Brexit is consuming all the news of course, and we all hope dear old Prince Philip gets better soon after his prang.
But most importantly, last night was Wassailing Night. In case you missed it, its the night (the 12th night after Christmas using the old calendar) when folk in my part of the country go out into the apple orchards and bang things together and bash the trunks of the trees with sticks to wake them up and generally make as much noise as they can. This scares away the evil spirits that might have taken roost there and ensures a good apple harvest next autumn.
As you might think, though Wassailing always follows Christmas, its a pre-Christian ritual, which the modern Church does not condemn.
The event also involves some consumption of cider, or local scrumpy - a rough and cloudy cider made locally from not the best apples you can find.
Why does this vaguely remind me of the House of Commons?
England is such an ancient country and so full of fascinating and distinctly unique customs and manners - as well as a rich and eventful history that has chiseled the shape of the entire globe in so many ways.
That is one reason why I value Europe so much as a whole. It is so diverse in culture and identity, and yet is capable of working very closely together without losing very much of that uniqueness.
Personally, I think Brexit is becoming an overly- complicated concept. The UK is big enough and resourceful enough to continue its journey successfully whether it is part of the EU or outside of it. Not all European countries belong to the EU, but we all want the same things, whether we are EU or not - identity, a degree of self-control, stability, security, trade relations, economic growth and friendly and trustful relations with each other.
We just need to mutually agree how we want to achieve these goals - how can that be so difficult?
Prince Philip is doing well apparently, after his road traffic collision. So is the Duke of Edinburgh. Actually theyâre the same person. Officially, he is known as -
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip
Duke of Edinburgh
Earl of Merioneth
Baron Greenwich
Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
Member of the Order of Merit
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Grand Master and First and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
Knight of the Order of Australia
Additional Member of the Order of New Zealand
Extra Companion of the Queenâs Service Order
Royal Chief of the Order of Logohu
Extraordinary Companion of the Order of Canada
Extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit
Canadian Forces Decoration
Lord of Her Majestyâs Most Honourable Privy Council
Member of the Queenâs Privy Council for Canada
Personal Aide-de-Camp to His Majesty King George VI
Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom
With all this going on, anybody could be a little distracted when driving.
He has been a Royal Prince 3 times. Firstly of Greece, but he relinquished this title after his family was exiled from Greece when the monarchy there was dissolved. Also of Denmark, as he is descended from Prince George of Denmark, his grand-father, who was elected(!) to become George I, King of Greece: Philip also relinquished this title.
I expect he has an egg-man for boiling eggs. The egg-man probably has a title like Poacher Of The Royal Eggs and Chamberlain-General Of The Palace Breakfast Comestibles.
Not so weird perhaps when there really is a Queenâs Swan Marker.
Maybe the whole crash near Sandringham happened because the Prince had forgotten to take with him Ye Foot-Braker of Ye Royalle VehiclesâŚ
Letter from this green and pleasant land (England)
Repy to our nearest neighbor, equally green and pleasant, from Ireland
You have decided to leave the EU, we are sad that you are leaving.
The only portion of our land that remains ruled by your country chose to stay but your numbers are larger so we must leave.
Wassailing Night is not unlike a night we have but for different reasons, I remember local people hammering on metal bins to make a loud noise to warn of what might be called the arrival of bad spirits - mostly clad in dark clothing with weapons raisedâŚ
Well these are some choices of strong words - âour landâ, âruledâ, âweapons raisedâ - so this post covers issues which are obviously very important to you personally.
In fact, they should really be important to everyone - what is more important in politics than the support for and liberty within your own country? Its a serious matter for one country to be said to âruleâ a part of another country - in fact its serious for both parties, and not really in a good way for either - the British people decided a long long time ago it wasnât really such a great idea to be ruling other peopleâs countries.
Its something which deserves more discussion and I just genuinely suggest you start a thread and post something to set out where the situation is and whatâs bad about it. Then you and I can hold back a little and see what people think. Do please start up your thread on this, its important and worth the time.
Over here in Bulgaria we have a similar tradition - itâs called âĐĄŃŃваâ (Surva) - not to be mistaken with the polish word starting with a K.
Men wearing scary masks lots of bells, drums and so on which go around the cities and villages to scare the bad spirits away. They are called Kukeri.
Itâs about to happen in a couple of days.
Hereâs a vid.
The music you hear in the background is from bagpipes, so might not be far from the Scots in that manner.
What a noise! And the costumes are just fantastic.
It seems probable that most of Europe shared a common pagan religion at one time. There are many physical relics of this in the UK (its not all been concreted over for roads and houses!) and especially in remote areas to the west and south-west. But beliefs (superstitions) and customs still persist. Who hasnât thrown a metal coin into water?
Iâve vaguely heard of that - but not the detail. - Odd perhaps, but then when you consider ;
The âmaggotsâ which we find in apples are the grubs of the âWinter Mothâ Which would be active about then. Iâm nt sure whether banging the trees would perhaps dislodge some of the eggs - More than that, the female is unable to fly as she is virtually wingless. Again vigorous shaking of the tree may cause some of them to fall off ? Maybe there could just be some point in it ?
Back home after a testing half-day hike (full kit) on beloved Dartmoor.
In olden days, the moor people believed the moor was populated by Pixies. As no-one had firmly proven the Pixies have departed, I think its safe to conclude they are still there, they are just very hard to find.
There are 3,300 hill-forts in Britain. Which Iâm pretty sure is greater than the number of hills. Most are on hills though not always on the summits, where youâd expect a fort. Most have no archaeological evidence of warfare, weapons, defensible structures or fighting. Some are so large as to have been indefensible in practical terms. Very few could be reliably considered forts but no doubt thatâs the way they looked to Victorian amateurs.
Their construction period was impressive, spanning 4,000 years. Some date from the Stone Age, 4,000 to 2,500 BC. Some were built in the Late Bronze Age, 1,000-700BC. Most were constructed in the Iron Age, 800BC-100AD
Weâre still working on what exactly they were built for.
All unmarked swans on open water in Britain belong to the Queen. So do all beached whales and sturgeons. So does all the land between the high and low water marks along the coast.
Britain usually appears to be highly urbanised and almost completely developed. Its a high population and high population density country, with about the same population as France but in less than half the area.
But its not all concrete here. The UK has a wild deer population of probably over 2 million and growing naturally.
Thatâs almost two times the (human) population of the UKâs second largest city, Birmingham.
