Hi everybody… Am not too sure this will still be time to wish you all, short and long-eared, a Happy New Year when this entry goes on line, but at least, I hope 2010 has treated you all well so far. And at any rate, I will still have a pretext to wish everybody a Happy New year, as the Chinese New Year will only start on February 14th! Regrettably, there is no Donkey Year in the Chinese astrological system. Maybe the case should be brought before the Jade Emperor some day…

Now, besides the fact that …yes… I spotted yet another donkey at the National Gallery! I happened to be in Dublin in mid-January and …the National Gallery Turner wartercolours are on display every year at that time! So I went to see them, and much to my delight, noticed one showing the world—or nearly— famous Clovelly donkeys.

But back to the point! Besides the Clovelly donkeys being at the NGI, a good friend of mine, known as Labrador Leader (and now everybody knows what breed her favourite four-footed friend is), recently gave me a belated Christmas present… that turns out to be………… a donkey shaped hot water bottle! How I laughed when I saw it. I had to share it with you donkey bloggers, so here's the picture of himself, with his two donkey related pals—because I actually have a lot of cuddly toys here, which I've kept since my childhood for some of them—Samantha the Unicorn and Harry the Poitou.

When I got him, I wondered how I would call him and as I was just back from Dublin where I saw the best panto in town this season—Cinderella at the Helix—I thought it would be funny to make an indirect reference to it, so my hot water bottle is now known as Donkey Charming;-). And how I laughed (again!) the other day when I saw on the Devon HQ website that there was a donkey there, called…… Buttons!