Saturday, 16 January 2016
results and childish games....
There is a theory that play is a way for children to learn. Social skills as well as simply how to play a particular game.
I remember having a doll (although no memory of actually playing with it), a dolls house (likewise), a tricycle and a bike, both of which I rode till the tyres were bald. There was also a Spyrograph which was supposed to make pretty patterns with coloured pens, encouraging textile design - I had a lot of torn paper. An etch-o-sketch which may have encouraged architects, but everyone I knew spent all their time trying to get the straightest line from top left corner down to bottom right corner. (Perhaps patience was the lesson taught here.)
There was also bako, lots of rods and bricks with which a child could build a house, throw at siblings or push in their ear. This developed in to lego (no rods, bigger bricks) then sticklebriks (which merely stuck to each other, randomly).
Board games I remember as a family event, to be pulled out of the sideboard when visitors came. Monopoly caused ructions or boredom. Totopoly upset the younger members who could not understand the rules. Snakes and ladders was for babies.
So cards were played most often. Newmarket was a favourite, played for ha'pennies*
Magic bemused me, just could not see the point. Although......
Have you seen the young orang-utan, watching the bloke do a simple sleight-of-hand?
It's sure to be on YouTube, although I saw it on 'Have I got news for you'.
The animal looks carefully and expects the final reveal to be a cup containing a ball - but of course it is empty. The orang-utan looks up at the man then falls over on its back, laughing hilariously! So funny! It makes me smile every time I think of it!
So that is the point of magic, not the watching, but watching its effect on others.
Okay, so here is the solution to the wall posted last week.
1) Father Christmas Fungus Ug Snowman
All stories by Raymond Briggs
2) Mill Fall Cress Chestnut
All can be preceded by 'water'
3) Sling Martini Sour Punch
All alcoholic drinks (gin sling, vodka martini, whisky sour, rum punch)
4) Cracker Vera House Castle
All eponymous television programmes.
It was only a bit of fun so please don't get cross with me!
* This is from the 'old' money, as in - 2 ha'pennies to a penny, 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound (£1). There are lots of other denominations in between, info on t'internet somewhere......
Friday, 8 January 2016
little grey cells...
Decorations down, magi travelled safely to the crib and packed away, last of the chocolates gathered together on the piano and the cards in a bag, waiting to be recycled. Tree chopped in half and taken (with the door ring) to the tip, vacuumed up what (we hope) is the last of the pine needles.
Back to normal.
So what is this bundle of envelopes behind the new pile of reading material? Ahhh...
When hands are busy with repetitive baking, the mind wanders off. Well, mine does. I am a fan of Only Connect and am inordinately proud of myself when I get an answer right, especially in the quarter- and semi-finals. So I planned a little quiz for the dull moments over the festive season. Only there weren't any, so the sad little pile of envelopes are still behind the books.
For those who are unfamiliar with the quiz (which is tougher than U. C.) the first round is Find the Connection. Second round, Last in Sequence. (4 clues in each, more points the sooner it is solved.) Then the Wall. Four groups of four, one point for each group found, one point for the connection. Find all four and a bonus two points is yours.
Of course, the is a limited time to do this, but no-one is watching!
This, then, is the Water Wall.
Snowman Cracker Sour Chestnut
Cress Punch Mill Martini
Vera Father Christmas House Fungus
Castle Ug Fall Sling
I will put the solution up in a weeks time.
Have fun!
Back to normal.
So what is this bundle of envelopes behind the new pile of reading material? Ahhh...
When hands are busy with repetitive baking, the mind wanders off. Well, mine does. I am a fan of Only Connect and am inordinately proud of myself when I get an answer right, especially in the quarter- and semi-finals. So I planned a little quiz for the dull moments over the festive season. Only there weren't any, so the sad little pile of envelopes are still behind the books.
For those who are unfamiliar with the quiz (which is tougher than U. C.) the first round is Find the Connection. Second round, Last in Sequence. (4 clues in each, more points the sooner it is solved.) Then the Wall. Four groups of four, one point for each group found, one point for the connection. Find all four and a bonus two points is yours.
Of course, the is a limited time to do this, but no-one is watching!
This, then, is the Water Wall.
Snowman Cracker Sour Chestnut
Cress Punch Mill Martini
Vera Father Christmas House Fungus
Castle Ug Fall Sling
I will put the solution up in a weeks time.
Have fun!
Saturday, 21 November 2015
in praise of the goat...?
My ancient (and sometimes controversial) dark red dictionary defines eccentric as 'deviating from the centre, departing from the usual practice'. A recent programme by Victoria C.M. on eccentricity enforced this idea, with examples through recent times to illustrate the point. An eccentric is someone who goes against the norm, rails against the establishment, a goat amongst sheep.
