True Worth.

In My Garden Yesterday 

Yesterday at my bird feeder I saw such a variety of birds. Over twenty goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, bullfinch ,coal tits and blue tits and of course a few sparrows and other common visitors. The on I did not see who is usually there every day was a robin. Maybe a bit too busy for him.

With so many birds the feeders empty fairly quickly, but it is in my opinion many well spent the joy they all bring.

Goldfinches seem to fly in flocks but that does not seem to stop them all fighting and pushing at the feeders. Seems to be a part of nature that we all make sure we are ok. Darwin called this survival of the fittest.

I had kind of hoped that humans had to some extent grown past all of this but maybe I am a dreamer.

I have tried very hard to keep this blog from being either political or preaching so I am going to refrain from saying any more about what is making me feel that survival of the fittest seems to be fit and healthy.

There are a series of stories about monkeys in the Buddhist faith one of which I took time to read again yesterday. Let me share it with you. 

There was a jungle in which there lived a large family of Baboon Monkeys. Those are the ones who seem to have long arms and short legs.

This group of monkeys liked to adorn their long arms with bracelets of leaves and such. A Macaque Monkey on seeing this thought their was a business opportunity. His name was Mambo.

Mambo collected from various places a large collection of bracelets, very shiny and pretty. He took these to show to the Baboons telling them they were the most expensive he could find. 

All the baboon with the exception of one rushed around gathering bananas to trade with mambo for his beautiful bracelets.

Nico one of the baboons decided not to get involved. He had always wondered what purpose these trinkets served? So while all the trading and exchanging was going on he looked into the cart of the trader mambo. There he found some metal objects made of twists of old iron. 

He spoke to Mambo about this metal and he happily gave them to Nic for just a few bananas. "They are useless, " He said, "take them away."

Soon Mambo had sold out and had left happy. The Baboons were now all decorated in their bracelets and feeling very good. 

The trouble began later when because of the bracelets, which they could not now get off stopped them from eating.

Nico who had seemed such a fool buying old junk and not beautiful bracelets was the only one who could feed himself. He took on the task of feeding the others and grew in the respect of all. 

it did not take too long for Nic to discover that he had in his possession a box of tools. With these tools he was able to achieve amazing things. One of the most important being to remove the useless bracelets. 

That was how, thanks to the wisdom of Nico , that baboons realised that the price of things has nothing to do with the actual value.

We can easily get carried away with our fads and desires and become inward and selfish. We can know the price of everything and the value of nothing. 

Some of the most valuable things in life come free .

I hope you have a wonderful and love filled day. 

  

The magic Fountain.

The Little Holiday Cottage at Pillars 

This little cottage sits beside the little car park beside the organic cafe that I pass frequently on my daily walks. The little cafe has a place where a person can sit out summer and winter. Little blankets are provided to keep you warm on colder days.

A great many people meet there and share a warming cup. It is a place dedicated to caring for the environment so it holds a little warm place in my heart.

As I stoppedI could hear the voices of the groups of infants from the local nursery schools having fun scrambling about over the hillocks and fallen trees. The place was full of the sound of happiness and I felt lifted.

 As I studied the little cottage with its whip of smoke from its chimney I remembered the tale of the little boy and his woodland walk.

Once upon a time, a boy was walking through a wood and he thought he could hear a sad cry, as though someone was crying while singing. Following the sound he came to a big, round, mysterious, grey fountain.

The sad sobbing seemed to be coming from the fountain pool. The boy swept aside the pool's dirty surface water and saw a group of grey fish swimming in a slow circle through the pond. With each lap they made, their little voices opened and out came the sobbing sound.

Amused by this, the boy tried to catch one of these incredible talking fish. But when he stuck his arm into the water it turned grey right up to the elbow. As this happened, a huge sadness entered into him, and he suddenly understood how sorrowful the fish was feeling. He felt just like the earth on his arm; dirty and contaminated.

He quickly pulled his arm out of the water, and ran from that place. But the arm stayed grey, and the boy continued feeling sad. He tried so many times to cheer himself up, but nothing worked. That was, until he realised that if he were to make the Earth happy then that happiness would be, in turn, transmitted back to him, through the earth on his arm.

From then on he set about looking after the countryside. He cared for the plants, he did what he could to keep the water from being polluted, and he encouraged others to do the same. 
He was so successful that his hand started to recover its normal colour. When the grey had disappeared completely, he started feeling happy again, and he decided to go and visit the fountain. When he was still some way from the fountain he could hear the fish singing happy songs, and he heard them joyfully splashing in the crystal clear waters of that magic fountain.

