W stands for Wishes and White

I love this time of the year when  friends and families gather together to wish each other a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Some cynics may say "Be careful what you wish for"

 But I am not a cynic and I truly believe there's nothing wrong with wishing. We all have dreams and aspirations....... So go on,  throw a coin in my Wishing Well,  and make three wishes....     Who knows? ......  they may just come true! 

My first most earnest wish is for World Peace.

 My second wish is for all those who suffer pain, whether it be mental or physical, that God will grant them relief.

My third wish is for all the displaced people in the World , due to famine, floods or strife. I pray that the people of which ever land they settle in, will  warmly welcome them  and help them rebuild their broken  lives.

Winter Wonderland.

 

 

 I'm dreaming of a WHITE Christmas

Just like the ones we used to know,

 where the treetops glisten,

 and children listen,

 to hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a WHITE Christmas

 with every Christmas card I write

 May your days be merry and bright

 And may all your Christmas' be WHITE.

We can't have a WHITE Christmas without a seasonal robin..

Well ! that's me done I'm all out of W's.

 

My Warmest Wishes to you all over the Festive Season and thanks to the warm hearted Denise for devising ABCW and to the ever watchful Roger for doing what he does week after week.

 We mustn't forget the team of Santa's little helpers who assist Roger in his endeavours.

 

Seasons greetings one and all,

Best wishes Di xx

 

U stands for Under,

Under Milk Wood.

  by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953).

Under Milk Wood  was regarded as the play for voices, it was a radio drama commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for stage and screen.

 Dylan Thomas was a famed poet and writer, also broadcaster. He was born in Swansea, South Wales.

 Whilst Dylan Thomas was staying at New Quay, West Wales he went out early one morning, when the people of the town were sleeping, verses came to mind about the residents. The play was really a short story and initially  was called  'Quite Early One Morning', it was about a mythical village called 'Llareggub', if you reverse the letters it says 'bugger all'.

 Llareggub was a typical Welsh village in South Wales, with terraced houses and one 'ty bach' (little house), and five cottages. In 'Early One Morning' there were lots of ideas and various interesting characters who would later be developed for 'Under Milkwood', they would come out and empty the slops out side of their houses and have a chat with each other.

 An omniscient  narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of the fictional Welsh fishing village.

 There are some quirky and amusing characters. One of the main protagonists is Captain Cat , who is blind and who dreams of his lost crew when his ship sank.

Captain Cat  is one of the most important characters and often acts as a Narrator. 

The cast is too long for me to list all the characters but you can learn more on Wikipedia and by googling the title, or view it on you tube with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor  playing lead roles.

  There are also transcripts to read, if you are interested.... Or whatever rocks your boat !

 

Captain Cat's statue at the museum in Swansea.

Sadly Dylan Thomas died in New York aged just 39 years of age, where he was working on Under Milk Wood,  he was literally putting the finishing lines to the play whilst, the actor were waiting to read their scripts.

 He had poor health from childhood, then later became addicted to alcohol .

 Sadly, many gifted people have formed some sort of addiction to alcohol and/or drugs.

 I sometimes think that the pressures of fame is responsible  for their demise. 

 

 

My thanks to the ULTRA UNIQUE Denise for devising ABCW and to Roger our UBIQUITOUS  admin man...and not forgetting his team of helpers who assist him with visiting each site,

Best wishes to all,

stay safe,

Di.

ABCW team.

 

T stands for Termites Turtles and Toucans.

The Termite.

Some primal Termite knocked on wood     

And tasted it,  and found it very good !

 And that is why your cousin May

 Fell  through the floor today.

 (Ogden Nash).

 

 

 The Turtle.

The Turtle lives twixt plated decks

 Which practically conceals it's sex,

  I think it clever of the Turtle,

 In such a fix to be so fertile.     (Ogden Nash).

Mummy TURTLE swimming in the sea Probably hoping to meet up with one of her new born,

Add caption

Newly hatched baby TURTLE heading for it's first swim in the sea.

 

TOUCANS.

There was a TOUCAN named TIKKI

 Who lived in a house that was leaky

 So he wore a rubber hat

 And in the rain he sat

That silly old TOUCAN named TIKKI

 

 

 

 

My thanks to the Talented Denise for devising this Terrific 

 ABCWednesday. site,

 Also thanks to the Tenacious Roger for all that he does too! 