When I was growing up (back when Noah was a lad), most people lived in rented accommodation; it was unusual for women to have a full time job; the only parts of a body to be pierced were ears (and that was considered a bit common) and tattoos only sported by sailors. Vegetarianism was ridiculed and allotments were for old men in baggy hats.
Now it seems everyone aspires to a mortgage and their own patch of land on which to grow their healthy, heritage variety, organic fruit and veg. Piercings can be had almost anywhere one might want and tattoos are so common that fake ones (like long gloves) can be used just for the week-end. No-one need feel excluded.
So what now defines an eccentric?
Could it be a stay-at-home parent, with unadorned skin who does not enjoy reality television? Someone who enjoys cooking but has no desire to enter 'Bake Off'
and travels happily on public transport with no regrets for the lack of an expensive car to maintain?
I was reading an article today about 60 plus's, the largest growing social group who have more money and more time to enjoy it, doing things they always wanted to do without fear of censure.
Perhaps these are the new eccentrics.
When I was growing up (back when Noah was a lad), most people lived in rented accommodation; it was unusual for women to have a full time job; the only parts of a body to be pierced were ears (and that was considered a bit common) and tattoos only sported by sailors. Vegetarianism was ridiculed and allotments were for old men in baggy hats.
Now it seems everyone aspires to a mortgage and their own patch of land on which to grow their healthy, heritage variety, organic fruit and veg. Piercings can be had almost anywhere one might want and tattoos are so common that fake ones (like long gloves) can be used just for the week-end. No-one need feel excluded.
So what now defines an eccentric?
Could it be a stay-at-home parent, with unadorned skin who does not enjoy reality television? Someone who enjoys cooking but has no desire to enter 'Bake Off'
and travels happily on public transport with no regrets for the lack of an expensive car to maintain?
I was reading an article today about 60 plus's, the largest growing social group who have more money and more time to enjoy it, doing things they always wanted to do without fear of censure.
Perhaps these are the new eccentrics.
Thursday, 16 July 2015
There is nothing more evocative than a tantalizing, almost ephemeral scent of......something. A place, a time flits across the inner eye and we are a younger version of our present self.
The privet is just coming in to flower, its ice cream coloured, Christmas tree sprays of trumpet-shaped blooms filling the air with memories. When I was growing up, every terraced house was fronted with a low wall topped with railings, behind which unruly hedges of hardy privet bullied their way towards the pavement. Hedge shears were borrowed between neighbours, but not often. It was a job done reluctantly at the end of the summer holidays, sometimes for bob-a-job week. It was scary, struggling to wield the stiff, sometimes blunt over-sized scissors, balancing between the bay window, the airy (the barred, gaping hole over the cellar) and the sturdy hedge. Then, trimming achieved, there was still the tidying up, brushing the bits in to a bucket before being emptied in to the dust bin which lived in the back yard. Several journeys had to be made, back and forth round the houses and along the entry to the back gate, wedged ajar with the metal bin and its clanging lid.
The entry was a playground in itself. A narrow, straight space to practise roller-skating, arms spread out to touch blackened walls, desperate to stay upright (I failed - any kind of skating seemed beyond me). Its deep doorways were common hiding places in hide-and-seek as they were often draped with trailing ivy, sometimes crawling with thick, dark, hairy caterpillars. An absence of grown-ups in this 'behind' space, meant it was ideal as a race track. One friend had a faded pink pedal-car, so of course it was adopted by all, to be used by all, all at the same time. Some pushed, some pulled, the rest climbed in and on, until little pinkness was visible. The inevitable shouting, laughter and enthusiasm usually ended in tears, arguments and scabby knees.
Do children today still compare scabby knees in the playground? Do dark hairy caterpillars still inhabit curtains of ivy? There are lots of black and yellow stripy ones eating their way through my nasturtiums
and a huge black and yellow dragonfly spent two days zooming round the garden.
Little privet though and no bob-a-job. Hedges are now mostly beech, escallonia, leylandii, berberis and tidied regularly by adults with electric machines. No longer scary.
Sign of the times, I guess.
ps Have discovered my caterpillars are from the boring cabbage white butterfly and I suspect the dragonfly is similarly common - but who cares.
This bee was found on the ground - might be sleeping, maybe dead?