It was plain to see that the Earth had returned to its original happiness; and the boy felt even happier at the sight.

As Lao Tzu keeps reminding us that idk we are to be at peace and happy then we must also be in harmony with all around us.

We live in very troubled times and there are many angry voices all around. 

Have a good day go and seek out the little places of harmony and bring them home with you. 

Let us get together.

Rocks 

I was thinking about the telephone kiosk, in our little village, and the fact that it is under consideration as one of the kiosks that are to be put out of use. This is understandable considering how little they will ever be used, with almost everybody having a cell phone. 

I wondered how it could be put to an alternative use.  I came up with one or two. 

Maybe a little art gallery to show off some of the artwork produced by the local school children? Or now that we no longer have a library in the village maybe it could become a little shelved area for the local sharing of books, for all ages.

While I was thinking along these lines I remembered the eastern tale of the book inkwell and feather. 

Once upon a time, in a small city, there was an empty storybook. 

The book looked great, with an impressive cover, but all its pages were blank. Children and grown-ups would pick up the book with anticipation, but finding no stories inside, they would cast the book aside. 

Not far from there, a lovely inkwell had been full of ink for years. His owner had forgotten about it, and left it away in some corner. The inkwell and the storybook cursed their bad luck, as they spent their days doing nothing.

Fortune had it that one time when the book was thrown away he ended up next to the inkwell. 

For days and days the two of them swapped stories about their bad luck, and they could have carried on for years, if an elegant swan feather had not floated down and landed next to them. 

Having fallen from his swan, the feather felt lonely and abandoned for the first time in his life. He cried and cried, and the book and the inkwell joined in, letting out all their sadness at the years of neglect.

However, unlike his companions, the feather soon tired of crying, and he resolved to improve the situation. Drying his tears, and leaving his complaints behind, he clearly saw how the three of them, working together, could achieve a lot more than just suffering.

He convinced his friends to write a story. The storybook opened up his best pages, the inkwell didn't spill even a drop, and the feather contributed great ingenuity and beautiful writing. 

Together they managed to write a lovely story about three friends who helped each other to improve their lives.

Then one day a young teacher passed by, head down and looking sad, wondering how he could keep his pupils´ attention. 

He found the storybook, the inkwell and the feather. The teacher read the book, and found the story charming. He picked up the three artists, and continued on his way to school. When lessons began he told the story to his pupils, and they were all attentive and captivated.

Every night from then on, feather, inkwell, and storybook got together and wrote a new story for the young teacher. 

They felt so happy and proud at having managed to improve their fate, thanks to their hard work and collaboration.

It is amazing what an old telephone kiosk might become if there was some collaboration. I also wonder just what could be achieved in life if we could all rewind the art of collaboration. 

Have a wonderful day, why not share it with a friend and collaborate on something. 

 

Something to learn.

Elie in Fife

I smiled yesterday when I heard somebody repeat a well known saying, "Every day is a school day." How true it can be that every day if we take the time we can learn something new.

I have a friend who since retiring has been continually signed up for a variety of courses trying to attain the university degree he never managed to get in his youth. 

There are a great many blocks to a life of learning. The first I suppose is that we just cannot be bothered. We learn enough to get us through the day any more is seen as a task.

Then there are those who feel that they have nothing to learn because they already know everything, and anyway who would you be to teach me, kind of people. I have met a few of those in my time and worked with a few.

It is a very true fact of life that none of us are ever too old to learn something new and exciting. We just need to grasp the day.

This reminds me of a tale about a landlord in an inn who thought he had nothing to learn. One of his customers decided it was time he was taught a little lesson. 

He sat at the bar one day with a little handful of balls wrapped in silver foil. 

The landlord being his usual self asked what they were?  The customer said, "They are brain pills they make you very smart." he proceeded to eat one. 

The landlord very excitedly says, "Give me one." Without waiting he snatches one from the customer and gulps it over quickly with a glass of ale. 

A bit later he comes back to the customer saying that he had been talking rubbish because he felt no different. The customer tells him that he must not have had enough. So he hands him another which he again washes down with some ale. 

Half an hour later he is back asking for a third pill. This time he looks at it with much more care. He sighs it and puts it to the end of his tongue to taste it. 