Last but not least, the Thoughtful Team of helpers who lend their

support by assisting Tirelessly  with  the visits to each contributor.

 

Best wishes one and all,

 and in these Troubled Times. Stay Safe. Di. xx

 

R stands for Ruth.

The story of Ruth is one of my favourite books in The Old Testament. It gave me lots of pleasure reading it as a child. I was asked to memorise and read a text from it  in school assembly, when I was just about ten years old.

 It was something I've never forgotten and  the text stays within my heart even now. Ruth is a story of love and redemption and so easy for a child to understand. Here is a quick synopsis of the story, as I perceived it, when I was very young it.

 There was a place called Moab where there lived a family.  Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their two sons. They had fled there from Bethlehem, where there was war and famine.

 Sadly Elimelech died leaving Naomi and her two sons.

 Later the two sons married Orpah and Ruth.  But tragically the two sons were killed in another war,  leaving two childless young widows;  

They decided to stay with Naomi to look after her, which was a very kind thing to do.

 One day Naomi decide she would like to return  to the land of Moab, where she used to live. She told her daughters-in-law that they should now return to their families and make new lives for  themselves; Whilst Naomi was grateful for their kindness in staying with her, she truly felt they should live  their own lives now, and hopefully, re-marry and have families of their own.

 Orpah, reluctantly kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and duly returned to her family.

  Ruth clung to Naomi, who said," See your sister-in-law has gone back to her family and Gods and so must you"; 

 

 

 But Ruth said " Entreat me not to leave you, nor to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your god my god; Where you die, I will die and there will I be buried . May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go she said no more. So Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem together, When they got there Ruth decided to work in the fields as it was harvest time. She would follow the reapers and collect the Barley they had dropped,

Whilst she was working in the field she was spotted by Boaz a wealthy land owner, who also happened to be related to the family of Naomi's husband. Boaz was deeply impressed by this industrious and devoted young widow working in his fields and introduced himself.

 He told her (Ruth2 : 11-12) "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and mother and native land and came to a people you did not know before.

 The lord repay your work and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.

The relationship developed and Boaz and Ruth wed. They had a child and he was named Obed, he was the father of Jesse, the father of  David.

 This marriage was one of the most significant in Jewish history because the great grandson of Boaz and Ruth was the famous and most loved ruler of Israel, King David. (Ruth 4: 21-22). This also means that Ruth was in the line of The Messiah Jesus Christ.

 

My sincere to Denise the rapturous creator of ABCW and also to Roger our rational  administrator. Also our thanks to the team of  readers who assist  Roger in visiting the sites of ABCW'ers.

best wishes to all from Di. ABCW team.

 

 

Q stands for Ouaint and Quilp.

This Quirky house is for sale at a cool one million dollars (£795,000:00)

 It is in a village called Hertford apparently one of the most desirable and expensive place to live in the UK. It is said to be a Quaint Victorian Water Tower.

My next Q stands for Daniel Quilp who is an evil little dwarf  in Charles Dickens' 'The Old Curiosity Shop'.

Quilp  lends money to Nell's grandfather, who has a gambling habit .

 Nell is the main protagonist in the story and lives in the shop with her grandfather, who is struggling to raise her after her parents died.

The reason why grandfather is gambling is so that he can leave Nell enough money to keep her after he's gone.

 Unfortunately he gambles all the money away and can't repay Quilp.

 So, he and Nell go on the run to escape the dwarf.

 Quilp attempts  to find them but thankfully, is unsuccessful!

  Later, Quilp is pursued by the Police, but he gets lost in the fog and drowns in the River Thames.

 This a brief synopsis of  one of Charles Dickens  most popular stories.

 If you haven't read the story I hope you can get a copy,  it's a real good read with lot's more Quirky Dickensian characters.

My sincere thanks to the QUITE lovely, QUINTESSENTIALLY, Yorkshire lass DENISE for devising ABCW and also to  ROGER who QUIETLY, goes about the QUANTUM task of administrating this QUIRKY and interesting blog site..
Also not forgetting the team of tireless bloggers who help out with the visits!
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
and also to the

P stands for Pantomime.

When I was in my teens I  auditioned for a

 

role in Pantomime at our local community centre. This was the beginning of many years of 'treading the boards'. The first Pantomime I was in was Robinson Crusoe, where I was in the chorus line, playing the part of a villager then a 'hula girl' on a  tropical island.

