What's in a Name?

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I wasn’t planning to do a post on healthy eating, 

in fact I wasn’t planning to do anything today in this heat. 

It’s 83 here today! 

However, this week I have been having a bit of a clear-out, or a de-clutter as it is called today.

It has been mainly old books which I no longer use or are simply out of date.

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I took a load of my books on Railways to a Museum here at Little Whittenham who were very grateful and said they would sell them in their shop or pass any duplicates on to the Great Western Society shop at Didcot.

I kept a few of those by my favourite authors though.

Like this one.

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Then there were cookery books. 

Perhaps they don’t get out of date, but you can certainly find a few that are never used any more. 

I have found that my poor old gut can no longer cope with hot and spicy food, so out went all my books on Indian and Chinese cooking. These all go down the charity shop to find someone with a stronger digestive system. I also gave them this one on dieting. I can’t see me improving my shape! 

Losing weight maybe, but it never seems to comes off in the place where you need to lose it.

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It was here in my ‘foodie’ section that I got to browsing and found a few useless facts.

Did you know that “to pingle” is to eat with little appetite, and that a “gundygut“ is an old word for a glutton? 

No, neither did I, but further on I then came upon a wee rhyme that I thought I might share with you. 

(Maybe Vitamin B is what you need Kath. :D)

Vitamin A,

Keeps the Flu germs away,

And tends, to make people nervy;

B’s what you need

When you’re going to seed,

And C is specific to scurvy.

Vitamin D makes the bones in your knee

Tough for kneeling in church on a Sunday,

While E makes hens scratch

And increases the hatch,

And brings in more profits on Monday.

Vitamin F never bothers the chef

For this vitamin, never existed;

G puts the fight, in the old appetite,

And you eat all the foods that are listed.

So now when you dine, remember these lines;

“If long on this Earth you will tarry,

Just try to be good, lay off suet pud.

Choose fresh foods from the garden, and dairy.”

This next book I intend to keep, as there are special sections on ‘food for wrinklies‘.

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I just hope tomatoes and potatoes heal, as I’ve got loads of both coming thick and fast from the garden.

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Which of course brings me round to gardening books. 

I have hardly ever bought a gardening book new.

Ninety percent are from second-hand shops and from ex-library stock. Most can be read and returned to the charity shops but some I have kept for reference. 

The pictures in this one were fantastic so it had a ’stay of execution’ and Anita writes so very well.

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Confucius!  he say:

"Man who have concrete for garden -often look forlorn"

Another type of book that easily gets out of date are guides. Walking guides, guides to good pubs, eating houses, museums and gardens. Many pubs around here have closed down so of  course many of these guides are no use anymore.

This little book dates back to when I thought I would run a pub when I retired.

Just dreaming.

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Out it goes. 

I have a whole shelf of books concerning the River Thames, so I shall be keeping all those.

A lady who lived by the Thames

Had a gorgeous collection of ghames;

She had them re-set

In a large coronet

And a number of small diadhames.

I also have a couple of shelves relating to things rural. The History of Place Names, Rural Pastimes, and Local Customs in Buckinghamshire. I am a shocker for collecting books like this, especially as most of them only cost around 50p.  I have books on Windmills, Canals, The Thatched Cottage Homes of England and subjects like the Building of Early Railways.

Here’s one I no longer want. 

This can go down the Hospice shop on Monday.

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I bought a lot of these books years ago from a lady called Iris down at the Bourne End Antique Centre.

Sadly it has now gone, although I did notice that it is still shown there on Google’s ‘Street View‘.

Some of the traders would buy books, too. 

I sold them some books on Vintage Motorcycles, ten years after I had sold the two old bikes. 

An ES2 Norton and a Triumph Tiger 100. 

However this next one can go.

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Probably came from the Antique shop anyway.

As an aside, yesterday I was 

reading this book about anti-gravity.

And do you know, I just can’t put it down!

It will have to stay, but what other books do I no longer use.

Art books. I have loads of those.

How to Paint in Acrylics, Techniques of Famous Artists and about six books on Watercolour Technique. I don’t paint in watercolour anymore. 

They, like this one can all go.

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Well that didn’t take long to de-clutter the library, 

but it’s left huge empty spaces.

Now what can I put on the shelves instead?

How about this?

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Now before you think I’m overdoing this here Mediterranean Diet, there is a reason for all this red wine being here. A couple of weeks ago ALL wine in Sainsbury’s was 25% off. Some Italian red was 50% off, and for every six bottles you bought they knocked off another 5%.

As I’m on a diet, this was an offer I couldn’t miss, and didn‘t!

You see, it was all in the larder last week but as my pantry sticks out from the kitchen, with its own little tiled roof, it got hotter and hotter and hotter. Eighty two degrees here yesterday and again today!

Not having a cellar, I thought it better to find somewhere cooler for my ‘medicine’. 

In addition you see, today, experts tell us -

“A compound found in red wine could actually improve balance. “
“The compound has also been shown to help stave off  heart disease and cancer by reducing inflammation.”

So what was the point of me telling you all this?

The title of this post should have given you a clue as to what it was all about.

Here’s a few more clues -

‘How to lay Carpets’ by Walter Wall.
(Wall to wall). !!!

‘A Consumer Guide to Credit‘ by Owen Munny.

‘Taking up Singing‘ by Topsy Sharp.

And a joke to finish.

An elderly lady was crossing the footbridge over River here at Bourne End. It was very windy and she was holding firmly onto her hat with both hands.

An English gentleman approached her and said, "Pardon me, madam..
I do not intend to be forward,
but did you know that your dress is blowing up in this high wind?"

"Yes, I know," said the lady. "I need both my hands to hold onto this hat."

"But madam, you must know that you are not wearing any knickers and that your private bits are exposed!" said the English gentleman in earnest.

The woman looked down, then back up at the man and replied,

"Sir, anything you see down there is 80 years old.

This hat, I only bought yesterday!"

-I-

“Laugh and the World laughs with you.

Weep and you weep alone.”

Mind how y'go.

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