My brain has gone to mush. Do you know that feeling? When you have a dozen things on your mind, and little productive thoughts rush in and are quickly sidelined and finally forgotten utterly?
That's how I've been all over Christmas and New Year. I hate the limbo between the two events and am very glad that it is 2011 and I can move on with projects. I have revived my interest in crochet and am practising at the moment. I began on a white cotton granny square yesterday which has a clematis flower motif. I thought I was doing quite well with it, but have just counted the petals and have 6 instead of 7! Ah well, it IS a practice piece and my doubles and trebles have been remembered again, though I did have to look up how to tr5tog . . .
Something someone else said on a forum has brought my childhood sharply into focus and for the life of me I just CANNOT get the tune of Sing Something Simple out of my mind. It was a programme which used to be on the Light Programme back in the early 60s and probably throughout the 1950s too. I used to have a friend down the road who was a couple of years older than me and quite often I would have a sleepover at her house on a Saturday night. This was in the pre-tv days, and so her parents listened to the radio on a Saturday night. Sing Something Simple was what you might call relaxing listening . . .
Sing something simple
As cares go by
Sing something simple
Just you and I
We'll sing the old songs
like you used to do,
We'll sing something simple for you,
something for you.
Sometimes my friend's mum - who suffered with her health and was going blind - would cheer up a bit and I can remember I said I liked the smell of slippers and she chased me with her slipper, and shoved it on my nose!!! She seemed so OLD and yet I doubt she was the age I am now! I think her poor husband got saddled with doing all the housework and cooking, as well as going out to work each day . . .
I think this tune will be with me until teatime at this rate, but perhaps the Archers tune will cast it from my mind. If anyone is a keen fan - how DARE they kill off one of my favourite characters? Or perhaps he will be a quadraplegic the rest of his life . . . He's certainly got more than a headache after he fell off the roof!
The header photo, by the way, was taken at Sizergh Castle in Cumbria this summer.
Love the photo - and the tr5tog - not to mention the fact you're an Archers fan. Did you hear any of the old episodes on Radio 7 yesterday? Dan Archer, Tom Forrest, Walter Gabriel -Oh! What delights!
ReplyDeleteFor once BB your post has gone right over my head. I haven't a clue of any of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm so young.
lol
jinksy - I don't' have radio 7 (I think you can only get it on the new-fangled digital radios can't you? If not, I shall find a brick wall to bang my head against.) I'd have been listening all day . . .
ReplyDeleteAl - Guess I'm older than I look! Though not this side of Christmas . . .
Hurray - I can get it on i-Player!!!
ReplyDeleteI remember the signature tune to Sing Something Simple but I rarely actually listened to it. I remember the signature tune to In Town Tonight as well but I never heard that because it signalled my bedtime! As for The Archers I'm afraid I've never been a fan, I used to listen to Mrs Dale's Diary though, do you remember that? Workers Playtime too - of course I'm a good bit older than you so can remember further back:)
ReplyDeleteHi BB Happy New Year.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are having a go at the crotchet again; sounds as though it is a very pretty motif you are working.
I remember the programme Sing Something Simple well. We either had it on at home and all had a sing song (not that we were that good at it) or would be coming home from my grandparents home in Lincoln and we would have a family sing song. It was a very good programme. Same as Sunday Dinner Radio Programme that played requests and reunited service personnel with loved ones at home the name of the programme is eluding me at the moment. Hah got it Family Favourites! I am sorry for the youngsters that missed out on these radio programmes they were brill. And thank you for bringing the memory back clear and sharp in my conscious mind.
As a child I listened to the Archers, but sort of lost touch years ago. Then there was Mrs Dale's diary. My first Ginger Tom cat was named Captain after her cat.
Happy Days
Take Care
Tricia (aka pattypan)
xx
Rowan - I remember Mrs Dale's Diary - I think my mum used to listen to that. Worker's Playtime rings a bell too. All good clean fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Tricia - yes, I remember Family Favourites as we used to have that on EVERY Sunday lunchtime. I have the 1955 ommnibus playing on iPlayer as I write, and I'm just listening to the aftermath of the fire at Ambridge, and Grace is in hospital . . .
Love the header BB. Not so far from here.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Archers - I am not a fan but the Times today says he is definitely dead as he is not in the cast list for the next few weeks.
My Mum used to listen to Sing Something Simple on a Sunday evening. I remember it well. There were many songs from the days of WWII and also from the years between the wars. So, it was a time of reminiscence for our parents, and for their children, a link with popular music from the years before we were born.
ReplyDeleteRe: The Archers - some of it was rather far fetched I thought. I just cannot imagine a sensible ( if rather dull) farmer like David Archer, going out onto a slippery, high roof on a frosty night. I wonder if Nigel will survive in a very disabled way? As for the obstetric story line.......there may still be tears from this one. Mothers can die from Pre Eclampsia after they have given birth. Ah well, I suppose it is only a story.......!
"My brain has gone to mush"
ReplyDeleteThat happened to me, the minute I returned 50. My Husband calls is the Mentalpause.
Happy new Year!
WoG - Heard tonight's Archers and yes, he IS dead. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteKath - I'm glad it's not just me then!
DW - I thought it was an incredibly foolish thing to do - sensible David would surely have talked Nigel out of it . . . Wonder what Nigel will turn up in now then? As for Sing Something Simple, I find that I have total recall on SO many songs from the past, including many from the 1930s. A real link with my parents, thank you for pointing that out as it is so satisfying to realize that.
Poor Nigel eh?
ReplyDeleteI got to thinking, if I could 'remove' any characters who would it be? Number one would be PIP who is meant to be a teenager but has the whiny voice of a child and she can't 'act' either.
Helen's character irritates me too. I love all the others. I thought the Nigel/David scene was far-fetched and also the Helen story - the swollen ankles not understood by Helen who had read every book on pregnancy, she would have been very worried much sooner. Poor show I thought after all the build-up.
Wow...what a stunning photo!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the limbo in the middle. I'm trying to get myself motivated enough to actually accomplish something but, thus far, have only found slow gear! I did buy some thread today to knit a few more dishcloths and I signed up for my second knitting and crochet...so I guess that's a little progress. ;-)
Cait - I agree with you! Mind you, Will is more than a tad annoying too. Why doesn't he just b-off to work for someone else's shoot? I agree with you about Helen. I mucked out 3 horses until I was 8 months pregnant with middle daughter, but I don't think I would have been out walking half the day - the bump gets in the way!
ReplyDeleteSouthernHeart - Happy New Year to you. I must knit a few more dishclothes, though only being able to get white or ugly multi-coloured cotton yarn isn't too encouraging! I nearly threw the crochet sample-piece on the fire yesterday, it was driving me wild, but I will persevere and then probably unravel it and try another design.
Happy New Year to you lovely friend. Your posts do make me giggle. I love the thought of your friend's mum chasing you with a slipper :D
ReplyDeleteYears ago [years!] I could tune in The Archers from a Canadian AM station [Vermont borders Quebec] and I recall that the program was dropped right at some strategic point. I remember an old character with country dialect and a grating voice [?]
ReplyDeleteAbout that time CBC also had a feature with dialect songs from the UK--all this time and I remember a bit of a refrain: something about the wind in the 'Wurrzle bush'--or maybe it was the rain!