Birds, Pensioners and Snow – Reflections and Forecasts

These are personal reflections, written wearing both my hat and coat on a bitter, frosty, mince pie laden, morning in York (I love Mince Pies).
But, if you’re looking for my keywords and a championship example of finest SEO then you may find you’re wasting your time!

Birds….

Are Squitty, Scratchy things that often annoy me, yet often also leave me feeling quite emotional, and sometimes crap on me from any height available!
I’ve killed a lot of them in my lifetime, sometimes for fun (nasty Ba*****), sometimes to protect other birds or baby animals (shot a magpie that was attacking a kitten up a tree)  and sometimes for food – YES I’ve eaten a lot of them, and enjoyed almost every one (except the pigeon full of buckshot!!!).
But I mention them today with a soft spot showing through my grizzly bearded veneer, I don’t like to see them suffer in the cold!
So, I’ve been out to the nearby pond, risking breaking a hip or leg on the icy paths, and I’ve fed the ducks, moorhens, and seagulls (yes – even the flippin’ seagulls).  With a shiver I watched their reflections against a cold blue sky, in both wrinkly ice and the remaining open water … Then picked my way home and piled our Bird Table with suet chips – purchased at great expense in RSPB bags.

Now – here’s where I must pop in my second sub-title (see, a bit of SEO after all!).

Pensioners

Yes – I am a Pensioner! But it just means that I’ve passed my 65th Birthday, NOT given up my love for life, my dreams, or my natural instinct to fight unfairness or inequality!  So, I do feed the birds on a cold morning, but actually I’ve done that for years anyway.  I just have to tread more warily now as I’ve seen too many old codgers put out of action with broken hips and I don’t want to be one of those thanks!

Snow

I always had a love/hate relationship with SNOW!  I’ve thrown it, dug it, slid on it in all sorts of ways, fallen in it, even slept in it – and built enormous snowmen with it, some even 11 feet tall (got a picture of one somewhere…)…. but I recall the days before fleece and quilted clothes – when boys still wore short trousers in Winter with a pair of black wellies and some wet woolly gloves!! F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G

I’m looking back on many Winters….. one of my earliest memories is of a foot of snow perched on top of the old black pump in our backyard (before we had any running water and taps), it was probably 1947 or 48. I remember mild Maltese Winters with “balmy” sea breezes, the bitter sub -30 ones in Canada and Norway, weeks spent in freezing German Forests and Farms hoping the Russians weren’t daft enough to venture West in such cold conditions, and the usually damp, chilly UK variety of Winter where snow is usually just seen on Christmas Cards (except in 62/63 where we skated and sledded for weeks instead of playing Hockey or Rugby!).  I do recall days just like today though, also spent in North Yorkshire snow and ice, training young Army Recruits in basic winter survival skills (which I had learned in Norwegian snow-holes and in total white-out treks above the tree line).

Reflections and Forecasts

So the headings above all fall into my Reflections, and also figure in my Forecasts.

Haven’t you just been suffering some reflections?  Well, “yes” – but this isn’t an English Essay or a dissertation! I am just reflecting on little snapshots of my life as I look out of the window at the weak sun and hard ice around my house.

I recall spending a hungry Christmas Day on a long, long train, crossing the snowy, frozen wastes of the Canadian Prairies in 1957. My family all had Beans on Toast for Christmas Dinner that year as we’d lost all our money in a failed emigration attempt in moving from the UK to Alberta…. we got back to UK to live with my Grandma for a few months with only three shillings and sixpence between us.
…… I’ve always had beans on toast for Christmas Breakfast since then – just to remind me that times can be REALLY tough, and to count my blessings!

As I’ve said – I normally love SNOW!  I’ve thrown it, eaten it, built igloos with it, slid on it in all sorts of ways, fallen in it, even slept in it – Norwegian Snow Holes.

But this year I’ve already come to hate it.

Not because of Snow and the Birds, or because of Snow’s effect on my old bones as a Pensioner, it’s just that it’s probably killed off our chance of surviving this Recession through into 2011 because it has affected the Christmas trading at our Candles and Gifts Shop in town!
We’ll still trade well, we are doing, because we bought in some lovely goods, but other goods have not arrived – held up somewhere in bad weather, and many of our potential customers just won’t make it into York, or are rushing home early purely because of this exceptionally early dash of “Deep-Mid-Winter”.  We count on taking half our annual turnover in these few weeks, and have done so in our last 7 years…. but not in snow of course!

So – it may not yet be Beans on Toast for Christmas Dinner this year, but who knows if we’ll have anywhere to live in January, let alone run a car or plug into Broadband and use this computer???????
The great unknown looms before us, and it doesn’t look a very pleasant prospect. I cannot really forecast events, but have to hope that we don’t receive too much more SNOW, can survive the cold and reduced heating as PENSIONERS, and manage to find the odd BIRD to cook to keep us going!
I can only do my best to start monetizing my On Line work, try to maintain an On Line presence to support this, and hope to keep a patient line of Creditors fed with increasingly large scraps from my growing On Line Business.

Now – Do Enjoy your own Reflections – and Wish me Luck – but DON’T Wave me Goodbye!