'tis the Season to be Snuggled Up Indoors

The Christmassy weather continues.

I finally got out of doors yesterday, but simply to tidy up the greenhouse, the only place that is not freezing. My lack of enthusiasm was heartfelt. I watered the gravel bed with its heating cable and picked up leaves from the now bare vine.

At least indoors all was sweetness and light. The baubles and lights have been brought down and already a red and green glittering display is fetchingly placed around the hall mirror. These are the sort of little activities that make life worth living when it is impossible to walk out of doors.

It would be nice to be in a warmer climate. During the Chinese New Year in Melbourne somebody put a Santa hat on one of the Three Businessmen who Brought Their Own Lunch. These sculptures always make me smile...

Statistics

I always go for freeware trackers and maps. The idea of following complex systems that record the three or four visits my blogs get daily is just "de trop". However, there is a neat Map on my Flickr profile where the visitors have been recorded (to that page only, of course) over the past year of two. The nice feature is that all the countries of origin are also listed, which gives a worldwide profile of people who have, momentarily, linked to one's little world.

I Don't Know What Everybody Else in Dublin

... is doing at the moment.

I expect they're trying to conserve as much energy as possible and weather the snow.

The official world news about Ireland is so unflattering it is up to us at the domestic coalface to keep spirits up. The Euro continues to fall (or at least wobble alarmingly) on the world market. Too bad. I expect if it collapses we'll just have to re-unite with Sterling, or start minting some more reliable currency.

In financial circles, everything is negotiable. Since the big boys have negotiated that I now owe thousands of Euro to people I have never met (and hope not to have to), I think it's time to say, as the Dutch said to nuclear power,
"Thank you, but no thank you".

The Theatre of Life

Some of the best moments of my life have been spent at open-air theatre productions. During the 1980's, "Horizon Productions" brought Shakespeare to the masses in Saint Stephen's Green, Dublin, every Summer. John Farrell and Bill Wertz knew how to entertain. Since visiting Melbourne, we have been to cinema in the Royal Botanic Gardens, a showing of "Lord of the Rings" with a full cast of fruit bats flying in at dusk to scare us out of our wits even more. We missed the Shakespeare earlier this year, but certainly I hope to take in a play there next time.