A Week into September

Blimey, what a gloomy week it's been here in Suffolk. Dull, dull, dull as Craig Revel-Horwood says on Strictly, which BTW,  starts on the 18th - good news indeed.

What have I been up to this week? ......... Apart, that is, from watching as much of the Paralympics as possible. There was Nana duty one day and then the dentist the next. That was the last of my 5 appointments ....................thank goodness. He told me I had coped with it all very well! 

On Thursday a man came to fill the chip in the windscreen before it got any bigger. It's been there since before March when it passed the MOT, so it was about time I got around to doing something about it. It cost me nothing as it was covered in my insurance.

 

A text message arrived inviting me to book the annual flu jab later this month. Might as well go and get it done. I'm afraid I don't go in for the conspiracy theories that warn us about vaccinations etc saying that it's just a way of controlling the people. Someone said at the beginning of the pandemic that it was  a plan to reduce the world population....I answered that it would take more than a few million deaths to make a difference to the world population as it is now. I even heard that Covid vaccinations included a microchip to track us...........really? They don't need to do that......we're already tracked by our mobile phones or online presence.

Anyway, that's getting too close to politics so I'll shut up. 

The small sampler I  started earlier in the summer is finished and put into a frame at last. It's been added to my "art wall". There's still room for a few more small bits if I come across something I like at a boot sale or charity shop.

     I've finished this library book below and agree with the plaudits on the cover. The thought of the Queen investigating a murder is ridiculous but somehow after reading this it seems entirely plausible!

Don't bother reading it if you want something serious - because, just like Richard Osman's first crime book, - you have to forget proper police procedure. Also just like The Thursday Murder Club this is the first of a series.

Yesterday I finally got some more soil shifted from the bag out the front around to the new vegetable beds, there's still plenty of time until spring to finish, but the bag sits there shouting at me every time I go out the front of the house!                                                         

This week I'm grateful for

• Having a day with Eldest Granddaughter before she started school, now I'll see her less often.
• More Paralympics to enjoy on TV
• Spotting a Painted Lady butterfly on the white Buddleia. First I've seen among all the Red Admirals, Peacocks and Cabbage White
  
• The forecast for a bit of warmth on a couple of days next week

It will be a quiet weekend here I think, need to get the breadmaker on, the ironing done and maybe some scones made.

 Have a good weekend, I shall be back Monday

Sue

September Country Days

 Thank you to everyone for some lovely comments and memories about Ladybird books. Sorry I didn't get round to replying. I was doing some Nana duty which involved a lot of driving and playing shops with the new cash register - which was a huge hit - especially the microphone bit. Certainly worth the 50p!

Luckily I'd already prepared today's post for the 1st September.....................

There are lots of poems titled 'September'. I thought it amusing that some see September as Brown.......

 SEPTEMBER

Now everyday the bracken browner grows,

Even the purple stars

Of clematis,that shone about the bars,

Grow browner; and the little autumn rose

Dons, for her rosy gown,

Sad weeds of brown.

 

Now falls the eve; and ere the morning sun,

Many a flower her sweet life will have lost,

Slain by the bitter frost,

Who slays the butterflies also, one by one,

The tiny beasts

That go about their business and their feasts.

                         Mary Coleridge ( 1861-1907)

And others see September as Golden...........

 

SEPTEMBER

Golden in the garden,
Golden in the glen,
Golden, golden, golden
September's here again!
Golden in the tree tops,
Golden in the sky—
Golden, golden, golden
September's going by!

                                                         

                                                                   Annette Wynne (writing between 1919 and 1922)

Both of these little poems are classed as children's poetry. I think that just means they are shorter and get their point across without waffle!

Fair on the first of September, fair for the whole month

 

 The 1st of the month marks the start of meteorological autumn, astronomically Autumn doesn't begin until Mabon or the  Autumn Equinox on the 22nd....................... So you choose.

 The word autumn comes from Latin autumnus and it's use dates back to the C14.  Both words..... Autumn and Fall...... were used in this country until the C18. Then we stopped using Fall while other parts of the world didn't use the word Autumn at all. 

The Anglo-Saxons called September Gerstmonarth meaning  'barley month'.

Below is a lovely colourful page from my little book mentioned last month HERE

 

It is said that the three days 20th, 21st and 22nd rule the weather for the next 3 months

(seems a bit unlikely!)

There are so many weather sayings for September........ many of them connected to St Michael's Day on the 29th. 

 

As many days old as the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods s

hall we have after. 

 

If St. Michael brings many acorns Christmas will cover the fields with snow.

(also unlikely nowadays) 

 

 

As I'm now a bit short of ideas for blog posts - it's probably best to take a few days off rather than waffle on about nothing.

So back in a day or 3

Sue

 

 

 

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Ladybird books

  Years ago, when the children were young we had lots of Ladybird Books . They were always around at jumble sales and cheap to buy. Mostly they were in the series of 'Well Loved Tales' or 'Children's Classics' We also had some of the 'People at Work' set, some of the bible stories and some on various subjects I found to use with my Cub Scout Pack.

Going back to many many years before and I remember being bought the Ladybird book of Queen Elizabeth I to help me with finding out about her for a primary school project. I had no idea who she was, I'd chosen to be in the group writing about her because I thought she was the present Queens mother.!(In my defence I was only 8 at the time.). We also had a few others - mainly the baby stories including some of the early ones like - Bunnikins Picnic Party.

About 15 years ago we were on holiday somewhere and I came across the set of "What to Look For" for the four seasons dating from the 1960's. The illustrations in these are famously by Charles Tunnicliffe, a well known Natural History Artist.

 I discovered they've been reprinted and modernised and the covers are below but I've no idea what they have inside now.

 I thought I'd look out for some of the old Ladybirds that we didn't have and found this in a charity shop for 49p, some of the rarer, older Ladybirds are expensive second-hand online.

There is one form of Ladybird books that I really don't like - that's the recent "humourous" Ladybird books for Grown-ups......tacky. I think they are given as jokey Christmas presents - and are often in charity shops, so perhaps other people also don't like them much.

I found a list of all the original Ladybird books HERE

Back Tomorrow

Sue