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29th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 29, 2026June 29, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Sensitivity Warning – there are a lot of plants in this week’s post so Hay fever sufferers, read at your discretion…

1.- Our Olive Tree seems to have loved the weather this Summer has seen fit to throw at it the heat waves alternating with rainy days and has produced a bumper crop of its tiny flowers – whether these translate into olives remains to be seen – the conversion rate never seems to be that high – but meanwhile we live in hope!

2.- I promised you some Cyanotrope prints in last week’s post and yesterday, I duly unpacked the flower press and made my first prints – I think everybody starts with pressed flowers and grasses…

But I also made a giant negative in Photoshop by first turning a picture black and white and then inverting it and printing it onto transparent inkjet film – the resulting negative can then be used to make a cyanotrope print…

3.- We went out on Saturday, to Harlow Carr Gardens in nearby Harrogate. It is run by the Royal Horticultural Society and offers interest all year round – even in winter with illumiations…

Barbara, pretty in pink and echoing this rose arch that leads to a sub-tropical garden…

The thing about big gardens is that they allow for big drifts of a single species – so here, as Clark would say, are Something Someting…

and this drift of Someting Something Alliums…

Not the prettiest coloured alliums but unusual and like a tiny city of Fairy mushroom houses…

4.- Of course its not all flowers that are worth seeing – below some interesting architectural ideas – -possible projects to beautify the estate, Clark?

Fancy stonework forming a bridge over a stream…

An insect hotel complete with a living roof…

And a classic living roof on the bike shed – lots of Sedums I think…

5.- There are always amusing names to be seen…

6.- Back in our own more modest garden, I have often noticed how weeds can get to quite a size before we notice them providing that they resemble the plants next to them. The left-hand picture below shows my favourite Allium, I only have the one bulb, and it grows slowly, to a prodigious height and when it finally colours up, it resembles a large Loganberry. Behind it to the left and in the right-hand picture, is a grass and I cannot decide if it is common (and therfore a weed in my book) or an ornamental grass – either way, it has a head almost the same size as the allium and I was late to spot it and put it on “weed-watch”…

And talking of disguises – here are some cacti disguised as Yeti…

7.- Enough of plants – I am grateful for the thoughts that comments provoke and last week, Clark, yes, him again, asked, in the light of my modded “Mod” scooter picture “So, tell us… your youth, Mod or Rocker? (my money is on your being (or at least sympathizing with) the Mods?”. Well, I struggled with this, to all intents and purposes, I was neither – not as in belonging to or dressing like either cohort. I don’t really appreciate those tight suits the Mods wore though I appreciate the ir desire to look smart at weekends after shitty jobs during the week. On the other hand, I also have a sneaking admiration for the Rebel Rockers. Truth be told i am not much of a joiner of groups and my sister yesterday told me that neither is she, and that she is reading a book “The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners” which looks at explore the distinct personality style of the otrovert ― someone who lacks the communal impulse and does not fit in with any social group… Of course, I do belong to certain online groups, such as this august body! But back to Mods v. Rockers – what I do appreciate from both camps is the music – Paul Weller and the Style Council, The Kinks on the one hand and Deep Purple and Meatloaf on the other. So I don’t know if that answers your question, Clark…

8. The heatwave is over 31.5 C in the living room is too much!

9.- My cyanotrope prints and lino prints which I also intend to do, give me a much less arduous source of postcards for the Poetry Postcard Festival which begins in early July and runs to end of August. Last year saw me making original postcard-sized paintings for the 31 recipients, which was a welcome return to painting but a lot of work. It is interesting to make and give away original art that you havent’t lived with for a while – teaches the Zen of non-attachment…
You can see last years efforts here. And if you fancy having a go at the Poetry Postcard Festival – its not to late to sign up here.

