English Heritage Historic British Stately Homes in Winter

2026年02月17日

Yes, it may be the midst of winter but there’s nothing like a fresh winter walk through a beautiful historic garden. English Heritages’ castles, halls and stately homes are enchanting in the colder seasons. So why not make the most of rewarding garden walks and sparkling wintry views.

Audley End House and gardens

It’s all about shape and structure at Audley End House and Gardens in the winter months. The house is set in a landscape designed by Capability Brown, there are the evergreen shrubberies to explore, and – in the kitchen gardens – the structure and shapes of the fruit trees are most evident. The branches are shaped into fans or espaliers, and frame the views across the garden to the glasshouses.

Close to the house, the form of the cloud hedge, is often accentuated with a covering of frost or snow, highlighting the intricate shapes of the yew and box plants. In late winter, snowdrops carpet the Lime Tree Walk and early daffodils appear as yellow jewels around the parkland.

Belsay Hall, castle and gardens

Wrap up and enjoy the delights of Belsay in winter. You can’t miss the impressive 28 metre Douglas fir, planted in the 1830’s.

If you’d rather not brave the cold, you can take in the views of the garden from the warmth of the bedrooms in the house.

Lady Anne Middleton started a tradition in the early 18^th century for the ladies of the house to plant snowdrops together. Come in February to see the vast white carpets of snowdrops in the garden, fields and woodland surrounding the hall.

Brodsworth Hall

The gardens at Brodsworth Hall have been designed for year-round interest – and there’s plenty to enjoy in winter.

Discover the restored Victorian Privy Garden, which was designed to cover up the sight and smell of an outdoor loo.

A festive treat for garden-lovers is the Christmas rose, which comes into flower around Christmas. The evergreens of the formal garden look their most dramatic during the winter, having been clipped through the summer. Their sharp lines and sweeping curves catch the eye at every turn, while the holly berries provide striking pockets of red, yellow and orange.

More than 500,000 snowdrops and 200,000 aconites will begin to flower, so it’s hard to miss them in late January. They cast a white and yellow blanket across the lawns and throughout the woodland.

Home of Charles Darwin – Down House

 

While most of the Down House garden rests in preparation for spring, look out for orchids in late January and early February when they put on a show in the greenhouses.

Outside, snowdrops and daffodils provide colour and interest through the garden in the winter months. They should be in full bloom by late winter as the weather starts to warm up.

Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden

The gardens at Kenilworth were designed for the pleasure and entertainment of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.

In winter, you can easily pick out the geometrical bed patterns within the Elizabethan garden, with the 4.6m obelisks also providing structure. Obelisks were ancient symbols of power and immortality, and are an important feature of the gardens.

 

Kenwood House

On the edge of Hampstead Heath and surrounded by tranquil landscaped gardens, Kenwood House is one of London’s hidden gems. The winter and early spring are ideal times to see the sweeping pasture and woodlands in Kenwood’s grounds, designed by famous British landscaper Humphry Repton.

On cold mornings, walk around the ponds and woodlands to see them sparkle in the winter frost. Look out for many veteran trees dotted about the estate. This includes London Plane tree which is estimated to be between 250 and 300 years old.

 

Osborne House

Winter is a great time of year to appreciate the structure of Osborne’s avenues and the plethora of historic trees. Many of these were planted under the direction of Prince Albert in the 19th century.

The garden features many evergreen plants, which were fashionable in the Victorian era. Walk in Queen Victoria’s footsteps through the pleasure grounds near the house and you’ll find evergreens like rhododendrons and azaleas.

The Isle of Wight enjoys a mild climate, so look out for early flowering. Daffodils (such as Grand Soleil d’Or) flower just before Christmas. If the weather is kind, primroses and native violets start flowering along the woodland walks down to the beach in February.

Richard

Have You Ever Thought About Y?

2026年02月9日

Have you ever thought about why Y is such an important letter in the English language? Aside from having four different sounds (yellow, cymbal, happy, cry), it is a suffix that we use all the time. The suffix -y is a small but powerful ending in English, used to transform words and add layers of meaning, tone, and description. Often attached to nouns or verbs, -y typically forms adjectives, signaling that something has the qualities of, is characterized by, or is full of whatever the base word names. Because of this flexibility, -y plays a major role in making English expressive and vivid.

