A Celebration of Winter...

                           Kicking off this ‘Celebration of Winter,’ 

                             I’ve chosen a beautiful picture by Emily Sutton

                           If anything sums me up, then this does!

                           It could well be me, sitting there in my greenhouse,

                           contemplating. But contemplating what?

( From ‘Out and About’ by Shirley Hughes)

I think that if someone asked me what I’d loved the most

about my time on this earth, my reply to them

would be: 

The seasons.

I take joy and pleasure in each and as you say goodbye to

one season, another comes along to knock if from its perch

and you know full well that it’s not really goodbye at all.

And thus, at this very moment, I am celebrating:

❄️Winter ❄️ 

And yes, it’s  bitter cold right now...

as Shirley Hughes reminds us:

But what’s to stop you from wrapping up warm

and venturing outside. For instance...

  Mackenzie Thorpe highlights the delights of a snowy

day in his lovely paintings....

                                       

                                    Of course, the weather can bring its irritations...as

                                        Mal Burton so aptly depicts...

                                                  

                                  

                                   But there is a certain charm too...

                               

                            ...as well as a touch of romance..and we could all do 

                               with some of that!

                      Naturally, if you are going to celebrate ‘Winter’, then you need

                      look no further than Thomas Kinkade; his paintings cry out

                      to you, ‘ Come, embrace the season!’

                      This one is pure magic!

          

            I think I would always include  ‘The Holly Fairy’ by Mary Cicely Barker

            simply because the red berries always add such a wonderful contrast to

            a wintry day:

O, I am green in Winter-time,
When other trees are brown;
Of all the trees (So saith the rhyme)
The holly bears the crown.
December days are drawing near
When I shall come to town,
And carol-boys go singing clear
Of all the trees (O hush and hear!)
The holly bears the crown!

For who so well-beloved and merry
As the scarlet Holly Berry?

❄️ 

Delightful!

❄️ 

And talking of delightful...

...here is Monet’s Magpie

          

      Claude Monet painted many snowy scenes..apparently around 140!

           One of my other favourites of his is ‘Snow in Argenteuil’

            Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

           Of course the season of winter isn’t exclusive to the countryside.

           Here is,’From the Royal Exchange’ by Ken Howard.

      And ‘Winter in Broughton’ by L.S. Lowry...

      ...as well as ‘The Pond’...

         To end this celebration, a Christmas card that caught 

        my eye this year.. I sent this to one or two on my Christmas card list!

                  ‘Between Snow Showers’ by Martin Truefitt Baker.

           And that is my celebration of wonderful Winter...

           What would yours be?

 

The great and mighty Gulls!

 

                        Yesterday,  I was following the fortunes of my beloved football 

                        club - the great and mighty, Torquay United! The Gulls.

                        Off we went to play Weymouth. They didn’t make it easy for us

                        but we’ve been becoming rather good at scoring winners near the end

                        so I was pretty confident that all would be fine! And it was. 

                        My ‘partner in crime’ and the person who has accompanied

                        me to many matches since he was about 7 years old, Nich,

                        pinged me a, ‘We’re going to lose this’ message.

                        ‘NOOOO’, I responded! 😁  

                      (  Keep the faith! Ah, but this is Torquay, remember!)

                        It is rare that we top the league let alone ‘romp ahead’ 

                        at New Year. So, excuse me whilst I delight in this pleasure. 

                        One has to grab moments such as this as one has had 

                        so few uplifting moments over the years!         

                     

                       I reckon that someone was having a sense of humour 

                      when I was born! Out I popped and I was immediately branded 

                      ( for life)!

                                    ‘ Torquay United for you, little missy!’

                      And thus began over 50 years of joy, fun...and heartache! 😂🤣😂

                     I was, however, lucky enough to start this lifelong affection

                    when a certain Frank O’Farrell  ( above on the rhs) was in charge.

                   ‘Top bloke’  as they say in the game! Robin Stubbs ( the young 

                    man in  the white shirt, in the above photo) was regularly 

                    ‘knocking them in’ for The Gulls. He was our ‘Shearer’ of the day..

                    tough, strong and lethal... with both head and foot! 

                    And as my mum taught in the school directly opposite the 

                    football ground at Torquay - Plainmoor- 

                   ( it’s far from plain, believe me!), I was more than a willing 

                    helper when she embarked on a  ‘Football project’ with her 

                    class of 7 year olds. It must’ve been ‘66, as football fever 

                    gripped the country at this time. 

                    So there I was, armed with a trundle wheel and my best 

                   maths brain, as Frank allowed us access to the ground for all sorts

                   of activities ...in the days when there were no constraints on teachers

                   who were able to teach project style...the good old days! 😁👍

                   You take a subject like football and you can cover just 

                  about every subject on the curriculum, believe me!

                  And so it continued...this lifelong attachment...

                

                 There have been many ‘highlights’; many hearts beating madly; 

                 many moments full of angst and tension; many tears!

                  One such match was in 1987, when we were in danger of

                  losing our football league status.  We were at the bottom of the then

                 4th division and it was the final match of the season. We needed a draw

                  in order to avoid relegation. We were 1-2 down against Crewe. 

                 We were doomed! BUT...( this is just like in the old football comics 

                  of way back and I’m giggling as I type!)...what no one could 

                  have predicted was that the hero would be a dog! 

                  A police dog to be more precise! Bryn!

                  Somehow, near the touch line, opposite to where I was standing,

                  Bryn managed to bite the thigh of our full back, Jim McNicol!

                 The resulting four minutes of injury time, gave our lads just 

                 enough time to compose themselves..and act! There was ‘Dobbo’

                 ( Paul Dobson) scoring the equaliser! The crowd went wild!

                 Looking around me I saw so many tears! It was madness, mayhem,

                 joy, delight, relief..and the final whistle blew. Off we all charged

                on to the pitch and there was the manager, Stuart Morgan, being held on 

                someone’s shoulders as if he had worked wonders! Hilarious really...

                 It had been such a rubbish season....and there he was being 

                 celebrated and cheered!  It was somewhat amusing.

                 I felt sorry for Lincoln, who were relegated.

                 I’ll never forget that day...ever.

               Memories...I have so many.

I remember watching Mark Loram kick a football quite 

some distance and place it to perfection very close to 

where I was standing... but even closer to the player

for whom it was meant...he could have kicked a 

football to land on a silver sixpence, he was that good.

( He was so good that he missed a penalty in 

the 1991 play off final..but we’ll forgive him

for that! 😂🤣😂)

And talking of that match...

A fine win ( I was there) saw us beat Blackpool 

after extra time and pens.

I do believe that our goalie, Gareth Howells, was the first goalie 

to ever score a pen in a play off final. I need to check that fact!

And then there was THAT trip to Barnet...

                       This was another nerve wracking match....

                     ‘ We will lose our football league status if we lose’

                     ( Been there, done that...any police dogs around?🤣😂🤣)

                      You can read about that Here

                     

                      And so it goes on...the ups and downs will no doubt

                     continue but we are prepared for whatever this little club

                     throws at us. We’ve been there...done it...lived to tell the tales!

                     And most of all, we are still smiling....

                      Especially this season! ( At the moment!)

                       Up The Gulls! 👍

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️