On Blogging and Meccano Houses.

I had two responses to my ever-flowing rambles today. One was complimentary while the other was quite the opposite, so I asked myself whether either meant much to me. Well... erm... no, not really. It’s like this:

Some people like to sing, so that’s what they do. They sing whether they’re alone in the kitchen washing the dishes or on a stage in front of an audience. If it’s the latter and they get applauded, they enjoy the applause for as long as it lasts and then go home. If they get booed, they tell the audience: ‘If you can do any better, come up onto the stage and let’s hear you.’ And they still sing because that’s what they like to do. So it is with me and blogging.

I used to like taking pictures, so here’s one of a stately home called Cragside in Northumberland:

Unfortunately, it isn’t very stately. It was built by Lord Armstrong, a noted Victorian engineer, and its one claim to fame is that it was the first house in the world to be lit by hydro-electricity. (Or so it is said. By whom originally, I don’t know.)

It isn’t notable for its style, of course; it has about as much style as something you’d get from a monkey let loose with a Meccano set. But then, I imagine the Meccano set was invented by an engineer, which probably explains everything. The expansive grounds do, however, boast millions of rhododendron bushes and several lakes, which offer some compensation.