I’m not doing a post about a willy warmer, I’ll leave that until another time. I wanted to write this post to give a shout out to my fellow bloggers across the pond who have been an inspiration for me over the last 4 or 5 months, and have been incredibly supportive. I’ve been blogging now for nearly 2 years and sometimes you just need some advice, a listening ear, support and shout-outs to get your posts out there for more people to see. We follow each other on Twitter and some of us get carried away with conversations that border on rudeness, but it can be very funny. Allen…

Here are some great products I’ve come across and been using in 2018.   I’m not a big wine drinker, and to be honest I’ve never particularly liked it very much, until I came across this one at a local pub in my home city. The wine is really hard to come by, and I think the only way to buy it is online. My favourite is the ‘Coldwater Creek Rose’; it has a smooth sweetish delicate taste. (A bit like roasted bark chips, pickled walnuts  and with an under-current of fresh air from the Swiss Alps; which is actually a load of made-up pretentious bollocks!) It just doesn’t leave…

I’ve really needed to have a good laugh this week. My two previous weeks have been awful, with one thing and another, so I’ve been searching online for some funny stuff on YouTube. Two of the clips are ones I came across whilst looking for people and subjects that interest me. One is the quote directly below, and the other is one of my favourite clips from Monty Python. I’ll begin with this quote or saying from the great Karl Pilkington. If you’ve never heard of the guy, then you are definitely missing out. Amongst other things he’s done, he’s worked with Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant on various travel…

I’ve been having a look on YouTube lately, and listening to the radio and Shazaming some songs I’ve not heard in a long time. Here’s some of my favourites that have given me the goosebumps. Now wouldn’t you just like to walk through a shopping mall and hear this playing, to stop and listen, and then more muscicians join the group. This is from Gustav Holst’s Planet Suite, and it’s called Jupiter. I was introduced to this at the age of 11 by a music teacher I had a deep respect for. I love this one by Brahms. I have heard this before, many times but didn’t know what it…

A short post here. My friend, who I used to go art college with, sent me his painting the other day and I asked him if I could share it with you. He said he’d spent quite a bit of time over it, just chipping away at it really, until he was happy with the result. I do this sometimes. Going back to your art work gives a fresher perspective and enables you to make changes you wouldn’t have noticed before. I think his painting is really good. And I like the way he has painted the trees with depth and texture.    

Five weeks ago, or thereabouts, I took myself down to one of the National Trusts stately homes called ‘Belton House’ near Grantham in Lincolnshire. It was a very hot day so that was a good start. It was built by Sir John Brownlow between 1685 and 1688, and owned by the Cust and Brownlow family until it was given over to the National Trust in 1984, due to financial problems and death duties.l won’t go into too much detail about the history of the place, even though that’s important if you like your history, but it’s more about my photographs and the facilities available.Here’s a link if you fancy taking…