Whmankeworldofwords's Blog

During September we had a wonderful time in Germany.  One of the many highlights of our 18 days was the time spent in Lauingen, a small city on the river Danube, seen here behind us.  This part of Bavaria was home to me for several years from the end of the war until we moved to Northern Germany.   The town dates back at least thousand years.  On the right side is one of the several towers that  was built into the wall that surrounded the town at one time.  I thought it was a good sign of the people appreciating their history by the sections of the wall that had been preserved along with many of the old buildings and most of the historical sites of the area.

One of my hobbies is collecting lighted Christmas houses and the porcelain people, accessories  like carriages, animals and trees that go along with setting it up as a town or village.  We have recently set the 171 lighted houses up and opened the doors for the people of our town to view the setup.  Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon the total number of visitors was 223.  Many of the visitors liked the mountain scene with all the skiers, sleighs and toboggans and the farming area best.  The kids seemed to like the ferris wheel and the train sets best.  I started the collection in 1993 after selling my collection of miniature electric trains.  Back then I started with six lighted Dickensville pieces and a few people that came with the set.  It was a humble beginning.

Giving time to writing and getting a couple books published has taken a bit of a back seat for me right now.  I have finished four novels since publishing “Secrets of Hawking Manor”.  I’ve also begun to work on a sequel of that novel.  Just over 60 pages of the sequel I have completed now and proofread once.  I find that writing the sequel is a bit more difficult than I had thought it would be before I set out to do so.  But so far it has been enjoyable to write, and the research I needed to do had been very interesting.   For a change of pace I did shift for a few days to write a bit of poetry, and I’m pleased with a couple of the pieces I managed to write, one of which I’ve shared below.

One of the great joys of our recent days has been the time we spent with several of our grandchildren.  Part of that time we’ve spent in arenas watching them play hockey.  It really is pleasing to see how they have progressed even from the first part of the season just three months ago.  I’ll have to go to public skating session more regularly to make sure I’ll be able to keep up with them on the ice.

So what do I find interesting these days?  I’m not sure if interesting is the right word for what’s happening in British Columbia’s political scene.  First we have our long time Premier, Gordon Campbell, resigning.  The way he and his party had brought in the unpopular Harmonized Sales Tax lowered his popularity to single digits in the polls and in the end cost him his job.  It seemed there was no easy way for the party to turn their fortunes around quickly.  To my way of thinking this should have been a barrel full of impetus for the in the polls high flying opposition.  Wouldn’t you think they’d do everything to help the Liberals destruct completely?  But low and behold, a second bombshell went off in Victoria, shortly after the Premier’s resignation.  The leader of the NDP, the official opposition, could see no other way to save her party but to resign also. Her party, well out in front in popularity by all polls, seemed to have a great, almost sure opportunity to form the government in the next election.  The party was way out in front in popularity.  The leader had been given a recent 84%  endorsement by her party, but 13 of her cohorts decide this was a great time to mutiny.   What were they drinking?  That move has to call in question whether or not this group of politicians is and will be fit to govern.  So the Liberals received a wonderful Christmas gift from the NDP.  Maybe we should have expected something like this.  Christmas, after all, is the season for giving.  Unfortunately for that party, their generosity may well have bankrupted them.