Saturday 26 October 2019

Saturday Filler


Before the rain and in between the football I scurried across the road on a dreich day looking for inspiration.  All I found were leaves and a few twigs blown from the trees by what the weather man called a "Strong Breeze."  I would like to know his definition of 'Storm!'


Rust coloured leaves are appearing everywhere, plants, trees and bushes are shedding heavily those that would compost make.  Rust coloured trees, rain clouds, dark skies, this is what a poet called a season of 'Mist and mellow fruitfulness' or some such.  This proves that Victorian poets were slightly off their heads just like today's poets are!  John Keats was it?  He lived in a big house in Hampstead just of the Heath, he could I suppose, always send the servants out to see what the weather was like over the road...


The shop on the corner was offering these gourds to passing trade.  I am not sure if any sold.  What on earth are they? What would you do with them anyway?   The Pumpkin has become important at this time of year as the nation falls for yet another commercial money grab.  When we were young, us poor people did not know about pumpkins, they were some foreign thing found in the USA, and when we went 'guising,' and not very successfully at that, we would use turnips, the inside scooped out and a face cut on the front.  The candle was easy to find, we always kept spares just in case, and when lit we cheered.
Why?  Who knows?  For kids it's all fun.
The church even had a 'Halloween party,' I remember ducking for apples and attempting to eat a treacle tart hanging from a rope with hands behind my back.  We were so hungry we were happy with that.
Now I see what is behind it I avoid it but would like to see the church offer an 'All Hallows eve' instead.  What me heretical...?


3 comments:

Jenny Woolf said...

If you bake those gourds in the oven for long enough they are surprisingly nice eaten with butter and cheese. Much nicer than pumpkins!!

the fly in the web said...

I remember cousins telling me about their turnip lanterns...but never had one myself.
I do remember ducking for apples and a toffee apple on a rope..but that was at New Year.
Thanks to Danilo I see quite enough gourds to last me a lifetime...the things seem to sow themselves lower down on the finca...I refuse point blank to cook any of them - except the butternut which I grow on purpose
All Hallows Eve? The Wee Free inquisitors will be on your track, my lad...

Adullamite said...

Jenny, I may try that...

Fly, The wee free eating gourds sounds good!