Sunday 24 January 2010

Miscellany

Sometimes, during the week, there's something which catches my eye, perhaps a single picture, or a quirky view, a funny poem, anything at all really, which tickles my fancy but is not necessarily meaty enough to make a satisfying post.

So, methinks, what's wrong with bunging several things into the same post and calling it 'Miscellany'?



Early on, after the snow had gone, I found that the snowdrops, which had been
hiding since Christmas, had freed themselves from the icy constraints.
There are now three clumps proudly displaying their
pretty bells, the first harbingers of Spring.








Running my bath this morning,
I found that a spider had crawled up the drainpipe
during the night, only to find itself trapped in the bath.
Poor thing.
All that effort deserved better than just being flushed back
down again; So I took some toilet paper, slipped it under
the spider, which instantly clung to it, spun a few
silken strands and thanked me prettily, before
I opened the window and gently set it
on to the windowsill, there
to take its chance.








Dog Walkers' Convention.

Does anybody realize how hard it is to get six dogs to stand
still long enough to have their picture taken?
The one with the nose under the tail of the one in front is
actually a girl; there's no morals anywhere nowadays.
Even the girls are at it.








We had a sunny day this week,
ending in a pretty, particoloured, cotton wool sky.
The days are getting longer,
at a quarter to five today,
dusk was only an idea,
half-formed.








And to end today's medley,
I shall share with you what Beloved said,
when he came into my study and found me at my blog.

"awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock,
from a cheap and chippy chopper,
on a big black blo(ck)g"




When I stopped laughing, he explained
that this is a line in
Gilbert and Sullivan's
comic opera


'The Mikado'


describing the victim's state of mind seconds before the chopper chops.






P.S. 
What has caught your eye, what has tickled your fancy ? Do tell.


P.P.S. (added after reading the first three comments)


I would be happy for you to use the idea on your own blogs. I also meant to ask what has caught your eye in YOUR week.












36 comments:

  1. Hi Friko - I love your Miscellany idea!

    Hard to pick one - enjoyed them all - nice to get a little taste of your Beloved's sense of humour. Loved the tenderness you showed with the spider and the your sharp wit with the dogs.

    Overall I guess I just plain enjoy your take on things - always insightful, with a little twist, a wry smile (?) and occasionally offering a little poke or prod.

    I think I'm falling in love or maybe I should just call it a blog crush! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi friko - snowdrops, the word "spring", a border collie smiling, tree fingers tickling the sunset sky. that's my miscellaneous response to the miscellany. thankyou very much!! steven

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it's a great idea to post occasionally like this. There must be many a good post that goes unseen because the blogger feels there isn't enough material to warrant one. You have devised the perfect answer to that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really enjoyed this miscellany, because you do it so well. The dog picture made me laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are such a distinctive writer when you complain about posts not having enough meat and then putting together this string of interesting thoughts. My comment on the dogs is if they have the most fantastic sense of smell...why do they do that??

    Love the thought that spring is around the corner since you live to the north of me!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've been having Random Thoughts lately too, and wondering if a collection of them would be "enough." Yours, clearly and poetically, is!

    Tabor...dogs do that because they can't shake hands with each other. :-P

    ReplyDelete
  7. I slept 14 hours last night-had a dramatic week, and not in a good way. Wish I had a nice spider-like image to share with you now, but that little fellow in your post looks like a brown recluse to me now.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I feel as if you have given us all permission to blog about little things. These things, far from being trivial, are are a mosaic of things that make life good. Thanks Friko.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I believe that if blog readers were all to be truly honest with one another we'd acknowledge that it is just that - the miscellany - that interests us the most. The small differences between us, the little nothings - they are the meat, the revelation...whatever. I can read the paper or go to online news sites to read about the urgent, immediate and earth-shattering. I read blogs for a look at more intimate aspects of our human condition - what makes you smile, what makes him sad, what do they eat, where do they go for amusement, how does he cook, what is she reading.............so I loved this one.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like this post.

    Too bad you couldn't have gotten the spider to pose with the dogs. Now that would have been a REALLY good shot...

