Bits and bobs about this and that!

This morning I've been to a village in the Peak Park called Whetton. It is the village nearest a fantastic place called Thor's Cave. I walked there in the summer with my friends as shown in the pics.

Today however was something else, the sun was still shinning but it came after torrential rain in the night and for the last few days. So the tiny roads going up and down dale to this village were an interesting journey of floods and leaf mulch in the middle of the road. They were all single track roads. It was an adventure.

I went there cause my walking friend has baked and baked enough to run a stall at the Christmas Fayre in the village. And I'd been in her house when the Christmas cakes were cooking! And she'd made some little ones just enough for one person to have four or five slices over the holiday season. Which definitely worked for me!

Yesterday in working hard at keeping busy I went and did Christmas shopping over at John Lewis. I normally hate shopping on a Saturday and won't do it. But needs must and whilst my mind is in neutral I could happily carry on preparing for Christmas.

Anyway the point of this bit was..... Father Christmas was there outside the dept store. But not only was he there, but so were two of his reindeer. What wonderful creatures they are. The two that came along to support FC were happy to be stroked and photographed by all. And to complete the scene along came Snow White. It was all just magical.

One of the things I got yesterday was a CD for me, ok I know it's not Christmas yet, but what the..... So this CD is a five disc compilation and has got me completely in it's thrall and I've only heard two discs so far. But to have my all time favourite piece of music, Albatross by Fleetwood Mac, alongside Frank Sinatra, Dave Brubeck, David Bowie is just delicious.

So I've been happily escaping into that, each new sound taking me to a different place in my memories.From sitting on my windowsill hidden behind the curtains, Albatross, to Sunday mornings with the family listening to Dean Martin, Frank et all to hearing Take 5 for the first time when drinking coke with a couple of likely lads when I was in my teens.

Another place for wonderful sounds is on my early morning walks with Trix. The bird song is lovely. And recently courtesy of the Crafty Green Poet I found a link to British birds courtesy of the RSPB. So I spent a happy evening listening to all the birds I know who are roundabout regularly. So now I know that the two birds that make me the happiest with their birdsong are the Mistle Thrush and the Chaffinch. And right now the Mistle Thrush, Blackbird and the Robin are just a joy as the dawn begins to break.

And finally and somewhat bizarrely.... it's no secret that my name is Mandy. It is to my knowledge totally a girls name. Excepting of course, the Prince of Darkness, Lord Mandleson(UK politician) is referred to occasionally in the press as Lord Mandy. But that aside my name is female. So why oh why go I get at least three times a day, spam suggesting that I might like to buy some Viagra? Apart from the fact of my femaleness, I also don't have a partner at all, never mind one who might find the little blue pill useful.

And why me? Why don't I get nice girly spam. I mean it's not too much to ask is it that the blanket coverage of the spam sender could be asked to differentiate between male and female names is it?