Dawn

I was due to meet an old friend in Chester today but the weather has closed in and he has been forced to cancel as British Railways will probably be sent into whirling confusion.

I'm disappointed as I was looking forward to the catch up.

The Prof is still working away and with the snow on the ground Winnie gave me one of those " you've got to be fucking kidding!" looks when I opened the back door for our dawn walk.

Only I wanted to go out today. 

It looks like I'll light the fire early and download some old black and white movies from iTunes Store 

The cottage always looks at it's best when it's snowing.

Sad Sack

I am such a sad sack.
The Prof is working away so I was going to the cinema tonight.
The weather is closing in, so Mary and I went around the village at 8pm to judge the Christmas lights instead.
The old police house on a London Road won

Little Things

" You're easily pleased"
This is one of The Prof's regular phrases
I was wrapping a gift for his mother when he last said it.
The gift was a tiny milk crate complete with milk bottles.
My mother in law has resurrected her childhood dolls house and I've been helping her find furniture for it. It's a simple little pleasure for both of us.
Yesterday I watched Mandy from the village down at the field gate. Daily she calls down to feed Irene a crust of bread, and daily after " tut tut tutting" her presence, Irene gallops down bleating loudly her own hello.
This simple little moment of gift giving providing Ewe and woman with a daily sweetness.

I think most of us are easily pleased if we think about it , whether we are happy, or sad, or depressed or busy.
Many of us just don't stop to realise it
The Prof has an advent calendar of a cathedral is year and enjoys opening each stained glass window every morning to see what lies underneath.
A nameless neighbour sneaks out of their house for a crafty cigarette in the pull in to the stables field.
Mrs Trellis practicing her piano in the window of her neat bungalow.
Trendy Carol switching on her new Christmas lights

Perhaps is the time of year that helps us realise the importance of these little things.
When I helped out at the village Christmas fair, I had to talk to one character who I fell out with a while ago. The spat then seemed all rather silly and yesterday I wrote them a Christmas card which I will deliver this weekend.....it felt the right thing to do.

What's your little thing?

Titivating

Now I have a sense that Going Gently has been veering towards a lifestyle blog recently, what with my shiny almost complete new kitchen bursting with pride and stories of sage green tiles and newly painted ivory walls filling my blogworld.
I won't apologise for this...the whole project has been almost a full time job, but the end is almost in sight now, so I shall be returning to Village gossip, bulldog self pollution and other such rubbish very soon.
This morning I finished painting and have been doing what any self respecting middle aged gay man loves to do...and that is titivating with crockery!
Out from under the bed came a large cardboard box which had been filled with my old collection of 1930s Burleighware and in the first time in over a decade it was washed and polished and set out to be looked at.
It's now looking more like home.

Cack Handed

While I was painting, I stepped into the dogs' water bowl yesterday afternoon and fell over onto the laundry clothes dryer, which was festooned with underpants.
I flung water across the kitchen then as the dryer collapsed under my weight I fell onto the twisted metal and wire scattering dogs and scaring the tiler half to death.
" are you alright?" He asked with a worried look on his face
" Don't worry, I do this all the time!" I chirped
He looked at me as if I was a loon.
I was still holding the paintbrush in my hand

Albert's Life

this photo underlines Albert's life in a dog filled cottage

Getting There

The tiler came at 8.30 and left Winnie bereft at 1pm .
She is beside herself with tradesmen  after workman +++ have been visiting the cottage over the past 3 weeks!.
She watched his every move and even followed him to the toilet at one point.
He made a good job of it
( the tiling not the toilet visit)
The kitchen is now almost finished, save for some painting and titivating .

Chasing cars

"If I lay here.....
If I just lay here......
Would you lay. with me,
And just forget the world....."

This is a verse, not from a poem but  from a song,
And when I hear it, especially when I am alone, usually in the car listening to the radio, I invairably start to cry.

This happened last night, when I was driving back with our takeaway from the local Indonesian restaurant .
It was the song that was played incessantly on the radio when I took my first dog Finlay back and forth from the vets and animal hospital when he was terminally ill.

He used to lie with me all of the time
And we both used to forget the world together.

It's been ten years.
And I still cry when I hear it.....

What song does it for you?