h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1) The lovely weather last week and the view on the way in to work

2) Discussing in the classroom in New Lanark with Z whether Classics was really a vocational course in "Empire Studies" for young Imperialists in the 19th C

3) The tortoises; they really are incredibly endearing

The tortoises really are super cute, one of them is doing power lapsof the kitchen at the moment. I know most people don't have them roaming around the house though.

If I had tortoises, mine would be roaming around the house. I love tortoises! What kind(s) of tortoises do you have?

I saved a copy of that photo of one of your torties trying to make a break for it, just after you'd moved to the Gingerbread House! I love that pic!

maybe I only hallucinated that tortie pic...

I remember when friends of my family had little tortoises from eggs from their bigger tortoises.

My little Brother has a Tortoise and she stomps around the hoos! Is asleep several feet under his garden at the moment mind.

FB

@SpaceCadette - no you didn't hallucinate it, it's here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XDrDprVEa0wYHIV5vpDXAg?feat=directlink

I think we'd signed the paperwork for the Gingerbread house, but not yet moved.

B

*That* should be be our Christmas card!

My tortoise story.

When I was about four, we had a tortoise called Mickey. You know how you're meant to paint a tortoise's name on its back in case it strays out of the garden? Well my mum didn't have any paint so she scribbled its name on a piece of masking tape and stuck it on.

Only...next day, there was Mickey in the garden, but his name had fallen off. So she stuck another one on. The same happened the next day, but she persevered.

Until on the fourth day...there were three nameless tortoises in the back garden...

Count Yerblessings would be a good name for a character in one of my stories.

I don't have any tortoise stories to tell. There's only one turtle story: we once had a snapping turtle in our brook.

I'd like to extend the list of blessings, though not everyone will see some of the ones on my list as particularly special. Whatever! These are things that I count as blessings:

1. A good cup of coffee with homemade cake on a winter or Autumn morning.

2. Sitting here at my computer with the sun streaming through the window, and (occasionally) brightly-colored birds sitting on the railing of my porch.

3. A good steady rain that soakes into the leaves on my lawn.

4. Listening to CDs on my sound system.

5. peanuts in any form. (When I was in the hospital recently, I would order peanut butter on toast several times a day. I wonder what the people in the kitchen were thinking when they me ordering this. )

It all made me think of Titania's name for these blessings - she calls them "pearls on a string" and it's such a lovely way of putting it that I have simply stolen it as my own

If you place a string of pearls in front of Miss Piggy, is that an example of pearls before swine?

<--- because we don't have a smiley
My Oma in Germany used to have a tortoise named 'Trinschen' when I was a youngster. I believe it was the diminutive form of 'Katarina', or some-such. The tortoise would amble about and wander under the oil-burning stove in the kitchen when she wanted some privacy, or to stay warm. She loved to nibble on lettuce leaves left discreetly for her. When I returned for an impromptu visit, in my mid-twenties, and noticed a tortoise hiding under the kitchen furniture, my Oma confirmed it was still the same 'Trinschen' from long ago.

B4morememoriescomefloodingback

Ed, love the story about Mickey! All those volunteer torties, getting a name!

My Oma's tortoise was called 'Lisi' (Elisabeth). Unfortunately Lisi was male.

I've no idea what sex Mickey was. I've no idea where you'd even look on a tortoise. And no particular wish to find out.