The privet is just coming in to flower, its ice cream coloured, Christmas tree sprays of trumpet-shaped blooms filling the air with memories. When I was growing up, every terraced house was fronted with a low wall topped with railings, behind which unruly hedges of hardy privet bullied their way towards the pavement. Hedge shears were borrowed between neighbours, but not often. It was a job done reluctantly at the end of the summer holidays, sometimes for bob-a-job week. It was scary, struggling to wield the stiff, sometimes blunt over-sized scissors, balancing between the bay window, the airy (the barred, gaping hole over the cellar) and the sturdy hedge. Then, trimming achieved, there was still the tidying up, brushing the bits in to a bucket before being emptied in to the dust bin which lived in the back yard. Several journeys had to be made, back and forth round the houses and along the entry to the back gate, wedged ajar with the metal bin and its clanging lid.
The entry was a playground in itself. A narrow, straight space to practise roller-skating, arms spread out to touch blackened walls, desperate to stay upright (I failed - any kind of skating seemed beyond me). Its deep doorways were common hiding places in hide-and-seek as they were often draped with trailing ivy, sometimes crawling with thick, dark, hairy caterpillars. An absence of grown-ups in this 'behind' space, meant it was ideal as a race track. One friend had a faded pink pedal-car, so of course it was adopted by all, to be used by all, all at the same time. Some pushed, some pulled, the rest climbed in and on, until little pinkness was visible. The inevitable shouting, laughter and enthusiasm usually ended in tears, arguments and scabby knees.
Do children today still compare scabby knees in the playground? Do dark hairy caterpillars still inhabit curtains of ivy? There are lots of black and yellow stripy ones eating their way through my nasturtiums
and a huge black and yellow dragonfly spent two days zooming round the garden.
Little privet though and no bob-a-job. Hedges are now mostly beech, escallonia, leylandii, berberis and tidied regularly by adults with electric machines. No longer scary.
Sign of the times, I guess.
ps Have discovered my caterpillars are from the boring cabbage white butterfly and I suspect the dragonfly is similarly common - but who cares.
This bee was found on the ground - might be sleeping, maybe dead?
Or perhaps it just fell out of the hive.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
echoes past
You know when something goes round and round your mind and you can not shake it off? Like a tune, or a conversation (usually one that ended badly and needs a better conclusion)? Well, odd phrases, quotes, comments typical of those I have known have been buzzing around my head for some time now.
Example - The wreck of the Hesperus (as in 'you look like...').
Sans hair, sans eyes, sans teeth. (I thought maybe this was some mangled French from the war years, but no....)
In eighteen hundred and forty one, the American railway was begun... (something we sang as a family, but no idea when this great enterprise started.)
De loo (as in de luxe, describing those very thin, disc-like mint imperials, not the lavatory..)
One go, two stop, three full up. (Now who admits to being old enough to recognise this reference?)
My well-read offspring have provided some answers, tinternet others.
The wreck is a quote from Longfellow.
Sans hair etc is also a quote, Shakespeare, of course. As You Like It, the 'All the world's a stage...' speech.
The song about the railway was a folk song recorded some time between 1938 and 1942.
I realize now my parents were both well read and up to date with sing-a-long songs. I would be hard put to recognise any current songs and the only bit of poetry I remember from school is -
Macavity's a mystery cat,
He' called the Hidden Paw
For he's the master criminal who can defy the law.
He..... (and I've forgotten the rest).
I had also forgotten that it is by T. S. Elliot (offspring to the rescue again).
They say education is not what it used to be, but perhaps it is, now. It just missed a generation (mine) and left it the poorer.
Oh, and the last one is bus bells!
Example - The wreck of the Hesperus (as in 'you look like...').
Sans hair, sans eyes, sans teeth. (I thought maybe this was some mangled French from the war years, but no....)
In eighteen hundred and forty one, the American railway was begun... (something we sang as a family, but no idea when this great enterprise started.)
De loo (as in de luxe, describing those very thin, disc-like mint imperials, not the lavatory..)
One go, two stop, three full up. (Now who admits to being old enough to recognise this reference?)
My well-read offspring have provided some answers, tinternet others.
The wreck is a quote from Longfellow.
Sans hair etc is also a quote, Shakespeare, of course. As You Like It, the 'All the world's a stage...' speech.
The song about the railway was a folk song recorded some time between 1938 and 1942.
I realize now my parents were both well read and up to date with sing-a-long songs. I would be hard put to recognise any current songs and the only bit of poetry I remember from school is -
Macavity's a mystery cat,
He' called the Hidden Paw
For he's the master criminal who can defy the law.
He..... (and I've forgotten the rest).
I had also forgotten that it is by T. S. Elliot (offspring to the rescue again).
They say education is not what it used to be, but perhaps it is, now. It just missed a generation (mine) and left it the poorer.
Oh, and the last one is bus bells!
