Festive Midwinter Friday

Fiona Uncategorized

A very friendly dragon (stop blushing, Puffy) suggested a midwinter festival theme for this week’s Friday post. What else could I do but tremble and obey?

(Image Credit: Stuart Wilde)

A Canadian-Chinese take on the winter solstice:

(Image Credit: Red Moon Musings)

With the druids at Stonehenge:

(Image Credit: BBC)

In olden days:

(Image Credit: Living Language)

and last but not least, a traditional English Christmas lunch:

(Image Credit: Mirror)

So, let’s settle down by the fire

with – oh whatever – mulled wine?

champers?

vintage port? (from the Secret Cellar, bien entendu)

(Image Credit: Getty Images)

and listen to some of the most joyous music ever written:

Finally, The Pub is pleased to announce that this evening’s raffle will be directed from the harpsichord by Maestro CK Watt.

“Set aside fear and banish lamentation;
Swell full with joy and merriment!”

Sounds okay to me.

223 thoughts on “Festive Midwinter Friday”

  2. Fiona

    Awww shucks.

    The selection should keep me going for an hour or two, ta muchly.

  5. What say you about this toxic tone.

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/26/minimal-sound-and-almost-no-fury-life-in-the-shadow-of-australias-windfarm-hell

    Bryan said that in Merredin, a town of fewer than 3,000 people about 250km east of Perth, the only complaints came from people whose properties fell just outside the windfarm footprint and who wanted to be involved.

    “It’s funny how people who complain about them are often people who just missed out,” he said. “It’s just jealousy.”

  6. Lenore has reverted true to type – she isn’t strong enough to resist the group-think. I wouldn’t give her the time of day let alone pay her for her columns.

  7. C K Watt

    A Danish study I read a few years ago found there is a sure fire cure for “wind farm syndrome” …………… money. What a shock horror surprise lol that they found farmers getting money for having them were “immune” .

  8. CK & Kaffeeklatscher,

    Yes, it’s a fascinating and well-known inverse relationship.

    Also known as sour grapes.

  9. The usual MSM suspects are on about an early election. James Massola at Fairfax says Abbott has had a ‘strong parliamentary fortnight’ and if he went to an election now he’d win. (No link, I don’t link garbage)

    Really? Almost two years in government. 94 weeks, and out of that he has had ‘a strong fortnight’ and it took until week 92 to get there.

    What was so strong about the last two weeks?

    Two weeks ago we heard that the navy or Border Force or one of out spy agencies had paid ‘bugger off and don’t come back’ money to people smugglers. A few ministers denied it ever happened, then looked foolish when Abbott refused to back them up. Last weekend he came very close to admitting the payments were made. He refused to answer questions in parliament about this. Strong?

    Q&A – Abbott;s over-the-top reaction won’t cut it with rural people who love the ABC.

    This week we had a slew of leaked documents, all of which made this government look mean and tricky. Abbott refused to answer questions about them. Madame Kero had to protect him in QT by expelling every Labor MP who dared open their mouths. Strong?

    The other day Abbott made a great show of visiting ASIO’s new HQ. It turned out the maps he was photographed with were a year old and out of date. The much hyped inspection and security briefing turned out top be nothing more than yet another photo op, another stunt, with ASIO making sure Abbott did not get anywhere near anything important. What did they brief him on? The new menu in the staff dining room? This foolery made the international media. A strong performance?

    It has been at best a mediocre two weeks for Abbott but the MSM are insisting he is in brilliant form They seem to be re-enacting The Emperor’s New Clothes.

  11. Duck…was it ever not so…perhaps she has gone back to “looking at the context”.

  12. Fiona

    Re sour grapes. It gave me a chuckle reading how the highest rates of “syndrome” sufferers were on farms deemed not suitable for wind turbines neigbouring farms that were,

  14. Kaffeeklatscher,

    It’s one of those rather naughty cases of Schadenfreude that I like indulging in – sometimes.

  15. Some people are really clever with digital art. I have a signed print straight from the artist’s hand for a brilliant man who does the most amazing art, when he is not chasing storms to get footage. I have known him for about 20 years and he has exhibited overseas. He gave me a print of one of his early pieces, which I greatly admired

  19. ‘Fallatio Frydenberg” goes in to bat on superannuation for the failed private sector capitalists.

  21. The first Western painting of an Australian animal.

    “The Kongouro from New Holland is an oil painting by George Stubbs. Depicting a kangaroo, it is the first depiction of an Australian animal in Western Art, along with a painting of a dingo—Portrait of a Large Dog—also by George Stubbs. It is part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.[1] The work was commissioned by Joseph Banks and based on the inflated skin of an animal he had collected from the east coast of Australia in 1770 during Lieutenant James Cook’s first voyage of discovery.”


