Grannymar

Chrisb sent me a very special trick treat yesterday. She got it from Hootin-anni.

We are invited to pass it along to anyone you think is deserving of a special treat for the Hallowe’en season.

Kinda like “Pay it Forward” Y’know, one goodwill gesture deserves another?

But DON’T just choose your friends making this cliquish and ‘just groupies’…

Make NEW friends by choosing random visitors!!

It seems that ‘awards’ are floating around blogland and just “blog friends” get chosen all the time.

Make it RANDOM!!

Now let me think….

Nancy Leitz, yes certainly Nancy deserves a treat for her faithfulness and encouragement. She visits my Blog everyday and comments. Now Nancy does not, despite my encouragement, have her own Blog yet… I live in hope. In the meantime she has found a way to share her talents with the wider world and you will find her over at The Elder Storytelling Place from time to time. Her most recent post was about “Taking Dad Home to Pennsylvania”. If you have not found it already then toddle over today and have a read.

Hails over at Coffee helps who lives somewhere in the backwoods of County Antrim and seems to have a horse in near her office

Nonny at Anonymous, who brings many a smile to my face. I love the antics she gets up to with her mother.

And finally I break the rules, this one is for Baino who lives upside down in Oz-land. Baino gives me plenty of food for thought and fills me with green envy for her turn of phrase and use of the English language. I think you need all the treats possible right now Baino so with hugs from me, enjoy.

Now all you need to do is go visit the girls and say I sent you!

I have decided that Thursdays need a little treat so starting today Thursday Specials will contain a short story to brighten your day.

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, ‘I’m drawing God.’

The teacher paused and said, ‘But no one knows what God Looks like.’

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied,

‘They will in a minute.’

Did you ever hear the tale of the Wooden Bowl? I guarantee you will remember it tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now.

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year - old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered.

The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about father,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.”

So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.

When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor.

He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?”

Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up. “The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

Todays Podcast tells the story of what happened on the way to Omagh.

Our beautiful earth is being destroyed.

Day and daily we hear of trees being cut down. These are the same trees that give us the oxygen we need to survive. People are polluting the earth by dumping rubbish on the streets, into rivers, lakes and oceans. Car exhaust and smoking causes smog and makes the oxygen layer in our atmosphere thinner. If we don’t take action, our earth will end up like one big junkyard.

For all the years and more than I have lived here in Northern Ireland, we have had to put up with great plumes of black smoke coming from bombed buildings, burning cars and the 11^th Night Bonfires. They all released a pungent foul smell. These fumes released a large amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2), and sulphur trioxide (SO3) into the atmosphere. These sulphur oxides (combination of sulphur and oxygen) reacted with the water vapour in the air to form very strong acids like sulphuric acid (H2SO4). These acids fell along with the rain and from this we got ‘acid rain’ This rain is very harmful for plant, animal and human life. Is it any wonder the Cancer rates are so high in Ulster.

The burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum releases a large amount of these gases into the atmosphere (I am a culprit here as I use oil for central heating and for years used coal for an open fire).

We are warned that the large-scale development of industries and burning of fossil fuels, large amounts of pollutants are being released into the atmosphere. This is causing an imbalance in the environment. For example the release of carbon has lead to the rise in global temperature because of the greenhouse effect.

Back in August in Cold Feet I wrote looking for assistance in finding Eco Wood Briquettes. I managed to find some and this time they are described as African Super-hot fuel logs trademarked as Bushblok. Striking while the fire was hot I asked for 6 packs. There was no barcode on the pack or price label attached. The sales assistant went off to telephone her Supervisor for advice, I waited patiently. Eventually she returned without a price. She picked up her colourful fuel pricelist and picked the lowest priced item and scanned it into the till. “£1.35 per pack” she said, “It is not my fault if they are not marked, I am sure they might be double that price.”

Feeling pleased, I motored merrily home with my winter warmth. It was only when I was unloading the car that I read the label it states:

They are made from encroaching Bush in Namibia, the Cheetah Capital of the World providing sustaining rural business opportunities while restoring the Cheetah’s Savannah habitat. They are useful for cooking fires, braii, home heating, and industrial heat applications. As a result of the extrusion process, it has a calorific value approaching coal, some 4870 Kcal. It has an after burn ash content of 0.35-0.5% and is classified as a Smokeless Fuel.

Smokeless and cheap they might be, but I am sure they left one hell of a carbon trail from Namibia to the UK Mainland and from there through a couple of stops before reaching my fireside.

Should I feel guilty?

One evening Richard, thinking he was being funny, said to his wife ‘Perhaps we should start washing your clothes in Slim Fast.

Maybe it would take a few inches off of your bottom!!’

His wife was not amused, and decided that she simply couldn’t let such a comment go unrewarded.

The next morning the husband took a pair of underwear out of his drawer. ‘What the Hell is this??’ he said to himself as a little ‘dust’ cloud appeared when he shook them out.

‘April,’ he called into the bathroom, ‘Why did you put talcum powder in my underwear?’

She replied with a snigger…

‘It’s not talcum powder……

It’s ‘Miracle Grow’!

Now I know I have just managed to get my one and only off my hands. Elly might be a married lady now, but she is and always will be, no matter where her travels take her, metaphorically attached to her dear old mother. With her I have the added bonus of my new son George.

“Why would you need another daughter?” I hear Elly thinking and mumbling.

I don’t need one. I would like to adopt one.

The young lady I have chosen is known to me for some months now, but we have not had the opportunity of meeting in person. She is very kind and generous to this here old soul. Compliments trip off her tongue, pen keyboard on a regular basis. Do you think she hasn’t enough to do with her time? She certainly has time to entertain, inform and at times jog and shake us out of our comfortable little worlds.

In August she sent me this little treat:

A Schmooze Award

“So who is this little treasure?” I hear you ask.

It is none other than K8 the Gr8, a faithful follower and she has again honoured me with this little number:

“This award casts a spotlight on bloggers who are just beginning to draw lots of attention — the equivalent of a song with a bullet on Billboard’s Top 100 chart. Lots of good posts. Lots of good buzz. These bloggers are going places in a hurry.”

Now instead of memeing the award I will offer the following thought from Marcel Proust:

‘Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.’

Thank you K8.

I like being Grannymar. I was given this name in 1973. I have taken to it like a well worn glove. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.

I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.

And I shall eat dessert for breakfast if I feel like it …!

We are being encouraged to participate in Blog Action Day on 15th October by posting on our blogs something that relates to the environment. The post can be about anything to do with the environment. The idea is to write a post which is off topic for your blog OR relate the environment back to your topic in some way.

Consider the gauntlet down, and come back on Monday to see if I have fulfilled my promise.

Or on the other hand, show me that you can do better!

Registration Must Be Completed By Friday October 12^th 2007

NOTE: Due to the complexity and difficulty level of their contents, class sizes will be limited to 8 participants maximum.

Classes begin Monday, 22^nd October 2007