Saturday, 3 January 2015
turning of the year...
New year, new diary so all the important info has to be transferred - birthdays, anniversaries, dental appointments.......... But it is also an opportunity to relive the notes made of the outside world. When plants began to grow, bear fruit then die back. When various wildlife visited the garden and what the weather was like. I am tempted to say this past year was unusual but only because we seemed to have the right weather for the time of year. Wet, bright spring, windy in March ('in like a lion...'). Mild, then a warm summer. Autumn that almost forgot to happen until late October when the colours were glorious and the fungi amazing. Then snow, not Christmas, but Boxing Day, when everyone was leaving after a fun, family day.
The daffodils are springing up around the garden and the honeysuckle has buds - there will be a few more frosts before spring pushes winter out of the way, but in the meantime, here are some reminders of autumn.
(these are butterflies, not fungi!)
And when we got home, I found these (earthstars, I think) sprouting up under the salvias......
(made me think of cabbagepatch kids, remember those....?)
The daffodils are springing up around the garden and the honeysuckle has buds - there will be a few more frosts before spring pushes winter out of the way, but in the meantime, here are some reminders of autumn.
(these are butterflies, not fungi!)Saturday, 18 October 2014
Autumnal days away
There are those who seek novelty, wonder why anyone would want to visit an area more than once - or twice, maybe.
Not me.
We have made many visits to this part of the world and each time find something new to do, to see, tips to improve the trip.
The Lake district is blessed with a very good bus service so if you have an English travel pass, bring it. If not, investigate the Explorer tickets which give unlimited travel for a day, or three days, or even a week. There is even a concessionary rate on the day explorer ticket. This is worthwhile if one is only doing the return journey from Penrith to Keswick. Travelling on public transport means no petrol costs, no parking fees, no car stress. The upstairs on the scenic routes are full of retired walking groups (to the mutterings of locals) and the rush for the front seats is reminiscent of school outings and the scrum for the back seats. When coaches meet in narrow lanes, over sharply turning bridges, it is soothing to know this is some-one else's problem. Time is less relevant, passengers more likely to chat to a neighbour. And the scenery is.... well, just fabulous. The colours, the light, (the silence shattered by low flying aircraft) the sheer majesty of it all. That over-used word, awesome.
One day we went to Ambleside (bus to Keswick, then another to Ambleside). My recollection from last time was the nightmare of trying to park.This time I noticed the architecture, the individuality of the shops and eateries. We found the ferry terminal was quite close so took a trip to Bowness and back, picking up ideas for our next trip here (Wray Castle, a walk along the lakeside).
There was a very county day out at Acorn Bank, celebrating Apple day with a surprise certificate for chutney.
Even home base has its surprises. An evening walk resulted in an hours serious study of the fungi book. Five different types, in just twenty minutes.
Despite forecasts of rain, we have not had to use the umbrella yet. Beautiful sunrises cloaked in mist, evenings drifting pinkly in to night and cool, bright, autumn days.
Who needs airports?
Not me.
We have made many visits to this part of the world and each time find something new to do, to see, tips to improve the trip.
The Lake district is blessed with a very good bus service so if you have an English travel pass, bring it. If not, investigate the Explorer tickets which give unlimited travel for a day, or three days, or even a week. There is even a concessionary rate on the day explorer ticket. This is worthwhile if one is only doing the return journey from Penrith to Keswick. Travelling on public transport means no petrol costs, no parking fees, no car stress. The upstairs on the scenic routes are full of retired walking groups (to the mutterings of locals) and the rush for the front seats is reminiscent of school outings and the scrum for the back seats. When coaches meet in narrow lanes, over sharply turning bridges, it is soothing to know this is some-one else's problem. Time is less relevant, passengers more likely to chat to a neighbour. And the scenery is.... well, just fabulous. The colours, the light, (the silence shattered by low flying aircraft) the sheer majesty of it all. That over-used word, awesome.
One day we went to Ambleside (bus to Keswick, then another to Ambleside). My recollection from last time was the nightmare of trying to park.This time I noticed the architecture, the individuality of the shops and eateries. We found the ferry terminal was quite close so took a trip to Bowness and back, picking up ideas for our next trip here (Wray Castle, a walk along the lakeside).
There was a very county day out at Acorn Bank, celebrating Apple day with a surprise certificate for chutney.
Even home base has its surprises. An evening walk resulted in an hours serious study of the fungi book. Five different types, in just twenty minutes.
Despite forecasts of rain, we have not had to use the umbrella yet. Beautiful sunrises cloaked in mist, evenings drifting pinkly in to night and cool, bright, autumn days.
Who needs airports?
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