More on Felines

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My post on Wesley’s birthday presented me with a load of comments for which I was grateful, but I did notice that they were all from the ladies. (I never know when to use girls, gals, ladies or women?)

Are cats a ‘girly’ thing? I don’t think so.

I know that traditionally the feline and feminine are seen as synonymous, the argument going that cats, like women, are well groomed, mysterious, detached, neat, precise, poised, independent, complicated, unpredictable, maddening, irritable, sleek, elegant, and expect you to read their minds and, when you inevitably fail to do so, will lash out erratically.

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My brother doesn’t like them and I know of other men with similar views but I have never met, or heard of for that matter, a woman say that she hates cats. I know there must be some, but not many.

I haven’t always liked cats, it’s true. When we were children we had an aviary in our garden and used to breed budgerigars. Of course this meant all the local moggies came round and sat on the wire roof. We had to keep going out and chasing them off.

But with age I have got to liking them. Why? I can’t say for sure but they are good company and of course you don’t have to take them for walks.

I suppose overall you will find more cats have female owners. I never see any other men buying cat food in Sainsbury’s.

As everyone, (except Adrian) liked that picture of young Wesley, here is another this time with his (late) sister, Lizzie.

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A bit of digging around did come up with quite a few famous male cat owners, including Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, Marlon Brando (who reportedly found a stray on the set of The Godfather and incorporated it into a scene), Alexandre Dumas, Winston Churchill, T. S. Eliot, and Russell Brand.

I also found the results of a survey done by the Cats Protection League that found that 85 per cent of men and 94 per cent of women don’t think it’s wimpy or needy for a man to love his cat.

I also discovered a survey that showed that owning a cat makes men more attractive to the opposite sex: it shows we have a kind, caring and sensitive side.

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And a grown up twelve year-old Lizzie.

And lastly’ and probably the most controversial was this survey by the University of Bristol, that found that cat owners had better academic qualifications than dog owners (although there are cat owners who would suggest that the answer is perfectly simple, in that cats are more intelligent than dogs, and therefore pick more intelligent owners).

Please……. don’t shoot the messenger!

Although, I’ve always thought that cats were smarter than dogs……..

You wouldn’t persuade a team of six cats to pull a sledge, that’s for sure!

And did you know a group of cats is not a team, but a clowder?

And did you know that catgut is made from the twisted intestines from sheep?

And that……………………….

"GUTS" is arriving home late after a night out with the boys, being assaulted by your wife with a broom, and having the guts to say, "are you still cleaning or are you planning to fly off somewhere?"

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Small Morsels

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Well, as Foody was interested in the packets in my weekly shop, I shall reveal all.

Not all the shopping, mind you, just the foodie bits.

I don't eat crisps and nibbles and things.....well, I mean I do but I don't make a habit of buying them. However, I am having little visitors on Saturday, and in order to keep up their strength after all the organ cranking I though I had better make a start at getting in a few things that little stomachs require. I need to go out again on Friday.

Yes, great uncle B is having a visit from some of his great nephews and nieces as happened here last year.

I have no idea what these are like.

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I expect Foody will put me right?

Now on a totally different subject........being a pensioner, about this time of the year I am thrilled to get an increase in my state pension.

This year I was informed that I would get a weekly increase of £2.40.

I was asked not to spend it all at once!

This is about £10 per month.

In the same post I had a letter from Thames Water putting up my Direct Debit by £5 per month.

That is just one bill.....and half of it has gone.

They must be living on another planet.

And then, out of sheer generosity, (which does not include me by the way) they invite those over 80 to apply for an extra morsel.

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Note....you MAY be entitled to an extra 25 pence!

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What's in a Name?

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Fourteen years ago, this little fellow came to join me here.

Today is Wesley's birthday. He is Fourteen.

He came with his twin sister, Lizzie, who sadly died a couple of years ago.

I can remember having trouble in thinking up names for them. At that time the BBC had put up a new series of Pride & Prejudice and I had thought of calling them "Lizzy & Darcy", but I was not too keen on the name "Darcy" or even "Mr Darcy".