He turns back to the customer. "Why this is nothing but rabbit dropping!"

"See," says the customer, "you are getting smarter already."

There is nothing in life worse than the person who already thinks they know everything and have nothing to learn.

Have a marvellous day and do remember every day is a school day. 

Todays Agenda.

A little sketch done at Elie on Saturday.

Oh how easy it is to get so busy that we have very little time for anything or anybody. I know that I have said this before, but I make absolutely no apologies for saying it again. The most important lesson my father ever taught me was that I should do one little kindness every day or if I could not manage that at least once a day bring a little smile to the face of another. 

I do my very best to do just that and most days I think I will manage, though there are days when I find myself in a dark spot and it can easily slip off the radar. 

I realised the other day there that at least two days had gone past when I might have slipped up. I might not have but I had not consciously made the effort. 

So as a way of compensation I decided to draw up a little correction agenda day to put matters right. 

So here was my agenda. 

Smile at a stranger.

Drop a coin where a child is almost sure to find it.

Learn something new and pass it on.

Tell someone I love them.

Give someone a hug.

Forgive somebody who has wronged me. 

Search my conscience and if needed apologise.

Tell at least one person that something they have done is marvellous.

Make somebody I do not know smile.

Ten things on my list. How did I get on. I managed to hit all ten in the one day and I am here to tell you who benefitted most from my days agenda.

Simple ME.

The stranger smiled back and actually said hello, he will not be a stranger next time I see him. I did drop the coin and on my return I noticed it had gone so mission accomplished, though I cannot guarantee it was a child but I did leave it where adults would not be looking.

I learned something new and I did pass it on but I am sure I will benefit from the learning of it. 

Believe it or not the rest of the list all came fairly easily and I will most surely feel all the better for it.  The sun shone and the day was good. 

I hope I do not just slip back, and once again hear the little voice of my father , "Do one good thing a day or at least make one person smile."

Have a marvellous day and remember the fact that you took time to read this makes my day so you can tick that off the agenda for today. 

Go on you know you want to try a little agenda. I could make it harder and say do it without Facebook or SMS. 

How do you spend your day?

The Clock Tower Dunfermline.

I often find myself looking at certain places or buildings that bring back memories of old. The clock tower in the high street of Dunfermline is one such building. 

The trouble is that more and more things bring back memories a sure sign that we are all getting older. Even those of you who are still at that age when you can think and act like you still have an eternity to live.

Yesterday I was asked if I had managed to achieve all the things I had wanted to in my life. Without having to think for a moment I was able to respond with a positive, NO.

I have always, from a very early age wanted to make a difference, now I am not really sure what I ever meant by that , but i just knew I wanted to make enough of a difference to be remembered for a bit after my parting.  

I wanted to do that from a very early age, my family told me from as young as six years old. 

As we get older we doubt our ability to "make a difference" in the world.

It is at such times that our hopes and wishes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other seniors. Those who have found the courage to take on the challenges that would make many of us wither. 

One of my good friends is one such person. He told me, in a very earnest voice, "I have often been asked , "What do you do now that you are retired?"

His answer comes fast, and with a degree of certainty.

I am very fortunate. I have all my life been interested in chemistry. I was also fortunate enough to become a chemistry teacher. 

I have always been interested in chemical reactions and this has brought me a great amount of interest in my retired years. 

I enquired just exactly what it was he meant. 

He replied. " Well one of the things I enjoy most in life is converting beer, wine and whiskey into urine. it is rewarding, uplifting , satisfying and fulfilling. I do this most days of the week and I really do enjoy it. "

 Have a marvellous day I just might enjoy doing a bit of conversion at some point today. 

Those Senior Years.

My Home Town.

I remember when I was eleven years old, how I longed to be a teenager. Then when those days eventually arrived, how I longed to be over eighteen. There seemed to be so many things that could be done at that age that were not permitted prior to that. 

I can always remember my dear old gran saying to me, "Oh lad stop wishing your life away. Those things in their own good time will come your way. " Just as she had said they did indeed come.

Sadly they too passed away, often more speedily than I would have liked. They were indeed good years. 

So maybe that is why I found myself lamenting getting older. Yesterday I discovered that rather then lament I should be rejoicing. 

I have become, wait for it, a "Seenager."  This I am told on great authority, is just like being a teenager again but so much better. 

I have all of the attributes that I so desired as a teenager, only 60 years later. Rejoice, I say again rejoice.

