As one faithful reader of this blog suggests that I don’t like anything or anybody and all I do is rage and mutter and throw poo like some deranged chimpanzee in a cage, I thought you might like a list of my favorite things. …Raindrops on roses and schnitzel with noodles brown paper packages tied up with strings girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes silver white winters that melt into springs these are a few of my favorite things…There now, Does that make everyone feel better?

Seriously: Here are some in no particular order (and with no commas): Alison Benedict Madeleine Theodore Elias Maddy playing Debussy Quarr Abbey steak Brideshead Revisited Cherry pie Pride and Prejudice Ben Li and T serving Mass George Herbert La Traviata Adam and Eve TSEliot’s Four Quartets South Carolina drive ins playing chess with Elias The Chronicles of Narnia Bruges Music of William Byrd Lord of the Rings Flannery O’Conner Therese of Lisieux Gangster movies Romanesque churches Mont St Michel Gregorian Chant Thomas More psalm 27 pictures by Cezanne BB King Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto the Cowper Madonna St Benedict  London my iPhone Rievaux Abbey pictures by Vasnetsov Oxford country pubs in England Dante the Isle of Wight Chopin the gospel of Mark Kings College Cambridge Ping pong with Theo Ravenna Downside Abbey Rocinante on a summer day Chesterton red wine Chosatonga my biretta France Dominicans Trollope Rome Shawshank Redemption Maximillian Kolbe fried shrimp the Black Falconers Benedict XVI Ephesians Roger Van der Weyden Choral Evensong soft French cheese Anna The Brothers Karamazov the South Downs poems of Elizabeth Jennings the Book of Revelation Alec Guiness

I’m sorry there were no professional athletes or politicians on the list, and if you didn’t make the cut don’t worry I still love you….