Another popular TV series at the time was "Last of the Summer Wine", so I thought. how about "Nora and Compo"?

No, he didn't look like a Compo and she was too beautiful to be a Nora.

So, after many weeks in fact, I settled on "Lizzie", from P&P and "Wesley" after Wesley Pegdon from LOTSW.

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Over the years, poor old Wesley has put me back well over £1000 in vet bills, unlike any other cat I've had, who have cost me virtually nothing. First of all he got shot by an airgun (and still to this day has the pellet inside him, the vet thought it best left).

He has been in fights, had several abscesses, been three times in Hospital with UTI (overnight stays in five-star accommodation) .....but apart from that ....no trouble at all.

The above pic. shows how he likes to sprawl out on my music production area - where if I'm lucky, I can draw out all the notes on the back of the music rolls.

But as it is his Birthday he deserves a treat and I managed to get a bit of frying steak (reduced I might add) yesterday in Sainsbury's.

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OK Where's my steak?

I get this every time I come home with the shopping.....he has to investigate every bag!

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This is bound to upset my brother.....he hates cats!

Sorry Adrian.

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Fair Maids of February

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Deep sleeps the Winter, cold wet and grey;

Surely all the world is dead; Spring is far away.

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Wait ! The world shall waken; it is not dead, for lo,

The Fair Maids of February stand in the snow!

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Now with tender pencilled cup,

And with triple wings of white,

Snowdrop-maidens flutter up,

Wakened from the winter's night.

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Now the birch with ruddier rind,

Hears the tit call to his fellow;

February's gentle wind,

Turns the happy larches yellow. **

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Sunday, 21st of February. Great Missenden. England.

** A February Song - H. D. Rawnsley

Note: All the pictures will enlarge (by a left click on them).

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Happy Birthday dear DD.

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Many Happy Returns of the Day, Dumpling.

Hope it turns out fine for you.

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Gone to Specsavers

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Jenny Wren?

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I had a go at enlarging a picture of a small bird that Foody saw.

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She thought it might be a Wren.....difficult to say from the front.

I've infringed your copyright Foody.....please don't sue!

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O.M.G. Look at the Time

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Another quickie today as I'm off out in a minute.

This is about songs that spell out the word as part of the song.

The oldest I have come across is this one below from 1915.

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M-O-T-H-E-R - Howard Johnson 1915

It is a shame that these early songs didn't have attractive covers in colour, but it may have been due to some wartime restrictions.

This next one is from 1928.

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C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.I.N.O.P.L.E. - Fred Elizalde 1928

Others that come to mind are:-

D.I.V.O.R.C.E. - Tammy Wynette

L.O.V.E. - Nat ‘King’ Cole

H.E.L.P. It’s on the Way - The Beach Boys

K-A-T-I-E. (The Name Spelling Song) - Karl Williams

I believe there was an Abba song, but not sure - Jan?

S.O.S. - Abba

And I'm relying on Annette to confirm the next is correct.

P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Things) - Michael Jackson

I wonder how many there were written and is Constantinople the longest?

O.M.G. look at the time - T.T.F.N.

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Model Villages

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Yesterdays post was a picture of a Model village getting a dose of the 'white stuff'' just before Christmas. I have to admit I can't remember where it was. A senior moment again.

However it gave me the idea for today's bit.

Back in the 1950's Dad had an Armstrong Sidderly. It was a 1932 model.....I can even remember the registration - BOM 365. I'm sure I have a photo somewhere.....that's for another day.

However, days out in the car would inevitably take us south of Bournville to villages with colourful names like Morton-in-Marsh, Piddle-on-the-Wyre and Bourton-on -the-Water.

We loved Bourton because of its Model Village and being allowed to paddle in the shallow river which ran alongside the High St.

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Well this is us in the Model Village around 1951-2. I am at the back with cousin Susan. In front of me is cousin Stewart, with brothers Colin and Adrian on his right.

I have dug out some old photos of the model village as it was then. I am told Bourton has been changed beyond recognition which is always a shame.

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An overview.

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A close up.

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And a view of the Model Village within the Model Village itself.

