HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Or, in the true spirit of this time of year...I clambered out of my bed on The Winter Solstice to take the photo on the right (10.30am apx) to compare one I took on the shortest night after the Summer Solstice (at 10.30pm apx). That's the moon in the left-hand pic by the way...

Death Bed...

Something must be catching over the Internet as I've followed Andy Denny off Granny Buttons and Bones into illness & couldn't even eat or sleep for a couple of days. It's great to be coming out of it though!

Tree Gargoyle

This thing gave me the heebies the other night.

Democracy is Dead

Great now we have yet another managerial, vapid, over-achieving, under-cerebral suit to choose from from our 3 main political parties.
What's the point?
I think it was Polly Toynbee who recently described our political system as a "Murdochracy".

Why I'm a "Retired" Environmentalist...

I used to think that if only people knew about global warming, tropical deforestation and the resultant mass extinctions people would 'do the right thing' and stop fucking up the planet. In those days it was all about 'raising awareness'. Oh how naive I was...

Paul Kingsnorth writes...

"...it is impossible to stop climate change - not because the science says we can't or the technology is not available but simply because the political will - both from our 'leaders' and from us, as members of rich, contented nations - is simply not there. I've taken a bit of stick for this from environmentalists who want me to keep parroting the agreed green line on the climate ... - but everything I've seen since I first said it has only confirmed me in my view".

He explains why in his excellent blog here

Gadzooks - Another Green Boatie!

Thanks to CarrieBlackbird for alerting us to this
They both put me well in the deep-green shade.

This Morning (2)

Warm inside - cold outside

This Morning...

Another lovely morning.

Every morning is on the canals.

Canal Folkies

I'm glad to report that many people living on the canal are a quirky and eccentric bunch(both very likable qualities in my book).

The other day my then next door neighbor Maurice invited me aboard his boat, told me a little bit about his life (very intriguing), his penchant for doing embroidery (especially heraldic) and restoring antiques. He also prefers candle-light to electric light like me. The centrepiece of his boat interior was a lovely ornate french stove reminiscent of Warrior's.

After a while he opened up what appeared to be a slim hinged table which turned out to be an organ built in the 1800s. He had bought it for just £25 and restored it beautifully (though not rubbed-out all it's lovely signs of age and history) and played me a sea shanty - honour indeed!...and highly appropriate in the stormy, rocky weather

A New Love...

When I'm with my new love we are spiritually, emotionally and physically at one. She's also slim but has curves in all the right places.
She's pictured here!

(Yes I know I'm sad).

Can you imagine living without your car?

....Well perhaps you should! Global environmental destruction is the elephant in all our rooms.

I was a major petrol-head before I gave up mine and it was long before I started living on a boat and cruising in such a way as to make car-ownership a hindrance rather than a help. The folks who live and work on The Narrow Shop have been car-free before for a while and are about to sell their current car.

Since they've gone back to driving they have found one of the main problems of car-ownership - that of it being all to easy to use it for every journey - even "unnecessary", short ones....

" ...nearly two years later we are still driving around almost everywhere. Using the car for journeys that we could easily bike ride to. But not any more!. When we lived without a car before we were much fitter, saw a lot more things down wonderful country lanes that we would have missed in a car, and were a lot better off money wise too."

I'm glad they are finding it a liberating experience and looking forward to it. Read the whole article on their new blog here.

If you're really keen I wrote about living in an auto-hegemony here!