10.- Managed to complete anothe week’s 10 grats…

Have a great week y’all – hope you have the weather you desire or need…

Hush was a breakthrough song for Deep Purple and on one level it is a pop song with catchy lyrics but underneth is a throbbing, driving energy that can scarcely be contained…

21st June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 21, 2026June 21, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

1. – We managed a day out to Hebden Bridge where we stopped at our regular coffee shop and managed to fill in all the obvious words in the Daily Mail Saturday mega crossword whic h required ongoing coaxing and focus to achieve. the Daily Mail is an obnoxious tabloid rag but we buy it only for the crossword – the rest goes straight to the outside lavatory for toilet paper ) or would if we had one…)
I didn’t take any pictures except this one to illustrate how steep the town is at its fringes – follow that road up – it must reach 1:3…

2.- I have been preparing for two new hobbies bookbinding – I have some volumes that are precious but in need of some repairs – and cyanotrope print making – as always, as soon a s you watch one video of something on Facebook, your feed is flooded with them! I sent for a book on bookbinding and as my friend Akua is running a Mini-book exchange of Speculative Poetry books, my first attempt is a concertina fold miniature book containing a single poem…

Everything is miniature except for the bow since I can’t tie one smaller than this!

3.- Cyanotropes prints are made by coating paper or fabric with special chemicals (which I have now ordered) – placing plants, feathers, stencils or negatives onto the prepared sheet and exposing it to sunlight (ultra-violet) and once washed, the exposed areas turn dark blue. As a young teen, our neighbour’s son, who was doing a PhD in chemistry, made up a chemistry set although he didn’t follow through with any experiments to do! I managed to spill on e clear liquid on my bedroom carpet and to my horror, it turned into an ever darkening stain – I have reason to believe that this was one and the same chemical…
I used to have a large flower press when we lived in Ireland but abandonded the wooden bits when we moved back, but kept the threaded rods and so to furnish materials for the cyanotrope prints, I have cut some new pieces of wood and on the way back from Hebden Bridge, picked some bits and pieces to press – watch this space…

4.- In one of the living room (upstairs) windows, is a Yucca plant which has grown evermore contorted as it fills the available space and last year, I had to remove a branch which was growing into the room, spindily from lack of light. I cut it up and planted the lengths in pots from which I got two successful takes.

The two babies are shown below, however, growing in the foreground pot, is a vigorous “weed” called Creeping Wood Sorrel. I showed you some of my windowsill gardens before and in one of them, which my late sister planted, was this self same plant. It has trefoil leaves like clover and whilst the plants in the office are spindly from lack of water (the rest of the garden are drought tolerant succulents) nevertheless, it not only returns each year but displays an astonishing trick. Once the minute seed pods are ready. the fling out their seeds – explosively – and we find them not only coating the windowsill but stuck to the paintwork 2 and a half feet above.

The wonders of Nature know no bounds…

5.- Evidence of our English eccentricity, below is a scooter belonging to a neighbour just around the corner. If you are English, you will recognise this pimped up scooter as as the preferred mode of transport of the “Mods” – “celebrated” in the film Quadrophenia which features the music of The Who…

Apparently the Mods are still alive and well and at least one lives round the corner…

6.- Our run of rainy weather has been replaced with another heatwave – it will reach 30°C on Wednesday…

7. My beloved New Jersey based writing group is taking its Summer break after tomorrow but that will let me type up some of the pieces before the Autumn as well as have time to do the Poetry Postcard Festival in August – if you are interested in sending 31 spontaneous postcard poems to strangers (and receiving 31 back) you can sign up here.

