Sunday Sunset - taken from my garden



Refuge Of Delayed Souls has been undergoing some serious editing at my fair hand. Hopefully the changes are for the better and tonight's sunset will be the inspiration I need to write the next chapter!

apocalypsenovel, the author of The Lifting of the Veil recently took the time to read and review all 73 Chapters! You can read his review here

Please let me know what you think :D

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Labels: Lancashire, Photographs, Photography, RoYds, Writing

Posted by Miladysa at 5:30 PM 26 Comments

I have been watching the news since these shocking events started to unfold.

At least 195 innocent people have lost their lives as a result of this appalling terrorist action.

My heart and prayers go out to the victims, their families, the people of Mumbai, the country of India and my fellow bloggers who are personally touched by this tragedy. May peace be with you and yours.

Terrorists rule by fear and hatred - let's not give them the ammunition.

~ We are not afraid ~

I think that THIS is the best response to the events in Mumbai

Thank you for the link Ghosty

Princess Aiz - Mumbai Blog Reactions

Labels: india, Life, mumbai

Posted by Miladysa at 10:37 AM 23 Comments

I took these photographs from my garden this afternoon





















































































I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are celebrating the holiday!

Labels: Lancashire, Photographs, Photography

Posted by Miladysa at 6:15 PM 26 Comments

Snow forecast - minus 6° with the wind chill factor






















Heavy skies























Strong westerly winds






Take a drive with me :D

There's something extra special happening this weekend - check THIS out!!!
I wish I was in Vegas!

Labels: Lancashire, Life, Photographs

Posted by Miladysa at 3:36 PM 33 Comments

Looking towards home from the far side of the Dell at 11:30 this morning.























From the same spot looking down over the Dell at 3:00 this afternoon.


Vanilla tagged me with the Random & Weirdly MeMe

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.


1. I was named after a Regiment...
2. ... and a character in one of my mother's favourite childhood novels
3. My blood group is Rhesus B+
4. Complete strangers tell me their secrets
5. No female in my maternal family has seen their 50th birthday for at least five generations
6. When I wear a watch - it stops!
7. I believe I have witnessed a miracle

I tag

Melissa
Miles
Livingsword
KJ
Wolfie
Deepak
Ghosty

and anyone else who would like to have a go :D

Labels: Lancashire, Photographs, Photography

Posted by Miladysa at 6:48 PM 36 Comments

The other day Vanilla took her readers on a delightful tour of her neighbourhood in South Africa and I thought that I would attempt a similar thing here on Miladysa. I did not anticipate continual rain, which is most naive of me because when it is not raining here it is just about too! Anyway, I did manage to take a number of photographs [some of them through my car windows] and I mixed these with others that I had taken earlier in the year.

















This is an avenue looking down towards the Dell, we live just off to the left.


















The street to the right of the avenue in the photograph above.

















The road at the bottom of the avenue, known to locals as 'the prom' because in Victorian and Edwardian times people would promenade here dressed in their Sunday Best! The Dell is on the right of the photograph, you can see how close it is to where we live :D This arterial road runs straight through the village. The majority of people travelling through on journeys to and from the nearby towns have no idea the hidden gems which lie just off it. I refer to these visitors as Muggles.
















These stables are at the foot of the cobbled village square and at the end of the street you can see in the second photograph above. If a visitor did glance up from the main road this is what they would see, they would have no idea what lies beyond. The stables look pretty unremarkable from this angle.



















One of the side walls belonging to the stables. Who would have guessed from the photograph above that they dated this far back? Remember the legends regarding Robin Hood and the Dell? I wonder if Robin ever fired an arrow from one of these windows? I like to imagine he did :D















The road behind the stables which leads up towards the village square.


















One of the houses in the village square, you can see from the Blue Plaque on the wall above the door that this building is of significant historical importance. Over three hundred years ago this house was home to a local Doctor whose patients included members of the Royal family. The doctor was originally the village blacksmith, his expertise lay in the use of local herbs and the setting of bones.


















The Red Lion is the pub next door to the Doctors House and dates back to at least 1674. As well as being the village inn it also doubled as the Doctor's hospital. One of the patients who spent a few years in his care here later went on to tutor Lewis Carroll and eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury.



















The town centre. Baino please note the obligatory Fish and Chip Shop -- yummy yum!


