I do not have to go to school, which means nobody drags me out of bed in the morning to get ready. 

I get a monthly allowance, they just call it a pension.

I have my own pad. I am not talking about my iPad, I mean that in the sense of my pad. Or as they say in the west my own bit.

I have no curfews, I can stay out as long as I like.

I have a driver's license and own my own car.

I have an ID that gets me into bars and wine stores. Ok so it also gets me on the bus.

The people I hang around with are not scared of getting pregnant, they are not scared of anything. Like me they consider it something special that they have lived so long, so why would they ever be scared of anything.

I no longer have to look in the mirror and fret over acne and spots, who cares?

Another thing that makes life so good, is that by the time you reach the end of this page you will be feeling so much better and much more intelligent, that is if like me, you are a Seenager.

The brains of older people  are slow, but that is simply because they know so much.

People who grow older do not in fact decline mentally, it just takes them longer to compute the facts because they have more information in the brain that requires sorting.

Science has proven that this makes it more difficult to hear properly because of all the pressure on the inner ear from all this information overload.

It is a well known fact,  Seenagers often find themselves in another room to collect something, and when they get there, they stand wondering why they are there. This is NOT, let me repeat, this is NOT a memory problem, it is natures way of making older people do more exercise.

So you see! No need to bemoan it is time to rejoice.

I have so many more friends I should send this to, But right now I cannot remember their names. So maybe you could forward this to your friends, some of them might indeed be some of my friends also.

Have a wonderful day and a great weekend act like a Seenager. Be not afraid.

    

Oh to be slim again.

Oh to be so young and slim again.

At present I have been making a concentrated effort to lose the little extra weight I have put on over the winter. It is not so easy to drag yourself out on a cold wet day to do some walking and exercise. The other real difficulty is when not out, it means simply that you are at home.

Now being at home for me means that the coffee machine keeps calling me and the chocolate biscuits that have found their way into the fridge manage to attract my attention. Before you know where you are weight has slipped on.

So for the past few days I have been resisting and walking twice a day managing at least ten miles of walking. But more important, ten miles of no snacking. 

I really do not do diets. 

Most of us have tried at least once a diet, in order to lose the extra pounds. We have given up our favourite foods, changed how much we eat, and when we eat. 

Most of us also realise that even though it is essential to our well being it is not at all easy. So a sense of humour is called for or life gets so very serious. 

I was thinking of this as I walked yesterday.

Two things we need to know to begin with, are two important words and they're meanings.

Calories:  Tiny devious creatures that live in our wardrobes, and make our clothes smaller every night.

Diet: An odd process where, instead of watching what we eat, we watch what other people eat. 

A professional dieting expert was giving a lecture to a group of people who were about to retire. I remember being told how dangerous a time that can be the change of lifestyle making comfort food more attractive. 

He began, "The food we eat is so bad for us, that it will hurt our health several years down the road.

Sugary drinks eat up the lining of our stomach, processed food is so full of chemicals, meat is full of preservatives, even our water is filled with germs. I have not even reached fatty foods yet!

Do you know which type of dessert will give you the most troubles and suffering after you have eaten it?"

The whole group fell silent. Then one of the men sitting in the second front row raised his hand and was invited to respond. He stood up and said, "A wedding cake."

I am not sure he was grasping the purpose of the meeting. 

I asked a very good friend how, in spite of all the diets he tried he still did not manage to lose any weight.

He replied, "Between you and me, and I do not wish to boast about this, but I guess I am just too good! This week I managed to finish a two week diet in three hours and twenty minutes. 

Have a wonderful day. Oh, yesterday,  I managed to walk passed the shop selling Smarties Mini Eggs, they are so addictive.

It is all a conspiracy.

 
Some roofs in Falkland.

I do find it amusing that so many of my friends find it funny when I muse about getting old.  I often wonder if they are fully aware of what is going on around them. That is how politicians and all of those in any kind of power get away with things

Because we do not pay enough attention to what is happening around us. 

Have you noticed that stairs are getting steeper?  

Groceries are heavier.  

And, everything is farther away. 

Yesterday I walked to the corner and I was dumbfounded to discover how long our street has become!  This extension work was apparently done at night!! Very sneaky stuff.  

And, you know, people are less considerate now, especially the youngsters. They speak in whispers all the time! If you ask them to speak up they just keep repeating themselves, endlessly mouthing the same silent message until they're red in the face! What do they think I am, a lip reader?

