Great News, Diana Has A Few Days Off This Week,

but this does mean I will only be making one post on some days,

and this is one of them as we will be out as soon as I post it, back to Monday, Diana was already a work as I made my way into town, 

firstly calling in at the station, which thankfully was open, so tickets purchased for December to visit Duncan, 

a walk past the green, where Christmas trees were going on sale,

new stock arriving almost daily, 

in town you may remember back in August this year, I made a post about this post box, at the time it was decorated with a knitted cat, today in keeping with Christmas, 

a nativity scene, 

who ever decorates this post box puts so much work and care into it, 

and this is where I was headed, to post a few letters, but it was not a quick in and out, 17 people in the queue in front of me, I timed the wait between each customer, 3 to 4 minuets each! it took an age, 

a walk back past the green, 

Pines and Needles now fully stocked, in the entrance, 

garlands for the front door, I no sooner arrived home than Diana called, so off to pick her up, arriving back home a quiz show before our evening meal, after which a couple of Antiques Road Trips before we started back on,

 the Netflix series Vikings, which was so enjoyable we watch all of the rest of season 1, after which we were off to bed.

Sunday,

and the first day of the month, 

so time for Diana to open her coffee advent calendar, a special coffee from Nespresso every day, 

it was soon time for my read of Private Eye, 

followed by prawn tempura, 

excuse fingers!

for our main course, chicken with all of the trimmings, with lashings of gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself 'Cheers!', we were so full we decided against a dessert, so it was feet up for a couple from Colombo, whilst Diana started on decorating our Christmas tree,

and here it is, so far, Diana will put some more decorations on it during the week, in the evening we watched another few episodes,

of the Netflix series Vikings, which continued to be enjoyable, similar in many ways to Game of Thrones, but with out the dragons, after which we were off to bed.

With Thanksgiving Passed And Christmas Near,

a look at what our long past relatives might have eaten, 

had they decided to eat out, this, the Thanksgiving menu at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, 1899, I guess similar for Christmas, talk about spoilt for choice! and amazingly the most expensive item on the menu is only $1.75 for Hothouse chicken en cocote, yes all of those prices are in cents! the menu found here.

I Almost Stopped In My Tracks,

when I saw these, 

rolling pins, I can remember my grandmother always using them, not so much my mother, but nowadays they almost seem to be dying out, pies seemingly shop bought rather than home made,  

and then I saw these, not the plain rolling pins of old, but patterned ones, 

they are made by Zuzia Kozerska of Valek Rolling Pins, maybe rolling pins have been in kitchens all of this time and I just have not seen them?

in any event Kozerska has been making so many different designs for cooks and chefs to choose from, as well as special mini pins just for kids, (not available as I write, but hopefully they will be back on line soon), You can see more in her Etsy shop, I can almost taste them now, steak and kidney pies, yummy!

I Did Not Have A Lot Planned For Today,

so I made a start on bringing down all of the Christmas decorations from upstairs, 

then spent some time in playing with photographs that I had started to arrange in categories and then give them a black background, the photographs above the black background ones are as they come out of the camera,

 this collection titled Steam Engines, 

in our travels in Thailand, we would often bump into people you could call characters, 

like Mr. Gold, from the Thailand collection, 

a arowana, 

from the fish collection, 

when we were in Venice, 

from Masks,

Bonsai, 

from a trip to Wakehurst, Bonsai, 

this one again from Thailand, 

but in the section Boats, as when I am playing with my infrared photographs, it is great fun seeing the end results, I should say the finished image with the black background may look out of focus, but in reality when printed they are pin sharp, 

after Diana returned home it was time for a read and a sherry, 

before bangers and mash, 

'Cheers!',

Diana made herself a noodle dish, 

we then watched the start of the Netflix series Vikings, which was remarkably good, I am sure we will be watching a few more episodes, after which Diana was off to bed, the combination of early starts and late finishes had caught up with her, for myself,

a old favorite Jojo Rabbit, a highly satirical film set in WWII, with NAZIS, Jews, the innocence of youth and the horror of war, it seems strange to say it, but as before I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again, after which I was off to bed.

In Many Manufacturing Processes,

scraps of material are inevitably left over, 

leather craftsman Noriki Okada realszed this and decided to create a sustainably-minded randoseru using scrap parts discarded from the production process, in case you are wondering a randoseru is a Japanese backpack, typically reserved for schoolchildren, 

 bearing in mind the scraps were small, Okada, who works for Nagoya-based randoseru manufacturer Murase Kabano, said he wanted to make a backpack that would make children feel strong and brave, working with the small scraps the artisan employed colours and styles inspired by samurai armour,

the sides incorporate intimidating faces of oni demons,

 think Onibaba (鬼婆, lit. Demon Hag), it is a 1964 Japanese historical drama horror film, written and directed by Kaneto Shindo, the film is set during a civil war in the fourteenth century, Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill soldiers to steal their possessions, and one, the mother, appears to conjure up a demon, I have featured a few highlights from the scroll (see the whole thing complete here), the digitisation of which appears to have come from the International Research Center for Japanese Studies – Yokai Database, I should say we have watched the film a couple of times, back to the randoseru, black, red and brown are colours typically worn by samurai and are incorporated on the bags,

the randoseru was entered into this year’s Japan Leather Awards and won the artistic design award. You can purchase one on the company website, so to send your child off to school happy with his/her back pack have 500,000 yen at the ready, at today's rate £2,622.00, or $3,338.79, thank goodness mugging is not a way of life in Japan!

Now You See Them,

but for how much longer?

image: Getty, could Audi be following Jaguar in alienating its following? apparently Audi has also decided to ditch its world famous logo as it kills off the famous four rings logo, the car maker announced a new partnership with the Chinese motoring giant SAIC to sell a separate range of models within the market,

image: Getty, Gernot Döllner, CEO of Audi, shared high hopes for the sub-brand, with China having the largest new car market in the world at around 26 million models sold each year in 2023, He explained: "The automotive industry is undergoing the largest transformation in its history. With our partnerships in China, we are playing a decisive role in this transformation." Originally used by Auto Union, the four interlocked rings within the emblem are meant to represent the four German car brands Audi, Chemnitz, DKW, and Horch, who were all part of an alliance at the time, hopefully Audi will continue using the 4 ring logo for the rest of the world, but one has to ask why drop the logo? for the full story have a look here.