On any Sunday

Looking forward to a great day.

We visited the Armed Forces Day celebrations in Brum yesterday. Great time, great music but I am sorry for the young Cadet who fainted. To stand to attention when you feel crap shows a good heart.

The music was especially good - two women sang old war songs - Vera Lynn etc - and had us all in tears.

So many people attended - good, real, Brummies. It was like a flash from the past. The Government and Establishment may like to ignore our existence but we still keep the wheels of this country turning. God help this country when we have all gone and Birmingham resembles Basra.

Today the weather is set, the entertainment planned and all is well with the world.

How can I improve things?

A BBQ - thats how!!!!

But not before a little trip out for some cider.....

Sunday lunch?

Now that is what I call a Sunday Lunch ! A bottle of Muscadet, some french bread and a coffee & Calvados to wash it down....

Brittany - oh how I've missed it

Brittany is lovely at this time of year and I can share it thanks to our marvellous village libary and IT suite.

Interestingly the librarians husband has the same Christian name AND surname as me  - French versions of course. What are the chances eh?

Having a wonderful time, working hard, seeing friends and "catching some rays".

What a contrast to the UK - polite people, low crime levels, nature as it should be, great food and wine/cidre ...as well as a sense of freedom that has been lost in Britains Police State.

Such a contrast - and a reminder of what we have lost and, I guess, will never get back.

BBQ tonight..... sur la terrace!

Conservatives defy gravity

So, after a spiteful and negative campaign from Labour, lies about the cuts THEY would have made (£7 of every £8 the coalition is making) and the entire shadow cabinet supporting AV we have the result.

Ugly bugger isn't he.

2/3 of the electorate rejected AV.

Scotland rejected the Labour Party and overwhelmingly voted SNP - despite Labour having "designed" the Scottish electoral system so that the SNP would NEVER get a majority (so much for Labours democratic "credentials").

More people voted Conservative than Labour. The Conservatives INCREASED the number of councils they control.

The only reason Labour had any gains were due to disaffected LibDems switching votes - surely not "bankers" for a General Election - easy come - easy go !

And where were the gains made? In Northern/Midland cities - full of Labours underclass, Labours public sector workers and Labours tame ethnic "communities". - imported into the UK for just that purpose.

BUT now Labour councils will have to bear the consequences of power - take responsibility for how they handle the cuts, how they innovate and how they treat the people who voted for them.

Now, roll on the referendum for Scottish independence and/or a denial of the rights of Scots and Welsh MP's to vote on English only matters in Parliament.

Roll on the equalisation of constituency sizes.

Roll on the mass inflow of Tory peers to counter Labours gerrymandering of the Lords.

Roll on extensive investigations of Labour voting fraud.

Roll on the new controls on strikes not supported by more than 50% union members.

Roll on Third World immigration controls.




 

Sir Edward Elgar

Why on earth is this guy on my blog? He's from Worcester ooooh thats about 12 miles away!

Well he had a sister live in Bromsgrove and he spent a lot of time here for one particular reason, apart from the sister he loved of course - I suppose thats two reasons.

Elgar was Catholic - a difficult thing to be for an Englishman after the Reformation and the Penal Years when fear and suspicion was directed towards Catholics despite, as St Edmund Campion said prior to his execution, having refused to convert to protestantism :-

"  "In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England -- the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter."

The English had, through the long years, after being initially forced to alter their religion, come to view the beliefs of  their ancestors to be somehow foreign.

That changed. After the Relief Acts Catholics were able to enter the professions, military and so on. Many small communities of Catholics who had remained faithful (such as my fathers forbears in deepest Warwickshire) could "come out" and Catholic landed gentry would fund the building of churches again.

One such is St Peters in Bromsgrove.

Hence Elgars visits - he worshipped there.

He also became known as one of Englands, and the worlds, greatest composers.

He also wrote a special piece of music for the church - this would be extremely valuable by now - but some fool of an organist gave it away and it has disappeared without trace !!!

Anyway, here is a little of what he wrote for all of us:-

Royal wedding - over and out. Now for the beer festival.....

I succumbed to the wedding enthusiasm and no bad thing in the end.

On Monday, the beat goes on and we are off to a Beer Festival and Pig Roast at a local pub - a perfect country pub that brews its own beers and features guest ales from all around. Dog Friendly, which is a bonus.

It's hardly changed a bit in the last 50 years.

Concerning Hobbits

At the head of this blog I promised to talk about J R R Tolkien and his association with this area and here are some extracts from Tolkien's life and works as well as some interesting co-incidences with my life

Tolkien was born on 3rd January (same date as me - though not the year!) 1892, in Bloemfontein, SA. and when visiting England for a holiday his father, who had stayed behind, died young leaving Tolkien and his siblings in the care of his mother who remained in England.

First they lived in Wake Green Road, Moseley (where I was born) and he was educated and looked after by the priests at the Birmingham Oratory (where I was married) when his mother died. His mother was buried at St Peters church, Bromsgrove (where my fathers funeral was held).

Tolkien also spent much of his childhood with aunt in Rednal, across the road from Cofton Park, where the Pope beatified Cardinal Newman (another famous resident) in 2010. I lived a few hundred yards away from the age of 3 to 21 and played in the Park and adjacent Lickey Hills as a child. Now I am back after years away in the West Country, London and France.

He based much of the characters in the LotR upon Bromsgrove and Birmingham people. One major character was Sam Gamgee - based upon Joseph Sampson Gamgee, the Birmingham inventor of Cotton Wool. Sam's wife to be in the book was, of course, Rosie COTTON.

He also stayed at his other relatives near to Evesham (my great grandmother is from Evesham) at a farm called Bag End - to become the address of Bilbo Baggins.

He first published the LotR in 1954 though 1955 - the year of my birth. The Tolkien Society is a great resource for further study.

Today you can still see the beauty of the Lickey Hills (Anglo-Saxon, meaning the leak-hay - the watershed from which the rivers Rea and Arrow flow to feed the Trent and Warwickshire Avon respectively).

Finally, a view looking from the southern side of the hills towards my house and the Malvern Hills that Edward Elgar so loved - but more of him later.