One of the most common functions of -y is to describe physical qualities. When added to nouns, it helps convey texture, appearance, or condition. Words like muddy, hairy, greasy, fruity and watery instantly create sensory images. Rather than stating that something has mud or water, the suffix compresses meaning into a single, efficient adjective. This makes descriptions more natural and conversational.

The suffix -y also expresses emotional or behavioral traits. Words such as moody, sleepy, bossy, or cheery describe tendencies or states of mind, often in a casual or informal tone. Because of this, -y frequently appears in everyday speech and creative writing. It can soften descriptions or make them feel more personal, especially when describing people, moods, or habits.

In addition, -y is used to form adjectives that suggest abundance or frequency. Terms like rainy, snowy, or noisy imply that something is filled with or dominated by a certain quality. This usage is especially common in weather descriptions and environmental contexts, where concise imagery is useful.

Finally, -y sometimes adds a playful or diminutive tone, as seen in words like kitty, doggy, or mommy. In these cases, the suffix contributes emotional warmth rather than factual detail.

With all the words that can take the suffix -y, you can turn simple words into descriptive adjectives or affectionate words, enriching and expanding your vocabulary making communication clearer and more vivid.               Erik

Croissant Day

2026年02月6日

While most of us think of a croissant as a French specialty, it actually originated in Austria under the name “kipferls”. Marie Antoinette (Queen of France, from 1774-17792) first introduced the Austrian pastry to France when she married into the royal family and requested the simple cake in the crescent shape of her homeland. The French bakers created fancier versions of “kipferls” and thus, the croissant was born. In France, the croissant has become more sophisticated, influenced by the cuisine style of its country. At its most basic level, it’s a simple kind of breakfast pastry, made from pâte feuilletée (soft flour of flour, yeast, butter, milk and salt). On January 30, it is annually recognized as Croissant Day, so channel your inner Parisian baker today and say “oui” (yes in French) to these buttery treats! How about making some for family and co-workers. “Bon appétit”!

Rick

 

 

Lost at sea – Guess what it is…..(no, it’s not a ship, that would be too easy.)

2026年01月30日

Ever have one of those days where you just *fumble* something? Like spilling coffee on your shirt, or maybe dropping grandma’s Meissen vase down the stairs. Perhaps flushing your wedding ring down the drain while doing the dishes?

Well, on January 17, 1966, the U.S. Air Force said, “Hold my beer,” and fumbled four hydrogen bombs over a little Spanish farming village called Palomares! I kid you not.

 

Here’s the setup: A B-52 bomber and a refueling tanker had a mid-air collision. Both planes exploded, and because gravity is a harsh mistress, both planes or whatever is left of them, including the B-52’s payload—four nukes, each 250 times more powerful than Hiroshima— crashed to the ground. Seven dead servicemen and four nuclear bombs rained down on the sunny countryside in Spain.

 

The good news? Three bombs were found on land, one actually had a parachute that worked — which was nice. They didn’t go *boom*. Although the conventional explosives detonated on impact, blowing radioactive plutonium dust all over the pristine farms, in effect becoming a “dirty bomb”, the nuclear part was a dud. Hooray! The fourth? It took a swim as it had the decency to fall into the Mediterranean Sea and the US Navy played a very expensive, very stressful game of “Where is Waldo?” for 80 days before finding it. Then using the famous Alvin submarine, they finally fished it out from 2,500 feet deep. The search involved thousands of servicemen, 150 divers and dozens of ships of all kinds.

 

Casualties from radiation? Zero! Immediately. However!

The cleanup involved 1,600 servicemen. Their high-tech gear? Shovels. They scraped the topsoil into barrels and shipped 1,400 tons! of contaminated Spanish soil back to America. Then the US government told the locals, and the troops, “Go back to farming!”, “Don’t worry, it’s safe!  Spoiler alert: It wasn’t / isn’t.

The half-life of plutonium 239 (primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons,) is 24,000 years and it spread across an estimated 2.5 square kilometers of farmland.

So, I guess farmers have a bit of wait on their hands before going back to farming.

 

And decades later, the “Atomic Veterans” who scrubbed that beach with their bare hands started dropping like flies. Cancer, rare diseases, you name it. When they asked the government for compensation, Uncle Sam essentially said, “Nice try, but you can’t prove “your” cancer is *our* cancer. Denied.”. Apparently, gently glowing in the dark doesn’t count as a disability.