 The following year A Star was born...... I was taken from the chorus line and given the leading role of Jack, in Jack and the Beanstalk.

 

It is customary in British Pantomime to have role reversal, of leading roles: Therefore, the Pantomime dame traditionally would be played by a man and the leading male part would be played by a female....Don't ask..... It's just an old British tradition!

 Also it is customary to have a Pantomime cow or horse.

 In Jack and the Beanstalk we had a cow called Daisy, not a real cow mind but one made of fabric with two men operating it. One would operate the back end legs (Dave) and the other. the front legs and head etc.(Tom).

 Now then, Dave was rather fond of a drink or two and on the last night of the Pantomime, he called in to the village Pub for a drink. "To steady my nerves", he would say! When he eventually arrived on stage as the rear end of Daisy the cow, it was apparent he had more than one drink and he weaved all over the stage in a state of inebriation. To say he was legless was an understatement.

 Eventually he found his feet and managed to dance in time, until the end of  the routine, then he stepped backwards over the footlights and ended up dangling over the drummer, who was seated directly below the stage.

The audience went wild with applause and gales of laughter, thinking it was part of the act. Tom at the front end of Daisy, unceremoniously hauled him back on stage, he was absolutely furious with him. Dave, now encouraged by the rapturous applause attempted to repeat the performance, only to be thwarted by Tom who gave him a sharp kick in the shins, sending him howling to the floor, ending up in a heap of cow on the hapless drummer below.

 Fortunately nobody was seriously injured and the show carried on. I've heard of the cow jumping over the moon but not over a set of drums.

My thanks to Denise a Paragon of Perfection and to the perpetually patient Roger for his hard work in the administration of ABCW.

Also not forgetting the team of helpers for their participation each week by visiting other sites and commenting too !   

M stands for The Mr Men and Little Miss's stories.

Roger Hargreaves author and illustrator of The Mister Men and Little Miss stories. (1935-1988). Roger worked as an advertising copy-writer. He died unexpectedly, after a series of strokes. His son Adam, said of him, "Dad had always been this huge man in every way, he was 6ft 5' and he always seemed larger - than - life and healthy". Adam recalls, when he was aged 8, that one day, whilst playing at the breakfast table with his Father, he asked him, "Dad what does a tickle look like, my dad looked at me and laughed, he then went away and drew a yellowy-orange man with long arms, sketched in an appealingly bold style, in basic colour---------- Mr Tickle was born.  

 

 Abridged version from Mr Tickle.

 Mr Tickle was walking along looking for anybody to tickle, eventually he came to a school, he peeped into a classroom; there were children sitting at their desks and a teacher writing on a blackboard.

 Mr Tickle's extraordinary long arm went right up to the teacher, paused, and then- tickled! The teacher jumped in the air and turned round very quickly to see who was there. But there was nobody there! Tickle kept on tickling until the teacher was laughing out loud. 

 All the children were laughing too at such a funny sight. There was a terrible pandemonium.

 Eventually Mr Tickle thought he'd had enough fun, so he gave the teacher one more tickle for luck, and then, very quietly brought his arm back through the open window, leaving the poor teacher to explain what that was all about!

Mr Tickle became the first character in what would be the stratospherically Mr Men and Little Miss series. "

 It was the day that changed our lives", says Adam, age 48,  Roger Hargreaves's  son.  Adam is also a painter and cartoonist. It was 1971 and Roger was trying to find a way to escape his daily commute into London to work. Then Adam helped change all that by asking a quirky question about tickles!

 His father went on to write some 46 Mr Men and 33Little Miss books, which illustrated a simple humorous tale about the trait in each character's name. They were pocket size and originally 15p, Each was an instant collectible and made Hargreaves the UK's best selling author after J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown. Sales exceeded more than 85 million copies worldwide. The stories have been made into animated movies, achieving worldwide acclaim. All thanks to a young boy asking 'that question' ! 

I intended to write about one of the LITTLE MISS books but ran out of time... maybe another day!

 

My sincere thanks to the MARVELLOUS Denise for devising ABCW and the equally METICULOUS Roger for keeping us all MESMERISED in our search for a suitable subject to write about. Not forgetting the team of helpers too!

Cheers Di. .ABCW team.

