The View from the Hill on Wednesday 7th July

It started one year ago, and on that day it was raining - this morning it is overcast and the rain is on the way. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Actually much has changed over the last year but as the weather forecast clearly states for today, into every life some rain must fall.

Danny and Jake have left this mortal coil and the world kept spinning even though I wanted it to stop just for a little while so I could catch my breath. Miss you boys.

My own mortality still teases me through the good offices of doctors who prescribe new tablets and take my blood pressure and set me targets for weight loss.

We are sending our young men and women to fight a battle that cannot be won, they die and we count them brave whilst under our breath we mutter about the waste.

The Old Nazi still bugs me.

Faithful friends and readers have come and gone, a core indeed a solid core remain true to the end and my thanks to you for that.

I have made you laugh and cry and occasionally gip (Miss Twillets) and you have given me the ammo for some quite awful puns and sarcasm.

Today is just another day for most but for some it will be a hard day and to those of you who are making life changing decisions please remember it is better to make hard decisions than to live with the consequences of making none.

Throughout this year, in fact throughout the last 28 years, Mrs B has been there for me. We have shared some bloody awful times and we have shared some great times - she is the love of my life and I know I could not go on without her. Thank you Mrs B...63+

I thank you all for reading this eclectic collection, this melange of memory, this daily diatribe - and now the experiment ends - I did it.

But, dear reader, I cannot leave you completely and so I will from time to time post a blog and if you find the time to read it I will of course be grateful.

Have a great day, have a great year, have a great life. 0

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...this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill

HINGE AND BRACKET.5.GALA EVENING.THE WHITE HORSE INN.Clip 5.

The View from the Hill on Saturday 3rd July

A lunchtime blog following our drive home from Peterborough - we stayed overnight in a Premier Inn (no sign of Lenny Henry) and to use Mrs B's own words - the room was adequate.

We came back via the scenic route of the A15 and A17 rather than A1 and A52. We hadn't driven that route for some time and although it is a bit of a trek the Lincolnshire countryside can be quite charming in a sort of flat and run down sort of way.

We had declined breakfast at the Premier Inn as it would have been an extra £15 and Mrs B didn't think she could eat £7.50's worth of croissant. So we stopped at Christy's Farm Shop cafe in Hockerton where Mrs B devoured more than £7.50's worth of sausage cob whilst I was a good boy and ate the vegetarian breakfast. Scrambled eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms,sauté potato and fried bread with toast on the side. Now before you get all upset about the fried bread and the toast - I didn't eat both. Mrs B had the fried bread in her sausage cob. The star turn of the breakfast was my view of the windmill - a beautiful white modern structure sticking out of the Nottinghamshire farmland - very space age.

So we arrived back in Mansfield, and we have just returned from Tesco - and you know how I love going to Tesco!

I think I might watch a bit of the football to see which of England's sworn enemies can overcome the over - the best result would be that the referee sends them all off and nobody progresses to the next round.

I managed to be quite un-grumpy at the party by the way - there again I did have competition!

OK, now Mrs B wants to go shopping again so this star trek from Peterborough is not yet complete...4 - the voyage home will continue.

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Humans make illogical decisions.

Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home

The View from the Hill on Friday 2nd July

It's my nephews birthday today and we are heading south, for the first time in a long time we are going to a family function. For the last few years we have not gone to many mainly because we couldn't take the dogs and we had no one to let them out so we were limited on the time we could be away - but now we have no reason not to go, we are going.

Now I'm going to be honest - I dislike big gatherings, family or not, it is usually too loud for me and I can't hear what is being said plus I'm not very good at the politics of the thing and I manage to put my foot in it some how. Not that I don't love my family, and it will be lovely to see the nieces and nephews again, but I guess I'm just old and miserable and grumpy and given half a chance I would be out playing on the trampoline with the children.

I suppose over the course of our marriage I have often been the cause of Mrs B losing touch with people, because of my recalcitrant and stubborn nature, because I would rather it just be me and her - and it has become a standing joke that we will walk into a house visiting friends and the first thing they will say to me is "I know - you're not stopping long!"

People reading this will be shocked I know, that the man so often full of jokes and smiles is such an unsociable grump, but I am. If I were not married to Mrs B, I would probably die a very lonely miserable person - but luckily she is there and this means I will just die a miserable person.

Anyway, we will go to Peterborough and I will do my best not to be too dismal or depressing, hope it's not raining though and the trampoline is up!

Sam, Max,Tyler, Connie and Lily-Rose  -  5 - reasons to be cheerful

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A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks

Ian Dury

David Essex - Gonna Make You A Star [totp2]