 

And here’s the kicker: Palomares wasn’t a fluke. It was just the most famous fumble. Since 1950, there have been 32 “Broken Arrow”** incidents.

A “Broken Arrow” is Pentagon-speak for “Oops, we lost/dropped/burned a nuclear weapon.” Not in a war or anything, just … a little “uh-oh.”

 

So, if you ever visit Palomares, enjoy the beaches. They glow slightly in the dark so you don’t need lights. Just kidding! (Mostly.)

And the next time you misplace / loose /drop something don’t feel too bad, at least it won’t have the chance to turn your neighborhood into a glass parking lot for the next 10,000 years.

Oh, before I forget, currently the U.S. Military Is Missing 6 Nuclear Weapons. That is SIX. Missing. Meaning no one knows where they are.

I hope you sleep better knowing you only last grandma’s heirlooms.

Let’s look after our pets during the cold winter weather.

2026年01月19日

Many parts of the UK have experienced very cold and snowy weather this winter.

Like people, pets can also need extra help to stay warm and safe during very cold conditions.

Like humans, animals can be at risk of hypothermia if they become too cold.

The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) says pets can shiver when they are exposed to low temperatures for too long. This is more noticeable in smaller and short-haired breeds.

The PDSA (People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) veterinary charity advises giving dogs and cats extra blankets for their beds over the winter months and adding a few more spaces where they can curl up around the home.

Raising their beds off the ground can keep older dogs away from draughts, while cats may like playing or resting in high-up dens or on climbing posts.

Extra playtime can make sure your pets keep active if they are spending less time outside. Indoor toys can be helpful.

Your pet may want to eat more to help keep their body temperature up.

At the same time, they may also want to drink less, but make sure they have constant access to fresh drinking water to avoid the risk of dehydration.

Should you still walk your dog during cold wintery weather? Yes. Dogs still need walks during cold weather.

Usually, their fur will keep them warm. But some dogs – particularly those with shorter fur – may need extra help staying warm while outside.

For most dogs, their own lovely fur coat is insulation enough, but those with thin fur, or who are unwell, very old or young, may benefit from a good winter coat. Something well-fitting, waterproof and with a comfy lining.

Walk your dog during the day if you can, or if you have to go out in the dark, consider using LED collars or hi-vis leads to ensure they can be seen.

Be cautious when letting dogs off the lead in the snow, and supervise them closely as hazards may be hidden. Similarly, keep pets away from frozen water as the ice on ponds and lakes can be thin and may not support their weight.

As the temperatures drop, plan for shorter, more frequent walks rather than one long-distance daily hike and if your dog gets wet, make sure you thoroughly dry them off with a towel and hairdryer as soon as you get home.

Any build-up of salt, grit, dirt or snow can be painful, so check and rinse your pet’s paws.

 

What about rabbits and guinea pigs during the cold winter weather? Smaller pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs and ferrets can also feel the cold.

For these small pets a sudden drop in temperatures can be a shock to the system, so move them inside if they live in outdoor hutches.

A shed or car-free garage can offer a good amount of protection from draughts, rain or snow.

If you have to bring your animals inside, try and put them in a room which you can keep a bit cooler than the rest of your home. Turn down the radiators if you can.

If it is not possible to keep them inside, place a thick blanket or piece of carpet over their outside living quarters to help keep them warm.

Should you keep your cat inside?

Angela

Well, many cats spend a lot of their time exploring the outdoors.

During the day, cats who are used to going outside should continue to do so.

But make sure can easily get back inside through a cat flap whenever they want, or have a warm outside shelter where they can go.

Ideally cats should stay inside overnight during periods of very cold weather. Also providing litter trays inside, even if your cat usually goes outside, so they have a warm toileting option.

So, let’s keep our pets warm and cosy this winter.

