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Thirty days hath September

April, June and November

All the rest have 31

Except February clear

Which has 28 and 29 in each leap year!

This poem is another Mnemonic -which is just a fancy word that means a way of helping you  remembering something. I learned it somewhere, possibly not even at school but  it still comes in very handy for remembering how many days there are in each month.

I did have a little plea in a recent post for someone to come up with a new mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow, instead of Richard of York Gave Battle In  Vain check it out here. My mate CM was the only person who sorted me out with a couple of seriously catchy ditties, one involved Washing Bottles In Vim and I am still open for some more ideas please as the best I could do was ‘Rising Over Your Grand, Beautiful Island Views.’not very memorable.

I reckon more heads will do the trick..there must be a good ditty I can use in a song for kids.

My Song of the day has changed

It was gonna be Jolene Oh my God! I love this song…I sing it whenever I can. The guitar is great and have to say 37 years on, Dolly is looking pretty cool. Growing old gracefully is possibly overrated when I look at Ms Parton. She was 28 when this was recorded. The oh so pretty little blonde man with the sweetest little set of pearly whites ( clearing of throat) ) with the sexiest diddy shirt and pretty little diamante guitar strap  introduced her as ‘one of the prettiest sangiest songwriterest little blondes’.  I noticed Stonewall Jackson was not introduced as ‘one of the prettiest brunette little bitty songwriters ‘ ( spit spit…oh thats right I don’t spit) Dolly is not only a singer but plays the guitar, banjo, autoharp, piano, drums, appalacian dulcimer, penny whistle, recorder, fiddle, bass guitar and saxophone. Someone on an album once described me on  the cover  notes as  ‘ the mellifluous tones of a vivacious blonde lady ‘( pass the sick bag ),  no mention of any of the other instrumentalist’s hair colour or personality traits…..nuff said….so here is me on top of a hill with rainbow sox doing a cross between Kate Bush and Bungle..all my own work….Check out the 3 Bucket Jones youtube facebook etc….

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I looked up if there was any festivals or feasts days happening today, and blow me down it is Michaelmas Day today, one of the four ‘quarter days’ in the year in some calenders   – Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th Spetember) and Christmas (25th December). So Michaelmas Day tugs it’s forlock at the arrival of another natural phenomenon….

Off to the beach!

Autumn, and says goodbye to summer – though you would not know this today, as the temperature sores to 27 degrees in our back yard and anyone in London with any sense has taken a sick day and gone to the beach.

Old Michaelmas Day – which was 11th October sounds like more fun.  There is an old legend that you should not pick blackberries after  O.M.D -probably because they are well past their sell by date and have no flavour by then. But  folklore states that on Old M.D Satan was banned from heaven ( how he got in there in the first place seems a bit of a mystery, but I am sure there are lots of legends about how he got in with ‘a plus one’, on someone’s guest list) He was obviously physically pushed or thrown out, because legend has it that he fell into a blackberry bush on his way to hell and gave the brambles  a right cursing as he landed, which presumably ruined their flavour…I sympathise for the devil at this moment, as I got pretty scratched at the weekend picking the same fruit and they are lethally sharp. In Yorkshire, it is said that the devil then spat on them…yup I get this too, I nearly spat myself…but am much too well behaved. A little cursing sufficed.

So there you go…you can tell that they were obviously short of things to do in those days, no TV to vegetate in front of,  ( I did not really sit in front of a programme about the reforming of the group Steps  last night?…kill me now!) really weak beer,  so there was a lot of story telling going on, some better than others. I have to say this particular legend  is a bit weak in it’s plot.

‘There is a flower called the Michaelmas daisy. The act of giving a Michaelmas Daisy, so they say, symbolises saying goodbye, perhaps in the same way as Michaelmas Day is seen to say farewell to the productive year and welcome in the new cycle.’

SONG OF THE DAY – Rolling Stones -Sympathy for the Devil

I don’t understand the lyrics of the song,  about 15 years ago, I  bought a hot bacon roll for my lunch in Crouch End, stuck it in my coat pocket as I went into Tandy for some cabling ( haha , see yesterday’s post) and there was a man with a dog in the shop, the dog kept nuzzling up to my coat pocket. The man turned to me and said  ‘you must have a dog, my dog seems to really like you’…I replied ‘ sorry mate I think the only thing your dog likes is the smell of the bacon sandwich in my coat pocket… oh how we laughed -the man and dog left…The man behind the counter was most excited…’Do you know who that was? It was Mick Jagger’s brother!’ so there you are, another claim to fame. Mick Jagger’s brother’s dog, nuzzled my coat. My favourite piece of this song is the vocal hoo hoo bits. Make the most of the sunshine if you have it  down  your way, and you are not stuck in a windowless room x x

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I must say  I have two reactions to couples who have specifically defined roles in their relationship, one is mild amusement  and the other is envy. To be that organised that you know that partner 1 always fills the washer and partner 2 empties it, that partner 1 always washes and partner 2 dries and puts away, partner 1  always drives and partner 2 books the flights online really appeals to the side of me that wishes I was less shambolic and more orderly. On the other hand I find it slightly amusing, don’t ask me why…it just does.

Today as I was despairing at all the clutter that is still here after our so called ‘summer of decluttering’ . When I remarked about some messy internet leads I was told by Mr P., in no uncertain terms,  that I was in charge of all things cabling! I was only harping on about playing to ones strengths and not giving too much emphasis on our weakness just the other day and now I am in charge of cabling? mmmmm. So now Mr. P. is reading this over my shoulder guffawing with laughter…not at my witty post…’ha ha ha’ he quips ‘you have always been in charge of cabling’…there you go! you learn something new everyday. peace and love. x

SONG OF THE DAY -Celia Cruz -Guantalamera

Wonderful woman! Great song and performance…cracking band…I love the way they push the words in the chorus.

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As I am writing this post I am also directing Mr P. in the art of soup making. We are both feeling a bit crook today as we ate something funny on Sunday night -not funny ha ha…and are still recovering, so much weak and feebleness, aching limbs and dehydration etc….  This weekend I got out of the city  with some friends. Mr P. went fishing and birdwatching and I just lazed about and read 2 trashy novels, most unusual thing for me to do. I also walked a lot and took pictures of the changing seasons. These are my two favourites. While I was away we noticed again that there is a fruit glut this year, due to the fine weather we had  all that time ago in April. Funny that we are expecting an Indian Summer in October and we had a summer without a name in April, Tenerife summer maybe? ….and then mostly gloom and rain in between. So the finest weather with almost a six month gap in between, most peculiar.  This weekend we went blackberry picking and I made a wheat free crumble with only organic maple syrup to sweeten it. Just oats, butter, maple syrup and fruit. Yum. This other photo is of a large haystack and Mr P, which gives you an idea how big it is (  Mr P. thinks he  is 6 foot 2……) very seasonal sight.

SONG OF THE DAY – Fontella Bass -Rescue me

Lovely high quality video of  a great song. Bit short though… Wicked outfits and the band …well what can I say…