TWILIGHT LULLABY

“Every gift which is given, even though it be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.” - Pindar

The New What’s Going Blog has set as its theme today: “Twilight Magic”. My poem below is a lullaby that centres on a mother trying to get her baby to sleep at twilight time. For those amongst you who celebrate Christmas, the symbolism is not lost. May I  also take the opportunity to wish a peaceful and serene feast day amongst those whom you love.

Twilight Lullaby

Ahhhhh
La la lay
La  lay lullay 
La La la.

Sleep little baby sleep…
All’s good no need to weep.
Your mummy’s here
You’re her precious dear.

La la lay
La  lay lullay 
La La la.

Sleep little baby sleep…
All’s good no need to weep.
Sleep tight and dream
Of strawberries and cream…

La la lay
La  lay lullay 
La La la.

Sleep little baby sleep…
All’s good no need to weep.
Daddy loves you too,
He’ll come and play with you…

La la lay
La  lay lullay 

La La la.

Sleep little baby sleep…
All’s good no need to weep.
You’re safe and loved so much
Feel  my light, sweet touch…

La la lay
La  lay lullay 
La La la.

Sleep, as gentle twilight 
Comes, all is all right…
Sleep little baby sleep…
All’s good no need to weep.
As light dims, you’ll dream 
Of morning’s gleam…
La  lay lullay 
La La la

The poem is set to music, and you can find all my music in my “Otidorchestre” Instagram channel or listen to it on YouTube,  Spotify,  Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

TRAVEL TUESDAY 496 - FESTIVAL IN FABRIANO, ITALY

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.” - Pablo Picasso

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Fabriano is a town and comune of Ancona province in the Italian region of the Marche, at 325 metres above sea level. It lies in the Esino valley 44 kilometres (27 mi) upstream and southwest of Jesi. Its location on the main highway and rail line from Umbria to the Adriatic make it a mid-sized regional centre in the Apennines. Fabriano, with Roma, Parma, Torino and Carrara, is an Italian creative city (UNESCO). The town is in the category Folk Arts and is widely-known for its production of handmade paper.

Fabriano appears to have been founded in the early Middle Ages by the inhabitants of a small Roman town 5 kilometres south at Attiggio (Latin Attidium), of which some slight remains and inscriptions are extant. In 1276, Fabriano became one of the earliest places in Europe to produce paper. Since the 13th century and even today, the town has a reputation for fine watermarked paper. This led to Fabriano's prosperity in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and was also one of the factors that led to the establishment of nearby Foligno in Umbria as one of the earliest printing centres in Italy in the 15th century, from 1470 onwards. 

Fabriano's wealth and commitment to the fine arts in the late medieval period have left it with many monuments. Handmade paper-making courses are popular, festivals and special exhibitions and activities are organised regularly throughout the year, and many artists find it a fascinating city to explore.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 477 - TIME TRAVEL 2

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” - Helen Keller

Happy New Year! Let us travel into the future as we do each New Year’s Eve when the clock hands move inexorably towards midnight. As the clock strikes twelve we usher in the New Year, full of resolutions, hopes, dreams, plans, aspirations, desires, expectations, goals - all being born again and rushing forth like arrows released from the bow. 

The river of time flows endlessly and in our little boat we travel on, waiting expectedly to see new locations, enjoy fresh sights, live novel situations, meet interesting new people, make new friends. We expand our horizons, we grow our knowledge base, we broaden our experiences, we hopefully become wiser in the process.

I wish you happy travels, and an enjoyment of the voyage, unhampered by great expectations of the destination. May you be healthy, but be mindful of the infirmity of others; may you be strong but respect the frailty of others; seize opportunities, but be kind to those who have none. Be positive and joyful, but also gentle with those who grieve, and be ready to comfort those who seek solace.

May 2025 be a good year for you, and let us all wish that it is also a better year for our planet.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY #319 - SEASON'S GREETINGS

“For it is in giving that we receive.” - Francis of Assisi

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only. 

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

This Christmas, travel for most people around the world is not on the agenda. COVID and its Omicron variant have ruined not only many holiday and vacation plans, but also many family gatherings. Many people this Christmas will spend Christmas alone or, if they are lucky, with their partners or their immediate family.

More so then, this year it is a time for giving. The greatest gift I have ever received came from a person who had nothing material to give me, however they gave of themselves freely and what they gave was worth more than anything of monetary value. I thanked them for this gift, and the reply was: “I thank you for being a so receptive, so welcoming, and I thank you for taking what I give with pleasure.”

