Back in the 1950s when I was at school, I won my boxing colours and was captain of the boxing team. I wish I could say that I was undefeated like Rocky Marciano, the world heavyweight champion of the time,
USA -26 May 1999
Rocky (not the film) was on the stamp for the 1950s in the Celebrate the Century series.
From boxing to a gentler pastime of poetry for my next stamp from the USA.
" I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go."
USA - 21 April 2012
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) is one of the ten 20th century poets that appeared on this set in 2012. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954.
At this time so many years since England won the football world cup, I have chosen a stamp from back then (1966) showing what is claimed to be Britain's favourite bird.
Great Britain - 6 August 1966
Just like the one that chases other birds away from our feeders when it wants to eat.
This year sees the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force. For the 50th anniversary in 1968 a commemorative stamp showed a Sopwith Camel from WWI and English Electric Lightning Fighters from the 1960s.
Great Britain - 29 May 1968
For other 'R' related stamps fly over and pick up the links at Sunday-stamps-r.
One for the lights and one for the extractor fan in our shower room.
Meanwhile in our bathroom the bathroom cabinet lit up with this image.
Reflection of the ceiling lights and the trapdoor to the loft.
However the photo of the day for me was this cheerful chap.
Robin on a juniper bush
It was only as I saved the shot that I realised that I had also caught an electric street light and a blurred solar panel on a roof, just right for this electricity theme.
A number of people in our street have invested in solar panels to generate electricity for themselves - and here's a good example.
Solar panels
Of course these days other generation schemes are available such as these:
Two of five wind turbines in the locality
If you study that photo you can see a line of electricity pylons which are much larger when you get up close.
Pylon and power transmission lines
Some houses in our village are still hooked up to more primitive power lines.
Pole and power line connections
No underground cables for them!
There is a nuclear power station at Hartlepool just a few miles from us but unfortunately I have no shots of that.
To get there by road I can always check road condition by referring to the screen at our local petrol station.
My A-Z posts this year
are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies
- with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat
somewhat – wishing they were here.
R – Rose, Rhododendron, Robin, Rabbit, Retriever
For a rose we can only begin with Burns:
My love is like a
red, red rose
That’s newly sprung
in June
An older verse applies to roses too as not all are as red as
those.
Thou blushing rise,
within whose virgin leaves
The wanton wind to
sport himself presumes.
Over the years we have been
nurturing a rhododendron bush that didn’t thrive in the soil in the front
garden border. It has gone from border to tub, to ericaceous tub to back garden
border where it now flowers happily.
Rhododendron
Three girls,
engrossed, were wrenching full clusters
Of cerise and pink
from the rhododendron,
Mountaining them on
spread newspaper.
They brassily picked,
slowed by no chagrin,
I’m pleased to be able to show a
photo of one of my favourite birds which I’m sure you will have all seen on
Christmas cards.
Robin
No noise is here. Or
none that hinders thought.
The redbreast warbles
still, but is content
With slender notes,
and more than half suppressed;
Pleased with his
solitude, and flitting light
From spray to spray,
where’er he rests he shakes
From many a twig the
pendant drops of ice,
That tinkle in the
withered leaves below.
Cute but less welcomed is this fellow about to attack the
plants.
Rabbit
Now if today had been Friday then perhaps I’d get up early and
sing along:
The song was written for Noel Gay's
show 'The Little Dog Laughed' which opened on 11 October 1939, at a time when
most of the major London
theatres were closed.
The farmer with a gun would have
needed a Retriever to fetch the rabbit. I know one that could do the job.
Cody
Incidentally Cody was 15 years old on Easter Sunday; he’s no
April fool.
There is a bit of a mixture in this post. Some can fly, some have flown and some never have or will. I'll let you decide which is which.
Andrew Mynarski VC, RCAF
This statue stands in front of what was once the Officers' Mess at wartime RAF Middleton-Saint- George.You may read about him at hero's salute
During WWII my elder brother served on aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. I do not know where this shot was taken.
Ready for war
The new town (well it was once) of Thornaby-on-Tees has swallowed up the wartime aerodrome but there is a reminder on a roundabout of what happened there.
The Thornaby Spitfire
I wrote about this replica spitfire in a Sepia Saturday post here
I've had a few helicopter trips during my working life but few were as pleasant, or should I say 'nice,' as in one of these.
Air Monaco helicopters at Nice Airport
Despite our expertise none of our machines are as manoeuvrable as nature's designs.
Dragonfly - ready for take-off.
Landing isn't always as easy as it seems even when you have the controls.
Young Collared Dove touches down
It has rained for over 36 hours non-stop where I live in the North East of England; the sun is just breaking through for the first time. However it's still too early for snow so there is no need for the robin to take refuge like this one two Christmases ago.
I have been a ‘fan’ of The Times columnist Simon Barnes for quite a while. Simon is a well known sportswriter, but his columns that interest me most are those on wildlife, especially birds. His book ‘How to be a bad birdwatcher’ was serialised on Radio 4; I have been fortunate enough to obtain a copy courtesy of a Mind charity shop.
Last January I posted a piece Watch The Birdie on my Writelink blog about the birds I saw in my garden in 2009. I have just collated my records for 2010. This year they cover 339 days (330 in 2009).
As in the previous year I have seen 35 different types, averaging 22 (23) and month and 8 (9) per day.
There has only been one change in the top ten most frequent visitors with the robin entering the list in place of the greenfinch. Top of the pile again is the wood pigeon on 95% of the days (93 in 2009), followed by rook 93% (78), blackbird 85% (89), starling 67% (69), collared dove 64% (72), sparrow 60% (41), robin 53% (29), gull 44% (48), hedge sparrow 42% (40) and the blue tit 40% (34).
A tree creeper put in an appearance in December; newcomers during the year were owls, fieldfares and the most spectacular arrival, a woodcock which crashed into the front window on December 27th.
My favourite photo was of the goldfinches in the conifer in our front garden on Boxing Day (See Boxing Day Birds). Did you know that the collective noun for them is a charm of goldfinches?
However my favourite birds of the year were not in my garden but the sand cranes on Oxford Hills golf course in Michigan. They were quite content to share the course with us.
Our garden is alive with birds this morning. I have resorted to trying to photograph them through a double glazed window. Here's two to share with you at this holiday time.