8.- Glad to see the numbers at this here TToT are rising and enjoying the new contributors of gratitude…

9.- Glad for my health…

10.- Glad to feel, as my friend Akua says by way of a signature expression “Joy in the Making”…

Have a wonderful week y’all…

14th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 14, 2026June 14, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Grateful to keep my hand in with surveying and drawing up buildings. My boss met a fellow Pakistani entrepreneur whilst on a recent business trip to China (Its a small world) and we went to Bolton for me to draw it up with a view to creating a self-storage warehouse…

I had to take Barbara for a blood-test in Skipton and thefar bank of the stream which runs past the surgery, was lined with Angelica. I love the sweet, herbal taste of Angelica. I once infused some stem and some Fennel heads in gin – a great success… Angelica, whilst not rare, is rarely seen in such profusion hereabouts…

And also at the peak of its blossom this week, is Elderflower. I remember my parents attempting to make Elderflower Champagne but every bottle exploded…

I have not shared a texture photo for a while but I happened upon a sleeping dragon and quietly photographed its scales!

Truthfully, it was a car front grille that caught my eye in the supermarket car park and an *amuse buoche*, as I crouched to take the phote, a woman leaped out of the driver’s door asking what was wrong – I hadn’t noticed the two women sitting chatting inside lol…

After the blood test, Barbara and I drove to our son’s house in Leeds to deliver an important medical letter (he is still registered at our surgery so his post comes here) – it was raining as it has all month and so harly suitable for an outdoor coffee (outside for smoking unfortunately) but unwilling to drive staight home, we made ourselves post-men. It was a two-hour round trip so I put mt Spotify on to entertain us, and more than once, i found myself tearing up at the tracks that shuffled on. The first time I found myself unable to sing a song (accompanied by my ukulele), was Elvis Presley’s In the Ghetto – both the sincerity of Elvis’ delivery and the nature of the song made it impossible for me to sing it. On our trip to Leeds, on e tearing up was The Walking Song – paean to friendship by the late Kate McGarrigle and her sister Anna. The other was Strange Fruit – the Nina Simone cover, although Billie Holiday’s original is equally if not more powerful.

It occurred to me, that this tearing up is a form of gratitude – for the life and musical contribution of a singer no longer with us, or for a deep sentiment painfully articulated…

A pen-pal of mine wrote a poem for her acquaintance, the late, great Sonny Rollins which you can find here…

On which note I wish you all a safe and happy week…

7th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Misky’s series of poems The Old Woman With No Cat which always makes me smile if not laugh out loud – the entire series is available to read here: The Old Woman With No Cat.
I have come to the top of the waiting list for a partial lower denture courtesy of the student dentists at Leeds Dental Hospital. I have been a volunteer patient for the students on and off since 2015 and have passed through the hands of about 5 or 6 generations of studnts. Treatment is free bar your dedication to turning up every other week for a whole morning or afternoon. I enjoy the contact with this age group, the free treatment up to and including, crowns, bridges, and now a denture. I also enjoy popping into the Leeds Art Gallery and taking a look at som favourite paintings.
I hope I haven’t shown you this before, but it is a large painting (c 9′ x 5′) of a Norwegian fiord and both the painting and the subject are stupendous…

4. I am grateful that before the age of photography, painters recorded scenes of historical significance – even if they had to employ considerable imagination. The painting below tells a sad tale form the days of the infamous British Empire and yet another ill-fated attempt to control Afghanistan. You can read the story below…

5. Summer is the time for nature in all ots fecundity and I offer a selection of “weeds” which have caught my eye this week…

I don’t know what these purple “weeds” are but one man’s weeds are another man’s flowers…

Albrecht Durer painted a littlr watercolour of a “foot of grass” and in this tribute, you can see how many plants have colonised what began as planted grass – clover, dandelions, buttercups, and I can see at least two species of grass and i don’t know what else…

This is no weed except by virtue of its growing in the wrong place – it is, I think, Wheat!

Some people take no care of their front urban “gardens” except to clear all vegetation from them periodically, but here, Blackberry runners are eagerly racing out in all directions from a tiny diamond of bare earth…

6. My weather app says expect Saturday to be the first rain-free day – AND ITS SUNDAY!!! Still, gratefull not to have to be watering the garden.

