Saturday 23 February 2008

Signs of Spring at last

I think Spring may finally be around the corner. I spotted lots of snowdrops down at the church when i went to put flowers on my mom's grave. Also when i was walking the boys the other evening i noticed the daffodils and catkins are starting to sprout.


But the tell tail signs of Winter were still around too. The holly still has berries, and there was a good ground frost making the frozen molehills particularly interesting to Jed.


I took a nice picture of the labs with the winter sun setting behind them.



I think it's a lovely time of the year .










Saturday 16 February 2008

Whoops!...that wasn't meant to happen!















FA Cup - Barnsley stun Liverpool
Eurosport - Sat, 16 Feb 18:08:00 2008
Barnsley stunned giants Liverpool with an injury-time winner in their FA Cup fifth round 2-1 victory at Anfield.

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Matchcast: Liverpool v Barnsley

Brian Howard scored in the 93rd minute to cap an incredible comeback after Dirk Kuyt had given the hosts a 31st minute lead by finishing with aplomb following good work from Ryan Babel on the left.
Barnsley had just seen a claim for a penalty rejected after Howard went down in the box, but Liverpool failed to clear their lines and Howard, who had the ball on the edge of the box after robbing Xabi Alonso, cut inside to fire low past Charles Itandje at the near post.
The result is Barnsley's biggest in recent history and Simon Davey's men deserved at least a replay for endeavour alone. In truth they had to thank some heroic goalkeeping from on-loan West Brom man Luke Steele, who made acrobatic saves to deny Kuyt, Peter Crouch and Yossi Benayoun on two occasions apiece, also stopping Alonso with superb reflexes.
The former Manchester United trainee only arrived at Barnsley as emergency cover following injuries to new signing Tony Warner and German shot-stopper Heinz Mueller. And he was helped by some superb defending, particularly from right back Bobby Hassell, who for the most part kept Ryan Babel and John Arne Riise in his pocket, making two excellent clearances from Kuyt and Crouch.
It just was not Crouch's day, the England striker leading Liverpool's line well but somehow unable to score when put in great positions on three occasions. Aside from his assist, Babel was quiet too, and yet another decision to rest captain Steven Gerrard will be questioned, his late introduction for the quiet Lucas making a lacklustre Liverpool look more dangerous but ultimately opening the game up and allowing Barnsley to win it.
It was not all Liverpool either - Tykes' Brazilian defender Dennis Souza somehow heading wide early on while Daniel Nardiello forced Itandje into a good save before Kuyt struck.
The opener was a slick move, Alonso spreading the ball wide to Babel, who turned Hassell before slipping it inside to Kuyt who placed the ball past Steele to give the hosts the lead.
But the Reds were unable to add to their good start, indeed adopting a cautious approach and letting Barnsley come at them when they should have looked for a second.
The leveller came after a poor defensive clearance - a recurring theme for Liverpool in the match - saw Irish winger Martin Devaney sprint to the byline before digging out a superb cross that Foster rose to head into the top right.
Liverpool were keen to avoid a tough replay at Oakwell and pushed hard to get the winner, but Barnsley and Steele held firm, the late introduction of Harry Kewell causing problems for the visitors, the Australian hitting the bar late on.
But the day was always going to be Barnsley's, and despite looking shaky late-on a shock was on the cards when substitute Kayode Odejayi almost won a penalty off Itandje - instead penalised for a high foot - with Howard almost earning another spot-kick before he struck his late winner.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Waiting for Daddy.

Whether it be his body clock timing or infact dogs really do have a sixth sense, i don't know, but Jonah was sat at my feet this afternoon, watching all of the comings and goings out of the front window.

Everytime a car went by he would shuffle forwards to check out who it was.

As I sat watching him it dawned on me that he was probably watching out for his daddy to come home from work.

As it was so cute i decided to video him on my phone to show Mark when he got back, but as luck would have it he pulled up in the middle of filming and i managed to capture Jonah's reaction.