mistletoe | Crowded with incident (Reply)

Small competition in today's post friends. Virtual cookies to the winners.

1. Which play features the quote in my subject line? Who wrote it? Who said it? Clue: I have played the role.

2. I feel like Mother Shipton. Virtual cookie to anyone who knows who she was. There I was yesterday remarking on the snow still being on the edges of the fields and what that means. This was half an hour ago:

You can sort of make out the remains of the December pile on the path on the last one if you look at the car tyre and the kerb. Well that was a surprise, yet not, because I went to the shops this morning and it was -3. Anyway, I'm watching the racing from Fontwell where it is bathed in sunshine.

3. Now then, here's a sort of a meme that's not. I made it up anyway. Inspired by

tempertemper77 's pic-a-day and

melissasjack 's request for some pictures of my owl collection, I took some snaps. Here are a few owls. Excuse the dust on the last two!

On here is a nightlight at the back on the left, a Murano glass owl, a candle owl, a squirrel at an unfortunate angle, and two pottery owls. The brown and beige one is from Poole Pottery. Virtual cookie if you know the significance of that. You can see the top of a wooden owl on the shelf below.

This is my favourite. It's a virtual lifesize figurine of a barn owl made by Border Fine Arts. It's hand painted resin and is extremely realistic. To the right is a tawny owl box of post-its.

Here's the meme. Take a picture of where your pc/laptop lives and tell us about what else is there. I've seen this as a meme in the past, but not recently on my f-list's pages so I'm resurrecting it. These two pictures are virtually the same, one with more dust than the other! I will tell you about the stuff that's in them.

Top shelf l --> r
1 whimsical fairy things that sit with their legs over the end of the shelf. Got them in Durham.
2 Lewis chessmen: King, Queen and Knight all from the British Museum. I got the king first and he is better quality than the other two, probably because I got him in the Mueum Shop before I had a computer. I got the other two years later online from the shop and the moulds just don't seem as sharp. I love the Lewis chess set and Noggin the Nog which used them as models.
3 Pencil pot which was a gift from a pupil in my registration group. It looks like a set of books with a teddy sitting in front. Over the years I did quite well on the gift front but this one was the first so it gets a place of honour.
4 Three CDs and a CD-rom of The Lindisfarne Gospels. The CDs are music from Angel: Live Fast Die Never; Lighthouse Family Greatest Hits and Cinema Classics ie classical music that has been used in films. Bit eclectic there I would say - and nothing recent!
Bottom shelf
1 The South Park kids wind up toys. I loved Cartman's voice. It was just right. I used to have him saying Screw you guys, I'm going home when I signed off from AOL on my old computer. Bonus virtual cookie if you are sitting there doing that now.
2. A Mexican pottery owl. I actually bought him in France in somewhere like Rouen where I saw him sitting in a shop window. I've been to France a few times and this is the best thing I ever bought there and it's not even French. That was the year we were second car off the ferry and customs pulled us over! Aaaargh!. They emptied everything out of the car and it took us over an hour to get out of the port. That was the time we drove all the way from Newhaven home in one go. My dad drove to the M1 where we stopped for fish and chips at the first services - hang the expense - and I drove the rest of the way. We got home at something like 3 o'clock in the morning off the 9 o'clock in the morning ferry. My mam never went abroad again. Thank you British Customs.
3 small pot owl that is off the top of a pencil.
4 Bronze copy of a Greek owl also from the British Museum. It is very heavy.
5 Two clowns which were bought simply because they were well modelled. I think they were meant to be cake decorations. Too good for that.

Same picture, different angle, more dust.
Additions
Top shelf:
CDS of Il Trovatore, Big Band compilation and Dance Hall Days featuring British Dance Bands of the 30s such as Henry Hall. As you can tell, I have old fashioned taste in music.
Bottom shelf
DVDs of Angel Season One; Buffy Season One Episodes 1 - 4; Girl With A Pearl Earring (Mmmmmm Colin Firth) which I bought because the art is so beautiful and a CD of the Harry James Band. The Photoshop box is self explanatory.

There's a little insight of my taste and the things I like. Feel free to do your own.

Happy Birthday to