Richard

2026: The Year of the Equine

2026年01月12日

Happy New Year and after a twelve-year hiatus, welcome to the Year of the Horse. Horses (equine), just as with all other animals, have specific names for males, females and their young in English.
Stallion: an uncastrated male horse
Gelding: a castrated male horse
Mare: an adult female horse
Foal: a horse under a year old
Colt: a young male horse under four-years old
Filly: a young female horse under four-years old
Horses have been an integral part of human history and this is reflected in the many idioms referencing horses in the English language. Here are a few of the more common ones.
• Hold your horses: wait; be patient. –Hold yours horses; we’ll be there in a few minutes.
• Straight from the horse’s mouth: from the original, most reliable source. –I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. She told me directly that she quit her job.
• Beat a dead horse: waste time on a lost cause or argument that’s already over. –Stop beating a dead horse. He’s not going to change his mind.
• Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth: don’t be ungrateful for a gift. –Be thankful you got a present at all. Remember, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
• Eat like a horse: eat a very large amount. –Don’t take him out to dinner. He eats like a horse.
• Get off your high horse: stop acting arrogant or superior. –I wish she would get off her high horse and just do her job.
• Horse around: play roughly or fool around. –The boys broke the window when they were horsing around.
• Put the cart before the horse: do things in the wrong order. –Don’t put the cart before the horse by buying furniture before you’ve secured the apartment.
• Dark horse: an unexpected winner or contender. –She was a dark horse in the election. Not many people thought she would win.
• Horsepower: the measure of an engine’s strength compared to draft horses’ work capacity. –This car has over 400 horsepower. It’s a lot of fun to drive.
So, whether you are horsing around, beating a dead horse or eating like a horse, may 2026 be an equinecellent year for you. Erik

Donald J. Trump

2025年12月29日

Donald J. Trump is one of the most polarizing and outspoken persons in our lifetime. Here are a few of his quotes from his speeches, books, and news conferences.

“Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.”

“As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big.”

“Show me someone without an ego, and I’ll show you a loser.”

“When you are wronged repeatedly, the worst thing you can do is continue taking it–fight back! ”

“What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.”

“Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”

“What’s the point of having great knowledge and keeping them all to yourself?”

“I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is.”

“Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken.”

“One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people—I categorize them as life’s losers—who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.”

“I know words. I have the best words.”

“Don’t get sidetracked. If you do get sidetracked, get back on track as soon as possible. Ultimately sidetracking kills you.”

“Remember There’s No Such Thing As An Unrealistic Goal – Just Unrealistic Time Frames”

“I discovered, for the first time but not the last, that politicians don’t care too much what things cost. It’s not their money.”

“And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point?”

“good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”

“MY STYLE of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”

“Watch, listen, and learn. You can’t know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity.”

“There’s an old German proverb to the effect that “fear makes the wolf bigger than he is,” and that is true.”

“Everything in life is luck.”

“My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.”

“I like to think of the word FOCUS as Follow One Course Until Successful.”

“Our country, our people, and our laws have to be our top priority.”

“I don’t hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don’t trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions.”

“My people keep telling me I shouldn’t write letters like this to critics. The way I see it, critics get to say what they want to about my work, so why shouldn’t I be able to say what I want to about theirs?”

“success comes from failure, not from memorizing the right answers.”

 

Rick

A Legacy of Control: Beyond the Façade of Christmas

2025年12月22日

Every December, a carefully constructed illusion descends upon the world. We call it Christmas, a season supposedly celebrating peace and a sacred birth. But a brief look at history reveals this celebration is largely a fabrication, a clever rebranding of far older pagan traditions. In fact, the Bible offers no date for Jesus’ birth, and the selection of December 25th deliberately overlapped with ancient Roman festivals.

 

The date itself was not chosen for its historical accuracy but for its strategic value. Early Church leaders deliberately placed the celebration to absorb and replace popular winter solstice festivals like the Roman Saturnalia and Norse Yule. The Christmas tree, the feasting, the gift-giving—these are not Christian inventions but echoes of pagan rituals celebrating the return of light. Christmas is less a holy day and more a masterclass in cultural appropriation, designed to consolidate religious power.

 

This pattern of control is not an anomaly; it is a defining feature of organized religion’s history. While promising salvation, without any proof of course, religion has delivered centuries of bloodshed and oppression. The Crusades saw holy wars that slaughtered thousands in the name of a loving God. The Spanish Inquisition perfected torture to enforce doctrinal purity. Countless women were burned as witches based on superstitious dogma, and scientific progress was brutally suppressed when it contradicted scripture.

 

From religious wars to the justification of slavery and the subjugation of women, history shows that faith is a dangerously divisive force. It creates an “us versus them” worldview, where differing beliefs are not just wrong, but evil. By demanding obedience to ancient, unprovable texts, fairy-tales for the feeble minded if you will, it stifles critical thought and fuels conflict.

 

Perhaps it’s time to look beyond the tinsel and the dogma. True peace and goodwill come from our shared humanity and commitment to reason, not from a rebranded festival with a dark legacy of control.

