If you have not yet voted in the poll and would like to do so, it is still open (see previous entry). Thank you.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
All About Dogs
This is my second attempt at posting this. The first one went terribly wrong, the poll came out in code and I lost the graphic I had used and had to start over after having made numerous attempts to delete the ruined entry. Aol eventually co-operated.
Now, you will know that I cannot list every single breed of dog, it would be impossible. So, I thought of some of the most popular and decided to use them in a poll.
Many of you will have dogs that are not listed here. So, imagine that you do not have a dog. If you were going out to buy or rescue a canine, which of the ones I have listed would you choose? You can always mention your own particular breed in comments. It will be interesting to know the variety of J-Land dogs.
PLEASE NOTE. This is a multiple choice poll so you can opt for more than one breed.
It is another lovely day and I have been sitting in the garden but it got far too hot. I shall be going out there later on when it cools down a little. I shall take my book and just have a relaxing half hour.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, dear friends and readers.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday Things
It looks as if we are having a mini Indian Summer after all. Not that it is hot, but warm enough to have the doors and windows open and the sun does often break through although, most of the time, it is hazy and behind cloud.
All our summer tubs have been emptied out now. The Geraniums which normally do so well were ruined by the continual rain that we had and were looking so awful that we decided they had to go, along with the hanging baskets. I think it is the baskets we miss the most because they were the first thing that caught your eye outside the window in the lounge and I had a beautiful one showing at the bedroom window.
Normally we would buy winter pansies or some other winter flowering plants to replace them but with the ever growing cost of food, gas, electric and fuel, that is an expense and a pleasure we will have to forego this year. The Government did announce plans to help people with insulating their homes but that is of no benefit to us. We already have our loft fully insulated as are our cavity walls. We have double-glazing and we use low energy light bulbs in all the fitments that will take them. So, no help for us then. It is a real struggle now getting from one month's end to the next but there are thousands in our situation and some much worse.
We can only pray that we do not have a hard winter this year. If we do then we will have to choose between heating and eating and because I have to have a healthy diet, we could end up sitting here in coats and gloves. Ho hum.
We have made cutbacks where we can but the internet would be the very last thing to go. Let us hope it never comes to that.
Yesterday was a sad day for our family. Becky and Dean's little cat, Kizzy, had to be put to sleep yesterday evening. Age and ill-health just caught up with her. She was sixteen and a half so was really in her 17th year. They originally got her on the seventeenth of one month and she passed away on the seventeenth, yesterday. They will miss her greatly. Mike and I will miss her as well as we have known her since she was eight weeks old. The boys are a bit too young to understand what has happened.
The fact that Kizzy was old does not really make a difference. We get so attached to our pets, they really are one of the family and grief for their loss is just the same as any other grief. Only time eases that but we never forget.
Becky has requested that I do not put a photo on my journal and I am respecting those wishes. It is too raw right now as you can imagine. However, our friend Sugar has added Kizzy to the J-Land Pets Memorial journal and, anyone wishing to, can see her there. The link to the pet's memorial journal can be found on my sidebar under Favourite Sites. Thank you Sugar.
I am glad you have enjoyed my last two postings of historical tales and I will try and come up with more in the future. I was going to do another poll for the weekend but, right now, I just cannot come up with any ideas. Suggestions welcome.
Well, I really do not have much else to say right now. I hope you have all been having a good week and that life is being kind to you.
Love,
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A Hideous Bed
The village of Colnbrook is in the County of Buckinghamshire. Not so much a village now because it is located very close to Heathrow Airport.
It was here, in 1825, that the first Cox’s Orange Pippin apple was grown by a brewer named Richard Cox. This delicious apple is still considered to be one of the very best there is.
However, Colnbrook has claim to a very sinister tale. It is home to the delightful public house called “The Ostrich” which is the third oldest pub in England.
I do not know the actual age of this building but it is said that King John stayed here on his way to sign the Magna Carta in the year 1215. Another illustrious guest was Queen Elizabeth 1. Dick Turpin is also thought have visited but many pubs lay claim to him. It is possible but, of course, there are no records to prove Turpin’s visit.
I write of the Jarmans, a husband and wife who were the landlords at some time during the seventeenth century. These were people you would not wish to meet although many hapless souls did, to their cost. Thomas Jarman had an eye for money and did not care just how he got it.
He designed an ingenious bed. This bed was nailed to the trap door in the wooden floor above the kitchen. When a guest arrived wishing to stop for the night or longer, he would size them up, trying to guess at their wealth and whether they were worth what he had in mind. If he considered them prosperous he would show the unfortunate person to the very comfortable Blue Room, the room that housed what was to become , the infamous bed.
When the guest was safely and deeply asleep, Jarman and his not so charming wife would unbolt the trap door, the bed would tip up and the unfortunate guest was then plunged into a vat of boiling water that had been set up on the stove below, bubbling away in readiness. The body would later be disposed of in the river. All the guest’s clothes and possessions including his horse would then be sold and the profits fell into their grasping hands.
Their downfall was inevitable. One of the victims had been a certain Thomas Cole and somebody recognised his horse which had escaped. The animal was drinking from the brook which ran through the village. Questions where asked. Where was Thomas Cole? The Jarmans gave evasive answers. People realised that he would not have just gone leaving his horse behind him. Under questioning the Jarmans broke and confessed to his murder but not only to his murder. They were responsible for the appalling fate of some sixty others!
They went to the gallows for their crimes and one can feel no pity for such evil, wicked and greedy people. It is said that Colnbrook derives from Colebrook, the place where Thomas Cole’s horse was found.
