8 Years of Blogging

I find it difficult to believe that I've let the anniversary of starting this blog pass by, but it was on the 27th September 2009 that I began writing this and I would never imagine that when I began it all that time ago that I'd be still finding things to say in 2017. In only a handful of posts I will reach the 1,000th post, which I will make quite a big thing of when the time comes. So keep an eye-out for the momentous day. Neither can I imagine that Carol's health would be so precarious so many years later. I'm not going to discuss it on here as it's far too difficult for me to even mention it. My heart attack was bad enough, and I managed to get through that and tell the tale so the same will happen with Carol's cancer. As a couple we've endured some real problems, the worst of which was when we had to move house from Crownhill to Eaglestone, which is described in fairly vivid detail in some of my earlier posts. I know some of what I've written is just waffle but that was actually the whole point of the blog, to record the insignificant things that happens in our life, the details and observations of life and all that goes on around our life. Some boring, I know, but all the same, interesting in some way or other.

We are  now, amazing at it might seem, into October. The weather is currently playing tricks. It is actually quite mild and it's deceptive when you go out because it might seem you need to put on a heavy jumper or coat but then when you've been out a while and the sun comes out you find you're far too hot and you don't need such a thick item of clothing.

'The rain, it raineth every day'

What a change in the weather! From almost spring-like to howling winds and pouring rain. Typically British I suppose. It's what makes this country the way it is, green, rolling hills and dales. Lushness. Verdant. There is a warning from the Met Office that we're in for severe storms. They've named the storm Doris. So, it's a Doris Day. Nothing to do with the sweet and sugary American actress and songstress of the 1950's and 60's. Snow in Scotland and whirling winds across the rest of England and Wales. Batten down the hatches and settle in for the worst of it.

I've entitled this post using a quote from William Shakespeare. That's from one of Feste's songs from "Twelfth Night" which is one of my favourite plays. There are many more references to weather throughout the Canon. Look at 'King Lear.' 'Blow winds and crack your cheeks.'  At the beginning of 'Macbeth' we meet the Three Weird Sisters. The mood and tone of the play is suggested by their mention of the weather in the opening lines 'When shall we three meet again/ In thunder, lightning or in rain?' In Lear the weather suggests Lear's state of mind. When he's on the heath with the Clown, he's wandering about in a state of madness and the raging wind suggests his state of mind. We are obsessed by weather in this country, probably because the weather is so central to our lives. My father was a farmer and was always going on about the weather, because it was so important to how the farm was run. No good trying to get in the grain harvest if it was pouring with rain. There was one of those old fashioned barometer in the passageway at the rear of the house where we lived. He would go out and tap it and then you'd hear him mumble something on the lines of 'ruddy weather!' or 'Better weather.' Or whatever. I never understood what that was about as a child, but he could be extremely moody and I think now that this was down to the weather. I think I'm similar in some ways. I'm better when it's sunny and bright but become somewhat more moody when it's rainy and wet. Well, if it means you can't get out and about when it's grey, wet and gloomy, it's bound to effect your mood. Also, I think I'm effected by seasonal variations, particularly when the clocks change in October (usually around the time of my birthday) when the clocks go back an hour. It's generally darker and colder which has something to do with it.

As I write this the sun has come out. It's bright and streaming in through the window. I've had to draw the curtains to stop it shining in my eyes. It's shining through the trees along the Redway behind the house and as the branches move it's making the light flicker somewhat annoyingly. Which is why I drew the curtains. It was pouring with rain as I took Carol to work at Milton Keynes Academy earlier but, as I say, it's bright sunshine now. I think the wind has dropped. It just shows how quickly the weather changes.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May . . . etc etc

You 've probably noticed how often the weather makes an appearance in these posts. It's no wonder, really. The weather does seem to play a central role in life in this country. But today is somewhat overcast and dull. The past few days have been quite warm and pleasant, but the weather has to begin miserable as we head into the weekend. As I look out of the window into what is our garden the trees along the Redway that runs along behind this house are swaying in quite a strong wind. Well, as Shakespeare says in one of his sonnets, 'Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May' and how right he was.  Then he goes on to say 'And summer's lease hath all to short a date.' Yes, when you think that we're only likely to have a few warm days to even call 'summer.' This all comes from Sonnet number 18.  Well, it just shows, in this, the 400th anniversary of his death, that his words can have as much relevance today as they did when they were originally written.  I expect the weather had just as central a part to play in his day as it does today. Probably even more so, particularly in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which was an agricultural centre and weather would be important as far as making sure that the crops were growing well to feed the population of the town. I think 'May' refers to the bushy plant called hawthorn and has white flowers. I've just Googled it and I've discovered that it can be used to help reduce cholesterol in your blood as well as being used in medication to lower blood pressure and prevent heart failure. Amazing how you come across facts such as this when you're on the internet. I think it's called serendipity. The quote was used by H.E. Bates for his book 'The Darling Buds of May.' I have a link, as this television series starred Pam Ferris, alongside David Jason, and I worked with her in 'rep' when she was in the company at Ipswich Theatre in the mid 1970's and I was a D.S.M. there.

