The debonair Basil Marigold's

...or so they so, whoever 'they' are. I have been through what can only be described as temporary, but at some points I really did think it would be permanent. It's been a pretty long time since I have been able to really, comfortably sit down and type, or in fact, sit down comfortably at all. Today is the day where I have actually felt pain free, all day. Oddly, it has taken 2 whole months to get to this point. On the 10th July I took my friend, Dexter the dog out for a walk. I remember it clearly now as it was a beautifully warm day. The sun was shining and we walked down into the dumbles. Dexter was having fun because the further into the dumbles, the more he could chase and leap at butterflies, and tiny flappy birds.  The following day, 11th July,I woke up and my neck was in absolute agony. I had trapped a nerve somehow and struggled with it all day to the point of swallowing some painkillers. It hadn't gone away by the time I started work on the Monday. By the 15th

 It was Saturday when I started looking for our children's Mother's day card. I had been on point this year and bought all the cards a couple of weeks earlier, as I needed three. Two for Mother's day and a birthday card.  I had them all filled out and ready for despatch in my bureau. As I had multiple cards and another item for my mum I waited until the week before to gather them and pop them into a larger padded envelope. I then got my wife to take them to the post office to post. Job done. Brownie points to me, huzzah. And then on the day before as I went to get my wife's card it had disappeared from my bureau! It had completely evaporated.  Of course I did... This year my mum got two Mother's day cards. One from her son, and the other from her Grandchildren.  Still, every cloud. I can now pick the card back up from my mum and re-use it next year!

After what has seemed 16 and a half years the children have returned back to school. A somewhat staggered start for the two as one is in Primary and the other, Secondary. The return to secondary school has been a little later and has involved more hoops to jump through. However, we have managed to disperse them out and back into the world of education. How safe that world is, well, we just don't quite know. There are so many competing arguments that at the end of the day we can only do what we can.  And so, one returns with excitement in their mind. The other, a little less so. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time in homeschool. I think he has overly enjoyed the company of both parents and to be more honest, the company of having his transformers toys nearer to hand than he will do at his school desk! We are therefore now at the stage where we await what happens in the future and what, if anything, occurs.

 One of the children's presents this year required some effort! It also took a while to get to the bottom of it (you'll get the joke later!) It involved safety glasses and digging tools. Teeny-tiny digging tools. Before you stands the remains of Atlantis, no less!! As you can see, and much like Pompeii it was covered in Volcanic ash when it was destroyed. The drawback of this is that the material is now hardened and does require some effort to crack through the surface. As you can see there is certainly a temple in the landscape.  Both children approached it with gusto!! and after a good hour or so they had managed to extract all the hidden gems and artefacts hidden within the archaeological site. As you can see below a good haul was found and we have declared it treasure to the relevant authorities! We uncovered gem stones, an ancient Atlantan coin and a helmet to match. We even uncovered Poseidon's trident. We have yet to try and summon up a great island destroying wave.

  It is almost the end of 2020. By any metric devised it has been somewhat of a spectacular, and remarkable year. At the end of 2019 people assumed that 2020 could not be more of a mess than the preceding one. Turned out that this could happen. I haven't experienced a year like the one we have lived through. And, in fairness, that is an important point, we have got through it and hopefully we'll come out the other side by the end of the next year. There appear to be now easy or quick fixtures to the Covid pandemic. We must remember the 70,000 who didn't make it through with us. For context that is almost two of our hometowns passing away.  This has not been an event that you had the chance to watch from outside, every was involved. Some followed the rules and some, rather famously, decided that their position allowed them to not follow the rules. An interesting year for the current political philosophy of 'Do as I say, not as I do.' Too much of this is infiltrating

For many years now we have been storing firewood in our house. As you can see from the photograph below the poor chair begged for the cleansing power of a state of burning.  Grim, and unappealing it has sat displaying its ugliness to every room it has been in. The depressing covers and pattern having seen better days at the height of the Suez Crisis. However, my wife has a strange love of the chair and so for a bit of a treat it was decided that maybe fire wasn't the only recourse. Might it not be saved and loved again, as new! And so, after a few weeks of sweet parting the sad pile of firewood returns to the bosom of its family and boy, has it had a great new face lift! Ta-da Clearly unrecognisable! The once hidden wings, have been allowed out to fly again! Therefore the matches and the petrol have been put back!