White Rabbits

Hurrah, it's the first of March today and I managed to say 'white rabbits' before I said anything else. When I was a child my mother always used to tell me that if the first thing we said on 1st March was 'white rabbits' we would get a nice surprise. I wonder where this came from? Does anyone know? Did you do the same? I've heard of 'pinch punch, it's the first of the month' are there any others?

Last night was extremely windy and about half an hour after we'd gone to bed there was a bang and a clunk as if something had hit the roof just above us. Oh, no we thought, a tile has gone. This morning I got up first and ventured outside, in my dressing gown, to take a look. At the back of the house were three pieces of guttering but I couldn't see where they had come from. By the time we were both up and dressed Paul went out and looked at the guttering and declared it not ours. It had blown from next door, hit our roof and blown over the house into our back garden. Unfortunately, our neighbours only had that piece of guttering mended last summer and had to pay the earth because the builder had to put up scaffolding so they are not going to be happy this morning.

Well they do say that if March 'comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb'.

Wind and earthquakes this week seem to have spurred the frogs in our pond into heights of activity - Paul has reported the goings on in his blog.

What did you Say?

We were talking the other day about 'sayings' not just the proverb ones like 'too many cooks spoil the broth.' 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' and 'a stitch in time saves nine' but ones we remembered from childhood. The mother of one of my friends always used to say 'hmm - when Nelson gets his eye back' for something that would never happen and 'it's not a prizewinner but..' for something she wasn't too proud of. Grandma used to say 'she's no better than she ought to be' and 'he's his father's son alright' - maybe this one is in the same vein as 'a chip off the old block'. I remember things like 'well I'll go to the foot of our stairs' - used when people were surprised by something and 'Do you live in a barn?' - if you didn't shut the door behind you. The last one could become really localised and changed to 'Do you come from Warsop?' a place not too far from where we lived. It is said to come from the fact that many of the cottages in Warsop had 'stable' type doors which opened at the top or the bottom and that many of the folk left the top ones open. Others I remember are 'it's brass monkey weather' and 'do you want a picture?' - used if someone thought another person was staring at them. I think that perhaps some of these 'sayings' come from the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire areas we were brought up in but many were probably more widespread.

There are others too that people say like 'a leopard never changes its spots,' 'elephants never forget,' 'a little bird told me'. and 'out of the mouths of babes.' Also things like 'you can't have your cake and eat it' and 'as cool as a cucumber.' There are absolutely loads of these.

I heard one the other day that I hadn't heard for ages 'Piffy on a rock bun' as in 'they left me standing there like Piffy on a rock bun.' Now this one got me thinking that I hadn't made rock buns for ages so today I got out the trusty Be-Ro recipe book and made some.

Mmm - very tasty and they used up the last bits of mixed dried fruit and mixed peel left over from Christmas cake making. Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday and therefore Pancake Day. I remember coming home from school on Pancake Day and finding Mum in the kitchen making piles of pancakes which we ate with sprinkled sugar and juice from freshly squeezed oranges which we used to eat afterwards tearing the flesh from the skins and pith with our teeth. I think we will try some tomorrow omitting the sugar, of course.

In the meantime does anyone else have sayings they remember from their childhood?

mmmMagic....

This morning, as I was walking back from the local shop, milk and newspaper in hand, I passed a young boy of about eight or nine years old. He was with his little sister, who was probably about three or four years old. Like most little girls today she was dressed from head to toe in differing shades of pink but what struck me most was that she was attached to her brother by a silky pink cord which lead from her wrist to his. The boy had obviously been commissioned with the guarding of his sister as he was holding on tight and watching where she was going and making sure that they crossed the road properly. I passed them near the Limo man's house. Since I first blogged about him last year he has acquired not only the Barbie pink limo but a gold one too. The gold one was parked outside his house this morning and as they passed it the little girl said to her brother 'Look at that car' and her brother replied in the manner of a child who has learned his lines well for the school play, 'Oh, I do wish we could ride in it.' It reminded me of the advert about Disneyland where the children are over excited about their visit and one of them says in wide eyed wonderment 'mmmMum, says it's mmmMagic'. I had to smile.