And what happened to Thursday?
It can often be a bit tricky remembering to post on Thursday evenings. I have a regular church zoom that night, and if I've forgotten to post something before 8pm it's almost certain I won't be up to writing a post at at gone 9.30.
Ah well. A day off from all my trivia...
I managed to get a good chunk of Poncho No 2 knitted this morning.
This is the second piece - the back, or the front, depending on which way I put it on. Although, when assembled, it goes diagonally, so the front is also the right shoulder, and the back is also the left shoulder, .or the other way round. It just depends on how it ends up. Anyway, it's got to be about 30 inches long, so at 1.5 inches per day it's going to take - oh, I'm not going to bother to work out how many days.
(I'm beginning to sound like on of those 'if a man and a half digs a hole and a hole and a half in a day and a half how long will it take to fill a bath and a half' sums)
The stitch markers show how far I've knitted each day, to encourage me along the road.
I bought THREE copies of 'I Saw Esau'; one to keep and two as presents, all from World of Books. One copy is pristine, another copy has a few creases in the dust jacket but appears to be signed by Ione Opie and Maurice Sendak - that's a bit of luck, and the third, it a bit tattier and has list it's dust jacket.
I intend to add my own notes in pencil to this last copy. Like this verse; it's 'wrong'; it should be
At the crack of dawn in the middle of the night
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other
This is the version I learned as a child (from whom? where? when?) I think it is much better!
I like this next verse; it's new to me. But number 19 is a stray verse from
'Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black black black
With silver buttons buttons buttons
All down her back back back
She asked her mother etc
For fifty cents etc
To see the elephants etc
Sit on the fence etc
They flew so high etc
The touched the sky etc
And never came back etc
Till the fourth of July etc
I used to teach the song, and a very simple clapping game, and then pair up the children and get them to invent a more interesting clapping game. Then we'd sing the song together while the pairs demonstrated their game. A favourite (and easy!) lesson for me, the teaching assistant and the children!
Most of the verses a new to me, but there are a lot that are variations on the ones I knew.
I'll add some more, too, that are traditional from when I was growing up...
Did anyone else know
The common cormorant or shag lays eggs inside a paper bag.
Or
What a queer bird the frog are.
I shall be writing them in!
“What a pretty little bird the frog are. When him walks, him hops. And when him doesn’t hop, him sits on his pretty little tail of which he has hardly any at all.” At least that’s how I remember it from my Aunt Yvonne - probably more than 60 years ago - and that would have been with her remembering it from her childhood! My mother-in-law used to recite the “One fine day in the middle of the night” one to our kids. I’ve always wanted a copy but haven’t found one that sounds right.
ReplyDeleteAh, that's not the version of the frog rhyme I know!
DeleteThe cormorant poem is often attributed to author Christopher Isherwood (who wrote Goodbye to Berlin which was adapted for the stage as Cabaret) I learned it as a child. I do hope it really was by CI, I love that sort of thing (like Ian Fleming writing James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!, and Isaac Newton discovering the laws of gravity and inventing the catflap)
ReplyDeleteWe loved the chitty chitty bang bang books long before it became the film.... they're still upstairs somewhere, I must read them again!
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