I must go down to the sea again!

I must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and the sky

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by .....

I didn't want to sail away like John Masefield in his poem Sea Fever but I did want to go to the seaside again before the school holidays when the beaches will be crowded with holiday makers.  So today having been to the weekly market at Dorchester and had some lunch it being only 2.30 we decided to catch a bus (bus passes at the ready) to nearby Weymouth some 8 miles distant.

Being a beautiful day the beach was already busy and the donkeys were ready and waiting for customers - I wonder if they know how many weeks of giving rides they have ahead of them now? 

and the Punch and Judy stall all set up.

I hadn't realised that this is one of the few remaining seaside Punch and Judy shows left and although I don't like them myself and was always terrified as a child by the cackling voice of Punch as he regularly beat up his poor wife it is sad that such things are becoming so rare. (click on the photo to read the info board).

We wandered round to the old harbour where we sat over a cup of tea in one of our favourite cafes before walking back to the beach and along the Front where we caught the bus back to Dorchester where we'd left the car and were soon home.

A lovely breath of sea air- I can wait till September to visit here again now!

End of the Festivities - Twelfth Night

So it's all over now - the decorations have all been taken down - well truth to tell that didn't take long as I'd brought the door wreath in a few nights ago as it was tossing about in the wind and the tree was only a very small one - but tell me why having packed everything away and resealed the box and stored it in the eaves cupboard there is always one thing left out that you come upon too late?  The cards have been removed, re-read and looked at before going in a bag ready to go for recycling and it's back to normal tomorrow.  Apparently in Tudor times Christmas was celebrated for the whole 12 days with feasting and merry making - though guessing what life might have been like back then they probably needed a couple of weeks break and to fill up with food before going back to normal!

When we lived in France we were introduced to the custom of the Galette des Rois which is a cake served at Epiphany and containing a fevre or dried bean although nowadays it is more likely to be a little china figure like the above.  The cake is usually some kind of brioche type ring shaped cake although we ate all kinds of different sorts including a chocolate one and a puff pastry one.  In France you need to wait till after January to start your diet I can tell you!  Anyway getting back to the cake whoever gets the slice containing the fevre is crowned King for the day and wears a gold cardboard crown.  That is if he or she hasn't had to dash off to the dentist for emergency treatment after biting into the fevre!  Well they say you learn something new every day or as the French say you go to bed less stupid each night and I now discover - having watched the Tudor Monastery Farm Christmas that this custom was once  a tradition we followed in the UK only in our case it was a dried pea that was the token.  I dare say the custom died out with the Reformation though I haven't researched it.

We have had some stunning skies lately in between the heavy dark grey ones which have dumped yet more rain on us.  Here are a few photos:

 Sun going down the other afternoon giving us a beautiful peach coloured sky.

 Two more taken on the same afternoon - looking towards the east.

 This morning when I went out to feed the birds this amazing sunrise was in evidence - I know red sky in the morning means shepherd's warning - which did turn out to be true as it's rained all day since soon after I took this - but isn't it amazing?

 The sun did try though and you can perhaps see the light in this one - such are the moments we value here just now!  The grass was frosted and just for a brief moment all was well!  The birds are enjoying the coconut shell and nuts as well as the table which seems to be well used now word has got round.  A lesser spotted woodpecker is a regular visitor to the fat/seed filled shell I made and the blue tits get right inside it for their turn.

As I said it's been wet all day here so this afternoon I spent a happy time making some Seville marmalade - I have left it simmering on the hob and will add the sugar in an hour or so.  As I sliced the orange peel  I was taken back to the lovely week we spent some years ago in Seville where the oranges were falling from the trees and all over the pavements - what a good place for foraging that would be eh?  None of your nettle soup or wild garlic pesto but lovely oranges for marmalade!!!

Hope you are all keeping warm and dry (in UK) and warm  and not snowed in (in US) and cool in OZ!!!

Prayer Flag swap

Reading Yvonne's blog post about prayer flags here I commented on how beautiful I thought they were and Yvonne asked me if I would like to make one and do a swap with her.  Having researched what a Tibetan prayer flag is I felt that the idea of putting up a flag so that the wind could carry the chosen sentiment across the world sounded a good idea so of course I agreed to do a swap and here is the lovely flag I received.

I particularly liked the little embroidered flowers surrounding the word Peace.  Thank you so much Yvonne.

Here is the one I made and sent to her - please excuse the crumpled tissue background - I had it all packed up ready to post before realising that I hadn't taken a photo - I like to keep a picture of anything I make and give away as I sometimes want to refer back to it - so had to open the packet and then reseal it and all as I was just about to leave the house for the post office!  I chose Hope as my prayer word as I feel that as long as we have hope almost anything is possible as I discovered when I posted this little presentation back in December 2009.

If only more hope and peace were spread across the world we might all be better off!  I will not be leaving Yvonne's lovely flag outside too much though especially in the current weather.  Perhaps if I hang it near an open window it will still work?!  

This is apparently my 300th post - can that really be true?!  I feel I should write something really exciting and interesting but maybe that will have to wait for the 400th!!

