get the basics right in the pantry and bake more often we should in theory save a bit of money. Putting it into practice is another thing though. We have a freezer full of meat so we don't need to buy that. The veggie garden is starting to produce, if we could survive off that, wouldn't that be the bees knees! I have some preserving to do, I've got a lemon and a grapefruit tree heaving with fruit, so I need to make some lemon honey/curd. Now that Laura has posted step by step Marmalade instructions on Our wee Farm it should be a breeze.
I made plum jam last Autumn and we are just about to start the last jar, so definatley worth the effort.

Also on my list of cutback efforts is to do more homebaking, I've madde Anzac biccies already this week, they lasted about five minutes! Last night I made some butterfly cakes, this uses the Victoria Sponge recipe.




Butterfly cakes
I double up the recipe and use muffin cases to cook them in, they're bigger!!!

8oz softened butter &
8oz caster sugar

Mix together in a bowl until light and fluffy

4 eggs

8oz plain flour &
1 tsp baking powder sifted together


Add one egg at a time to the butter and sugar and a spoon of the flour, mix. Continue until all eggs and flour are mixed together.

Place a large spoon of mixture in each muffin case in a muffin tray and bake in pre warmed oven, 170degC for approximatley 20 mins or when springy to the touch.

Cool on wire tray.

Butter Icing
3oz butter
6oz sifted icing sugar
Few drops vanilla essence

Mix all ingredients together

To make the 'butterflies' cut a circle out of the top of each cake, don't cut right to the edge, and cut at an angle so when you remove the cut out it has a slight wedge to it.

Spoon butter icing into the well of cake, cut your wedge in half and place together to look like 'wings', Dust with icing suger and enjoy

Who else is on Facebook?

I already know that heaps of you already are, and I'm no doubt already talking to you. But if I'm not then click on this posts title or the pic below and find me! make sure you introduce yourself, so I know who you are. If I don't recognise you then I might ignore you! ;)

www.googleearth.com

If you haven't already tried Google Earth, then download the free version and have a look, it's great. You'll be able to find your house just by typing in your address!

If you want to find where we are then type in co-ordinates:

37 45' 57.90" S 175 12' 30.99" E

Zoom out and see the surrounding area!

On the photo above our place is marked with the pin!

Video link

I've been having a little play with Windows movie maker and I've put together a video clip of the photos I took of our home and gardens.

Click on the title 'Video link' above, then look for the small picture of the garden in videos and click! Enjoy

Camera troubles

Just recently I've been having trouble with my digital camera so I decided to get out my old SLR camera and see if it still took good photos. Well to cut a long story short, it does and I can take the roll of film into the Kodak shop nearby and get a full set of prints and...all those prints can now be stored on a CD disc for the computer! So I was well pleased with that I can tell you!
I happened to have my digital camera on me too and asked what the problem might be, aparently not a lot!! He fiddles with it, took out the battery, blew on it, popped it back in and it worked!
So another result!! So now I have 2 cameras that work and I can still use my SLR and be able to pur thos shots on my computer. Joe was rather impressed by that too, it means he doesn't have ot buy me a digital SLR..........for now anyway ;)
I took some pics of the goats with my SLR and I have posted them on my webshots page, today of it brightens up I shall go and take some of the garden so that you can see how nice it all looked for the ramble last Sunday.

Click on this posts title (above, look for the arrow) and it will take you to webshots
Bye for now!

http://www.oxfamunwrapped.org.nz/shopping.asp

Like last year I have decided not to send out Christmas cards again. Instead I shall buy a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped, why don't you try the same, make a difference, please.

Put an end to whaling!!

For those of you who regularly visit my blog and to any welcome guests who stumble upon it, I have posted this link for people who think that whaling should be stopped.
Please take a look and sign the petition and then pass it on to everyone you know, together we might just make a difference.


http://www.whalesrevenge.com/

If you live in New Zealand you may wish to know that 'Sealord' have 50% of their shares owned by a Japanese whaling company, I and many others are boycotting their products.

Thank you for your support!

View our photo's online

Right, here we go, hopefully, after a lot of trial and error I think I have finally got it sorted. Use this link to view our photo albums online. Look and enjoy, more to come, so keep looking, and don't forget to sign the guestbook. If there's something that you would like to see, then let us know, we aim to please.

http://community.webshots.com/user/jsmwebber