RAFAEL NADAL - AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPION 2009

"Roger is the best player ever and I know it is going to be almost mission impossible. But I will try as always my best and we'll see. " Rafa Nadal

CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS

Rafa Nadal wins Olympic Gold at Beijing 2008

******

Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt

Rafa Nadal Wimbledon Champion 2008

"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'"

XXXX

Quote from 'If'by: Rudyard Kipling

RAF TORNADO GR4s - MY FAVOURITE AIRCRAFT

High Flight

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling

mirth of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things

you have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared

and swung high in the sunlit silence.

Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along,

and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

xxxx

Up, up, the long, delirious, burning blue,

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

the high untrespassed sanctity of space,

put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., September 3, 1941

THE VIEW OF THE BRIDGE IN SUMMER

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,

To chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:"
Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

HUMILITY

Sometime when you're feeling important.
Sometime when your ego is in bloom.
Sometime when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified one in the room.
Sometime when you feel your going
Would leave an unfillable hole
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water.
Put your hands in up to your wrists,
Pull them out - and the hole that remains
Is the measure that you will be missed.
You may stir all you please when you enter!
You may splash up the water galore!
But stop - and you'll find in a minute
That it looks just the same as before.
The moral of this is quite simple
Do just the best that you can
Be proud of yourself but, remember,
"There is no Indispensable Man"


Or Woman come to that ......... I'm sure we all know people who could do with a little dose of humility every so often

GIDDY UP HORSY!!

What a handsome chap!!!

Shire Horses On parade!!

My personal favourite ...... a beautiful Suffolk Punch mare called Duchess!!

Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire - February 2007

LEISURE

By: W H Davies

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows
No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass
No time to see in broad daylight

Streams full of stars, like skies at night

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance
No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

RIDING FENLAND STYLE

For Melanie...

How about this style?

No danger of falling off but it could be a bit tiring on the legs - on the plus side you wouldn't get saddle-sore!

PAGAN RITUALS!!

From left to right:

The Straw Bear
Pecsaetan Morris
The WitchMen Morris
Black Pig Morris and Band


"Out of the darkness comes a group purporting to be the oldest team 'in all the world' - dancing the oldest dances in all the world. The Witchmen are as dark and mysterious as their name suggests. With dances such as Wicker Man and Wild Hunt, the team has established itself as exponents of the 'Other Morris' with performances that are pagan in the extreme"

KK's favourite are the Witchmen Morris! :))

MIST IN THE SNOW

Mist enjoying a walk in the snow ......... just before she decided to jump in the river!! :D

When God Made....
When God had made the Earth and sky,

The flowers and the trees,
He then made all the animals

And all the birds and bees.
And when his work was finished,

Not one was quite the same.
He said, 'I'll walk this earth of mine,

And give each one a name,'
And so he travelled land and sea,

And everywhere he went,
A little creature followed Him

Until his strength was spent.
And when all were named upon the Earth,

And in the sky and sea,
The little creature said,

'Dear Lord, There's not one left for me!'
The Father smiled and softly said:

'I've left you till the end.
I've turned my own name back to front,

And called you DOG, my friend.

THE VIEW OF THE BRIDGE IN WINTER

As some of my fellow bloggers and cyber pals like bridges I thought I would post this view of the bridge near where I live.

This was taken last winter, when the snow fell on Boxing Day and lasted for about 4 days..... not quite a white Christmas but close enough.

"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning"

Quotation from: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

LIFE'S A BEACH

Ah, the vagaries of the British weather ............. these are 2 pictures of Cromer beach ....... taken on consecutive days.

One of my favourite places in the world............. whatever the weather.

PS: I managed to crack the profile thing and thought I'd change the pictures here!!