Good morning from warm and sunny Penguin HQ.
Lots of us had fun last week thinking about reading in English and I promised some links.

http://www.short-stories.co.uk/

...has a giant collection of modern and classic stories by well-known and new authors. Stories are classed in genres and/or length, and there is a featured Story of the Day.
You can also click on a link to word games.

http://fiction.eserver.org/
...has novels, biographies and all sorts of goodies.

Sadly, the audiogo web service I used for buying and downloading BBC Radio programmes has closed.
You can still of course go to www.bbc.co.uk then click on Radio 4 for the very best of the spoken word. Some programmes are available as Podcasts. It's all free.

National Public Radio was a lifesaver when I lived in the USA and I am happy to say they also provide free Podcasts:
http://www.npr.org/

Now the sun is shining, the crocus are blooming and the bees are buzzing so I will go outside in my lovely garden!

Ooops a day late posting but I am excused, having been away on a birthday jaunt in beautiful Brandeburg an der Havel.
This week lots of us are thinking about US First Ladies, try a quiz here:

http://www.factmonster.com/quizzes/firstladies/1.html

Others are reviewing the importance of Fairtrade, lots of Videos to watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Fairtradefoundation

The sun is beating down as I write and the snowdrops, cyclamen and crocus are shining in the garden.
Here's a nice site to check out just what all your flowers are called:

http://www.flowerpictures.net/flower_database/flower_finder_A.html

Back to normal next week I hope... but I do love a slice of Frankfurter Kranz!

Good morning from Giant Mushroom HQ in beautiful downtown Morsum.

We all enjoyed seeing Eddie the Eagle jump again last week, actually Michael Edwards was a much better athlete than we all realized, as well as being a very determined person. Here's a Guardian article about his career:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/04/reappraising-eddie-eagle-winter-olympics-ski-jumping

And he's still around. On British TV there's a Programme where celebrities learn to dive - Eddie was a contestant last year and won. Take a look at his dive with Tom Daley, British Olympic medal winner, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN-D8x2VeNM

Talking of TV, lots of us are talking about cookery books and favourite recipes this week, inspired by the magical Mary Berry of Bake off fame.

Watch the Mary Berry Story (lots of episodes):
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7udjSxLzE

And, as we're into cooking, let me share somethingwith you. When we moved to Bremen in 1977, things were a bit lonely. This changed when I met Diane in 1978. With her, I experienced my first real American Food and it was so delicious, I culdn not believe it. Diane gve me my first American cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, and it is still a wonderful source for everything yummy.
My own copy, (With "Yum, I eat it! Keep on cookin' y'all" inscribed by Diane inside) is falling apart now, but fortunately there is  a 'Joy' Website. I'm directing you straight to the 'history' page:
http://www.thejoykitchen.com/all-about-joy/history-joy-cooking

Good morning Readers,
Well what a busy week we all had.
I know you are all thinking hard about which tense to use when; here's a bit more information about the Past Perfect:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html

And even an online exercise!
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs11.htm


The news from Somerset is not good, the  water is still rising. Cornwall and Devon now have no rail connection to the rest of the country and more storms are expected this coming week.
Here is some film of Porthleven Harbour (Cornwall), with massive seas:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-26102776

This is all a bit grim, so how about some good news?
The Winter Olympics have started in Sochi so here's a lovely interactive map of the site so we know what is where:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25946582

And, leaving the  best news till last, Horst's Christmas present of a Mushroom Farm has produced GIANT and delicious mushrooms. Yum!

Welcome to The Penguinet 2014

I have decided to restart my blog this year. So I hope you will all visit every week to find more tips, ideas and links to help with learning English.

Since I saw you all I have been on Borneo and in the UK, where the area my family lives is seriously flooded:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-25925218

This  Region - the Somerset Levels - has a long history of flooding, indeed was only made habitable by King Charles II bringing in Dutch engineers to build a system of drains and ditches in the 17th century.

It's the area of the Glastonbury Tor and King Arthur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9RAZhBgSiM

is a BBC documentary about King Arthur.

Now of course we have our very

own Arthur.

Over and Out

Good morning to all of you after a long time...

Check out

http://www.junglegarten.com/

And come back here from time to time, maybe the BlogMuse will return in the spring.