 The grass needs cutting again and I'm putting this job off until next week. It does take quite a lot of motivation for me to drag the mower out of the shed and then unreel the cable so I can plug the contraption in and then actually cut the grass. But it can wait. It looks like rain again.

Foggy Start but Sunny Later

The weather is improving. Most mornings for the last week or so we've had fog but as the day proceeds the sun comes out and it's generally quite warm. By the time Carol comes home from work, it becomes quite chilly and we need the central heating on again, but by the time we go to bed it's time to put off the heating. This winter has been milder than most years and they're saying on the television news that February 2016 has been the warmest on record.

Changeable Weather

The car had ice on it's windscreen early this morning, but it soon melted away. A little later we had thin, drizzly rain and that turned into snow. This became quite heavy, along with gusts of wind, but as I write this, at 10.05 a.m. the sun is out and it's almost spring-like. Alfie, our little Yorkie, loves the sunshine and loves to lay in any pool of sunshine he can find. Both dogs have taken to barking randomly. They started doing this yesterday afternoon as we were watching television. We couldn't decide what set them off. No sign of either of our neighbour's cats. No doubt they can hear something that we can't or maybe they can see people moving past on the Redway which are visible through the gap in the fence. If a dog barks as it's being walked along the Redway that seems to set them off.

The Rain it raineth every day

The weather has been absolutely awful for the past couple of days. Rain, wind and now the possibility of snow. Actually it has been quite a mild winter up until now. So mild, intact, that I've actually seen new growth, almost like the first signs of spring. I'm not sure whether this is correct, but not what you would expect to see in late January. No doubt if we do get snow and a really hard frost it will kill off any of this greenery.

The title for this post seemed so appropriate, considering the amount of rain we've been having recently. The line comes from one of my favourite plays by Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, and is one of Feste's songs. The first verse from which the quote comes from is as follows:

When that I was a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

I suppose it's not so surprising that he uses weather so much as a metaphor in his plays because in this country our weather plays such a central part in our day-to-day lives and makes the British what they are. You only have to look at the British landscape to see how the weather has made the scenery what it is.

There are plenty of other references to the weather in his plays. In King Lear, Lear wanders aimlessly on the heath with his companion, The Fool, and the following is another quote which has weather in it:

In Act 2 Scene 7 we have the following:

The storm continues to rage. KENT enters in disguise.

The GENTLEMAN enters from a different direction.

KENT: Who's there, besides foul weather?

GENTLEMAN: One minded like the weather,

Most uniquely.

KENT: I know you, where's the king?

FIRST GENTLEMAN: Contending with the fretful elements;

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea

Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main,

That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,

Which the impious blasts, with eyeless rage,

Catch in their fury and make nothing of;

Strives in his little world of man to out storm

The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. . . . . 

Then Lear has this speech:

Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
You cataracts and hurricanes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ungrateful man!

Then, further on in the scene The Clown has one of his songs which seem very similar to Feste's in Twelfth Night. I never know what function he has. Is he like a chorus, commenting on the action within the play? A lot of his songs have a sort of melancholy about them. As for Lear's Clown, he does have a purpose as he helps Lear and sort of counters his masters madness. It interesting that both plays deal with sanity. Infact, thinking about it, Hamlet is probably the most obvious of Shakespeare's plays to deal with madness. Although, is he really mad or is it feigned? As for madness in Twelfth Night, Malvolio's madness is brought about by Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Maria's treatment of him in the Sir Topaz episode.

The song of Lear's Clown I refer to is this:

He that has a little tiny wit,
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth every day.

It is interesting that Shakespeare uses the weather as a sort of metaphor for Lear's madness. The descriptions of the weather in the play is very much how I would describe the current weather in Britain. Whether it could be used as a metaphor for the current world situation, whether financial, political, moral or whatever is open to question.

It's interesting to note that in television plays, cinema films, novels and other works of literature or creativity how authors and directors use weather as a sort of metaphor, for example rain clouds rushing past, usually in fast-motion (something of a cliche I know.) to represent something doom-laden is about to happen, such as the build-up to some tragedy, the start of a battle or a war, or a character is going to do something horrible such as a murder. Then, sunshine, brightly-lit scenes of countryside, represents happiness, pleasant happening etc. Never was this more obviously used in books by the Brontes, Wuthering Heights is a good example. Or mystery, suggested by fog, mist rising, bats flitting by a full moon with scudding clouds. All a bit corny and obvious, but we know more or less what is going to happen. If you have a miserable character standing by a window and it's raining and the rain is running down the window panes they can be seen to probably represent tears. Again, dreadfully corny. I could do a whole post of cliches. I think I might just do that.

Changeable Weather

We are experiencing some really changeable weather at the moment. Nothing unusual, as we have summers in England which range from scorchingly hot to pouring rain, to decidedly chilly. As I write this it is windy and not exactly warm, and not exactly what one would call 'Flaming June' by any stretch of the imagination. Let's hope that it's not as wet a summer as we had last year, a real washout.  We're hoping for warm, or at least dry, weather, when we go down to Devon for my daughter Chloe's wedding at the beginning of August. It's at a village called Ipplepen. Then we are going to Infracombe for a holiday, which I think we've more than deserved. I will no doubt be posting more on the subject nearer the time, and maybe during our time down there, if we can find a wifi connection nearby.