With the undergrowth now turned into its several shades of brown, Lily almost disappears when she pokes her head in the dead bracken.
That's why I sometimes think that "Bracken" would have been a more appropriate name for her. We chose "Lily" as a quick escape from the "Wilma" that her lovely Stoneage puppy farm had bestowed upon her before she was rescued - she has a brother called "Fred" who went to live in Southend.
If Lily had become "Bracken" then Oz should probably have been renamed "Bramble". Oz was the name bestowed upon him by his original owner, my brother. The colour of bramble would have chimed in with his own colouring, he's rambling and a bit difficult to control, and he can be a bit prickly. Bramble - perfect.
Can there have been a more touching sight this week than our dear, dear Prime Minister Gordon Brown having to give up the fight for his friend, compatriot and public-school blood-brother Tony Bliar to become All Powerful Ruler of Europe, King of Brussels?
Taking out his fourth onion, Gordon's eyes misted with intense sadness as he admitted that the one thing he has been fighting for above all else is now an impossible dream.
"It would have been my final legacy to ensure that my Hero, Anthony Alouicious Bliar, would be left as our supreme Emperor to oversee our humble works in Britain on £340,000 per year plus exes. You don't realise the emotion that has swept through me whilst I've fought tooth and nail to have Mr Bliar, a proven Catholic, and his lovely, lovely wife Cheryl, Beatified by the Church of Europe. The man is already a Saint in most people's eyes for bringing peace and stability to the Middle East."
Mr Brown went on to pay homage to the new Supreme Ruler of All Europe Sr Berlingo-Van-Rumpo of Beneluxia.
"However, although we didn't get my hero and lover Tony Bliar into the top spot we have made a substantial coup in gaining a position for my famous friend Lady Violet Elizabeth-Williams-Bott as European High Commissioner for Inkwells. She will have an overall brief as Ink Tsar to ensure that Brussels Commissioners have sufficient Quink with which to sign off their own expenses, which by the way make the Westminster expenses look like playschool."
When we were in our long distance (220mile) courting stage, Mrs Rine and myself found Sally Traffic on Radio 2 a Guardian Angel as we negotiated the 4 to 5 hour journey of Motorways and A-Roads.
"Police dealing with an Incident" and "Operation Stack" were phrases we dreaded, along with "Stationery Traffic on the M6" which turned out to be a massive delivery convoy of envelopes and writing paper.
Two things about Sally Traffic still puzzle me.
Firstly, we never hear from her colleague Maureen Harvaner on air, yet every traffic bulletin is signed off, "I'll be back with Maureen Harvaner". Spooky. Where is Maureen?
The other question is why she insists on using the word "earlier" to describe accidents. "There are hold-ups due to an earlier accident on the 62" doesn't need the "earlier" as an accident that wasn't "earlier" wouldn't have happened yet. I may have to take the matter up with her.
Mind you, I suppose there could have been a lot of tanker spillages and she could be referring to Oilier accidents. Like the show, Steve.
I'd like to think this recent story from Metro was true but one suspects it may have been invented by a bright spark in the IT department generating google juice from mugs like myself:
Disabled driver slapped with £40 parking ticket
By AGENCY - Thursday, November 12, 2009
Disabled driver Harold Cadwallader was given a £40 parking ticket after the sun bleached the print off his blue badge.
Wardens said they could not be sure it was valid.
'I rang the council but they advised me to put my badge where the sun doesn't shine,' said Harold, 87, of Woodbridge, Suffolk.
I've been innundated recently with demands for facts about popular 60's beat combo Sonny & Cher so like a candle in the wind of popular culture here we go:
1. Sonny & Cher were responsible for arguably one of the top 5 perfect pop songs of all time, "I Got You Babe" which wafted across the World's Charts in the Summer of 1965.
2. Cher's full name is Cherilyn Sarkisian and she is the daughter of an Armenian father and a French-English-Cherokee Indian Mother.
3. Cher sang as a backing singer on iconic 60's hits including "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'" and "Da Doo Ron Ron".
4. Bono is of Italian extraction and his full name is Salvatore Bono. He was the Uncle of U2's Eyewear specialist and all-round arse, Bono.
5. Bono was 11 years older than Cher. They became divorced in 1975.
6. Cher's first feature film was called Chastity, as was her only child with Sonny.
7. Sonny & Cher will long be remembered for the fact that their name was adopted by the two opposing factions in Iraq.
8. Sonny Bono went on to become Mayor of Palm Springs but died in a skiing accident in 1998.
9. Sonny & Cher were one of the few Boy-Girl Duos where the girl's voice was huskier and lower than the boy's voice.
10. On second thoughts, there is another famous example of this:
Readers may remember back in the Noughties when Blogging became a National Obsession before the Great Depression of 2008-2013 kicked in. Those were heady days when people had oodles of discretionery time on their hands and the idea of writing reams of self-obsessed verbiage seemed quite normal. Everyone and their dog had a blog.
As time and money became shorter at the end of the Noughties, most people condensed their blogging habit down to 140 characters in Twitter. Great celebrity Twitterers such as Lord Fry of Fakenham and Baron Woss of Dagenham, not to mention Dame Miley Cyrus, made the format a must-have accessory on their smart-phones where they could check reaction to Wars, Daily Mail Editorials and Dame Miley's latest hairstyle.
Eventually, of course, even 140 characters became too much of an ask for the modern butterfly brain and Twitter was deserted by millions as soon as "Worder" was launched in 2010. The idea of encapsulating your mood and feelings in a single word became so popular that even Prime Minister Clegg became an enthusiastic participant. Who can forget his famous "Bollocks" when he discovered the true state of the Nation's finances after the election? And Lord Fry with his memorable "Gussett"?
"Worder" was bought by Google in 2010 with a view to harnessing its database for their GWG Campaign (Google World Government) but no sooner had they done so than Apple launched the "SIMBLE" service which has become so omnipresent today. I think we all smile ruefully at those distant days when people sat at keyboards striving over nuances and 300 word "posts" which all seem so ridiculous and self-indulgant now.
SIMBLE gave everyone the freedom to send a single character or "emoticom" onto the World Wide Web and freedom of expression had really come of age!
I suspect that you have all been playing Sting's appearance on the Andrew Marr Show over and over to suck every drop of brilliance from the master's incisive pronouncements. He is 41 minutes in.
Sting brings some Soul Cakes into the studio with him. What a guy. I particularly liked this exchange:
Andrew: "Hello....what are you doing with that fruitcake?" Sting: "It's not a fruitcake Andrew....its a soulcake"
Andrew : "I was talking to the Soulcake".
And Sumner fell on stony ground.
