I think you all deserve another fairly easy one this week, don’t you? And I’m sure you’ll agree that it is easy (quiet at the back there – grumble in your own time!), at least when compared to some of my little Macro Monday puzzles.

I feel fairly confident in saying that you’ll all have one of these somewhere about the place – perhaps not the same as this one, but something which does the same job and which is basically the same. Well, when I say ‘the same’, there are many differences and variations, and to emphasise this, I’ll tell you that I really don’t like this one at all, and so I usually choose to use a quite different one.

OH and I have several of these things. Some people (probably most people) only have one, so if something goes wrong with it, they’re stuck – unless they can borrow one. But then .. if the person you want to borrow one from only has one themselves, they’re unlikely to lend it to you. But actually, I think we have two in our house which are borrowed.

Confused yet? Oh good!

One more thing, which might help you. They do wear out. I seem to wear mine out particularly quickly, but I have no idea how or why, since I use them just the same as anyone else. It’s a mystery.

As usual, I’ll post the answer in the form of a picture link, and add it to the bottom of this post on Tuesday evening, UK time. And unless you’re all completely lost, I won’t be answering the comments until then either, but when I do, I’ll answer any questions you may have.

Okay? Off you jolly well go!

Well, look at that! Well done … um … pretty nearly all of you! For those few who didn’t get it, go here to see what this week’s puzzle solution is!

Congratulations to Shooting Parrots, the first in there with the right answer, closely followed by Silverback (who very cleverly sent me a picture link by IM so as not to spoil things completely for the others) and Don’t Bug Me, who were then followed by lots and lots of other correct guesses, most of whom even got the brand right!

Babsie, my dear, I do hope you have some good recipes for making that hat taste good. Tee hee!

Thanks for taking part again, everyone – and gird those loins for next week, because I’m going to do my level best to make it a really, really difficult one.

MWAHAHAHAHA!!

I’ve been fretting for some little while now about a possible scenario – oh, not every day, and not that it keeps me awake, but just, you know, fretting. As you do.

You see, with Sid having only three legs, it occurred to me that if he hurt a leg when we were walking across the fields, and he hurt it badly enough, I’d never get him home without help.  It further occurred to me that if OH were not only not with me, but away from home at the time, I wouldn’t even have anyone to call to come and get us.  OK, so our vet does have an ‘ambulance’ but in fact they’re quite a distance away, and might not be able to come at once anyway.

I knew there was a company out there which could help me. I knew it, because I’d seen their vehicles, but could I remember what they were called? No, I could not. I looked in our local phone book, and I looked in our local trade directory, and I scanned all the junk mail ‘what’s going on in your community’ type leaflets that get shoved through the letterbox, and came up with nothing.

So I was really happy this morning to see a mini-poster up in our local Post Office window advertising the services of a company called Animals At Home.  Luckily for me, there is a branch near us!

The number is now saved in my phone contacts along with the vet’s number, so someone should be able to help in the event of an accident, and I recommend that anyone who walks a large dog alone does the same. I’ve carried a four-and-a-half stone* greyhound across a field and home, and it isn’t any fun at all – and that was my lovely old Jim, back in the 1990s when I was a lot younger and fitter than I am now.

And no, there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with him.  He had cysts on his feet and he’d decided that he’d had enough of walking on icy grass.  Not that he was a prima donna or anything …

* Four-and-a-half stone = 63 pounds

I told you we would be revisiting Murano, didn’t I? That little island in the Venetian lagoon, so famous for its glass? Well, I’ve been waiting for ‘O‘ to come around in ABC Wednesday.

Know why? Know why??

Because of that picture up there, that’s why. It’s not another window full of delicacies, but a little glass orchestra, complete in pretty much every detail, from the oboe to the oval arrangement of the musicians!

And you have to admit that though it’s a little over-the-top for an ornament, it is also outstanding as an example of the glass-maker’s art. I have to add that it was quite outrageously expensive, too. One might almost say ‘over-priced‘, though I have no doubt that these things take hours to make.

I have to say, some of these little glass guys are sadly orange, don’t you think? And obviously, the two in the foreground are a little out of focus, but I was shooting through a shop window in glaring sunlight, so I wasn’t too unhappy with the results.

The shop was open, so I went in, but to be onest with you, I didn’t buy any of these little guys. At two hundred and thirty four Euros for a mere ten-piece orchestra, I suddenly felt I could manage to live without them, lovely as they are.

I did, however, succumb when I saw these absolutely gorgeous insects, all made from glass, in opalescent colours and wondrous detail.

Showy, they were, and yet not ostentatious. I knew they stood but a slim chance of flying home safely, and yet I was overwhelmed with the desire to own them.

Sad to say, my first thought was the correct one. They did not survive. Actually, they didn’t even survive the trundle across Piazza San Marco in my luggage. OH was pulling my carry-on, in which I had so carefully packed their little boxes … and he dropped it, smack! On the floor.

It was in that moment that their legs came off, although at the time I didn’t know it, of course.

Oh well. Perhaps it was all for the best. I’m sure there are some very heavy on-the-spot fines for importing insects into the UK, orthopterous* or not.

And of course, they were both broken – if you look carefully, you can see a tiny piece of the end of one black leg lying next to that first beetle on the white fluff. I can’t bear to throw them away though, because even with broken legs they are still exquisite, and I cherish the hope that one day, I (or someone cleverer than me) will be able to glue them back together.

* Orthopterous – pertaining to an order of insects which includes grasshoppers and locusts.

There. I promised you an easy one for Macro Monday this week, didn’t I?

This is something that can be found in a good number of households, but by no means all households. And if you have one, it probably doesn’t look quite like this. They come in so many different forms, you see .. some plain and functional, some very fancy. Some big, some small. And the form they take can vary a lot, too – irritating, I know, from your point of view, but I can’t help it. This one was given to me for my birthday by my mother, and very nice it is, too.

More clues? Not everyone will find a use for one, but those who do use them often rely quite heavily on them. Some people need to use them for their work, some (like moi) use one now and then for quite specific reasons, but don’t need one as such. It wouldn’t inconvenience me too much if I didn’t have it, put it like that.

Still, it is easy, isn’t it? I hardly needed to bother with clues, huh? I can see you all now, running around saying ‘I know I know I know!!’ Well, if you do know, write it down in the comments, and then pop back Tuesday evening, UK time for the answer, which will be posted in the form of a picture link added to the bottom of this post.

Have fun!

Hey, everyone, I’m really pleased to see that so many of you guessed this week’s puzzle correctly! Well done, you clever lot! Congratulations go to Granny Grimble for being the first to guess the right answer, and also to Kala, Joanne Olivier, Carol, David, Babs (on her second guess!), Blondie’s Abode, and Slugyard, who isn’t quite clear on whether he’s making the guess, but got it right anyway!

Everyone else, pop over here, and take a look at the whole picture. You’ll be surprised! And as usual, thanks for playing!

See you next week!