Saturday 19th July - Tea with the wopses

 There are certain words which we all mis-pronounced as children;

'Look!', said my mother to me when I was very little.  'Snow!'

'Nose,'  I echoed. A year, maybe two years later, she had almost exactly the same conversation with my little brother. (as he was then, over the years he seems to have morphed into my big brother, in size at least!)

'Look!', she said. 'Snow!'

'Yes, nose!'

When my own children were toddlers I was looking after a friend's toddlers for a few hours while she was doing something or other.

They were cheerfully sharing crayons, asking each other politely if they could borrow the yennow, or wellow, or lellow one for the sun's in their pictures. Some words in our language are quite tricky to say!

So when we were having afternoon tea with our now grown-up children, I still couldn't help calling the pesky insects with a sweet tooth 'wopses' as they targeted out drinks and cakes. One of the waiters came out with a spray bottle and sprayed the table.

'Peppermint spray. Our manager thinks it discourages the wasps' They certainly weren't interested in my delicious ice cream or cup of tea, much preferring the other's fruit juice and cakes.

I might try and make some kind of peppermint spray to try at home though.

First Night of the Proms Concert

We listened to the first night of the proms yesterday evening. What did we hear...

I think I enjoyed Mendelsohn's Hebridean Overture most, followed by Errollyn Warren's new composition called Elements; a wonderfully joyous mix of sounds and snatches of tunes and fun rhythms. 

I usually love the Sibelius violin concerto but not yesterday's, for some reason. We usually put the sound through the speakers for the stereo for concerts, but we couldn't get it working. I'm sure that would have made all the difference. 

The final piece was the epic Vaughan-Williams choral work Sancta Civitas. 

Music

After defending our afternoon tea from so many wasps it obviously has to be Vaughan Williams and The Wasps Overture!