7. Grateful that biting the bullet and paying for a continuous blood monitoring device has brought my diabetes under better control…

8. Ten Things of Thankful…

9. The sun has just come out…

10. Something that is on the tip of my tongue…

Have a great week, everybody – stay safe and healthy!

27th May: Ten Things of Thankful

May 27, 2026May 27, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

We managed to get out on two of my non-working days this last week! Barbara’s COPD caused us to buy a “boot-scooter” before our holiday in Holland as without it, she would be too breathless to go anywhere and we were determined to keep up the momentum of days out. So on Friday, we went to Knaresborough, about 45 minutes’ drive and I duly unloaded the scooter (it separates into a number of components without which it would take two people to lift it out) and we set off for the round of favourite spots. After the Crystal shop, we went to the square for a coffee (see below). all was well until we were ready to move on whereupon we simply could not find the ignition key to the scooter – searched high and low – gone – complete mystery! I had to push the scooter back to the car… Where’s the grat in that you may ask? Well, it turns out that for this make of scooter, all units have the same key, so I was able to purchase a new one the next day, from the local supplier. I said to Gavin – “Doesn’t that mean that anyone could take it easily?”, “Well,” he said, “the incidence of crime amongst the disability scooter community is very low -in the 20 years I have been dealing with them, I have known of only two thefts – one of our forecourt and one in which the purchaser of the stolen scooter came in to buy a charger and we were able to reunite the scooter with the owner!”

On my way to purchase the spare key, I drove the scenic route over the top as it was a lovely day and stopped to take this picture of our village, Silsden, more or less in its entirety… As you can see, we are in Buttercup season!

Then on Sunday, we went to Hebden Bridge, which I have shown you something of before, but there is always something new to notice there…

These bands bearing spheres slowly rotate on a vertical axis, rather like electrons in an atom so that the clock never looks quite the same…

These Alliums are a favourite in municipal gardens and they look so good in a massed display at this time of year…

This lady is always in the square in Hebden Bridge – all weekend! She has advocated for the Palestinian cause for many years prior to the current genocide and given the current Labour government’s disgusting attempt to repress support for Palestinians in favour of the zionist occupiers, this lady risks arrest for waving the flag. Mind you, if the police tried to arrest her, they would instigate a flash-protest-mob and so probably know to leave well alone…

Hebden Bridge is nestled into a valley so steep that it is fit only for trees and you wouldn’t want to live there if you couldn’t master the steep streets…

Before the industrial revolution and the advent of large mills, weaving was a cottage industry and weavers’ workshops were on the first floors with long rows of windows to give the maximum light to work by. This one is now a café but you can see the rough-hewn stone work of the windows…

A magnificent climbing rose on the Hebden Bridge Arts Centre…

Lastly, we are having a heatwave and I took the redundant heating controller outside to record this temperature in the shade! The grat is that we don’t have a hosepipe ban as yet, this year…

I hope you are all having whatever weather it is that you need or desire and that you are all having your most gratifying week possible…

15th May: Ten Things of Thankful

May 15, 2026May 15, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

It has been almost two weeks since my last gratitudes – for the first half of this week, I had a dreadful cold which kept me in bed for a couple of days – colds never used to be like this but I was knocked out, however I am recovering now and went to work yesterday morning.

I had to go into work early for a Teams meeting between my boss, an energy company and myself. My boss and his brother were in Guangzhou, China where, amongst other things, they were making a deal with a Chinese “whole house customising manufactuer” the multi-millionaire 82 year-old CEO of which was right beside my boss who not only introduced us, but showed us around the vast showroom of everything you could want to kit out a house or apartment fron cladding to furniture to accessories. We then began our meeting with a company which is nearly operational with a building-sized air pump heat exchanger which will supply district-heating all over Bradford, including, we hope, some of my bosses’ apartment developments. They will also take the cooling heat from a Data Centre which is being built next door and add it into the mix. I am glad to see that joined-up planning is finally coming of age…