 

 

L stands for

Lewis Carroll.

Lewis Carroll Is the pen name of an Oxford Don and Anglican Deacon Charles Lutwidge Dodd, he wrote the legendary story  'The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland'

 It is, in my view, a fantasy story for children and adults alike.

  I read this in junior school and found it rather scary, but when good old Walt Disney turned it into an animated movie I got a better feeling about it and could see the writing for what it was.. a tale of fantasy. 

A window in Daresbury Parish Church depicted scenes from Alice in Wonderland. 

 Lewis Carroll was born in a small Cheshire village called Daresbury just 20 miles from my home.  His father was the Anglican Parish Priest there  when LC   was growing up. 

 Ken Dodd, a much loved comedian from Liverpool,  has recorded a series of readings from the story, they are held at the Lewis Carroll Centre in the village.

The Nave of the Parish Church All Saints with the Alice Window looking down upon the aisle.

 

 As the Alice in Wonderland tale is so long and complex, oozing with wonderful zany characters and wise and witty sayings, I've compiled a few extracts and images, from the book for you to enjoy.

 The main synopsis of the story is about Alice, a little girl, who on seeing a white rabbit with a stopwatch, out of curiosity, follows him. She  falls down a rabbit hole and enters a the world of wonderland.

The Cheshire Cat's Grin....Scary or what?

 

Alice on meeting The Cheshire Cat: "Well I've seen a cat without a grin", thought Alice "but a grin without a cat"! 

The Cheshire Cat appearing behind his smiling teeth!

 "It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life".

 Alice asked the Cheshire Cat who was sitting in a tree,

 "What road do I take?"

.

Alice as she enters Wonderland.

 The Cat asked, "Where do you want to go?"

 "I  don't know" , Alice answered.

"Then",  said the Cat, it really doesn't matter does it"?

 

 

The Mad Hatter.

 

 

 

 Mad Hatter: "Would you like a little more tea"? Alice: "Well I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more".

 

 March Hare: Ah, you mean you can't very well take less.

 Mad Hatter: Yes ,  you can always take more than nothing. 

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

 

 Wise words.

 The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday but never jam today. 

 (The White Queen)

Alice with The White Queen.

Well there it is....my slant on a much loved and revered writer, with such an enlightening and humorous ideology

My sincere thanks to the laudable Denise for devising ABCW, thus enabling us all to linger awhile and look and learn of others lives. Thanks also to the lenient Roger for his loyalty to ABCW, working tirelessly to keep us all connected.

Lastly,  lets not forget the team of helpers who read and comment on every site that they possibly can,

Best wishes to all,
Di..xx
ABCW team helper.



 



 

K stands for

 King Witlaf's  Drinking Horn.

( By Henry W Longfellow),

Witlaf a King of the Saxons,

 Ere yet his last  he breathed

 To the merry monks of Croyland

 His drinking horn bequeathed--,

 That whoever they sat at their revels,

 And drank from the golden bowl,

 

 They might remember the donor

 And breath a prayer for his soul.

 

 So sat they once at Christmas

 And bade the goblet pass;

 In their beards the red wine glistened

 Like dewdrops in the grass.

 

 They drank to the soul of Witlac,

They drank to Christ the Lord,

 And to each of the Twelve Apostles,

 Who had preached his holy word.

 

 They drank to Saints and Martyrs,

 of the dismal days of yore,

 And as soon as the horn was empty,

They remembered one Saint more.

 

 And the reader droned from the pulpit,

 Like the murmur of many bees,

 The legend of good Saint Guthlac,

 And Saint Basil's homilies.

 

 Till the great bells of the convent,

 from their prison in the tower,

 Guthlac and Bartholomaeus,

  Proclaimed the midnight hour.

 

And theYule -log cracked in the chimney, 

 And the Abbot bowed his head,

 And the flamelets flapped and flickered,

 But the Abbot was stark and dead.

 

 Yet still in his pallid fingers,

 He clutched the golden bowl,

 In which, like a pearl dissolving,

 Had sunk and dissolved his soul.

 

 But not for this their revels

 The jovial monks forbore,

 For they cried "Fill high the goblet!

 We must drink to one Saint more".

 

My thanks to Denise for devising and Keeping ABCW going for many years and to Roger for his infinite knowledge in kindly helping us all to share our thoughts. and not forgetting the team of helpers too!