Cinema Visit? Weird Aircraft and a Good Book

There is much promoting at the moment of a film called Hamnet due out tomorrow. One of my very few trips to cinema in the last 10 years was to see the film  about Shakespeare.........All is True. This was about Shakespeare's last years when he returned from London to live with his family and him finding out the 'truth' about Hamnet's death. All is True was full of famous actors but didn't have much publicity. I'm thinking about going to see Hamnet, if I can be bothered. Could have sworn that I'd read the book by Maggie O' Farrell on which the film is based but no mention of it in my Book of Books Read, so obviously not.

A loud noise and rumbling over the bungalow and I looked out to see one of these . On the Globe  Watch Airplanes Live website it told me what it was an MV-22 belonging to USA Military, a cross between helicopter and VTOL plane. The odd thing was it seemed to start from a big Country house in Gloucestershire and land by the river on the Suffolk coast. Who knows what's going on.

I'm not at all sure about doing the jigsaw I mentioned yesterday, started sorting the edges and it didn't go well. So went back to reading The Red Shore by William Shaw and finished it - a really good story by a new-to-me author. (Sure, Shaw and Shore - no wonder people struggle to learn English!!)

He's written several others previously so might try one of those. The Red Shore is the first of a new series set in Teignmouth area of Devon - a lovely part of the country and features Detective Sergeant  Eden Driscoll, a Met. detective who suddenly finds his estranged sister, Apple, is missing and he has a young nephew he knew nothing about. Upon arrival at his sisters home in Teignmouth he begins to suspect that his sister wasn't just washed overboard  from her yacht - she would never have gone to sea at night or locked the boy - Finn- in a cabin. When he starts to investigate it brings back memories of his and Apple's own strange childhood and puts him and Finn in real danger. I've made a note to look for the next book in June. 

 I did manage a letter to one penfriend and walked up to the post box - the half inch of snow has gone but it was still very cold.

January Jigsaw and A Cold Country on Radio 4

 The snow on Monday meant the Grandchildren weren't here after all so instead I got the January Jigsaw out of the cupboard. It's another nostalgia puzzle by House of Puzzles. It has a bit more sky than any I've done recently - if the colours are too much the same and  too muted I might give up before hardly starting - just like trying a not-so-good book, no point in persevering with something that doesn't give enjoyment.

 I've also sorted out threads to do a small X stitch book-mark/card. So two things are ready to start - but instead I began reading another book - so many left to read, I started on How to Solve Your Own Murder, but it seemed a bit strange so I soon gave up. Then began  on The Red Shore by William Shaw which seems very good so far.  I'd already abandoned Cacophony of Bones, for the second time - and many others have given up on it too I think as the pages were still very tight in the second half of the book - seems very few had got to the end. I'll be collecting  several more books from the mobile library soon......weather permitting of course. 

Not as much snow here on Monday as there is in  a place that I heard about on a programme on Radio 4. Longyearbyen is the world's most Northerly settlement, way up north on the group of islands - Svalbard - belonging to Norway. The settlement is there for the coal mining but that is coming to an end which will probably mean the town won't continue to exist, with so many weeks of complete darkness in winter not many live there by choice (The programme is in their Illuminated series titled 'The Frozen Light' - on BBC sounds.)

Love the houses with all their different colours. 

I suppose there is no oil or minerals here so not somewhere you-know-who wants to acquire!

January 6th - Epiphany, Wassailing and Weather

The Christian festival of Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the wise men who travelled far to visit the new baby. In some countries it is more important than Christmas Day.

The photo above is from my book 'A Calendar of Saints' and is described as mosaic,S.Apollinaire Nouvo, Ravenna.

When all twelve days of Christmas were holidays people would celebrate the last day before returning to work on the land by lighting bonfires and baking cakes. Now it is the last day to take down the Christmas decorations to avoid bad luck.

Wassailing the Apple trees on Twelfth Night (or old Twelfth Night on the 17th) is a tradition that's been revived in some cider making regions of this country. Cider is poured on the apple roots and toast soaked in cider hung on the branches of the trees then shots fired through the branches to frighten off evil spirits and songs song to encourage the trees to fruit. Most years I venture out into the cold to pour some cider on the tree roots of my trees but no shooting!

There's a gathering in an Ipswich park on Saturday - bit too far for me to bother going. Village events seem to happen mainly in Somerset, Herefordshire and Sussex. Suffolk isn't known for it's apple orchards although there are a few.

 This below is  different to the well known wassailing rhyme, I'd not come across it before.

Wassail the trees, that they may bear
You many a plum and many a pear;
For more or less fruits they will bring
As you do give them wassailing.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

This is the more well known rhyme 

Old apple tree, we wassail thee, and hope thou wilt bear

For the lord doth know where we shall be, till apples come another year

To bear well and bloom well so merry let us be 

Let every man take off his hat and shout to the old apple tree..........

SHOUT ......

Old Apple tree we wassail thee, and hope that thou will bear

Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full,

And a little heap under the stair.

 Wassail means "be healthy" and as farm workers were often paid in cider during the harvest it was important the trees were healthy and produced plenty of fruit......... at one time there were 400 varieties of cider apples and an orchard on every farm in every village.

There was a surprise when I opened the curtains yesterday morning - Snow - not a lot but enough so that the two grandchildren didn't spend the day here after all and my Monday walk in sunshine was even shorter and quicker than Sunday.