I can't remember if there is a smaller model in the model's model...!!!

Now just up the road from here in Beaconsfield is a real cracker of a Model Village.

It is called 'Bekonscot' and was started over 80 years ago. What I like most about it, is the working scale model railway and all the beautiful miniature shrubs and trees.

They are Gauge 1 models, that means a scale of 10mm to 1 foot, giving a track gauge of 1 3/4".

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I took this picture many years ago when I took three of my nephews there for a visit.

They are there somewhere in the picture.

There is a BBC video of Bekonscot which you can see here... a general overview, whilst on Tracker-bar I have put up my favourite. It's a (scale) 10 mile trip around the garden on the front of one of the little trains. It's really well done considering that the engines are only 3" wide.

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It is Man-made after all

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The scientist behind much of the “climate change” propaganda — most famous for emailing colleagues telling how he used a “trick” to hide temperature changes — has made an astonishing admission, which throw further doubt on the validity of the global warming theory.

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Look what I've 'Red' today!

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Red Roses for a Blue lady......maybe

but how about this?

"Red wine tastes better when sipped under red or blue lights"

Most wine-lovers need little excuse to enjoy their favourite drink, but I read that....

"If they down a glass in a room with blue or red ambient lights, it can taste even better than usual."

German researchers found the link after giving drinkers the same bottle of wine in rooms with different lighting.

The same wine was perceived as being nearly one-and-a-half times sweeter in red light than in white or green light.

Its fruitiness was also most highly rated in red light.

And it doesn't end there.......

Even more researchers found that those who wear red tops, jackets or clothing score 10 per cent more in any competition than if they were in another colour.

Experts believe that red could make individuals and teams feel more confident as well as being perceived by others as more aggressive and dominant.

In 2004 scientists at Durham University also looked at how colour influenced sporting competitiveness.

All this waste of money......it's enough to make you see xxx!

And for something completely different....

An out of work Irishman knocks at the door of a smart house, looking for odd jobs.

“Tell you what,” says the owner.

“Take this can of red paint and paint the porch."

"You’ll find it at the side of the house.”

After an hour, the man knocks on the door again. “I finished the job,” he says, handing back the can and gratefully accepting £20.

“But you made a mistake — it’s not a porch, it’s a Mercedes.”

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I'm not one for the Birds!

If I did a search for the most frequent word in songs….it would have to be ‘Love’.

And I wouldn’t mind betting ‘Heart’ comes in a close second. I have hundreds of both, from Broken Hearts right through to Mozart!

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I have read that researchers have found a genetic link between physical pain and rejection. These psychologists at the University of California have had more funding than they knew what to do with, so they collected saliva samples from 122 participants to assess which form of the pain gene they had and then they measured their sensitivity to rejection.

Well it appears that those with this gene felt more distress when they were left out of the game compared to the others.

Co-author Baldwin Way said: 'These findings suggest that the feeling of being given the cold shoulder by a romantic interest may arise from the same circuits.'

The significance of this could be profound. Will people be taking time of work to recover from the pain of rejection?

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It also appears that single women looking for love on Valentine's Day should turn to birdwatching to find out who they will marry, according to the ancient art of ornithomancy.

The practice of reading signs from birds, which dates back to Greek and Roman times, dictates that the first bird an unmarried woman sees on Valentine's Day is an omen of her future husband's character.

Who's your lovebird?

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Woodpecker: no marriage will take place

Dove: your marriage to him will be happy and loving

Robin: he earns his living through water – a naval officer or fisherman

Sparrow: he works with the land – a farmer or tree surgeon

Birds of prey: he is a businessman, politician or leader

Pigeon: he will eventually return to the place where he grew up

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Blackbird: he'll be involved in charitable or spiritual work – an aid worker or vicar

Duck: your relationship with him will be homely and stable

Gull: he travels a great deal for work

Goldfinch: he is a person of means

Kingfisher: he has already done well or inherited money

Blue bird: he likes to make others smile – a comedian

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I like that last one......I have a little 'blue' book full of little 'blue' jokes.

I must dig it out again.