Every year I am pleasantly surprised by the fruiting berries of the Winter Jasmine (remember I showed it in flower) – I always expect the flowers and always forget about the berries…

On the Saturday before going down with the cold, we drove south to Barbara’s ex’s 80th birthday party – a round trip of 8 hours motorway driving and saw some people we haven’t seen for many years. On the way back, I suggested we listen to an audio-book and chose John Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday”. It is a sequel to “Cannery Row” and like that book, paints a picture of the extraordinary warmth of community in the real suburb of Cannery Row, site of redundant canning plants after all the sardines were fished out during the war. (An early lesson in environmental abuse consequences) I don’t know how many of the characters are based on real people, but for sure, ‘Doc’ – the central character, was a real friend of Steinbeck’s with whom he later wrote “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”. The affectionate portrait of this marginal community is a tonic in these times of divisive politics and I urge anyone who is not familiar with them, to read these two books. I think many children may have been put off by having to study “Of Mice and Men”, and “The Grapes of Wrath” is a heavy book to read, even though there are many equally or more inequitable things happening in the world today, so it is that these two slim volumes of pure delight have been overlooked…

Two things I read in tabloid pop-psychology articles. Firstly, that women, when asked what they have read, will quote recent reads, whilst men will cite books they read as teenagers, even if they have continued to read novels since. I confess I worked my way through Steinbeck as a teenager… Secondly, research apparently suggested that (back in the days when young people read rather than watched screen dramas) everyone would have unconsciously picked a character on which they subsequently modelled themselves – intrigued, I searched my soul and eventually it clicked – it was ‘Doc’ from Cannery Row, for me! A man of science and phiolosophical questioning, at home talking with anyone from a hobo to a President, who everybody in his community loved and respected – whether I have fulfilled this role-model it is not for me to say… What about y’all – do you think you embody unconscious role models from your early reading?

I am glad that the tulips I planted in the Autumn have bloomed at different times and show such different forms…

And in the office, the three container gardens I took in are not only thriving (we don’t have enough windowsill space here at home) but in one of them, a succulent which I did not even know to be flowering has sent forth pretty little pink flowers…

The tequila bottle came from a plant setting from my late sister – it is genuine tequila and I created a suitable desert setting for it…

I am not sure how many grats there are here but that’s what I got for this week and have your best week everybody…

3rd May: Ten Things of Thankful

May 3, 2026May 3, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

I am glad to have finally finished the A to Z 2026 Challenge at last, for whilst I enjoyed learning everything I hoped and more, and have had comments of similar enlightenment from readers, I did set myself a mighty task this year, and if I do it again, I will give myself someting simpler which will also allow me more time to keep up with other participants…

Normally, I shower, but on Sunday mornings, I have breakfast in the bath, with a book! I am grateful for having allowed myself this small decadence and I sometimes read non-fiction long-form which I otherwise have little space for, however, I have been reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and even if I manage 20 pages, at 433 pages in total, it has taken a long time. The title, is eventually revealed as the flag of the short-lived Biafran republic and the novel is, in the author’s own words, about Love and War. For who would want to read a novel purely about war without being fleshed out with real characters. I have been writing a similar novel in a desultory way for about the last 20 years. Similar in that the Rwandan genocide lies at the heart of the story and similar in that it concerns fictional characters caught up in a history which is ultimately the result of colonialism and equally awful post-colonialism. Writing and reading such books is hard, because the material is dark, however it is not all dark and there is a sub-plot (with a little humour) which is finished and can be read alone if anyone is interested… I hope that now the A to Z is over, I might return to the novel and nudge it toward completion…

Barbara and I have made an agreement to go out somewhere each weekend, use her boot scooter to get around and so far we have stuck to it…

The weather has been sunny all week, saving the rain for the Bank Holiday Weekend – still, it saves me watering the garden – since everything is in containers, that needs keeping an eye on all the time in Summer…

Finishing the A to Z has let me get back to writing poetry and the first offering at dVerse Poets Pub, was a Golden Shovel for which I chose a quotation from Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. This is my favourite piece of poetry (even if it was a radio play) and if you have never heard the Richard Burton original version you can find it here.

