Lovely restful day; caught up on yesterday's papers. We don't have Sunday papers - there's too much of them and Saturday's supplements, plus the week's magazines and assorted leaflets through the door are plenty.I mention leaflets because there is an ongoing thrash in the village between the Labour Party and the BNP. The Labour leaflet (short on publisher info. and including a website which didn't exist) arrived, making quite serious allegations against the BNP.
Then the BNP traced it to the Labour Party Offices and issued a leaflet in reply. Can't understand what the fuss is about. There only seems to be one black family in the village and they are super. They wave as they walk past and I wave back.
Pictures 1 is bright idea 6,323. It always took me much scratching about in the cutlery/kitchen equipment drawer to find a skewer of the right length because they seemed to become lost amongst sturdier items. When I decided to sort out some spice/herb jars I noticed the shaker top and thought "Ah Ha !". So I tipped the spice out, it was only about an inch of cayenne which had completely lost its colour, washed it and presto, a skewer rack. I shan't be patenting it......so feel free !
Thought I would share my recently acquired, early vintage, Pam Ayres anthology cover with you. I won't quote her today. But I will from my Hopkins. from his journal, and talking about the sky..."The whole round of skyline had level clouds naturally lead-colour but the upper parts ruddled....."
Ruddle comes from the 16C Anglo-Saxon rudu and was the red-ochre used to mark sheep. Almost worthy of Radio 4. I also said I'd have a look at Hopkins on the subject of trees. He was in Basel and Lucerne and said -
"Swiss trees are, like English, well inscaped - in quains"
'Inscaped' had me guessing. It means a things inherent quality and was a word he was keen on at the time. 'Quains' was harder. No Shorter Oxford etc., even my Etymological dictionary was stumped. Finally Goggle came up trumps. It is a dialect form of 'quoins' i.e. those wedge-shaped corner pieces which Bob explained to me only a couple of months ago.
Fancy the Chiswick OAG clipping the tops off the fingers of Jill's rubber gloves (see comment yesterday) the swine. Y has an aversion to rubber-gloves having once put her hand in one, only to find a piece of sausage wedged down one finger. When she turned it out it put her off Marigolds for ever.
Yesterday Y bit the bullet and rang the original chinese nail-salon to have her nail repaired. She thought that, due to the language difficulties, an 11.45am appointment might be difficult to arrange. But no problem at all and I guess she won't need to describe the problem, just show them.
Nice chat, as always, to David this morning. Helen continues to be on the 'up' and he confirmed that Sky's e-mails about the statues were 100% her own work and I was well impressed. Mind you I suppose we could write a reasonable letter at 8 - it just seems more of an accomplishment in computer terms.
Radiogandy will be off-air for a few days this coming week for staff-training. I'm going on a Powerpoint Course at Northern College. But, for security reasons, I not going to spell out the details.
....Enjoy yourselves.......
What a very chewable blog today!
ReplyDeleteI only take a Sunday paper. If I could rely on the Metro every day I don’t think I would even bother with that.
I cannot think why your local Labour Party chose to act in such an apparently underhand manner. The BNP frightens me because of the unconvincing major parties.
My personal experience is that a tiny ethnic minority can be more of a social problem than a more equal mix.
When I worked in Radford I formed the opinion that, generally speaking and with a few well publicised exceptions, people of all races got along just fine (I never felt at all intimidated) whereas one of only two West Indian families in Ollerton was besieged in their home by a mob one Christmas (many years ago). The head of the terrified family (a locally well-regarded citizen who I always feel better for a chat with) eventually decided to confront the aggressors. Although he had been a considerable sportsman who had boxed professionally in his younger days he was also outnumbered and wisely armed himself with a hedge stake for his own protection. Guess what? He was the only one arrested and charged. That did not impress most of the Ollerton population!
So far as I know, all our skewers are the same length. All I habitually use them for is to transfer heat to the centres of jacket potatoes. Although some may disagree, I would say that length is only important when you have more than 2 spuds.
I presume everyone knows, by now, that Pam Ayres was a spy, working for either MI5 or MI6. I don’t think I am blowing her cover.
‘Ruddle’ must be a variation of ‘raddle’ which is the name given to the harness worn by rams to carry the red dye to indicate to the shepherd which ewes have been tupped. Although the basic dye is red (ruddy) other colours are also used so that lambing sequence can be forecast.
And I suppose ‘raddled’ comes from the same root, referring no doubt to a cheap woman; presumably one low enough to wear lipstick and rouge?
I have only just realised that the expression ‘old school tie’ has more than one meaning! What a marvellous language we have (are there French puns?). And what a pity that so many abuse it.
“Where is the wisdom we’ve lost in information?” TS Eliot.
The sausage in a rubber glove story conjures up all sorts of images that I will not share on a family blog.
Yvomnne’s nail appointment reminds me of the only time one can see a Chinese dentist; viz, two-thirty.
I’m not surprised that Sky can email; eight year olds are way ahead of us when it comes to using computers. Jessica (now 12) has been PowerPointing for years, having taught herself.
Hope you enjoy NC; I think it is your first time solo but I am sure you won’t miss me too much!
I am trying not to smile at what I see as your excessive security consciousness. If I get too cocky about it there is little doubt that someone will walk in through our unlocked kitchen door (although it was unlockable for 7 years once before – and Sandra doesn’t believe in using keys anyway).
Am I right that ‘entering’ is a lesser crime than ‘breaking and entering’? Not that any transgressors would be caught anyway, despite DNA and computerised records.
Just in case someone may be worried.
ReplyDeleteGraham has told me he is giving the Tue blog a miss (too busy, presumab;y with things photographic!)