Indian Summer

I don't know about you, but I'm rather like the Queen at the moment with several changes of threads a day depending upon what the weather is doing....long sleeves, short sleeves, long sleeves, short sleeves. After a weekend of working away in Birmingham wearing winter clobber I've had to drop the layers again now. No worries though...I rather like that last blast of warm weather September and October often delivers to us. I view it as as an unexpected, but welcome gift and have always known it as an Indian Summer.

Leaping wildly to conclusions I have always assumed that the name derives from Asia. It's a term that's been in use for at least 200 years and it's believed to have derived from the Native American- Indians so couldn't have been more wrong really! In this country it is apparently known as St Martin's summer. The flowers were in Belfast city centre last month.

Arilx

Busy Old Week.

The last week in September is always quite a busy one for me. In the past five days I have celebrated my 23rd wedding anniversary and passed another milestone birthday wise [more of that in postlets to come].

Whilst I catch up with myself, I shall take a bit of a breather here and leave you with this I found amongst my notebooks of scribblings. I hasten to add the GBT marriage is not run along these lines..."Yes Sir, no Sir, three bags full Sir" might be closer to the mark!!

"A wise woman will always let her husband have her way."

Rose Henniker Heaton.

Arilx

In The Spirit of Worzel Gummidge

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that....an accidental double booking left me with an unexpectedly free Saturday. Sure I could have stayed holed up at GBT all day, but no doubt I'd have spent far too much time doing chores....a morning's worth of grunt work was sufficient so I dropped the drawbridge, saddled up the grubby white charger and headed 10 minutes up the road.

The next village's annual scarecrow trail. All the participants had gone to a great deal of effort with their haymen and I thought they were really fantastic. Hope you enjoy this small selection.

Arilx

You're An Embarrassment.

Once upon a time when I was a Bright Young Thing my musical tastes were very much focused upon Ska and 2 Tone. The Beat, Bad Manners, The Specials and most of all Madness. For weeks I would sneak downstairs early before school and put my much prized single "Embarrassment" on the record player. This was played on repeat for three or four times back to back, whilst I perfected my dance moves for Friday Night at the local Youth Club. Eventually I mastered the dotty boppings of the Madness boys to quite a credible level. That was in the early 1980s.....

Last Saturday I came across the recent recording of Madness at Radio Two's Hyde Park Concert. Deciding to relive a bit of my past I settled down to watch Suggs do his thang....except unbeknown to me I evidently started to reproduce all the old dance moves completely forgetting that the teenogre was sitting across the other side of the room plugged into his phone watching the footie [except the ample rump had remained firmly planted on the sofa this time round]. I soon was made aware though as the dear boy guffawed hysterically as he asked me "God what ARE you doing?"  Perhaps this is the Ska equivalent of muscle memory...the subconscious is a funny old beast isn't it even if I am mildly surprised to find that I still remember it after all this time.

In celebration of my personal Embarrassment here's the original.....

Arilx

Better Late Than Never.

Last week I discovered a scribbled list of jobs to do for January. The first one said "finish mask". Naturally I ignored my planned timescale and finally finished it this week. I didn't much enjoy making the first one and this one proved just as much of a challenge [I am no artist believe you me], so I am frankly just relieved to have got the thing done at last. I won't be making another one [she says hopefully keeping everything crossed!] but am looking forwards to dancing out in it for the first time. All the fabric has been recycled from jumble sale finds.

Arilx

Nee- Naw

"Nee-naw" was the sound my son made everytime he saw and heard one of these-

[copyright free image taken from www.freeimages.co.uk]. He was big on watching "Fireman Sam" back in the day and always very enthusiastic if we passed the fire station.

Yesterday in the library I overheard a small boy asking his Mum if they could visit the fire station after they had finished choosing their books. When she pressed him further he patiently explained it was so that he could borrow one. The last thing I heard was her replying that as far as she was aware they didn't lend the engines out. A child's logic is second to none at times!

Arilx

Harvesting

This is the apple harvest from GBT...yes every single one of them in all their glory. It's a tiny little tree and the branches have been at breaking point with this lot dangling off them. Actually I lied...this was the harvest except the marauding masses have eaten some since this photo was taken yesterday. It matters not...I am delighted to have our own fruit even on this modest scale.

Earlier this week one of my clients was telling me that she'd had the press gang in from the village who had relieved her of her crop of windfalls. Thankfully it's all in a good cause though. Annually the village come together to collect all the fruit which would otherwise go to waste. Volunteers then chop, scrat and press the apples into juice and hold some back for cider. Not only is it a great community building project, but some of the income raised from the sales has been donated towards a local children's hospice and contributions made to the village Book Exchange. 

Recently I read the folkloric belief is that the taste of cider can be improved if a dead rat is incorporated into the brew [thanks to the Farnham Rural Life museum for that little gem]. Having tasted the village cider myself I can only politely describe it as an "acquired" taste. Not an experience I am planning on repeating anytime soon. Cheers!

Arilx