So, the next time you light up a candle or decorate a tree on Dec 24 or thereabouts perhaps instead of thinking about an imaginary friend in the sky, you should think about all the people who have been killed in his/her/its name in the last 2,000 years. Not to mention all the children who have been sexually abused by pedophile priests in Catholic churches, the very places where love and peace supposed to be celebrated.

I for one would never leave my child alone with a “holly man”, “a servant of god”, but you do you.

Christmas is as fake as the people celebrating it.                                                                                           Alex

 

Christmas in the UK

2025年12月15日

Britain doesn’t have a national holiday – we have no Bastille Day, no Independence Day, no Founder’s Day: instead we have Christmas.
Christmas in Britain, and most particularly in England, is the biggest party season of the year. Christmas Day itself, the start of the great holiday period, is the one day in the year on which the head of state – the King – speaks to the nation. Christmas Day is the high point of a festive period that lasts at least two days, but depending on the calendar, can become a holiday period of up to nine days, and one which people have been getting ready for up to two months.

The essential Christmas holiday in England can be up to four days off in a row. Not only is Christmas Day, December 25^th, a public holiday, but so is the day after Christmas, December 26^th, known as Boxing Day. In addition, according to a now-established tradition, if one or both of these holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday, Britons enjoy one or two extra days of public holidays on the Monday and possibly on the Tuesday that follow.

In 2023, December 25^th being a Monday, most activity in Britain except shopping will close down from some time on Friday December 22^nd to Tuesday 26^th inclusive. Some firms let their employees off as from the evening of December 23^rd, and until the morning of January 2^nd. As for public transport, services are considerably reduced during the two days of 25^th and 26^th December.

 

 

Among the major activities of modern Christmas in Britain, the Winter sales are particularly important. In Britain, people do not need to wait until January, the winter sales begin in England on 26^th or 27^th December, if not before, because stores are free to have Sales as and when they want ….. and notably to organize them when the people are still on holiday, not after the holiday period ends. Throughout the Christmas and New year period, stores are always full – to the point that gift-vouchers have become a popular form of Christmas present, allowing the recipient to buy the gift they really want, and make the most of the bargains that are to be had in the Christmas – New Year sales period.

 

 

Even if shopping is now a more important part of Christmas for most people than remembering the nativity of Christ, the origins of Christmas as a Christian festival are not forgotten. In many public and private schools, especially at primary level, the “nativity play”, a theatrical staging of the birth of Christ, remains an important event in the calendar; and according to a recent ORB (Opinion Research Business) survey, over a third of the UK population attends a Christmas Mass or a carol service during the Christmas period – far more than the 3% or 4% of the population that are regular church-goers.

Richard

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

Christmas in the Air

2025年12月8日

Walk through your local shopping center this time of year and you are bound to hear piped through the speakers a handful of the thousands of songs with a Christmas theme. For the most part, these songs are divided into two camps: secular and spiritual with the main difference being that the spiritual songs are about the birth of Jesus (“Silent Night” and “Joy to the World”), and secular ones are not (“Jingle Bells” and “Last Christmas”).

The traditional songs, some dating back to the Middle Ages and some as recent as the early 1900s, are referred to as Christmas carols. A carol is a song of joy and praise which is appropriate as they sing of the birth of Jesus which 2,000 years ago the angels declared was meant to bring joy to all people.

Some Christmas carols that I am very fond of include “O Holy Night,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Their lyrics tell the true story of Christmas in a way that touches the heart. At the pinnacle of my Christmas carol list sits “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” which unbeknownst to most people is the ultimate cry of every heart as they seek the peace that only comes from being reunited with their Creator.

It takes little effort to recognize that all is not right in our world from global conflicts to strife in homes and individual breakdowns. The uncertainty, pain and suffering that is all around can feel enormous. Yet, the declaration being made through “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” remains as true as it was when it was written hundreds of years ago, and that is we can rejoice because Jesus, aka Emmanuel (“God with us” in Hebrew), has come to us to restore the broken relationship between God and humanity which is the ultimate reason for all the uncertainty, pain and suffering in the world. My prayer this Christmas is that you embrace the true message of Christmas which will fill your heart with the peace and love of God that goes beyond understanding. Here is a great rendition of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by the band For King & Country. A blessed and very Merry Christmas to you and yours, Erik