Counting down the days!

I'm counting the days - only 7 left to go.  No that is not a typing error I mean Thursday 22nd December.  Why?  I hear you ask.  Well that will be the Winter Equinox this year - the shortest day and longest night of the year.  After that the days will begin to lengthen and the mornings and evenings to become lighter.  Now that is something worth celebrating!  The above photo was taken this morning at 8.00 am - how thankful I am that I no longer have to leave the house to go to work at that time.

Same view at 4.00 pm today!

Winter Solstice is  a largely forgotten celebration coming as Christmas preparations are taking place, which all too often focus is on the commercial aspect of the festival.  The Solstice is however, the complete antithesis of the commercialised Christmas celebrations. Also known as ‘Yule’, the Solstice is generally celebrated on the 21st of December, (although the astronomical date changes from year to year – this year the actual Solstice takes place on the 22nd). It is the traditional time to celebrate the truly important things in life:  family,  children, home and looking forward to a good year to come. Surely this can tie in nicely with the Christian celebration which after all takes many of  its traditions from the pagan festival.  Yule is a time that honours love and new birth, as well as the collective unity of man. Just as Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, Yule celebrates the birth of the Sun God - child of the Goddess in the Pagan belief system. It is however primarily the celebration of the rebirth of the Sun and I can't see why, whatever your religious persuasion, this cannot be a time for celebration especially for us living in the northern hemisphere where the lack of sunlight at this time of year is so depressing.  It seems to me that religion is not a one size fits all sort of thing and I don't see why we shouldn't pick and mix taking those aspects of other religions which appeal to us as individuals and incorporating them with our own religious beliefs.  I am sure there will be some who throw up their hands in horror at my suggestion but I am going to celebrate the shortest day and Christmas!!

Thank you all for you kind comments on previous posts - all much appreciated.  I now have an appointment for 25th January when I will discover the results of my scan.

England and the English!

I read an article recently which spoke about England and defining "Englishness" which made me think.

England as a country is not all thatched cottages or rolling countryside I know but I think that the author of the article is correct when he says that t"he countryside is fundamental to the idea of England and national identity". Even though most of us don't live in the countryside we love to imagine that we could and what it might be like there. Look at the popularity of Country Living magazine and many others in similar vein. 

  

In our country we don't have any majestic mountain ranges nor wide open plains, we have no volcanoes and we rarely have extremes of weather, no amazing storms when the lightning cuts out the elctricity, no massive snow falls (though we all know how little is needed to bring our country to a standstill!)  No England is a much more modest place - a small island within whose confines we have an incredible variety of landscapes and a coastline which ranges from sandy beaches to rugged cliffs. Within a days travel we can see a vast array of different scenery and nowhere are we ever more than 70 miles from the sea.  Perhaps it is this very modesty which has shaped our characters?

When I think of England what do I see?  Well:

narrow country lanes with banks of primroses,

cricket on the village green (it matters not that I know nothing at all about how the game is played and what the scores mean!)
crumpets dripping with butter eaten by the fire (what fire now many of us don't have a real fire any more?)
somnolent villages with yellow stone cottages clustered together roses climbing round their doors
gardens filled with flowers and vegetables in neat rows
tea as the solution to all life's problems!
history and pagentry
quirky traditional celebrations like wassailing and Morris dancing etc

What says England to you I wonder?

I once had a discussion with my French friend about how it was that I could spot another English person in the supermarket before they opened their mouths and what it is that makes us different from the French.  How others see us too is interesting as the French shops often had displays of items and fashions with the title "So British"!  Now I have never seen an English person dressed in the fashions they displayed and neither have I seen an English man's home decked out in the items they seemed to think we favoured.  Do they really think that we all wear tweeds and pearls and decorate our homes with lurid union Jack cushions?!!  But are we not guilty of this stereotyping too and don't all Australians wear hats with corks dangling from the brim and call ladies sheilas?  Or aren't all French women slim and incredibly smart and don't they eat frogs legs at every meal?  Or are the Irish not a bit ditsy or the Scots mean with their money whilst we ourselves are blessed with a stiff upper lip and are lacking in emotion.  How did these ridiculous ideas come about I wonder. Let's hope that by blogging we will learn more truthful aspects of the countries and characteristics of our blogging friends eh?!
 

Of course people are people wherever they live but there do seem to be certain characteristics which apply more to one race than another and maybe we do seem to be unemotional and cold at least on the outside but do we really love our pets more than our children?  We are considered polite (especially as drivers) according to my French friends and our sense of humour is different - I had a small procedure done by an opthalmogist in France and when he had finished I jokingly said "I haven't died then!" and he commented that this is a particularly English humour this poking fun at ourselves and the French take themselves and particularly their health much more seriously!

I  think then that we as a race are perhaps:
 
tolerant (I know this isn't always the case of course),
fair (play up play up and play the game)
polite,
eccentric (in the nicest possible way of course!)
self effacing (were we not taught never to blow our own trumpets or to get too big for our boots?)
stoic (I am thinking of the Blitz mentality here and our attitude in the face of a crisis)

What do you think of as our national traits I wonder?

