Childhood memories...

Bed in Summer

 

 In winter I get up at night 

And dress by yellow candle - light.

In summer, quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day. 

I have to go to bed and see 

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

 When all the sky is clear and blue, 

And I should like so much to play, 

To have to go to bed by day?

Robert Louis Stephenson

Oh, this brings back memories of when I small and not so small and had to go to bed at 7:30. I used to lay awake listening to the blackbird singing in our garden, the neighbours busy in theirs and my friends playing ball on the green out the back. I have never understood why I had to go so early when I lay and fidgeted until my sister would come up at 10:00 pm. I always thought it was such an enormous waste of hours. Many was the day I had a book hidden under the bed...

Friday fun fact #7: A baker's dozen

(Photo taken from Google Images)

Did you know that a baker's dozen is, in fact, 13 and not 12? Well, maybe you did. But, do you know why?

The expression goes back to the times of Henry II of England (1154 - 89) but the origen of the expression goes much further back in time, probably to the year 1000.

As it is very difficult to calculate the exact quantity of dough needed to make a loaf, bakers were often finding that they were accidentally cheating their customers. If they were found out that they had sold short then they were quite likely to have their hand chopped off! Not good. This was also true in other countries, like Egypt and Babylon where similar fates awaited those who were accused of selling 'light loaves'.

So, to get around the problem, the bakers started to add a loaf of bread to their vendor's or customer's sack, giving them 13 loaves for every 12 ordered. The addition was called the 'in-bread' or 'vantage loaf'.

This practice eventually made its way into the Worshipful Company of Bakers (London) guild code.  This guild was actually started in the 12th century and had a large part in formulating the rules on the Assize of Bread and Ale statute.

While modern bakers no longer fear medieval law, they have found other reasons for a baker's dozen, as seen in the tidy way 13 disks (loaves, cookies, biscuits, etc.) can pack a rectangle (baking tray) of appropriate proportions. Modern standard sized packing trays have a 3:2 aspect ratio, and the most efficient two-dimensional array is hexagonal close packing, which has sixfold symmetry, such that each baked item is equidistant from its six nearest neighbours. The corners of a cookie sheet heat up and cool off faster than the edges and interior, so any item placed near a corner will not bake at the same rate as the other items. A 4+5+4 arrangement provides the dense hexagonal packing while avoiding corners, and would have been discovered empirically by bakers with the goal of baking the maximum number per batch with optimal uniformity. 

Talking of cookies, I'm off to bake some for the weekend. It rained ALL DAY yesterday so you can guess which ones I'll be baking. See here if you are in any doubt!

Spring bucket list

It's officially spring. Happy spring, everyone! (Dear me, we seem to have missed out. We had a few frosts at the beginning of December but that's all. Short winter that was!)

Well, I'll get on with what I am here for. I'm here today to post my Spring Bucket List. So, here goes:

Oh, let's listen to a little spring music (and video) whilst we read the list...

:) Learn to play the above Spring Song by Halfdan Kjerulf
:) Collect tadpoles and watch them grow into frogs
:) Learn Wordsworth's Daffodils poem by heart
:) Sew at least one little girl dress or skirt
:) Go asparagus hunting
:) Take a walk in the rain and splash in the puddles
:) Have a B B Q
:) Plant sunflowers along the garden wall
:) Make some bubble blowing rings and blow lots of bubbles
:) Go play at the beach with the whole family
:) Sew a skirt and blouse for myself
:) Go on at least five field trips:

The Paper Mill and Museum, Capellades
The Science Museum, Barcelona
Parc Samà, Cambrils/Montbrió
C.R.A.R.C, Masquefa
The Glass Museum, Vimbodí                                     

Happy March!

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

This is a photo of Adel church and it's churchyard, West Yorkshire. Apparently, it is "one of the best and most complete Norman churches in Yorkshire".

I agree with one of my bloggy friends - daffodils are such happy flowers.

Oh, by the way, the verse is from a poem by Sara Coleridge, called "The Months". I remember learning it at school when I was six!

Nursery rhymes

You may have the understandable impression that nursery rhymes are little poems about everyday life in the past or imaginative little ditties to entertain when all else fails in the waiting room of the doctor's surgery. I have sung them, my mother sung them to me and Grandma to her, most likely. But have you ever thought about how these apparently innocent little rhymes originated?

Take Georgie Porgie, for example. He was King James I of England's lover. His real name was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Georgie also had an affair with the then Queen of France. His romance with Anne of Austria is mentioned in the famous novel "The Three Musketeers", by Alexander Dumus.

Ring a Ring o' Roses is a little poem about the Bubonic Plague, more commonly known as The Black Death. The "ring of roses" refers to the patches of red spots which appeared on one's body at the onset of the disease. A "pocket full of posies" were little bunches of flowers people took around to warn people that they were ill. The sneezes were the last sign, then you fell down - DEAD.

Another rhyme based on British history is Three Blind Mice. The "farmer's wife" mentioned was the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, a staunch Catholic who ran after any protestant she could find. So much so, she became known as "Bloody Mary". Her husband was King Philip of Spain. The "three blind mice" were three noblemen who adhered to their protestant faith and were subsequently burnt at the stake.

Bloody Mary is also the "Mary" featured in the rhyme Mary, Mary, quite contrary. The "garden" was an ever growing graveyard of protestant martyrs, "silver bells and cockle shells" were instruments of torture and the "maids" or "maiden" was the original name for the guillotine.

