Category: Memories

Custard creams

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Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

My favourite biscuits when I was a child were custard creams, a layered sandwich of two biscuits with a creamy vanilla layer in the centre. You would twist them apart and lick off the filling, then dunk the biscuits in a cup of tea, carefully soaking them and eating them before they got too soggy and fell apart.

Sometimes mom would buy a crispy slightly oatier version with a lemony centre to it which would be eaten in the same way.

Just reading the prompt took me back to our living room, sitting at the dining table with a China cup and saucer and matching plate. Milk jug and teapot. The biscuits were eaten after heinz  sandwich spread sandwiches on white bread.

I also remember the rusty orange settee and the wallpaper with tiny rosebuds and ribbons printed on it.

Dad bought home a wallpaper book once, full of swatches of paper patterns in various colours. So exciting to look at.

Longest (or Shortest? Day)

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Someone reminded me what day it is today. Midsummers day. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s the longest day. I’m not sure but I think it’s the Shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere.

We have been singing “Summer is Icumen in” in choir. I usually sing the “foot” which is sung under the lyrics which are an example of middle english polyphony.

This is a set of lyrics from Wikipedia :

Middle English
Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu

Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu

Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu

Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu[9]

Modern English
Summer[a] has arrived,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now,
Sing, cuckoo!

The ewe is bleating after her lamb,
The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting, [or “The stag cavorting”[11]]
Sing merrily, cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo,
Never stop now.

Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo;
Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now![12]

Penkhull Flag

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Since I’ve been talking about the Penkhull Mystery Plays I thought I’d share an image of our flag and information about it from the flag institute:

Flag Type: Village FlagFlag Date: 7th July 2018Flag Designer: People of Penkhull with Philip Tibbetts and Graham BartramAdoption Route: Popular VoteUK Design Code: UNKG7540Aspect Ratio: 3:5Pantone® Colours: Green 355, Yellow 109, Blue 286Certification: Flag Institute Chief Vexillologist, Graham BartramNotes: 

The Penkhull Flag is a community flag proclaiming the unique identity of this district of the City of Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire).

Penkull is a hilltop village and conservation area within the city boundaries, with strong links to the Spode family.

Josiah Spode I lived in Penkhull, close to his famous Spode pottery works, while his son Josiah II developed the village as a dormitory suburb.

The Penkhull Flag features a golden saltire nowy charged with a blue oval bearing a golden rooster.

The green field evokes the rural nature of the village.

The saltire recalls the crossroads at its heart, while the blue central oval represents classic Spode tableware.

Meanwhile the rooster draws on the weather vane of St Thomas’s Church – a commonly used emblem in the village.

This winning design was chosen by popular vote, achieving just over 35 per cent of the poll, and flew for the first time as part of the Penkhull Mysteries event.

CT scan

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Just been for a scan to see what’s going on in my body. I had to have contrast medium to outline my blood vessels. I went to the hospital, waited an hour, had it done and was back out half an hour later. Thank you NHS.

I don’t know how much it costs here, but we do have free tests because we pay for it in our general taxes. I then decided to check what a CT scan costs in America. $675 to $10000 or more! And what if you don’t have insurance over there? Terrible to have to pay unaffordable amounts and even bankrupt yourself….. I’m lucky to live here.

Drought?

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Oh for some rain, but today came the news that there is an amber heat warning for parts of Britain. That means there is some danger to health for people, especially for the  vulnerable ones. There might be a cooler week next week, but that doesn’t mean rain.

In other news we had reports that we can expect temperatures of up to 40°Celcius in future years, that’s a lot higher than we are used to. Britain has a maritime weather system, meaning weather coming from all directions and all sorts of types. Rain, wind, sleet, hail, snow, sun, fog, mist, drizzle, gales, thunder and even tornadoes and water spouts, we get it all!

Impish

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I’m playing an Imp in the Penkhull Mystery Play, I have one line (and a few more as the narrator). It’s not obvious I’m an Imp, I just have to shout out “my name is Jakobah” , push a rock across a cave mouth. Then shout “goodbye”. There were more lines but they were cut because the play was originally one and a half hours long so it had to be edited. Maybe this is another case of measure twice, cut once! Anyway I hope to do so some more painting later x

Eating too many

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It’s been just too hot and humid. I’m tired out so I’ve eaten far too many ice creams over the past two or three weeks. Even when it rains it stays warm and it’s very humid too. I don’t  know when it will let up. I keep sleeping in my chair and I can’t sleep in bed because I either feel cold or hot. Tomorrow it might be thundering. (us brits don’t understand humidity, we call it puthery round here)…..

Happy times

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Describe one of your favorite moments.

One of my favourite moments is collecting my hanging baskets from a local nursery. Today  (yesterday now) I did that. It was my birthday treat. I ordered 6 this year instead of 8 so I bought some extra plants for the walls and ground. I was really pleased with them. Luckily my sister was over for a visit so she helped me hang them. And that was a favourite moment.