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"Groans all Round"

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Another week has flown by.

They go so quick when you are retired and busy all day.

When I think back to all those days at work.......how the time dragged. I thought five o'clock would never come.

As I have a busy day yet again......this is just a fill in....something for you all to have 'groan' at.

I was going to pop these up on the 'fishy' bits I've been doing, but there wasn't a lot of room.

Yes, Uncle B is in a 'funny' mood again today!

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"Salmon Chanted Evening"

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"Whale Meat Again"

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"I Cod have Danced All Night"

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"You Don't bring Me Flounders, anymore"

There, that was nice and quick......back tomorrow.......

Big groan all round, especially from Devon!

And for DD..

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Best I could do.

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"Give me Five minutes More"

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I noticed that there have been quite a lot of foodie bits here this week, so I'm going to include a bit of sheet music today.

I did a post on 'Children's Favourites' on the radio a couple of weeks ago but I have many other early favourites from the late forties and early fifties.

My Father had a small radio out in his shed and in those days he was always tuned into 'Radio Luxembourg'. I had no idea why.

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He would come back in for his tea singing, (or humming if he didn't know the words,) the catchy songs of the day. These have stuck in my memory and I have, over the last few years been seeking out the sheet music.

This was always one of my favourites.

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We, indoors had our big radio tuned into the BBC Home Service. These were regional broadcasts and ours was the 'Midland Home Service'. What extra Dad was listening to on Luxembourg, I had no idea - "Horace Batchelor from Keynsham, Bristol" perhaps!

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Here's another from those 'Good Old Days'. This is what Dad would sing when Mother called him in for his tea. "Give me Five minutes More".

'Tea' was, by the way, our evening meal.....not a 'cuppa'!

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And this one below I dug out for a special reason.

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When I read in today's papers that dead bodies of Hindus are going to be burnt on open-air pyres! OMG

So now we can all smell the wonderful odour of burning corpses on the wind when we go outside.

Where's Elf ’n Safety when you really need them?

And how come this is now OK when some people aren’t even allowed to burn their own garden waste?

It's revolting.

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"Halibut and Winkles"

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There were several queries on yesterdays ‘fishy bit’.

Ken wanted to know what that monster fish was?

It was a giant 22 Stone Halibut, and had been ordered by cooks at the Bull Hotel in Bridport, Dorset and this one put them back £1,326.

Hotel owner Richard Cooper, 45, said they had intended to order a big halibut to coincide with a local seafood festival.

He said: "Our chefs ordered a large halibut in preparation for the festival, but they weren't expecting anything quite like this.

It took five grown men to lift the enormous catch onto the table and then an entire day to chop it into 600 portions.

Weighing in at 309lbs - 140kg - the 10ft long halibut was trawled from the bottom of the North Sea.

The fish was bought from a Grimsby fish market and driven 300 miles to Davey's Locker fishmongers in Bridport.

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Looking for Winkles?

Foody was asking about Winkles. As a foodie I would have expected her to have joined DD with her fresh brown bread and ‘Winkle Pin’.

My cookbook on North Atlantic seafood has the following to say.

Winkle, Periwinkle. - Littorina littorea.

(Dutch - Alikruik) (Welsh - Gwichiaid)

After a good soak, they are boiled for about ten minutes and when cold picked out of their shells with a pin. For the English, nothing more, nothing less, except in my case a splash of vinegar. Served up with brown bread.

However other countries seem to go a bit further.

In Ireland they are served up with a sauce made from Carragheen moss in milk, whilst in Wales the boiled winkles are fried in bacon fat and then have an egg added and then scrambled.

I’ve never tried this but it does sound really tasty.

The name for these little creatures in Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands, is Kruuk’ls, where the hot winkles are taken straight from the shells and turned into a thin mustard sauce with lemon juice and served with brown bread.

Winkles do appear on the other side of the Atlantic and although they were eaten by the American Indians, they are now completely ignored.

Now I don't have Halibut or Winkle music but I have arranged this little song for the Organ.

(and of course "Cockles and Mussels alive, alive O")

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The Sea Shell by Pam Ayres

Don't ee fret no more, my darlin' Alice.

