That's a question that has long been asked, with answers being as many and varied as the number of people searching for them. The answers, I mean, not the dinosaurs. They, or their remains, still turn up occasionally to add to our amazement at the window on the past which science and technology open wide.
But I've discovered an equally tantalizing question with no immediate answer. What happened two or three years ago in Blogland? Did a flaring sun spot contribute to the mass black out of Blogger's computer networks? Did a host of typing fingers get RSI in one fell swoop, enough to make their owners quit posting? Or did the ever expanding Twitter and Facebook consume Bloggers whole, swallowing them up in shoals like basking sharks swallowing plankton?
Alas, alack!
Oh, please come back
my former Bloggy friends.
Re-crank your brains and start again -
"Keep blogging to the end!"
I urge you troopers one and all.
Don't let your Muses stifle.
Set to at once, create a post,
though it be but a trifle,
and keep alive creative flames
as through ideas you rifle!!!
And just to add a bit of colour, here's a fancy crochet corner on one of the cushions which kept my fingers away from my keyboard for months.
Thanks go to Dedri Uys for the inspiration which consumed my every waking hour until I'd followed her Sophie's Garden to the centre of her Universe!
Click the links, if you have no idea what I'm talking about. :-)
If you listen carefully to the words in the following ditty you can find the clue as to why I chose such a title for this long overdue post, which will inevitably be a true, napple-rambling note...
I have no idea when early cave men's descendants decided shirts and ties would be worn in favour of pelts, furs or plain old bare skin (!), but somewhere along the way, decide it they did. And ties, plain or bow, have caused many a wrinkled brow ever since.
I once had to give a fifteen minute lecture to a class of fellow teachers, on the intricacies of tying both kinds. Maybe that accounts for the secret wish I've harboured ever since... to grab the tie of an unsuspecting male, and slice it in two with a snip from some sharp shears. Not quite on a par with Tome Lehrer's cruel cut, as no bloodstains would result, but equally final.
I have yet to realise this ambition, so beware...
But on a more serious note, during my long absence from blog world, I have created a few ties, amongst them this colourful version for a birthday gift - hence the candle!
I tried both crochet and knitting, but I think the knitted one shown here worked best, although the boredom quotient is equally high for either method, due to the long length and narrow width. I think a mesmerised state ensues after the first twelve inches or so...
However, the third and anything but serious reference comes in honour of the great Victoria Wood whose recent death has left the world saddened, even while laughter continues in the wake of such a genius. If you've never heard her rendition of "The Ballad Of Barry And Freda", I urge you to seek it out.
Freda and Barry sat one night.
The sky was clear the stars were bright.
The wind was soft. The moon was up.
Freda drained her cocoa cup
She licked her lips. She felt sublime.
She switched off Gardener's Question Time.
Barry cringed in fear and dread
as Freda grabbed his tie and said: To whet your appetite, these are the first two stanzas, with their reference in the last line which brings my subject full circle. :-)
