....... and in the Fire of Spring,
The Winter Garment of Reluctance fling.
We have but little time to Blog, and Lo -
We need some help - Can`t think of Anything!
Yes, with no walk again this week, we will be searching around for items of interest - not necessarily related to walking. For instance, the enforced leisure has not only upped my snacking and couching (I hate stationary biking - or spinning, as the fashionistas like to call it!), but increased my browsing habit enormously. There is so much interesting (to me) stuff on the Net, and I would feel guilty about notifying everyone on WhatsApp what I have just read - Adult Content or not!
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
This week, I came across a lovely humorous poem:-
Lockdown Lament - A Brief Pageant of English Verse
I won't arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
I'll sanitise the doorknob and make a cup of tea.
I won't go down to the sea again; I won't go out at all.
I'll wander lonely as a cloud from the kitchen to the hall.
There's a green-eyed yellow monster to the north of Kathmandu
But I shan't be seeing him just yet, and nor, I think, will you.
While the dawn comes up like thunder on the road to Mandalay
I'll make my bit of supper and eat it off a tray.
I shall not speed my bonnie boat across the sea to Skye .
Or take the rolling English road from Birmingham to Rye.
About the woodland, just right now, I am not free to go.
To see the `Keep Out` posters or the cherry hung with snow.
And no, I won't be travelling much, within the realms of gold.
Or get to Milford Haven - All that's been put on hold.
Give me your hands, I shan't request, albeit we are friends
Nor come within a mile of you,- until this shit show ends.
There should be enough literary reference in that to keep the least inquisitive busy!
And now from the Silves end...
One must, I suppose, rally round and contribute to the blog when even Paul seems to find words hard to come by, so here goes.
Two items of news caught my eye during this past week of enforced seclusion. One was that various scientific journals were getting rather excited about what appears may be the smallest reptile on the planet .
Researchers discovered what may be the smallest reptile on the planet in the rainforests of northern Madagascar.The new miniscule lizard is a species of chameleon named Brookesia nana, and is so small its entire body can fit on a fingertip.
A lizard called the Caribbean gecko (Sphaerodactylus ariasae) was the former record holder for smallest reptile on Earth, but the changing of the guard is made somewhat murky by the fact that it is only the male B. nana specimen is smaller than the Caribbean gecko. The minute male B. nana measures just half an inch from nose to the base of the tail. The female, on the other hand, comes in at three-quarters of an inch in length.
The former title holder for the smallest chameleon is a member of B. nana’s own genus, Brookesia micra.
But now comes the intriguing bit of the news...I should perhaps warn those of a sensitive or prudish disposition to look away now.....which is that, besides the miniscule total length of the male, he distinguished himself by possessing unusually large genitals for his size—almost 20 percent of his body length, it is thought to more effectively copulate with the significantly larger B. nana females.
It just goes to bear out what Paul frequently claims and that is that “Size Matters.”
Should you be interested in looking deeper into this bit of news, you can log into
The second news-worthy item came as a bit of comfort to my fellow Scots who have been deprived of their two festivals this winter, St Andrew´s Ball and Burns Night. And that was an article which you may have seen in the following publication,
https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2021-01-22/haggis-launched-to-edge-of-space/57873
and which I will endeavour to summarise for you.
A Scottish butcher in the wee Perthshire town of Dunning launched a 454 gramme haggis into space last month in celebration of Burns Night. It reached the height of 20 miles (107,293 ft) nearly four times the height of Everest. From Dunning, it travelled over Stirling, Falkirk, Edinburgh, the Pentland Hills and l the Scottish Borders. It was airborne for 2 hours, 37 minutes and covered a distance of 52 miles. (I´m surprised it didn´t burst in the thin atmosphere.) The propulsion ended at 107,00 feet and the haggis then fell back towards Earth at nearly 200 mph before a weather balloon deployed and it landed “safely” in Lauder in the Scottish Borders.
2 hours, 37 minutes – almost enough time for a WAGS walk.
Thanks for the Illumination John!
The eye test I passed with flying colours but I do sympathise with Sasha...
ReplyDeleteAm I the only WAG to notice that my bum fits perfectly in the newly formed hollow on the sofa?