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's a great idea to use up the snippets. I may just steal it. I love that your beloved can quote G&S to wilttily.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That was one great medley. Loved it all.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a guy! But then, he'd have to be, to keep up to you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Liebe Ursula,
    eine brilliante Idee, diese Rubrik "Vermischtes". Leider fehlt mir ein wenig die Zeit, um etwas Vergleichbares in meine Blog zu starten, was mich aber keinesfalls hindern wird, das Deinige zu genießen.
    Zu Punkt 1) kann ich nur sagen, dass eine leichte Welle von Gartenneid mich geflutet hat: Schneeglöckchen - die ersten!! Welche Freude ist das und wie unvorstellbar zur Zeit in unseren Breitengraden. Wir spielen hier ein wenig Sibirien oder Kanada - auf jeden Fall gehen die Temperaturen ständig in den zweistelligen Minusbereicht und die Schneeglöckchen scheinen doch nicht so mutig zu sein, ihr Glück zu versuchen.

    zu Punkt 2) sage ich nur Bravo! ich mache es auch immer so, schließlich sind die armen, gequälten und ständig so höchst verkannten und überflüssigerweise massakrierten Kreaturen wirkliche Nützlinge und haben auch ihre Rechte - nun ja, nicht gerade in der Badewanne, aber draußen allemal.

    Punkt 3) du sagst es, Verfall der Sitten oder es lebe die Emanzipation

    Punkt 4) schon wieder Neid - denn auch seit ewig langer Zeit kein Sonnenlicht (fühle mich wie ein Grottenolm) ergo auch keine so traumhaften Sonnenuntergänge.

    ein Grund mehr zum Genießen bei Dir vorbei zu schauen.

    liebste Grüße und einen schönen Start in die bereits letzte Woche des Januars

    Isabella

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bonnie - oooh Bonnie; I am crushed! I'd love to have a small peek into your day as well as the wonderful insight you give us into your mind.

    steven - and what a lovely miscellaneous reply that is.

    Martin H - it's a plan then? We shall have a 'Miscellany' club?

    Fran Hill - thank you Fran; you want to se the owners! At least as shaggy, if less intrusive.

    Tabor - dogs spend hours drooling over the foulest smells; you're lucky if they don't eat the source.

    June - Good, another member of the 'Miscellany' club. As for the dogs, so why don't they just rub noses?

    Mark - Sorry about your week, hope things are better and you don't feel like becoming a recluse yourself.

    20th Century Woman - glad you like the idea too; so I will be seeing similar little nonsenses from you? It's good to be light-hearted.

    Pondside - exactly! That's just how it is. So thank you for that.

    Amada - I'm not a fast enough shooter for that; all of them would have pushed their noses against the spider instantly and the one nearest would have put a paw on it. Ergo, no picture and one ex-spider.

    Argent - please do; wouldn't it be fun and also give us all an intimate picture that would tell us so much more about each other than a carefully worked out article.

    Dave King - thanks Dave, with all this praise I shall do it again and use up snippets, as Argent says.

    Deborah - he's not a bad old stick; time was when I had a job to keep up with him, but I've learned a trick or two from him in the last 22 years.

    veredit - leidet ihr immer noch? Die Schneegloeckchen sind schon laenger da, sie hatten sich nur zwischendurch versteckt.
    Geniesse den Februar, der ist kurz und der Winter ist dann ja auch bald vorbei.

    ReplyDelete
  16. By the time I get to your post a million people have already read it and made their comments and you've answered them. Must be the time zones except there's one from someone I know is even an hour earlier than me. Since I'm always scattered most of my posts probably fit into a medley pattern anyhow. However, what I really was going to say was that I actually tried to read veredit. I haven't practiced Deutsch in a long time. Must have been the Ritalin pill I took this morning. It doesn't stop the scattering just makes the scatter faster! Ich kann nur ein bischen Deutsch.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Miscellany is one of my favorite words. You are so right. By the time I get to my computer, if I had an idea, I have forgotten it. So If I start to type it just seems to me along. Did you see my book I got printed of my blog. A few days back.
    QMM

    ReplyDelete
  18. Love the "idea, half formed" and the picture beneath. Provides hope.
    Please excuse for not leaving much a trace, will take me time tomorrow and correct that.
    A wonderful start into the new week for you all.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a good idea - I guess we are all curious about the lives of our fellow bloggers - who can reveal as much or as little about themselves as they please. We may of course all lead fantasy lives here. Nothing need be real in blog-world - although I suspect most of us are very truthful about our circumstances.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What a great idea for a blog and so interesting. Although I did groan at the G&S - Tom is a big G&S fan!

