I love the idea of this wonderful beast,
It must be quite rare, at the very least !
A donkey’s body but stripey socks,
It’s somehow quite unorthodox,
Till I meet one, I shan’t be at peace!

A Zedonk – a donkey/zebra cross

Anne wrote Agnes Gray and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,
Jane Eyre’s her most famous novel, but Charlotte wrote four,
Patrick Branwell, their brother, who died of a delirium,
Was addicted to alcohol and laudanum,
And Emily’s Wuthering Heights is, perhaps, the best known of all.

One of the most astonishing facts about these four rightly famous writers is that they were all dead before the age of 40. The two eldest in the family, Maria and Elizabeth died at 11 and 10 respectively. Charlotte (1816-1855) died at 37. Patrick Branwell, known as Branwell, (1817-1848) died at 31 from tuberculosis. Emily Jane (1818-1848) died at 30 and Anne 1820-1849) at 29.

The view from my window is a bank of trees,
And kids on skateboards that skin their knees,
Of mums with shopping or on the school run,
Someone’s daughter, someone’s son,
The world slowly develops by subtle degrees…

We were given some chocolates made by Mary See,
It is a famous, delicious American candy,
Brought by my lovely friend Genesse ,
And given with love and tenderness,
I predict I’ll become their next true devotee!

Our lives are bound by the choices we make,
But that is the chance that we willingly take,
Some bad and some good,
Some just misunderstood,
When we realise it’s love that’s at stake.

The film “Meet Joe Black” poses the question, what would happen if Death came to visit and Death fell in love? Death comes to earth because he happens to want to learn some lessons about the nature of life and of an honourable one from the really good and much-loved millionaire philanthropist, Bill Parrish, whose life he has been sent to take. But he inhabits the body of the last person to die, which just happens to be a young man who Bill’s daughter, Susan, met in a coffee shop and fell for in a ‘coup de foudre’ (moment of madness). Inevitably, Death falls in love with her too and so is intent on taking her with him, even though he hasn’t told her who he is. Bill appeals to his better nature and so do one or two others and then he is reminded by Susan herself that she first fell for him in the coffee shop. He has been too influenced by Bill’s goodness and so when he leaves, taking Bill’s life with him, at Bill’s 65th birthday party, he tells her he loves her and always will and that she will have what she found in the coffee shop. He then leaves, taking Bill with him, but returns the life of the young man in the coffee shop. This film is a great exploration of the nature of life and death and of good and evil. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so.

Who famously wrote of a daffodil?*
Or wandered subterranean caverns till**
Stopped by a thought fox, that fills the head,***
Or a city you could only dread,****
Or was consumed with the need to self-kill?*****

* William Wordsworth
** Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*** Ted Hughes
**** Sir John Betjeman
***** Sylvia Plath

The Yarny army was in town,
To watch sister, daughter, friend, come down,
On a tea tray, on sheet ice,
So only serious nerves suffice,
But Lizzy’s the golden girl, who took the crown.

Lizzy Yarnold, Olympic champion 2014 Women’s Skeleton Bob – she won by 97 seconds, unheard of in such a sport. In comparison, only 10 seconds separated 3rd, 4th and 5th.

In your eyes,
I am ten feet tall,
There’s nothing I can’t do at all.

In your eyes,
I’m a heroine,
A Stradivarius violin.

In your eyes,
I do no wrong,
I’m an Oscar-winning song.

In my eyes,
You see reflections of
A selfless, mindful, heart-felt love.

Your eyes are
Windows to your soul,
A stunning, wondrous, precious whole.

You attempt to do a New Year’s Diet,
To try and keep your other half quiet.
But the weight that you lose,
Isn’t with food that you’d choose,
So you have to force yourself to buy it!

I really do love a good radish,
They simply are truly delish!
You can buy a Red King, or a Cherry Belle,
A Plum Purple, an Easter Egg, a Champion as well!
And there are the Black ones, which are all Spanish!