Yesterday was Cyber Monday. Chris had told me that it was going to be a special day on the Internet but I did not think it would have any relevance to anything I do on the Internet, after all, I just write my daily blog, and I am so lackadaisical about selling my paintings and prints that I haven’t yet even set up a Paypal account or given any details about sizes, media or prices! (I must put that to rights soon! I will, honestly, as soon as I can rope someone in to help me fathom out how to do it!) Well, I did not notice anything particularly unusual yesterday, perhaps just a few more visitors to my site but nothing to grab my attention.

This morning, over breakfast, Chris (who is so much more up with things than I am) announced that Cyber Monday was going to continue today and possibly carry on until Christmas. I must admit that I wasn’t quite as interested or excited as he was and I did not commit his explanations to memory. When I sat down to write my blog a little while ago I could hardly believe my eyes for something quite magical had happened, and was still happening, and continues to happen… All I can say is WELCOME!  A big welcome to all the many visitors who have suddenly discovered my site! I hope you will enJOY my site, come back regularly and make comments. If you have any snippets of interest to share, so much the better.

If you wondered why I capitalized the last three letters of enJOY, I shall tell you… One of my dearest friends in Australia has the surname, Joy (I know, what a lovely name – almost worth marrying someone for – but I didn’t – that was all a long time ago, before Chris). So, as you might imagine, Chris is quite hot on anything to do with those three joyful letters; he is also very observant, and a great wit.

Whilst we were out walking on the bridle path earlier today Chris stopped suddenly and said:

“Oh look, Darling, two for joy!”

He was, of course, referring to the two magpies perched on the roof of a house not far from the path. I expect you know the saying about magpies – “One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told…” and so on (I can’t remember any more). For some reason Chris never fails to quote the rhyme when he sees two magpies. There is no point in me ignoring an allusion to the word joy, rather, I revel in it; therefore I took a photo of the magpies on my mobile phone camera, with the intention of sending it to my old friend. Just as I was aiming the camera a postman came down the garden path belonging to the house and he put a letter in the letterbox. We were stood behind the hedge and the phone camera was still poised in the air above my head when the postman glanced our way and scurried off.

“He must have thought we were secret agents hired by the Post Office to check up on him,” suggested Chris.

Chris held out his arm and looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist.

“Reached number ten at eleven-thirty, walked too slowly…”

We laughed JOYfully as we continued on our way. There was no-one about, perhaps because we were later than usual, or maybe nobody but us was prepared to brave the cold on such a day. As we rounded the corner and saw a small grey rabbit about halfway down the track; with no humans about, he had opted to walk up the hill on the tarmac rather than the cold damp grass. Upon seeing us the bunny got into a bit of panic and did not know which way to turn. He started to cross the path, thought better of it and came back; he went onwards and realised that wasn’t a good move either. At length, after many false starts, he decided to run for cover into the hedge.

“Maybe he’s a hedge-fund manager,” said Chris.

Well, I thought it was funny at the time, especially as earlier we had been discussing our niece’s banker boyfriend. You had to be there!