doreen said:

Can I bring my dog inside, he is a Parson-russell and very well behaved – sometimes.

It is bitter cold outside, a north-east wind and snowing.

Yes, Doreen, pets are most welcome at Le Bistro. I'm afraid we have to draw the line at farmyard animals though. Health and Safety and all that. We have however provided a stable for the horses and a secure yard for other livestock

Speaking of stockyards! There was a man who came to this country in 1845. A man of wealth and sophistication and a yearning to adventure far from Wapping where his father was a very succesful brewer. Many of London's residents would have drunk Abbotts Ale and the products of Bow Brewery and he was the first to generate that now famous style of beer known as East India Pale Ale. His son's  name was Frederick Sedgwick Abbott and he took out what was called a 'depasturising licence' , in 1848, in the small settlement of Waipawa, of about 3000 acres. The old Maori track still brought settlers through his 'patch', to the banks of the Waipawa river which on occasions was in flood and impassable. Frederick built a shelter and arranged a holding paddock for thier stock, where they might wait for the raging waters to subside before crossing. Gradually, by common usage Waipawa became known as 'Abbott's Ford' . Over the years Frederick donated land for a church, land for a school and took an active part on school committees, although he had no wife or children of his own.

In 1872 he disappeared. Only one letter was received by a friend of his in 1901, from Southampton, where he was living with a new found wife. He was married in Croydon in 1885 to an Ida Gostenhofer, so the marriage certificate says, but he died in Jersey in 1901 and was buried there in that same year and his will informs us that his wife's maiden name was Ida Bradberry.

I have a photograph of his grave and of the house in Jersey that he lived in with Ida, but there 28 years missing with only the wedding as a marker. Most of all what we would want is a photo of the man!

'Abbottsford' has reverted to it's Maori name of Waipawa, meaning 'Smokey waters' and there are still  streets which bear his name such as Abbotsford Road and Abbotts Way. Frederick Sedgwick Abbott was an enigmatic figure  and his activities have been occupying my attention for 3 years now. Where did he go in the missing years? Why did he return so unexpectedly to England? Did he spen some years in Australia? the United States? or….?

I may need a time machine to find the answers.

Graham don't you dare bring that LOT down here.

We would need a container full of food to feed them and a container for what comes out of the other end.

What a stinking mess.

Don't forget your government has agreed to bring the Co2 down 2%

And today is the 20th. of December and tomorrow will still be 4 seconds shorter.

Graham today is Monday the 21st…. yes I know you know …

but do you know that tomorrow, the day will be 1 second longer. Rejoice.

Down under in NZ their day will be 3 seconds shorter.

Enough time to give that Me time to test his tickles.