Boxing Day

Special Christmas Broadcast 2

All was calm, all was bright...

...when just before Christmas along came our friend A to help us clear up the garden, or rather rase it to the ground and raise a mountain of ivy and treetops to be stuffed into a tight lipped composter with a tendancy to choke...

Please note the mountain behind the Christmas tree. Why did I create the magical outdoor tree in a winter wonderland to be glimpsed from the window?

Why did R&B wake at 4.30 am?

Why did the cat shit under the curtain?

Why did R tread in it?

Here is the lovely starry window under which the cat shat. This was probably because when we stripped the garden we disturbed its sacred turd burial ground and it had to make a territorial stand on the living room floor.

The usual orgy of present opening...

Whitey, he is real you know...

Here I am with my present, a book entitled 'Sacré Caractère', which translates as 'Quite a Character'. Actually, it translates as quite a blooming difficult character.

Trip to Mainz

B went on a school exchange trip to Mainz. He was very impressed with his stay in Germany for the following reasons:

• School finishes at 1.30pm and there is hardly any homework


• You can walk everywhere or use bike lanes


• Everyone knows everybody else and they leave their doors unlocked


• Green play spaces


• Icetea is only 1 euro for 1.5 litres.

He suggests we move to Mainz without delay.
Here is the B's-eye view:

The journey begins with the photographer reflected in the train window...

Two friends...

Stopping at Cologne, B captures the overbearing presence of the cathedral...

...a street artist and a car he admires.

Lovely outdoor play

B made myriad attempts to capture this golden church artefact, but technical insufficiency intervened: the impression remains clear in his inner vision.

He was most impressed by the spiral staircase the door, they're beautiful aren't they?

Here is B with M, his exchange pupil, whose Mum phoned me to apologize that M is so shy and also being a Difficult Adolescent, but here is B, who has set up the photo, utterly happy. This picture touches me.

The sofa he slept on...

Windy

On the ferry to England we found a funnel of high-intensity wind which, much to our delight, blew us down, up, to bits and back...

Whistling in the Woods

Whistling in the woods

Mummy

Mummy

Mummy