I also think they are much younger than I was at the same age. 

On the other hand, people my own age are so much older than I am. I ran into an old friend the other day, and she has aged so much that she didn't even recognise me. 

I got to thinking about the poor dear while I was combing my hair this morning, and in doing so, I glanced at my own reflection........ Well, REALLY NOW - even mirrors are not made the way they used to be! 

Another thing, everyone drives so fast these days! You're risking life and limb if you happen to pull onto the road in front of them.  All I can say is, their brakes must wear out awfully fast, the way I see them screech and swerve in my rear view mirror. 

Clothing manufacturers are less civilised these days. 

Why else would they suddenly start labelling a size 30 pair of jeans a 32, or medium shirt as 'large'? Do they think no one notices that these things no longer fit around the waist, hips, thighs, and neck? 

The people who make bathroom scales are pulling the same prank, but in reverse. Do they think I actually "believe" the number I see on that dial? Heck!  I would never let myself weigh that much! Just who do these people think they're fooling? 

I'd like to call up someone in authority to report what's going on -- but the telephone company is in on the conspiracy too: they've printed the phone books in such small type that no one could ever find a number in there! 

All I can do is pass along this warning: We are under attack! Unless something drastic happens, pretty soon everyone will have to suffer these awful indignities. 

 PS: I am sending this to you in a larger font size, because something has caused my computer's regular fonts to be smaller than they once were. (They must be sneaking to my house and messing around with my computer. Probably MI5, They cannot be trusted at all even Donald will tell you this!!!) 

Pretty scary stuff is it not? 

I hope you have a wonderful day Please join my campaign for a stop to this terrible conspiracy.

Rugby and banter.

 
Not Melrose but some roofs in Falkland.

It was appropriate being in Melrose for the last weekend of the Six Nations Rugby. Melrose is very much a rugby town and it was marvellous to return there and join some of the locals to watch one of the games.

When I was a university student I had occasion to visit all of the border rugby towns. They had a tournament called the rugby sevens. I had a part time job with the Edinburgh Evening News. I was given the task of taking a number of paper sellers down to the rugby sevens each Saturday with a van load of sports papers that we sold as the supporters left the various grounds.

I remember some pretty rough stories about the supporters of those days, the banter and chat has not changed but some of the pranks no longer happen. 

I remember being in a local inn with a number of supporters watching the results and such come through on television. One old man got up to go to the toilet . Before leaving his drink he wrote on a beer mat, "I have spat in this pint," which he had not in fact done, but this was to ensure it would still be there on his return. 

On coming back from the toilet he went to lift the beer mat from the top of his glass to read, "So have I."

I later watched in horror as an old man in the same predicament took out of his mouth his bottom set of false teeth and dropping them into his beer. They were still there on his return.

 Cliff Morgan, the rugby maestro who later became a commentator and eventually head of BBC TV sport, vividly recalls his first broadcasting experience. Wales had just beaten Ireland 14-3 in Dublin on their way to the Triple Crown and Grand Slam when BBC radio commentator Sammy Walker asked the great man what he remembered about the match.

‘’My father losing his teeth,’’ said Cliff. ‘’When Ken Jones scored our second try, dad was so excited that his dentures flew out of his mouth into the crowd and he hasn’t seen them since.’’ 

Some years later, Morgan was recounting the tale to Tony O’Reilly, who played 29 times for his country before becoming a mega-rich international businessman and head of the Heinz empire. 

O’Reilly, who was renowned for his great wit, feigned surprise at the news. ‘’Your father’s, were they?’’ he said. Cliff Morgan, the rugby maestro who later became a commentator and eventually head of BBC TV sport, vividly recalls his first broadcasting experience. Wales had just beaten Ireland 14-3 in Dublin on their way to the Triple Crown and Grand Slam when BBC radio commentator Sammy Walker asked the great man what he remembered about the match.

‘’Your father’s, were they?’’ he said."I know a lad in county Cork who is still wearing them."

There really is nothing better than good down to earth honest folk seeking a little laugh.

Have a good day and as my friend Jim would say, "Have a good wee chuckle." 

You cannot beat it.

Melrose Abbey.

I can never understand why people keep complaining about getting old, it is not as if it is a surprise, loads of teachers and adults told us that we had to remember that one day like them we would be old.

