This is the hymn that greeted me this morning, so this is the one I’ll post first–O Worship the King, performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
But we are still taking requests for Christmas hymns, and if you’ve got any, I’m happy to post them.
In my own lifetime the world has never needed Christmas more than it needs it now.
Those howling huskies give me a whole new appreciation of lizards and turtles as pets.
Anyway, it’s nice when all your pets get along, but it’s not something you can count on all the time. Our two cats would cheerfully murder each other, although they will close ranks if a moth or spider threatens them. They may believe they’re protecting us.
Now it’s 2019 (gotta get used to writing that!), and let’s start off with a hymn requested by “TheWhiteRabbit,” The Angel Gabriel–sung by the King’s College Choir at Cambridge.
We’re still doing Christmas hymns, folks, so if you have any requests, please feel free to make them.
I can sympathize with these little puppies and their aversion to tackling stairs for the first time. It reminds me of my first time on a bicycle without training wheels.
No problem, my father was going to hold on to the back and push, all I’d have to do was pedal. I did that, and got going pretty fast. But I still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of steering, and soon a hazard loomed before me: The Ruts. That was just a little bumpy area where the playground met the end of our street, but my mother, for no reason I will ever understand, had told me that The Ruts were too hard even for the big kids. Why in the world did she tell me that?
Anyhow, I was headed straight for The Ruts, so I turned around to tell my father to stop the bike ’cause I didn’t know how, The Ruts are comin’–and he wasn’t there! He’d let go some minutes ago, and was standing some distance away with his hands on his hips, all smiles because his little boy could ride a bike. Only when the little boy discovered that, the little boy went down like a ton of bricks! Fap!
Pups, I feel your pain.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and you’re going to hear a lot of Auld Lang Syne. Fine, that’s as it should be, it’s nice. But here we put the tune to the service of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t know about you, but this goes straight to my heart: All Glory Be to Christ by King’s Kaleidoscope, sung by Dustin Kensrue. I’m only going to post it once today–but you can listen as often as you like.
Most of these cats and dogs seem to be enjoying themselves on the ice, except for those who fall through. And also the poor dogs who can’t climb up a slippery hill without sliding back down.
Gee, it’s been a long time since I cavorted around on the ice…
How about a little more Christmas spirit–eh? Instead of nooze: my Christmas tree doesn’t like nooze.
Instead, let’s have Blackmore’s Night with Ding Dong Merrily on High, complete with harpsichord and bells. I can’t resist the harpsichord.
Jambo, boys ‘n’ girls! Mr. Nature here, with the humble fence lizard. My home state of New Jersey is but poorly endowed with lizards, but we do have the Eastern Fence Lizard, one of my favorites. The lizard in this video is a Western Fence Lizard from California, almost the same thing.
The “push-ups” that these lizards do, mostly the males, is a territorial display. It means “get lost!” Most of the lizards in the iguanid family–dozens and dozens of species–make this display, as well as puffing themselves up, showing the dewlap, etc. There are even some Old World agamid family lizards that do push-ups. This is a mystery to me, that totally unrelated lizards should resort to the same threat display.
I once had fence lizards and one of the females laid eggs. We caught her doing it, and so were able to contact the Staten Island Zoo for instructions as to how to care for the eggs. They were good instructions, and all two dozen eggs hatched into absolutely perfect little lizards.
At night the little ones used to bury themselves in cedar shavings with only their heads left showing. One morning our granddaughter came into the living room and saw them like that–only the tiny heads scattered here and there–and totally freaked out. She was sure some fiend had come in the middle of the might and beheaded the baby lizards. But Mrs. Nature was quickly able to reassure her otherwise.
Fence lizards eat live bugs and can be kept together in an aquarium without your having to worry about them assassinating one another. They tame rather quickly and are altogether nice lizards.
This is a brand-new video by the Libera Boys’ Choir, singing Once in Royal David’s City. How they get children to sing like this, it’s a marvel.
The Christmas Carol Contest is over until we do it again next year, but the Christmas season isn’t, and we’re still taking Christmas hymn requests. Especially if you can come up with one we haven’t used yet!
I’ll bet the sight of a cat thrashing around under the sheet was the inspiration for Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad. If not, it should have been.
Y’know, I’ve got to try that trick with the cat under the sheet and the jingly ball thingy on top of it. Looks like fun!