There is a replica of the notorious bed in The Ostrich today and it is also said that this is the most haunted pub in the land. Much poltergeist activity takes place here, bangings and rappings, articles being moved etc. Not surprising when you think how many poor souls met such a dreadful end at the hands of this unscrupulous and foul pair.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Humpty Dumpty - The Truth?
I had a reason for asking about Humpty Dumpty in my previous entry.
“In days of old when knights were bold” so to speak, news of what was happening in the land was carried by messengers to various towns and villages, much the same as the ballads sung by minstrels. People were then able to know what was going on with the monarch and court, the political situation, whether there was plague and also what battles had taken place and what factions were siding with each other.
Very few people were literate and, of course, there were no newspapers, so current events were spread by word of mouth. That is why so many nursery rhymes have hidden meanings, far removed from what we think of today.
We have always known, in our lifetimes, Humpy Dumpty as an egg. Well, that is not what he originally was.
There are about three candidates for the role. One was King Charles 1 who certainly had a great fall, literally lost his head and could obviously not be put back together. I have chosen to tell you here about the origin of the rhyme which seems most likely.
The English Civil War, when the Royalists fought the Roundheads lasted from 1642-1651. One siege took place at Colchester in Essex. Colchester was held on behalf of King Charles 1 by Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle. These men and their troops had taken it back from the Roundheads and were defending it with all their might.
Thomas Fairfax leading the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) encircled Colchester determined to regain it and thus the siege began.
A Street in Colchester
The Royalists almost succeeded in their fight to retain Colchester because they had a “weapon of mass destruction” - a huge cannon called Humpty Dumpty. This cannon was placed at the top of the tower of the church of St.Mary-at-the Walls and there, for eleven weeks, this mighty weapon rained cannon balls at the enemy.
The gunner was a soldier named One-Eyed Thompson and, one-eyed or not his aim was excellent and extremely accurate. However, there came a day when the church tower was blown apart by the opposing army and Humpty Dumpty went crashing to the ground outside the city wall where it became embedded in the deep boggy ground. The King’s cavalry (the King’s Horses) and the infantry (The King’s Men) tried frantically to retrieve, to pull it clear, in the hopes that they could get it firing again. They failed in their attempts and because of the want of their cannon they were defeated by Halifax and his troops.
St. Mary's Church with rebuilt tower
You see, there is only one verse to the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty we know today, the only one that appears in books. However, there were two other verses which preceded the lines we know so well:-
In sixteen hundred and forty-eight
When England suffered the pains of state,
The Roundheads laid siege to Colchester town
Where the King’s men still fought for the crown.
There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall,
A gunner with deadliest aim of all.
From St. Mary’s Tower his cannon he fired,
Humpty Dumpty was its name.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.
When the Roundheads returned to their homes, they taught their children to recite the tale of their victory and thus word spread throughout the Kingdom of the defeat that King Charles's army had suffered.
As the centuries passed, the two first verses got forgotten or left out until we have what we know today.
So, why is Humpty always shown as an egg? That was to happen very much later. Not, in fact, until Lewis Carroll wrote “Through The Looking Glass” in 1871. In the book Alice engages in conversation with Humpty Dumpty whilst he is sitting on a wall. Now, whether Lewis Carroll knew about the origins of Humpty is not know, but if he did, he could hardly have Alice talking to a gun and also, by that time, Humpty Dumpty had become a nickname for a short, stout person. He consulted with John Tenniel who was his illustrator.
Tenniel pondered on the matter. He wanted to come up with something that, once broken, could never be put together again. Of course, if you drop a fresh egg onto a hard surface you get a mess. You also get something that can never be mended.
Thus it was agreed that Humpty should be an egg and Tenniel added short arms and legs. Our friend Humpty has remained that iconic figure ever since.
Now, you will never think of Humpty in the same light will you? However, let us not disillusion our children and grandchildren. There is enough fighting and bloodshed still going on in the world. Let them keep their innocence. Let Humpty always and forever remain an egg.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this entry as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
The information in this posting has been researched in books but is written here in my own words. Acknowledgement to A. Jack.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Meet Marty And Other Creatures
Do you like my new "mascot?" Given to me a few days ago by Nathan and Daniel. Nathan actually named him. The family know that I adore Meerkats - well all animals but I have a particular fondness for these little creatures.
Becky and Dean had taken the boys to a placed called Paradise Park - a wildlife centre with other attractions and Marty came from there. He sits on the bookcase in my bedroom and when I wake in the mornings he always makes me smile.
Naturally they took lots of photos on their day out and I can only share a few with you today:-
Talking of the boys, I was reading nursery rhymes to them the other day. We came to Humpty-Dumpty. Daniel pointed and said "look, Nana, an egg."
This made me wonder. I know that fairy stories are pretty universal. Some countries might have some we do not know about but tales like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and the like are known the world over (also helped by Disney).
Is it the same with nursery rhymes? Do many countries share the same nursery rhymes? What about my friends in America. Do you have humpty-dumpty? If so, is he portrayed as an egg? He certainly is in every rhyme book over here. I wondered if humpty was unique to the British Isles or whether he is known everywhere.
What other nursery rhymes did you or do you read to your children/grandchildren? Do you have a favourite from your own childhood?
It would be interesting to know. Please leave your answers in comments.
Love
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Re: Barbara
I have just received a voice mail from Barbara of Life & Faith in Caneyhead
She lives in Texas where Ike has hit so badly. She wants everyone to know that she is safe. Without electricity and could be for some time but she wanted to re-assure everyone that she and her family are fine.
It was lovely to hear her voice. She thanks everyone for their prayers and will be back in J-Land as soon as possible.
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