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26 2 7 Do not go gentle into that good night

A poem by Dylan Thomas sited by my nephew ex-Royal Marine Nick on WhatsApp in the UK yesterday, regarding my exploits this last week at our Avanto (Ice hole) Then his siting this poem was commented on by his youngest brother's wife, Claudia in Penang, who said she had just been teaching her students the same poem, reproduced her for my readership in the rest of the world... 1 Do not go gentle into that good night 2 old age should burn rave at close of day 3 Rage, rage against the dying of the light 4 wise men and dark is right because their words had forked no lighning 5 Do not go gentle into that good night 6 Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright 7 their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, 8 rage, rage against the dying of the light 9 Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, 10 and learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, 11 Do not go gentle into that good night 12 Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight 13 blind eyes cou...
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My activity since 26 1 31 c.f. pics from 16 1 9...2026 2 6

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Imagine being able to borrow these two pics from a blog I wrote on another site in 2016 but almost a month earlier... The thing this year is that it's the first winter since 2021 I can recall being able to walk on the frozen sea and exceptionally I have been the only visitor to our changing room to keep the AVANTO that's Finnish for "hole in the ice" open, by daily hacking the over-night build up of ice away, and these last 2 days making sure to throw as much of it away onto the surrounding ice, in order that it doesn't become joined to the fresh over-night ice build up. Back in 2016 I have to think there were many others one could rely on to perform this task because I'm thinking today the average age of the daily visitors is much older than then, as the population of the town has got older..? That's leaving aside the weekend visitors but not so many to brave the deep freeze conditions as I do because as a permanent inhabitant who has been...
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Marrying into a Swedish-Finnish Finnish-Finnish Family..? 26 2 5

On this Runeberg's Day 2026, the day we buried my Appi-ukko, father-in-law, in his family plot in Pernaja, in Swedish Pernå, always known by his affectionate pet name, Jalle. Me, marrying into a family abroad, my Gentleman Farmer father-in-law with cows and "karjakko" or milk maids living on his farm to tend their flock, back in the days in the 1960's when we married in the same family church in Pernaja, with a sumptuous wedding reception in their yard: between the Shippen, the main house or manshion, and out-houses used to store vegitables and fruit on the ground flours, which doubled as guest rooms on the first floors, a second dwelling, all ready for the retirement of the elder generation, to vacate the farmhouse in the fullness of time, one generation following the former, a square of turfed garden and Flag Pole flying the national Flag in our honour wherein the guests from different parts of Finland and England, on my side because of my past history of working h...
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Longevity, Pitkäikäisyys in Finnish..? 2026 2 4

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The lady commedian in the long running Holywood series Sh*ts Creek just the latest in having her longevity termiated aged 71: life's great leveller maybe? Whoever you are, rich or poor, famous or unknown, the termination of the human condition is where its at, come the day that has one's termination date to the fore. And along the way all the other stuff going down: at no time in the history of the world are we as a group of ppl more aware as we are today through the media outlets, the social net-working platforms, books, newspapers, the internet, tv and radio, its all taking note. Aged 86 I am becoming an ever rarer specimen in the sense that the older one becomes the fewer there are left of the ppl one used to know: get to be 118 like one lady, and you might get to be unique as the one living person aged 118! But now I'm going to pause this snippet while I go take my daily dip in the sea. These last 5 days, since the 31st of January I have been the most visited person ...
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17 blog hits in the last few days...26 2 3

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One of these ladies my Finnish lady wife with red hair red scarf! From countries as wide apart as Vietnam (7), Bangladesh (1), Brazil (1), Pakistan (1), Senegal (1), the USA (1), Other (5). When normally I can go many days at a time without getting a single hit... So what was different to encourage my audience to get curious to read more from my on-line type-writer? Adorning my blogs with pics from the different homes i have inhabited perhaps one factor? Filling my blogs with home spun philosophy perhaps another? But today i'll tell you what i have been up to so far when you'll all get to decide whether it was just a one-off or whether it will keep your interest alive and keep re-visiting???? So this day began again with my walking the 1-2 km to our changing hut on the Baltic Sea shore in the south of Finland. Key to gain access: men to the left, women to the right inner doors. But like yesterday and Sunday the 1st Feb and 31st Jan before that today I was again the o...
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Two and three generations later..? 26 2 2

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So, back to the house into which I was born 26th Nov 1939. At 13 Thornleigh Road, Fallowfield, Manchester. This Sanderson Air-raid shelter we decamped to during many night times, as a family to escape Hitler's blitz of Manchester: until 1941 when our Dad volunteered to join the Royal Marines, when Jim my elder brother and I, together with our Mam, moved from his mother's house to the house in which our other grandmother resided in Bury, to the north of Manchester. After just getting off a video link up with Fabienne, our younger son's eldest daughter together with her son Hugo, almost 18 months old, such a joy for my wife and I getting to chat to our Granddaughter and Great Grandson..?
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Always an Empiricist 2026 2 2

When as a child in my 2nd class school, i.e. the local Junior Technical School, after the 1st class High and Grammar Schools, each of which required passes in the 11 plus examinations, the 3rd class being schools wherein none of the pupils got to pass these entry examinations, not even aged 13 getting into the local "Tech" Getting into the latter meant getting on the first rung of the ladder marked "Get yourself a trade in your hands young man!" One stream coaching one intake how to lay bricks for example, the more academically gifted (?) stream the one I was put into, in which we instead got the subjects Woodwork, Practical Drawing and Metalwork for example, 3 half days a week, with Mathematics, Science (embracing Chemistry and Physics), Geography, English and History taking care of the rest: no more Music nor French of the 3rd class school, coz getting a trade didn't require the humanity subjects so much. Since I went from sharing the bottom two places of m...
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