Don't ee cry and sorrow, my old dear.

Don't ee watch the lane for our son Arnold,

Lost upon the sea this fourteen year.

Let a smile play on your lips again, Alice,

Fourteen years, you've worn the widows drab,

And get your ear away from that great sea shell;

Nobody hears the ocean in a crab!

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On Battered Fish

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I had a nice comment on my Fish 'n Chip post, from Kim in Alaska.

She asked:-

"What exactly kind of fish do you use in your area for fried fish? Being a life long Alaskan, beer battered fish and chips is a much beloved recipe in many homes. Halibut is the best fish to use, coated in a delicious Beer batter."

I wonder if, by area, she means the Thames Valley or perhaps England (OK Britain) as a whole?

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Well, when I was a lad in Bournville, it had to be Cod.

We had no Fish 'n Chip shop locally so I had to get on my bike and cycle up to Cotteridge.

I honestly can't remember in the 1950's having any other fish, with our chips, than Cod.

However my research shows the preferred choice of fish to be regional.

Cheshire, Lancashire, South Wales and the West Country used to be Hake country (but the Spanish fishermen soon put a stop to that). Now they have switched to Cod.

Yorkshire is for Haddock of course, whilst down in London they will eat anything that swims - cod, haddock, plaice, skate and of course the infamous “rock”. (dogfish). And not forgetting the famous Eel's and Winkles, although not in batter!

Up in Scotland they fancy small Haddock. (so I'm told - perhaps they can't afford large Haddock?)

Halibut and scampi are sometimes shown on the menu in various areas where there is demand.

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This is an old menu I found from 1971.

I have never come across a 'Pea Fritter' before. I shall get Foody to investigate, I think.

And look at those prices! Wow.

Of course these were the days when chip shops smelt of fish and hot fat, usually lard.

Now days they use oil and they invariably stink of curry and frankfurters!

Now about the batter.

This is not something I have ever tried. Of course in the days before 'packet mixes' everyone had to make their own. My Mother certainly did.

Chip shops in the good old days used to keep their batter mixture recipe a secret.

Every fryer had his own. The secret is not only in the ingredients but also in the aeration of the batter. This was achieved by whisking, or with baking powders or even by adding yeast. This is the reason for adding beer, usually a Guinness - to get air (or CO2) into the batter.

It has to be just right.

A thick stodgy batter will take longer to cook and be doughy inside.

A puffy batter is much favoured by chip shops as it makes the portion look bigger.

A watery mixture will explode when it hit’s the fat.

So what do most people now do? They buy a batter mixture and simply add water.

Well you can't blame them really.

More a Stove than a Cooker

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Not wanting to be left out of these pros and cons of different stoves, I thought I would resurrect a post I did many months ago. Foody will remember this because when she went away for Easter, she and hubby popped into a local church for a look around and found a 'Tortoise' stove.

This brought to mind a poem by John Betjeman called Christmas. The first verse being:-

The bells of waiting Advent ring,

The Tortoise stove is lit again

And lamp-oil light across the night

Has caught the streaks of winter rain

In many a stained-glass window sheen

From Crimson Lake to Hooker's Green.

So, how did a stove get a name like that. I had heard of 'Pot-bellied' stoves named after their shape.....but a tortoise ?

No surely not.

Well, after a bit of digging up came the history:-

" In the Church can also be seen a excellent example of a Portway Patent Tortoise Slow Combustion Stove Size 2. Charles Portway designed and hand built his first Tortoise stove in 1830 in Halstead Essex. He started a foundry which by 1900 had produced over 100,000 stoves. The success of a solid fuel stove was judged by its slowness to burn one filling, thus extracting the maximum amount of heat from the fuel. The Portbury stoves burnt so slowly they were named 'Tortoise' stoves. Each stove was produced with the motto "slow but sure combustion" displayed on the top or front."

The Trade Mark shows the 'Slow But Sure' tortoise.

Now having a similar stove in my conservatory, I had to go and investigate its manufacturer.