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kongouro_from_New_Holland

  25. Thanks once again to all for all the inspiring good wishes.

    I don’t know why but my lovely OH has been busy writing a list all afternoon, anybody got any ideas on what it could be for????

  26. Leone,

    Chippies and mechanics as well.

    I’ll be choosing very carefully.

    Just wait for the first death caused by one of those …

  27. CK Watt

    Thank you for always remembering my numbers. Hope to see you dropping in occasionally, You have done a great job as rafflemaster.

  30. I don’t know why but my lovely OH has been busy writing a list all afternoon, anybody got any ideas on what it could be for????

    Be afraid, be very afraid…

  31. BREAKING: Trade minister to axe skills assessments for ELECTRICIANS from China in Free Trade Agreement. #auspol #omg pic.twitter.com/dGGPKIHe8h— Van Badham (@vanbadham) June 26, 2015

    You’ve gotta be joking!

  33. BK,

    I’m not all that chuffed about the specified automotive trades either!

    I look forward to Jaycee’s reaction to the carpentry-related trades.

  34. I should add my appreciation to that expressed for CK, and the excellent job done. And while we’re on that to Fiona, Joe and BB too.

  35. Has Kevin Andrews been telling porkies?

    Kevin Andrews, the Minister for Obedient Hair and Defence, announced that he would be boycotting the ABC’s favourite faux left-wing program, Q&A.

    “I was asked to go on next Monday evening and I said that I wouldn’t. I thought I should take a stand in this instance,” Andrews told media

    https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/26/minister-boycotts-abc-other-news-heres-what-kevin-andrews-would-look-if-he-was-potato

    There’s just one problem with that. Panels are organised more than a week ahead, the next week’s panel is always announced at the end of a show, as it was last Monday night.

    Andrews didn’t know about the furore over that show or how he was supposed to react until after that show.So how could he have decided to refuse an invitation for next week because he wanted to make a stand?

    And – Andrews hasn’t been on Q&A since the show began in 2008. Q&A might be boycotting Kevin Andrews.

  36. Puffy,

    Stubbs’s painting is remarkably good, especially given he was working from an “inflated skin”.

    Most 18th & 19th century artists (whether from west or east) had huge trouble representing the completely unfamiliar.

  37. Over the ditch, where before the arrival of people the only two mammals were a couple of bats with a wingspan about 150 cm, the first drawing of the “natives” from 1642. Abel Tasman ran into a spot of bother with the locals and it depicts a sea battle between the Dutch and Maori. That he named the place Murders Bay shows things did not go well.

  39. Leone,

    Has Kevin Andrews been telling porkies?

    An upright man like the Minister for Grecian 2000 tell porkies?

    1. Go wash your mouth out with soap, Leone!

    2. The Good Lord wouldn’t let the Good Minister do anything so naughty.

    3. Therefore, if the Good Minister said anything to the effect that is alleged, it couldn’t have been a porkie.

  40. Oh dear!..One can see where this is heading….cheap labour to kill the unions.

    CK…My first wife was a list maker and poster on the fridge person…god! it was ‘orrible…’orrible beyond measure!

  42. Jaeger

    Heavy metal music combats emotions like depression, anger, study finds

    Worked for me when I was young. Felt much better after listening to some “angry” music. Very cathartic.

  45. Is The Oaf’s outrage over Zakay Mallah appearing on Q&A confected ? Here is a hint. You remember his fulminations over this don’t you ? Oh right, there was none.

    Last year he appeared on the Project and called ISIS fighters ‘wankers’. He later received a death threat from Australian ISIS recruit Mohamed Elomar, the man said to have died fighting in Iraq alongside Khaled Sharrouf last week.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3139880/I-t-food-m-d-k-ll-continue-d-k-Man-centre-Q-terror-fiasco-denies-s-terrorist-t-understand-lost-job-Luna-Park-Zaky-Mullah-ABC.html

  47. puffy

    “Workers from China can come under temporary work visas just about in any category and will not be subject to labour market testing… Projects worth $150 million or more can actually bring in labour from China with lower level English, with lower skills and they can, in fact, be used to implement those projects… If you can bring an entire workforce in to build that building from another country then you immediately lock out Australian workers.” – Ged Kearney, President of the ACTU, in an interview with Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast, Thursday June 18, 2015.

    https://theconversation.com/factcheck-could-the-china-australia-fta-lock-out-australian-workers-43470

  48. Leone,

    a nice glass of Shiraz instead?

    Speaking as the ultra pure Minister for Grecian 2000, no way: “off” Communion wine if you can’t stand Lysol.

    Speaking as moi, the more nice Shiraz the merrier 😉

  50. CK – sincere thanks for keeping my name and numbers in the raffle each week, even though recently I’ve just popping in for a news catchup when I have time.

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