We had some awful news last weekend, Barbara’s niece went outside to find her husband dead having stuck hi head on a stone wall – at under fifty, the only gratitude is that it seems to have been instantaneous. His widow and two almost-grown-up children live in Geneva – a long way from the support of her sisters and parents… Our hearts go out to them…

The big early flowers – daffodils and most of the Tulips are gone over and this week has been about small flowers (and Dandelions)…

I found this shrub growing in a pot and brought it on – I have no idea what it is but enjoy its small white flower having their moment…

And here is the next one starting to open…

The clematis Montana also coming into flower – they are smaller than this picture makes them look…

I saw an article about “Rebel Botanists”. Inspired by French botanist Sophie Leguil, they label wildflowers at the edge of pavements – I could o with that as I often wonder what the plants are called…

More than weeds: the rebel botanists on a mission to celebrate urban plants

And in the lane, this little wildflower is enchanting…

Wishing you all your very best week, wherever you are…

25th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 25, 2026April 25, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – We are having a run of good weather here in the UK, so yesterday, after collecting Barbara’s new glasses, we headed over to Hebden Bridge for the afternoon. Barbara needed to get on her boot-scooter again to prove to herself that it was not unique to the holiday in Holland…

The central square of Hebden Bridge showing the Bridge Mill – a watermill that dates back to 1314. In the foreground is a sculpture in the form of a giant weaver’s shuttle.

2 – A visit to Hebden Bridge is a chance to appreciate trees – this Copper Beech, its new leaves backlit by the sun, cried out to be photographed…

Another view out of the square showing the slopes to steep for fields, covered with trees and steep streets growing outwards around the town centre.

3 – Good weather means turning off the heating and putting the washing out on the line…

4 – Another of the tulips I bought and planted last Autumn – a double pink…

The first of the Dutch bulbs has flowered – on the small size this first year and I am not sure which one it is, not the fringed but it could be either the Parrot or the “Black”…

5 – And talking of black flowers, the Variegated Pittisporum is in flower with its strange, tiny black flowers…

6 – The end of the A to Z 2026 is in sight and it has been a marathon effort and I am grateful for the support of our very own Cai who has faithfully visited and commented throughout and although I can see the number of visitors who come but don’t comment, it makes a difference to know that a friend has read and appreciated… This is the latest https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-v-fabrics/ and just four more to go (and to get written by Monday evening).

7 – I had a day and a half of graphic design at work making a Powerpoint presentation for one of the bosses Moldovan Waterpark – we don’t have an inhouse graphic designer at present so it fell to me, which makes a change. The slide had to be in Romanian and repeated in English and Russian and I used AI to do the translation which with a few minor changes were approved by the bosses’ friends in Moldova.

7 – Also on the tech side, I learnt how to post the 278 item list in the form of an Excel table on my WordPress site as I have been promising to do… Still trying to figure out how to create a spreadsheet that will automatically send an email reminder to the relevant member of staff for tasks that need doing at work using “Power Automation”…

That’s all I have this week but I wish you all your best week with fair winds and blue skies (unless you are craving rain, of course)…

20th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Like Marilyn, I am grateful that it is Tulip Time! Last year, realising that we didn’t have many tulips, I planted several varieties which have now come up…

Also this lovely White narcissi which carries two flowers per stem…

2 – Of course, we had to bring back “Tulips from Amsterdam” – they were already growing in a pot inside a packet and were a little cramped by the time we got home but they have greened up and are growing rapidly – not sure which is which but there is a fringed, a parrot and a black tulip,,,

