Yesterday, my e-mail included my first Christmas card of the season. Did it somehow awaken the spirit of Christmas in my life? Unfortunately, no. Did it cheer me to know that someone was thinking of me? Not really, because I doubt that a lot of thinking was behind the sending of the card. Did it even spur me to drag out my Christmas list and start addressing a few cards of my own? NO, NO, and NO.

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One of my favorite appliances is my stainless steel rice cooker, and it gets about as much use as my crockpot -- and that's a lot of use. It cooks just about any vegetable or grain item that I want it to cook, without me manning it. For example, right now it's making my breakfast, a high fiber cooked cereal, while I am writing a blog post.

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I water my garden because I love it.

I weed all afternoon in my garden because I love it.

I see to it that we have a barbecue at least once a month with my family in the garden because we love it.

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When The Conquistadors were ravaging and looting the ancient cultures of the Aztecs and Incas, native tribesmen told them about an amazing rumour. They said that there was a race, deep in the jungle, whose king was covered with gold dust and who swam in a golden lake. It was the story of ‘El Dorado’, the ‘Golden Man’. One of the first Spaniards to set off to find this fantasy land was Jimenez de Quesada. In 1536, Quesada and 500 soldiers hacked into the undergrowth from the northwest of what is now Columbia. After many hard days trudging through intense and dangerous jungle, they came upon two tribes of Chibchas, a race with plentiful riches. They had gold, silver and huge amounts of emeralds, but they did not have the fabled ‘El Dorado’. However, they told Quesada of a lake in the middle of a huge volcanic crater on the Bogota plateau not far away.

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Off The Very Southwest tip of Land’s End, in Cornwall, England, there lies nothing but water and a few small islands called the Scilly Isles. Legend says that under the fierce Atlantic Ocean waves rests the remains of a beautiful old kingdom called Lyonesse(Camelot). It is a kingdom steeped in the legends of King Arthur and was once overcome by a great flood. The Locals believe that if you look in the right direction at low tide you can even see the submerged towers and domes. Lyonesse they said to be a great country that contained magnificent cities and stretched to the distant west off Land’s End, from St Michael’s Mount to beyond the Scilly Isles. There were supposed to be 140 churches in the country, and great forests covering the area. However, on 11th November 1099 a terrible flood raged over the land, drowning all but one of the inhabitants. This single survivor was a man called Trevilian, who saw the waves coming and rode his horse to safety on higher ground. The Trevlyan coat of arms still shows a white horse rising from the sea, but the cities of Lyonesse were lost forever, and only the highest points of the kingdom peaked through the waves. At a distance of 20 miles from Land’s End, we now know these summits as the Scilly Isles.

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Here in China our English students choose an English name. This is to make it easy for the English teacher, and help us to ensure that the right student gets the right marks. We cannot easily write or recognise Chinese characters (writing) and even writing in Pinyin is difficult.

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As our Elly has repeatedly told some bloggers here at Blogevolve, this is a community blogsite where one is expected to read, comment and then write.

Like any community if the people within it do not communicate it can become a cold insensitive place like many suburbs around the western world.

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Come back djbtol the election is over. Come and write about other things - your family and friends, perhaps.

Nobody is more disappointed than I about the election results in NZ. We have to get a life and move on with other things.

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I was shocked too hear that terrorist and rogue states now have access to high resolution satellite photos once available only too superpowers.

Most of us have probably used Google Earth at least once. I know I have used it too locate my house. However apparently terrorists have found ways too exploit this technology.

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Gardening can be a type of meditation. Meditation is not a technique, it is a state-of-being. Some techniques or tool for meditation can be breathing exercises and postures.

Another type of meditation where I can be in a state-of-relax being is home gardening.

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