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my previous posts I read each and every one and appreciate them all.  For those who asked to see the schooldays post I have added it as a separate page so go to the top of the right hand sidebar where you should find it but don't say you weren't warned about its length!

Jack Frost

The temperature outside our back door this morning at breakfast time was minus 6 degrees - not sure what it was out in the open nor what it had been during the night!

a
The view from our bedroom window across to the wood...


a
I did so want to take a photo of these seed heads (you will perhaps remember how much I like umbelliferous plants from this post?) but as I am still without a camera I was dependant on my personal photographer and he didn't get the close up I had in mind but this is a pretty picture with the red rosehips in the foreground isn't it?

a

As I left to go to my Knit and Natter group the hand rail alongside our steps looked like this - looks a bit lethal doesn't it?

a
These berries were the only bit of colour to be seen apart from the few red rosehips. Boy was I ready for a nice hot chocolate after my 30 minute walk into town!

a

Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments on my attempts at water colour painting and for your thoughts on my moral maze. I wondered afterwards if I had maybe over egged the pudding and I would hate you to think I am a miserable old "holier than thou" sort of person who doesn't have any fun in my life (not true I trust)! What with my not shopping for gifts and making my friends recycled paper sachets instead of buying some nice bright wrapping paper for my token gifts and all my other musings. I did think perhaps I had better delete that post and maybe not post any more till after Christmas as I seem to be becoming a bit of a wet blanket and wouldn't want to spoil your fun. But after a good night's sleep I realised that although this blog seems to be going off in directions I hadn't intended at the beginning maybe it is an honest reflection of how I see things - sometimes looking on the bright side, sometimes seeing things from beneath a grey blanket and occasionally spending too much time thinking about things instead of getting on with life....

And now for something completely different!

After a beautiful clear sunshiny day we went a'wassailing at Barrington Court a National Trust property which I have written about before here - but this time it wasn't the gardens we went to see but to join in the fun of a wassail held there yesterday evening. We left home about 5.30 and as we drove to Barrington I noticed the sky was pale to the west and there was a faint glow of orange on the horizon where the sun had gone down and against this beautiful backdrop the trees were silhouetted their dark branches so beautiful and the differentshapes of trees showing up. I wished I could cpature it and share it with you but sadly you have just my word painting and your own imaginations!


Wassailing ceremonies take place in January when the apple orchards are "toasted" to ensure a good crop. The biggest and best tree - the Apple Tree Man - is selected and cider is poured over its roots and pieces of cider soaked toast placed in the forks of its branches to ensure a good crop. Wassailing is an ancient folk tradition here in Somerset which is cider country. Some of you may remember the advert for Coates cider which had a song saying "Coates comes up from Zummerset where the cider apples grow" ?


There was a huge bonfire round which the crowd of several hundred gathered - the sky was clear and the stars absolutely amazing.

Morris dancing took place in front of this huge fire - I suspect only a born and bred English person could appreciate Morris dancing! Check it out here

The blackened faces apparently significant as a disguise since in olden times the dancing and begging was not allowed and with blackened faces the danceers might not be recognised for who they were since many of them might be begging from their employers!

There were several people wearing these decorated hats - not quite sure of the significance of these but thought them very decorative.

There was also a mummer's play which although we didn't have a very good view there being so many spectators was really funny. A Mummer's play is often about St George and in this case St George was killed by the evil one who spoke of bringing down a plague bankers' bonuses, swine flu, global warming and so on! Of course St George was revived and all was well in the end. St George's mother a burly bloke in drag attacked the evil one with her big red handbag and raised a big laugh!

More Morris dancing this time without their dark coats - this is more like Morris dancing as I know it from summer fetes and the like!

Then came a band which was surprisingly good and extremely loud - no doubt to represent the banging of saucepans and so on which was the original noise and was intended to frighten off any evil spirits from the orchard in times past.

And finally after following a procession to the orchard the largest oldest tree Apple Tree Man was blest. This involved pouring cider over its roots - in olden times I understand this would have been the must left after the making of the cider - and then taking a piece of toast (why toast and not bread I have no idea) and dipping it in to the cider and then lifting children up to place the soaked toast squares in the forks of the brances of the tree to encourage the robins - and other birds no doubt - to eat there and thus to keep the insects away from the trees.

As a final part of the celebrations guns were fired into the tree branches to raise the Sleeping Tree Spirit and scare off any remaining demons - Health and Safety regulations these days stipulating that the rounds have to be blanks especially after the copious amounts of cider which had been imbibed!.

Then we wended our way back to our cars and home for a nice hot drink. As I said something quite different!!

By the way I discovered last night that apparently Christmas would have been celebrated 12 days later when using the Julian calendar and only with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was Christmas day when it is now. check it out here Thus the Wassail would have been timed for Twelth Night in olden times. I thought perhaps I might celebrate my Christmas this year on 5 January as in olden days that way all the stuff I hate about it would be over by the time I had mine and I might then avaoid the Post Christmas Blues! Anyone want to join me?!!