Honest confessions

I've missed doing the blog a few times now. Missed in the sense not done it, not pined for it.  It is the time for a little of re-evaluation.
I took a weekend out last week and spent 3 days at a London hotel, Kensington Close Hotel, Ken. High St.  Stefan had gone to Poland to work on the house (stairs and the kitchen) and I needed some space from the parents.
So I had a neighbour check in each day to see they were still breathing and could find the food, and I escaped.
3 days alone, reading, walking, swimming in their pool AND a facial on the last day. Pretty good. I am very grateful I could do that, it was splendid luxury.   Now I am back.
The days are full with things like a new walking regime (hard and exhausting); a new series of 1-1 Polish lessons; taking care of parents as per, and sorting stuff. The house is full of stuff (crap, actually) that needs to be recycled, or thrown. That means daily trips to the Sally Army with books and clothes.
I am not making anything new.
If work comes, then good. But I am feeling ambivalent about it all. To be honest. I do not feel I have the time to invest, the years it could take waiting for it to catch on...... how long? Maybe I will feel differently if somebody actually commissions something, but till then there is too much else to do. Reading for example. Has anybody else out there discovered the wonders of A.C. Grayling?  And all the classics that must be read and read, again.   But I do need to get on my bike and find some shops that will take the paperweights at least SOMEBODY must want to stock them!

Delphine

My education at school was not fantastic. If I had had Latin, learning Polish would be very much easier.... so I am learning the genitive case at this late stage. But it can be done, no biggy.
So I will leave it at that. Maybe next week there will be more about 'work', maybe not. We shall see.

Exotic animals I never knew

IJL was well worth the visit, but I was wiped out! Piotr and I brainstormed after we estimated what jewellery was of the moment so watch this space.




Courtesy of Wikipedia, I have found from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, ICUN a few exotically named, and indeed exotic, examples from the following categories of extinction.

Extinct: gone

Blackfin cisco, fish; dusky seaside sparrow; Schomburgk's deer, native of Thailand

Extinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no free living, natural population.

Wyoming toad; Hawaiian crow; Père David's deer

Wyoming Toad

Critically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future

Axolotl, Mexican walking fish; merganser, water fowl; gharial, crocodile

Axolotl

Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Bonobo; pygmy chimpanzee dhole, Indian wild dog; Goliath frog, the largest known specimens can grow up to 33 cm (13 in) in length from snout to vent, and weighs up to 3 kg (7 lb)

Goliath Frog

Vulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Dugong, the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae, similar to a sea-cow; gaur, Indian bull; fossa, cat-like, carnivorous mammal endemic to Madagascar.

Dugong

Near threatened: may be considered threatened in the near future. Asian golden cat; blue-billed duck; white-eared pheasant

Least concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species: brown rat, brown-throated sloth, common frog.  

Brown Throated Sloth

At least we can rest easy that this sloth, this rat and this frog will outlive us all.