Younger readers will not understand this title, but in the early days of mobile phone marketing the Orange network – one of the first companies in that era – used this catch phrase. “The future’s bright – the future’s Orange”. It seems to have stuck with me! – a sign of a well constructed ‘strapline’

I was looking for something in the online news that wasn’t about Covid19 or the US election, and I came upon an item about the latest space adventure. Did you see that? Elon Musk’s privately funded space capsule went successfully from launch to the space station, and I saw that one of their projects is to see if they can grow radishes!

“The Crew-1 team is slated to conduct all sorts of experiments during their six-month stay on the ISS, including research into how microgravity affects human heart tissue. They’ll also attempt to grow radishes in space to build on studies designed to figure out how food might be grown to sustain deep-space exploration missions”. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/15/tech/spacex-nasa-launch-crew-dragon/index.html

I think it’s so exciting to think of space farms, what will they grow next if radishes work? Let me know what you think.

Now I like radishes quite a lot, but I honestly prefer fruit.

When I was small my Mother used to accuse me of being a ‘fruit eating bat’, and funnily enough my daughter-in-law says the same about her girls. They live in the US so although I used to visit them regularly I haven’t seen them since last Christmas.

Being a grandparent is a great thing, you get to spoil the grandchildren and then hand them back when they’re tired, or cranky. I have 8 grandchildren plus an ‘unofficial extra one’. This makes Christmas a challenge to know what to give to each one, when their ages range from 2 – 18! Any ideas are welcome! Chocolate advent calendars are great for the younger ones, but two teenage boys won’t be at all impressed with that!

Even if Christmas is cancelled this year some sort of recognition is required.

I usually create my own Christmas cards with one of my images, but this year, with the year we’ve had and all the uncertainty about Christmas restrictions, I think it needs to be a ‘Let’s hope it’s a better New Year card’, hoping that the next year will be better than this one.

For amusement here’s last year’s card image

This lonesome Icelandic horse is tolerating the snow driving across his face. He is available as a Limited Edition Fine Art Print framed or unframed, and if you’re quick you can get him at half price with my Not Black Friday discount code nbf50

Pop over to the shop and check it out as well as the other products which are available half price.

Hope you’re all coping well with the second UK lockdown if you’re UK based, and whatever other restrictions you have if not.

Chin up, and all that jazz!