Jan Lilleyman

It’s that time of year again for buying book Christmas presents for my early years crew😍 This year I’d really welcome suggestions for recent-ish books that are excellent to read aloud to children from 12 months - 4 years old.
So far I’ve Emily Gravett and Rachel Bright..
#kidlituk #earlyyears #eyfs

4 yrs ago today, a family member managed a truly spectacular own goal, splintered his domestic bliss, & in the process, united the world for a day.

On popular request, I shall now recreate the livetweet thread from that day

So gather around children, for this is the tale of The Rice Truck Saga

As we move into “foreigners are cancelling Christmas in the name of political correctness” season it’s worth remember that Christmas was indeed once banned in England, by Christians and the man who enforced the ban has a statue in his honour outside the Houses of Parliament.

A photo of a sign, white text on red background: JESUS... WHO IS HE? WHY DID HE COME?

When I arrive at the party

Peroni is £2.75 a bottle but More card holders can buy two for £6

Kronenbourg is £2.50 a bottle but More card holders can buy two for £6

Moretti is £2.90 a bottle but More card holders can buy two for £6

I’m not sure that Morrisons is really giving its More card holders much value for money here 😄

I do miss being able to tag companies on here like we could on Twitter - it’s the only thing I really find lacking.

In the foreground is grass strewn with fallen autumn leaves, then deep russet red bracken against the hedgerow, a tree to the left has lost almost all its leaves but the tree to the right is clinging on to shreds of yellow- between the two the mist hangs over the valley, and the sky shades from pink at the horizon to a deeper blue overhead.

Gorgeous start to the morning - the mist was hanging in the valley over the river and canal, completely obscuring the woods, but the sky was a bright blue and the sun picked out all the shades of autumn in the trees and bracken.

Which one is more English?

Even I thought this was one of mine!

Connections
Puzzle #877
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Ha! Finally I have completed it in the reverse order of difficulty 😄

#connections

Two robbers were robbing the local off licence.

One robber said to the other robber, “Is this Whiskey?”

The other robber replied, “Yes, but not as wisky as wobbing a bank…”

This might be one of the best remakes I’ve ever heard.

Green grass in the foreground of a redbrick-walled garden, scattered with yellow fallen leaves from the tree overhead. To the back left is a scarlet painted wooden bridge and shelter, to the back right is an acer shining all colours of flame red. In the centre is a small lake covered in lily pads.

Green grass in the foreground of a redbrick-walled garden. To the back left is a scarlet painted wooden bridge and shelter, to the back right is an acer shining all colours of flame red. In the centre is a small lake covered in lily pads.

A different angle of this brick walled garden (I seem to remember being told that it was a tennis court when Horsforth Hall still existed but I don’t know if that is true?). To the left is a shrub that I think may be a pieris but I’m not any sort of horticulturist so may well be wrong - shading from a lime green at the base 70 through all shades of pink until it glows at the very top. To the right is a scarlet-painted wooden arched bridge which crosses the short stream that runs from the waterfall to the small lake.

Standing stones on a gravel patch - we visit this garden often and this but is always used by the pre-school children to measure which one is their height. To the back of the picture is the scarlet bridge and the stream running into the pond

Just yards from two busy A roads in Leeds is a little pocket of serenity - the Japanese Garden in Hall Park, Horsforth. It’s glorious in all weathers, but in Autumn it really comes into its own, with the scarlet of the paintwork on the bridges and shelters reflected in the foliage of the acers.

What makes even your strangest dreams feel familiar, explained by a neuroscientist - BBC Science Focus Magazine Our sleeping brains weave a patchwork out of our memories in complex, baffling ways.

What makes even your strangest dreams feel familiar, explained by a neuroscientist

www.sciencefocus.com...

Because it's weird, right? You're dreaming of being upside down in a flaming boat made of fingernails, talking to a bat who's also your mother, and be all like "Yup, this is fine"

Here's why

YouTube video by British Library Riding the robots – Inside the British Library

#Museum30 day 8: storage

Ever wondered how books at the British Library get from our storage to you?

youtu.be/AY6B0wNisUY

(This is for books on site in London, and not all materials! Many have special handling requirements and are collected and delivered by hand.)

Let’s be real: approximately ten seconds after you told Tolkien that Catholics couldn’t go to Mass because they were afraid of being disappeared by agents of the government, he’d be out there protesting.

Minority representation on TV causes outrage

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

Third day in a row for a last ditch success - it’s becoming a habit.
#wordle

Wordle 1,593 6/6

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Thank you!! That’s really helpful - will put it on my to-buy list 😄 Between the dog on woodwork and the teenager doing handstands and causing havoc sliding bare feet down his newly-decorated bedroom walls I’m starting to feel that decorating is a job that’s no sooner finished than it’s restarting 😄

Gary, do you know of a paint that would withstand scratches from dog paws, please? Our dog likes to survey the world from our wide and low window sill in the living room and the paintwork is suffering 🤦🏽‍♀️

The reform party nativity scene.

No unmarried mothers. No Middle Eastern people. No refugees. No people seeking emergency accommodation.

And not a wise fvcking man in sight…

That runs too big a risk of it not being dark enough once milk is added - if you’ve gambled wrong you’d either have to put a soggy and cooling teabag back in, waste a whole new bag, or have a pale beige cup of warm milk 🫣Best just to add milk at the very last minute before bag removal to be sure…

Nah, bottom left is the only right option, otherwise how do you know if the tea is the right colour to safely take the bag out 🤷🏻‍♀️

Photo shows the “Explore” tab of BlueSky, which currently has Zohran Mamdani as the number one hot topic, and Leeds United below him in second place

#lufc not the worst option to have above us in the table 😄

For me, I’ve been in a bit of a rut of anything by Ann Cleeves, Jaqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, and anything for adults by Anthony Horowitz - though I’m finding that using the library’s fab BorrowBox app means I’m definitely reading things that I otherwise wouldn’t pick up.

My son’s leg-up out of his reading slump aged about 10/11 was the John Flanagan Ranger’s Apprentice series - they fired his interest immediately and he’s still sad that the last three of their Brotherband sequels are almost impossible to get hold of here.

London Overground under the underground

Under Over Over - West Hampstead

So it's taken a while, but I've finally found a location where you can clearly see London Underground trains traveling over London Overground trains.

The vantage point is at West Hampstead Overground station at the end of the platform.

Brace of shakes is the only other one I can think of .. 🤔

I hadn’t heard anything about this! Love the idea - off to look into it some more but we’ll definitely be taking part! Thank you for posting 😍

Thanks for posting that - it’s finally encouraged me to google the answer after years of not having the faintest clue what the audience mumbled back 😂

#wordle
Wordle 1579 - when you think you’ve sussed it after line 2, and yet … 🤦🏽‍♀️

Wordle 1,579 6/6

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