3 – Although I have yielded the allotment to Beverley (it was her idea to take it on some years ago) as she is ready to put more into it and my hip protests too much on the soft paths we put in – however. we are still welcome to pick the rhubarb – there are two varieties here – the thin ones have made jam using my mother’s tip. Cut the stems into very small pieces and instead of cooking straight away, weigh the equal amount of sugar and pour over the rhubarb and cover overnight – in the morning, the juice has been extracted and the fruit pieces are compressed so they hold together instead of dissolving when you boil the jam…

4 – My grandson and his girlfriend returned from India and are living at home with Bev and Don for a while. Izzie, a doctor, had been away for some months with a side trip to China and Dillon had joined her in India for the last two weeks…

5 – The A to Z 2026 Challenge is well on now – we are up to “Q”, posted, and I have just 5 left to write… If you want to see what it’s all about – https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-q-is-for-qualamkari-plus-gold-and-silver-threads/ or for the whole kit and caboodle – https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2026/

6 – I am glad to live in an area so full of history. Some years ago, I came across this colour thread sampler from Dewhurst’s which I would have snapped up even if the Belle Vue Mill wasn’t just up the road in Skipton. Of course, it had to feature in my A to Z under A to Z Challenge 2026 – Military and “M” Fabrics plus a few Mills

7 – Thankful for this community and for all my friends online around the world…

8 – Thankful that one authoritarian has fallen to the will of the people of Hungary – just waiting for Israel and America to come to their senses and vote out their disastrous leaders…

9 – Fearful that the effects of the war against Iran have not peaked by any means but thankful that we are not to badly placed (I hope) to weather the storm compared to some both here and around the world…

10 – Grateful to have thought of ten Things of Thankful…

Have a great week y’all!

12th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 12, 2026April 12, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – My apologies for not visiting all your TToT’s last week but I am in the midst of the A to Z 2026 Challenge as are some others of you and I have had 66 comments to respond to as well as visiting back and continuing to write new ones – 2 more done this weekend – just 8 to go (for which I am thankful!) If you want to look in its at https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-h-is-for-historical-fabrics/

2 – I thought I would share a few more pictures and thoughts from our holiday in the Netherlands. One of the things that defines the landscape, certainly in “The Green Heart” where we were, is that every tree has been pollarded and in some cases, espalliered and the branches then pollarded. I asked a lady in a posh clothes shop we visited why they were so keen on pollarding and after aa moment’s thought she replied ” Because it makes them all look the same…”

The road to Bodegraven, the nearest town – crossing some fields delineated by drainage ditches.

It seems like it was too early for cows to be out in the fields and this is after all, a cheese (Gouda) producing area…

3 – In the picture above, you can see a cyclist and from the advancing car you can see that this is a single-track road (with passing places) but cyclists, of which there are plenty, are given a wide bert. In the cities, rather than graduate to a car when you have children, you buy an “Urban Arrow”…

You can see that this is an electric bike which lends assistance to the parent…

4 – We made a visit to The Hague – not the most successful day out, partly because we didn’t have a clear plan of where exactly to go and partly because finding a parking space was difficult and once found, expensive. Parking for 3 hours costs about 33 Euros ($38.70) which is clearly designed to encourage people to use bicycles or public transport…
Eventually we parked in a disabled bay, unloaded Barbara’s boot scooter and set out to explore what turned out to be an African quarter. We decided to have a meal at an Eritrean cafe – chicken and eggs in a spicy sauce served on asoft, sourdough crepe cooked only on one side. Whils sitting outside, we were able to people watch but also to admire the architecture which I judge to be late Art Deco…

5 – One day I would like to write abook on Signwriting (something I used to do in a previous life) heavy on pictures, so I never miss the chance to photograph signs – especially abroad and the signs below have a different style, and age to those I am familiar with…

This shop has a sign dating back to late 30’s, I think, but laid inside the window are signs from an earlier period…

6 – In Bodegraven, there is a working windmill (well, on certain days) and although I didn’t manage to get the tour, I took these pictures. I was told that this windmill can be used both for grinding corn and for pumping water.