What was strange was that we never believed them and now we seem surprised that it has happened. I keep asking myself why I never noticed, why it has taken me all those years tone aware of what has been happening since for me away back in 1944.

There are loads of advantages.

As you get older one thing that is sure is that your secrets will be safe with friends. They cannot remember them either.

Like them I live in my own little world. That is ok because everybody there knows me.  People laugh when I tell them that I am past the age of health foods, for goodness sake at my age I need all the preservatives I can get.

I watch my friends around me and wonder when like them I will stop lying about my age and start bragging about how old I am.

I now and again do feel guilty about my concern for fitness. I do walk very regularly  but it is not like running, it is a slower kind of fitness. I often feel that I would be unstoppable, if I could only get started. I therefore decided to begin doing some exercises  and joined a gym. I decided to sign up for the aerobics class for seniors ( Like that seniors, not anything like old git that my pals call me). I went to the class, I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, I perspired and sweated. By the time I had got out of my outdoor gear and into my gym clothes the class had finished. So I have given that a miss.

Somebody told me to join a self help group. I thought about that and wondered how can you possibly have anything like a "self help group?" Think about that it seems like a contradiction.

Anyway time to stop boring you anymore about my raging process. The bottom line is you cannot stay young forever. But I have discovered you can stay immature for your entire life.

Now I hope I covered all the bases! I am having amnesia, dementia, and deja vu, all at the same time. I think I have forgotten this before.

Have a wonderful day and remember, the older you get , the fewer the things worth waiting in line for there is to worry about.

  

  

 

Bananas

I have been having some serious discussions with a very dear friend.  I told this friend that I had been reading about the great health values there comes form eating bananas. I had in fact read that if you ate two a day you would solve a great many worries about your daily intake of all the required vitamins and other good things. 

I personally would find not a problem eating two a day I so love them for their taste never mind all the good things they have. 

Somebody pointed out to me that they were rather heavy on calories so I checked that out as well. 

So no more talk about them it seems that they do infect have many great qualities.

Here is a lovely little story that confirms this fact. 

A lady was on the bus back in the days when on the buses they had conductors who sold the tickets. We used to call the clippers and there were a great many jokes about clippers when I was a boy. 

This lady had told the conductor where she was going and he had printed her ticket from his machine, she was searching for the money to pay her fare.  It was taking her ages and the conductor was getting angrier and angrier. He got so angry he hit the lady with his ticket machine. She died instantly.

The conductor was arrested and duly sentenced to death by electrocution. 

Prior to his electrocution he asked for twelve pounds of bananas which he duly ate. Once he has finished they strap him into the chair and pull the switch. He just sits there and grins.

Now because he has not died the state has to let him go free.

He get a job as a conductor with a bus company that does not know him. Not long after getting his job he again loses his temper and a poor young lad who he had caught sticking chewing gum under the seat was hit and died. 

Again he is arrested and sentenced to death. Again he orders twelve pends of bananas which he eats. Again he is strapped to the chair and the switch is flipped and again he sits there and smiles. 

Again believe it or not he is released again. 

Soon he get a job as a conductor on a train and again there is an incident and he finds himself back on death row.

Again he orders the bananas and the same thing happens yet again even though they have checked all the electrode and put his feet in a bucket of water. 

Again it does not kill him. They are going to be forced to release him yet again. The executioner perplexed asks him what it is with the bananas.

"Oh it is nothing to do with bananas, I just love to eat bananas, " he says,  "the problem really is simple. I am a really bad conductor."

Have a wonderful day I hope you are starting it with a little smile. 

 

The Rooster and the Pearl.

When keeping hens I learned very early on that you did not put the food for the day in a trough or container. The hens then just had to go and eat it  and were quickly finished and then just lay about. 

So the food was spread around the hen run. I also spread straw so that the hens had to scratch about in the straw to find the crushed oats and corn that I had scattered. Busy hens were contended hens.

There is a lovely chines tale about just this.

A rooster was strutting around the yard, busily looking for good things to eat.  Peck, peck scratch, scratch it went.   He gobbled down a piece of barley-corn with greedy satisfaction.   

Every time it found some food it gobbled it down then stretched his neck up high, and flapped his wings in delight.  Then he shook out all his feathers and strutted to the far side of the yard, eyes alert for more good food.  

Other hens were scratching industriously around the fence post, but he ignored them.  He was searching for any spare barley corn that might have been overlooked by the other chickens at feeding time.    