The cemetery, due to its situation there is a wonderful feeling of tranquility. The views are quite breathtaking.



















This stone wall is at the back of the cemetery and I was standing with my back to it while taking the shot above. I can quite easily imagine ghosts hanging around here and this scene has inspired my writing on two separate occasions so far. The first was the poem Coal Black and the second a scene for the RoYds Chapter, In A Man's Shadow. Readers of RoYds will recognise this as the wall where a poacher takes a shot a black fox.


Here's the video version for those of you who are gluttons for punishment. I apologise in advance for the poor quality -- it is my first attempt at editing one -- so please forgive me. I managed to work out how to add a soundtrack -- unfortunately I have not worked out how to edit it so that it stops when the video does! Hence, this video is not a long as it may first appear to be...

BTW, Sir H told me not to post it -- said it was pants!




Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Labels: Lancashire, Life, Photography

Posted by Miladysa at 11:25 AM 45 Comments

My paternal Grandfather Donald fought in the Great War, The War to End all Wars 1914-18. When he was 16 years old he had enlisted in the Manchester Regiment and fought at Mons, Givenchy, Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele and many other battles. He fought for a country Fit For Heroes.

Donald’s father Andrew, also fought in the Great War. As a Scot, an English Regiment was not for him, at the age of 38 he returned to his home city of Edinburgh to enlist in the Royal Scots.

Andrew’s sister Ellen lost her fiancée Alexander at Gallipoli during the same war. The morning he died she saw him on the landing of her parents home in Edinburgh and waited for the telegram to arrive. She never married and burned his letters a few months before her own death in the 1980s.

Ellen’s brother John once told me that while walking in Edinburgh in 1915 he was approached by a beautiful young woman who presented him with a white feather. He was only 17 years old and his mother's youngest son. Following this experience he enlisted and joined his brothers in the Royal Scots. He remembered how his friend's hair had turned white over night after going over the top for the first time.

Donald’s mother, Eleanor lost her brother Hugh in the Great War.

Nathaniel, the brother of my paternal Grandmother Mary Alice, was buried alive for 3 days during WWI. I remember hearing his cries while he was sleeping during a visit to our family home in the 1970s - a part of him still trapped within that trench.

My maternal Grandfather William survived the sinking of the Lancastria during WII.

My father Sandy joined the Royal Navy aged 16 years old in WWII, he wanted to fight Hitler. When WWII was over he left the RN and joined the British Army, the fighting continued.

My husband Sir H joined the British Army aged 16 years old. Following injury and subsequent discharge he fought to regain his previous fitness and enlisted in the Royal Air Force some years later.

My brother-in-law Mark is currently serving in Afghanistan.

90 years after the War To End All Wars we joined our neighbours to remember and pray for peace.


















They shall not grown old,
as we that are left grow old,
at the going down of the sun,
and in the morning,
we will remember them.

Labels: Armistice, Life

Posted by Miladysa at 12:01 AM 23 Comments

Remember Remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot


Tonight we celebrated Bonfire Night – it is a tradition which is dying out in the UK and some might say it is being extinguished on purpose. These days’ it is something the politically correct wish to stamp out and often use "health and safety" and "religious prejudice" as excuses for doing so. In some areas, like ours, we like to keep traditions alive.

On Bonfire Night we gather around a large fire, set off fireworks, eat, drink and make merry. Traditional Bonfire Night fare here in Lancashire is Parkin, Treacle Toffee, Jacket Potatoes, Black and Mushy Peas. We also enjoy a good sing a long!


"Tramp Tramp Tramp the boys are marching
Who's that knocking at the door?
Why it's little Mary Anne with a candle in her hand
And she's going down the cellar for some coal!"
~Traditional Lancashire Bonfire Song~


Most people associate Bonfire Night with Guy Fawkes and his thwarted attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 during the reign of King James I. From 1606 onwards an effigy of Guy Fawkes was made and thrown on top of a bonfire on November 5th. In fact, for hundreds of years it was law in Britain and other parts where British influence still held sway, to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night and the deliverance of the King. Now why should this be? Why should a King such as James I think that this was a great idea?

If you are not familiar with this particular King by name you may have heard of him for his persecution of witches and hatred of witchcraft or perhaps the Authorized King James version of the bible? Two topics I may post about in future but for now I will stick to the subject in hand.