Goosey, Goosey, Gander is another song about disturbances between Catholics and Protestants, Little Boy Blue was Thomas Wolsey, an apparently very rich and arrogant cardinal during the reign of King Henry VIII, London Bridge is Falling Down is an allegory concerning Anne Boleyn, Humpty Dumpty was not an egg, but a cannon, or maybe King Richard III, Jack Sprat is said to refer to King Charles I, Jack and Jill were King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette of France...

I could go on. As you can see, they are not the most adequate thing to be singing to your baby!

There are some fun ones, however. For example, Polly Put the Kettle On, Little Miss Muffet and Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock, 1,2, Buckle My Shoe, Pussycat, Pussycat, etc.

Just check them out before repeating them to your little ones! Here is a useful web:

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/

Altafulla...

...another village we have visited very recently. Again, as we left the visit to late afternoon I didn't manage to catch any decent photos. These are all taken from internet.

The castle, church and indeed much of the village which lies inside the stone walls date back to the XI century. Amazing, isn't it?

El Roc de Sant Gaietà

Often on a Sunday afternoon we go out for a walk, as many of us as can make it. On the 5th of January we visited this village, a place where you can only go in winter because in the summer it is simply too crowded!

This village is not very old, but built using different styles - Roman, Gothic, "Mudéjar"... It is full of little passages, stairways, balconies and communal patios full of plants and fountains, etc.

 

 

Isn't it interesting? I love to visit these places, they are so full of history. You can learn so much - and just a few minutes away from home.

(All of these photos are from Google images. It was almost dark when we arrived and my camera doesn't take good flash pictures.)

Calafell castle

Last Tuesday, the 20th of August, we went to Calafell again, this time to visit the castle.

This castle was originally constructed by peasants who had fled from hard times and taxes in the Barcelona region. They built some homes on the rocks, within walls and the original chapel.

 

Then, some time later, it was purchased and enlarged. The chapel was extended and eventually the castle became a fortress to be used in defence against the Arabs.

M. using a little canon - a culverin

A fresco from the enlarged chapel

This castle, like the castle in L'Albiol, dates back to the twelfth century.

El castell de L'Albiol, les Virtuts i la Serra del Pou

This is what we did last Thursday, 15th of August. First we walked till we reached Les Virtuts, a church in ruins on the top of a cliff.

It was beautiful up there, with little birds twittering in the trees and two eagles flying overhead. We stopped there to eat our lunch. Then we walked back a little way and took another route which would take us up the mountainside to the top, along a little way and then back down, almost to the point of departure. We found many interesting flowers and these two little treasures which were worth taking photos of:

The views were breathtaking from so high up...

L'Albiol castle from La Serra del Pou

La Serra del Pou from L'Abiol castle

Our path through the woods

For the most part the forest is red pine, and there were little, tiny pine cones everywhere (more about that in another post!) In all, a round trip of about 10 kms and at the highest point we were about 900 metres above sea level.

 

The castle might have originally been built as a Roman watchtower, but later became a border castle during the Arab domination of the peninsula. It was reconstructed and ruled by different lords and then in the 17th century the Castillian troops knocked it down after the rebellion of "the Segadors" which the Catalonians lost.

La Ciutadella, Calafell

This is what we did last Tuesday, 13th August. Funnily enough, we've been stumbling over this place, metaphorically speaking, to reach our own front door for the last 20 odd years. We felt that it was about time we payed a visit, seeing as we have a budding historian in the family!

La Ciutadella is a very well preserved Iberian settlement. Some years ago permission was given to reconstruct the original ruins which, if you look very carefully, can be seen, marked by a red line running around the outside wall.

The settlement from the outside

The other end of the same wall

Iberian phonetics

Metal casting moulds

The Iberians worked with bronze, iron and lead.

A doorway

They were not very tall. In this photo you can compare the height of the door with that of my son, who is eleven going on twelve. He is tall for his age, too.

A view from the tower

Here I am, walking down the main street

These particular Iberians, and possibly others in the area, were here during the 600 years before the coming of our Lord.

La Fatarella

This village is situated on a hill, 486 metres above sea level, in the Terra Alta area of Tarragona. It is widely thought that the first inhabitants were Muslims. Indeed, the name "Fatarella" could originate from the Arabic "fatorella", meaning "little tower". However, there are also indications that the first people to populate this area were, in fact, the Ibers, back in the 10th century.

 

Just one of the many little cobbled streets.

Just one of the many arches.

La font de Sant Juan.

It is a very interesting village full of arches, cobbled streets and little corners and alleyways which are touched only by the midday sun.

Friday Fun Fact #1

The Hundred Years War did NOT last 100 years. In fact it lasted a total of 116 years.

It was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France, about who should control the French throne. It was a dynastic disagreement dating back to William the Conqueror who became King of England in 1066, whilst remaining Duke of Normandy. The war started as a result of King Edward III of England's refusal to pay homage to King Philip IV of France, leading to a retaliation by the latter who confiscated King Edward's lands in Aquitaine, south west France.

 King Edward III

The war rapidly became an economic conflict also, as the French monarchy squeezed  more and more money from northern Europeans. War was an expensive business and the French began taxing many everyday items such as salt, bread and wine so that they could finance their battles.

 William the Conqueror

Such famous people as Robin of Sherwood, King John,  King Richard II, Joan of Arc, Bertrand du Guesclin and King Charles ( called The Victorious) all had important parts to play during this war.

The Hundred Years War ended because another internal war - the War of the Roses - broke out in England, leaving the kingdom in no position to wage war against the French.

It is to be mentioned that Calais remained in English possession until 1558 and the title of King of France was claimed by the British until January 1st, 1801.