    ReplyDelete
  21. karin - whatever time or day you comment, I still read it. I love comments, they make me feel important. I lead such a sad little life normally. Keep up the Deutsch, Ritalin or no Ritalin!

    QMM - yes, i did, and I think i commented?

    robert - please call in whenever you can; but there's no Zwang about it.
    Everybody is busy and blogging takes up so much time anyway.

    mountainear - I sincerely hope that not too many of us tell fibs unless they are 'made-up stories'.. Maybe the odd one can be forgiven, but I'd like to think that I get to know regular visitors a bit.


    ChrisH - thanks Chris; as for the G&S, Beloved is a fan and cannot understand my inability to see the funny side. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, having come to them late, as an adult, I can always tell what comes next. Which kills the 'pointe' for me.

    ReplyDelete
  22. We could plan to have a monthly 'Miscellany' club. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Martin H - great idea, I'm in.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Loved yours. Love the idea. May well pinch it.

    ReplyDelete
  25. you cherish even the spider. Good on you!

    I loved this entire post - as usual. You are a jolly friend!


    Aloha, Sister

    Comfort Spiral

    ReplyDelete
  26. always pleased to see someone taking random thoughts and posting them - why not indeed?

    the comment about the dogs not sitting still made me laugh. This week I'm mostly thinking about some impending travel, but you'll have to keep an eye on my blog over the next week or so to find out what!

    ReplyDelete
  27. elizabethm - please do, and please join the club. There are always times when blogging a good blog is a bit of a chore. Miscellany is easy, it can be collected in advance.

    Cloudia - thanks friend, the spider will bring me luck. Aloha

    Hungry Pixie - I shall come over and see.

    ReplyDelete
  28. dusk was only an idea,
    half-formed.

    That's a bit like a miscellany post, then? Loved both, btw.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Jinksy - sure was meant to be one. Do join!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I love your blog of the miscellany of little nothings - that's just how life is isn't it? I'm catching the vision. Lots of food for another blog. Will have to see what the rest of the week brings.

    ReplyDelete
  31. The whole thing tickles my fancy so may well have to borrow from you and actaully go and blog something...soon..ish..

    ReplyDelete
  32. 'dusk was only an idea...' These words really attracted my attention. The whole sentence reads a bit like a Haiku - a small beautiful breath with reference to the natural world and a season/time of day... Thank you for this thought. It's the first time I have visited your blog: I guess I came here via the Weaver of Grass, but am not sure.

    Greetings from the other side of the Severn - from South Wales.

    Your miscellany idea is a great one. Perhaps something we should all try...

    ReplyDelete
  33. Me again: thank you for visiting my Coastcard blog: yes, do let me know if you do a Miscellany bloggers day...

    ReplyDelete
  34. I like your random thoughts. I get more "eclectic” thoughts – I publish a post on snow, another on figs, then travel, ect. Since my posts are long I only publish them once a week and it also gives me more time to read all my friends’ blogs. I do look at paintings a lot – on the Net, in books or in museums and they give me ideas about a post. I’ll find a painting, for example showing a still life with figs and decide to publish a post about figs. I just found a painting on the Parthenon by Vasiliy Polenov, and that is giving me the idea about a post on Greece – some day.

    ReplyDelete
  35. mollygolver - hope to see you soon. Yes, do post a miscellany, I'll probably ask you to join.

    her at home - you too, so get tickling those dyslexic fingers! (best fingers to have)

    coastcard - thank you for your very kind words. the contact was probably pics and poems. I love the weaver's blog but we never seem to get round to each other. shame, really. Please join the miscellaneous folk, the more the merrier. Quality only, of course!

    Vagabonde - Tell me about the paintings, please, where do you look, and how do you find out about copyright? Sometimes I want to post a [poem and I would love to add a painting, but I'm never sure about permission.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Well, Friko, I saw a lot of words in your post I recognize but don't use on a regular basis. I just blog about whatever comes to me. I love to fool with the pictures and learn all the gidgets and gadgets. But count me in the misc. Will you set up a day or how do we know when to compose.
    QMM

    ReplyDelete

Comments are good, I like to know what you think of my posts. I know you'll keep it civil.