These days when we try to think of others and do something for them, remember that you don’t have to spend a fortune in order to buy gifts for everyone. Give something of yourself. Give your time, a kind word, do something unexpected and surprise people. A phone call, a card, a letter, a thoughtful hamper left on someone’s door. Donate your time to people who need it most. An elderly neighbour, a sick person in hospital or confined at home, a relative who hasn’t heard from you on the phone for ages. 

Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays, Peace and Love!

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 260 - 2020 MELBOURNE CUP

“Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me.” – Mark Twain

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Today is Melbourne Cup Day here in my home city. At 3.00 pm, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world’s most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup. Even those who don’t usually bet, try their luck with a small bet or entry into a “sweep” (a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse).

Since 1877, Melbourne Cup Day has been a public holiday for Melbourne, and crowds have flocked to Flemington. By 11.00 am the grandstand is packed to its 7,000 capacity, and by 3.00 pm, many tens of thousands of people usually gather around the racecourse. The party atmosphere often means that champagne and canapés, huge hats and racetrack fashions overshadow the business of horse racing.

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861 at Flemington Racecourse and was won by Archer, a horse from Nowra, New South Wales, beating the local favourite, Mormon. The prize was a gold watch and £170. Dismissed by the bookies, Archer took a lot of money away from Melbourne, refuelling interstate rivalry and adding to the excitement of the Cup.

The Melbourne Cup is one of the world’s most challenging horse races and one of the richest (total prize money for 2020 – is $8 million, with the winner receiving $4.4 million), and is the highlight of the Spring Racing Carnival. The race is run over 3,200 metres and is a handicapped race. This means that the better the horse is, the more weight it has to carry in the race. The distance and the handicap ensure that the Melbourne Cup is a horse race in which the occasional punter has as good a chance of picking the winner as those who follow the form. It is a day when all Australians are considered to have an equal chance on the turf as well as on the lawn.

This year for the first time in its history, the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) advised the general public, that in light of the ongoing situation around government restrictions, as well as the current public health advice, it was not possible to welcome spectators to Flemington Racecourse for the 2020 Melbourne Cup Carnival. Hence, instead of hundreds of thousands in attendance within the racecourse and its grounds, the Cup was run with barely 200 people present.

The winners were:

First: No. 6 TWILIGHT PAYMENT

Second : No. 21 TIGER MOTH

Third: No. 12 PRINCE OF ARRAN

Fourth: No. 17 THE CHOSEN ONE

The very sad thing this year was that one of the horses running was injured (a broken fetlock) and had to be put down.

If you bet, I hope you backed a winning horse. If you are like me, and not a gambler, I hope you had a nice lunch with some ice-cold champagne and delicious food!

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 216 - EIFFEL TOWER, FRANCE

“I like The Eiffel Tower because it looks like steel and lace.” ― Natalie Lloyd 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The Eiffel Tower (French: tour Eiffel) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Constructed from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. 

The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure to reach a height of 300 metres. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct. 

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level’s upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme, 
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme, 
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY #162 - CHRISTKINDLMARKT IN MUNICH,

“We are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Christmas market, also known as Christkindlmarkt (literally: Christ Child Market, but the term "Christkind" usually refers to an angel-like "spirit of Christmas", rather than, literally, the Christ Child), Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, Christkindlimarkt, and Weihnachtsmarkt, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent.

These markets originated in Germany, but are now being held in many other countries. The history of Christmas markets goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German-speaking part of Europe, and in many parts of the former Holy Roman Empire that includes many eastern regions of France. The Christmas markets of Bautzen were first held in 1384. Dresden's Striezelmarkt was first held in 1434. Frankfurt's market was first mentioned in 1393, Munich's in 1310, and Augsburg's in 1498. In Austria, Vienna's "December market" can be considered a forerunner of Christmas markets and dates back to 1298.

In many towns in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, Advent is usually ushered in with the opening of the Christmas market or "Weihnachtsmarkt". In southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria, it is called a "Christkind(e)l(s)(i)markt" (German language, literally meaning "Christ child market"). Traditionally held in the town square, the market has food, drink and seasonal items from open-air stalls accompanied by traditional singing and dancing. On opening night at the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, and in some other towns, onlookers welcome the "Christkind" (originally boy Jesus, but often depicted as an angel-like girl), acted out by a local child.