Then he  saw something glimmering underneath the dusty straw beside the barn.  Oh-ho!  What was that?  Scratch, scratch, scratch!  

He worked industriously, trying to root out the object, which glowed in the morning sun.  A moment later, he dug out a very large pink pearl.  

He stared at the pearl, looking at it first through his right eye, and then through his left.

What sort of strange seed was this?  He pecked it a couple of times.   It rolled back and forth under the force of his strong beak, but it didn’t break open like a seed would after such a blow.  

He scratched at it with his claws.  Still nothing.  

The pearl rolled a few inches away from Rooster’s foot, and landed next to a spare barley corn that the hens had missed.  With a delighted cluck, Rooster pounced on the barley corn and gobbled it up.  

He then took a step back and his foot slipped when it landed on the pearl.  Reminded once again of the strange pink seed, he  turned around to look at it.  

He eyed the pearl suspiciously, and pecked it again.  

It didn’t break open, so he  gave a cluck of disgust.  No prize there.  Who could possible want a seed so hard you couldn’t eat it?  Not him.  He preferred barley corn.  

He  strutted away, his keen eyes on the lookout for more barley corn.  Behind him, the lost pearl – a 200 carat natural salt-water pearl valued at  over £1000. 

It glinted unheeded in the morning sun.  

It was of no interest to him.

The value of everything lies in the eye of the beholder. 

Not each of us lies a message. What we find valuable may be of no blouse to others. For the artist it is wise to know that not everybody will appreciate the work you produce.

We can all but give of our best. 

Have a wonderful day.

The end is nigh.

Another of my friends from Facebook.

Today I am away from home spending time with my family so my apologies that today this is a short and rather light little blog.

The kind of little story i am about to tell is one of those tales that can be changed so easily depending on whom it is that is telling it. I certainly do not want to get involved in the present politics even though it does make me smile how easily we all fall into our own respective views and put on our own particular shade of spectacles. 

I have many friends from all the various parts of the united kingdom and appreciate their friendship so please just change this tale and enjoy.

An Englishman, Irishman, Welshman, Scotsman were captured while fighting in a far-off foreign land, and the leader of the captors said, 'We're going to line you up in front of a firing squad and shoot you all in turn. But first, you each can make a final wish.'

The Englishman responds, 'I'd like to hear "God Save The Queen" just one more time to remind me of the green and pleasant country, played by the London All Boys Choir, and a little rendering of Chariots. With Morris Dancers Dancing to the tune.'

The Irishman replies, 'I'd like to hear "Danny Boy" just one more time to remind me of the auld country, sung in the style of Daniel O'Donnell, with Riverdance dancers skipping gaily to the tune.'

The Welshman answers, 'I'd like to hear "Men Of Harlech" just one more time to remind me of the country, sung as if by the Treorchy Male Voice Choir.' 

The Scotsman says quickly, 'I'd like to be shot first.'

Have a marvellous day. 

Two Roosters.

It made me sad to read of one of my friends who started off with six hens is now down to her last one. The others have all had a good life and have gone to wherever it is that the chi of dead chickens go. Now she is left with one.

This took me back to my days when I lived in Clackmannan and I ended up with a large number of hens. It all started with my getting twelve little chickens to have in the church on Easter Sunday. Sadly at the end of the service the chicken farm where they came from did not want them back. They did offer to kill them. 

I just could not get my head around this at all, so I built a henhouse and made a large run for them in one of the disused buildings in the back yard. It had no roof on it so it was ideal. 

The bottom line was that with my nature before long  I had over  forty hens of all kinds. 

This reminded me of the story of the Two Roosters. 

There were two roosters in the same chicken run. They were both very strong and beautiful looking birds. Both had a loud and strong cock a doodle do. 

The trouble is that neither rooster was will to tolerate the other. Two was one to many.

The day came when it had to be decided who stayed and who went. There followed and ferocious battle between the two. This battle went on and on for a long stretch of the morning. 

At last one of the roosters prevailed and the other with its tail between its legs went off to pastors new. 

Feeling full of pride and very confident in itself the victor flew up to a high spot and loudly proclaimed it presence.  Just at that moment a buzzard was flying past and seeing the rooster in full view swooped down and with its sharp talons grabbed it and took it off to its roost, it food for the next few days assured. 

It is a well known fact that pride often come before a fall.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling good about oneself but it is wise to feel good humbly.

Have a wonderful day.