November 5th falls five days after Halloween and we all know the traditions associated with that particular festival. Many people believe that Halloween and the Celtic festival of Samhain are one and the same although some believe that the correct date for Samhain would have been November 6th not October 31st! Celtic festival days were a night followed by a day and any 6th of November celebrations would have started on the night of the 5th. Traditions often involved building a bonfire and possibly some form of human sacrifice. Much later the human sacrifice became an effigy.

Without doubt Bonfire Night was a tradition long before 1605 and it was one of the most popular events of the British calendar. What if a King – considered by many as an unpopular King - wanted to stamp out what he viewed to be an unsavoury pagan practice? It would not have been an easy task to undertake by anyone's standards.

So what if a clever King decided to adopt the Roman tradition of hijacking an event by allowing the people to continue their celebrations - even go as far as to legally encourage them to do so - and make it appear as though it was in support of his own cause rather than the dark pagan practices he was terrified of? He would need a fall GUY wouldn't he? A Catholic traitor would have fitted the bill nicely and even more of a coup if he could use one of his detested religions against the other...

Labels: Lancashire, Life, Traditions

Posted by Miladysa at 11:00 PM 30 Comments

I have been having fun recommending and reviewing online fiction over at the Web Fiction Guide. A section of each review touched on the website layout and the author's attitude towards comments. This process brought home to me just how important I feel comments are and how unimportant they may appear to be to others.

I am surprised at the number of RoYds readers who sit and read through the entire story and leave without comment. I am often left wondering who they were and what they thought.

As I blogger/writer, comments are a bit of an addiction for me. First thing in the morning I check my emails to see if anyone commented during the night. I can honestly say that every single one I receive gives me a buzz.

Whenever I visit a blog/fiction website I like to leave a comment if possible. Sometimes I may not comment if I find it hard to relate to the post or perhaps find the subject matter difficult to read about.

I know quite a few bloggers who avoid sites when they become "too popular" - they feel almost as if their comments have lost their voice in some way.

There have been occasions when I have visited a site and felt like there was a clique which I was excluded from and my comments have been ignored while others have not. Finally there are those sites where people take time to leave a comment and there is no one home - - new posts go up daily or weekly but the writer never interacts with his/her readers.

So what do you think about comments in general? Can there ever be too many? Do you feel that you are sometimes obliged to comment when you would prefer not to? Or perhaps you have experienced a commenter who becomes too involved and you worry for the safety of virtual rabbits...

Labels: Blogging

Posted by Miladysa at 3:37 PM 34 Comments

"CHANGE HAS COME

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Not only to America but to the whole world - for what ever course you decide upon we all journey with you.

Here's to fair winds and calm seas - Cheers!

Labels: Life

Posted by Miladysa at 10:06 AM 35 Comments

Some grandchildren
Write poems
And are chosen
From 25,000 others
To be published
In books

Some grandmothers
Like to brag
On their blogs
And tell the world
That their grandchildren
Most certainly take
After them



















Congratulations to my eldest granddaughter ~M~
an Eco-Kid who writes wonderful poetry about our planet and the animals we share it with.

PS I forgive you for telling me that my poetry is "crap"...

Labels: Life

Posted by Miladysa at 9:23 AM 22 Comments

The view from Cloud 23 a bar aptly named because it is on the 23rd floor of the Hilton Hotel in Manchester. The Hilton is currently the highest building in Manchester.



















Together with friends we sipped cocktails while taking in the amazing views.



















I tried to photograph the fireworks and failed miserably although I do like the effect I managed to achieve here. I dropped some huge hints to Sir H regarding cameras and Father Christmas but I am not sure if the penny dropped!





















Four or possibly five glasses of Champagne later.





















The charity event we were attending was Ciao Italia UK -- part of the Worldwide Association of Italian Restaurateurs -- the fund raising was in aid of Christies Hospital in Manchester and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.




















Up until last night I had never tasted pumpkin soup. When I saw that it was on the menu I thought I had better take a photograph for all my blogger friends who have been extolling its virtues for years! I have to confess that I shall not be joining the pumpkin food fans and firmly believe that they are best served with a candle on Halloween.

Labels: Life, Photographs, Photography

Posted by Miladysa at 10:06 AM 26 Comments