No....it wasn't a tortoise.....it was a 'Deville' and its 'eyes' on the front glow red from the fire.

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Probably banned by some regulation, legislation, directives, rules......

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And still on the subject of cooking....do I get carbon credits for this?

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England and Englishness.

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Jan asked….Fri Feb 5

“By the way, could someone from across the ocean tell me when I'm supposed to use these terms? Great Britain, England, British, English. In my mind Great Britain is everything on your island and England excludes Scotland and maybe other areas? Mostly I just avoid the terms, though, because I'm not sure how to use them properly.”

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Britain comprises Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Great Britain comprises England, Scotland and Wales.

Britain’s full title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

(Although the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom of GB &NI, they have a special relationship with it.)

In 1973 Britain joined the European Union.

The EU then went on to carve Britain up into Regions. There was Scotland and Wales for a starter, but the remainder (England) was too large a region so it was carved up into smaller regions, for example we have a South West Regional Development Agency.

England is no longer on their map.

It was Jack Straw who is on record as saying “The English are not worth saving as a race”.

The English were slightly miffed to put it mildly.

Thus there is now a marked rise in the number people who, without a second thought, would once have called themselves British, but now refer to themselves as English.

I for one!

Over the last ten years or so, amongst commentators, academics and the media, deconstructing 'Englishness' became the order of the day, in a way which would not be tolerated by the Scots, say, or the Welsh, who have instead been encouraged at every turn to re-affirm their sense of identity.

This negative onslaught is the background to the new-found celebration of England.

The new celebration of England and Englishness will be more visible from now on simply because, in the minds of millions of us, it needs to be.

I am firstly English and secondly British.

I am not a European.

Europe is part of a Tectonic plate, it is a Continent not a Country, it is an insult to all Nations with a language, a history, a culture, and an identity.

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Foody, April last year left me this interesting comment.

“Many foreigners think that England is the whole of Britain and they think Scotland and Wales are parts of England. They usually assume you're English if you say "British". Imagine how irritating that might get. Even people on the telly and radio talk of England when they mean Britain and vice versa. You notice these things if you start to look out for them. When people on the media don't appear to know basic facts and geography it's a bit bad. I suppose the more the smaller nations hear these things the more annoying it gets so the more they have feel the need to assert themselves over the years.

It kind of gets me when I hear people talk of 'British law'. There is no such thing. Even the BBC do this. There's the law of England and Wales and there's Scots law. They talk of 'UK law' too and again there's no such thing but it has come to be used to refer to the laws of the UK as opposed to those that Brussels imposes on the UK."

The Village Green

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Last Friday I put up an old photo of the Village Green in Bournville.

The Green, which was triangular in shape, was of course the 'centre' of our community. The schools were on one side, the village Post Office, the Bank and various shops all along another.

At the northern end was the Quaker Meeting House where I was a member of the youth club, and at the southern end, the Church of St Francis of Assisi, where my mother and father were married and much later, I was to sing as a choir boy.

At Christmas there was carol singing on the Green and there was also a large gathering to see in the New Year. Both these events accompanied by the bells from the Carillon on top of the school.

Right in the centre of the Green was the 'Rest House'.

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Bournville Rest House was built in 1913 to celebrate George and Elizabeth Cadbury's Silver Wedding and was paid for by the factory employees. It is currently the Carillon Visitors' Centre.

An inscription inside reads:

"This Rest House was erected to commemorate the Silver Wedding of Mr. & Mrs. George Cadbury by the employees of Cadbury Brothers Ltd. at Bournville and in all parts of the world. A lasting memorial of esteem and affection as an expression of gratitude for the unceasing interest in their welfare and in admiration of manifold services to the world at large".

The design is by Harvey and is based on Dunster's medieval butter market in Somerset.

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The Yarn Market in Dunster, Somerset, England was built around 1590 and is scheduled as an ancient monument.

The octagonal structure has a central stone pier which supports a heavy timber framework which carries a slate roof with central wooden lantern surmounted by a weather vane.

Around 1590 George Luttrell, of the Luttrell family constructed the market to shelter traders and their wares from the rain.

It is now managed by the National Trust.

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