another little darling...

A third great grandson arrived last night but I do not know his name yet. So I am hotfooting it up to Newcastle tomorrow to see him and his lovely parents, and others of my dear family up north. I always love the journey on the train via exciting St Pancras and Kings Cross and the magic moment when the train crosses the Tyne bridge. I have been watching the programmes on the television with Michael Portillo following Bradshaws train routes and they have made me really relish trains, bridges, Victorian stations and viaducts.
I left my old bike outside the house, unlocked, when I bought my new one in the hope that someone would like it, and yesterday a beautiful Polish woman did just that. She said she made a habit of rescuing battered bicycles and restoring them. She was interested that mine was a Swiss Olympic bike, given to me by a real live Swiss person called Heidi  from my writing group many years ago She brought me a delicious vegan chocolate cake as a present.  What a happy transaction.
  

ride on, ride on in majesty.....

Today it is the Great London to Brighton Bike Ride and they all go past my cottage like a swarm of angry wasps, thousands of them. I have just seen the first one. The great advantage is that there is hardly any other traffic and there wasn`t yesterday either as it was the great Ditchling Fair (the 700th!)   Unbelievably it was a lovely sunny day, and all us villagers plus hundreds of others thoroughly enjoyed it. I helped with the book stall for the Quakers, and as usual came home with yet more books than I tried to get rid of. Dame Vera Lynn who lives in Ditchling crowned the Queen.
The night before we had a `Glyndebourne` evening at the Village Hall. A film, rather than real live singers ,but we all dressed up and had a delicious picnic food and bubbly. As soon as the opera started (L`elisir  d`amore) I remembered.  I do not like opera and never did, it gets on my nerves. So I slumbered through quite a lot of it and never did discover who married who in the end. Still it was a splendid evening.
I love the story of the nine year old who wrote a blog about her school dinners and was banned by the local governors for showing photographs of unappetising meals and saying unkind things about the dinner ladies. Perhaps I should try to be more controversial.......    

It is a bit late to write about the Jubilee now but I can`t resist a few thoughts on it. There were some highspots: the diamond children`s choir in St Paul`s singing that beautiful anthem, which brought tears to my eyes, the sodden choir on the Thames, valiantly singing Rule Britannia, wet to the bone, but still smiling,and the light show on Buckingham Palace whilst Madness were singing on the roof during that ghastly concert.
The wind and the rain have done their worst, and I keep thinking how much nicer it would all have been if the sun had shone...... But one good thing is that my little backyard is flourishing in all the wetness, everything is growing frantically and it looks green.
We had a very good film in the Village Hall the other night, Budrus, which was about a peaceful demonstration in a small town in the Occupied Territories in Palestine. The people were so dignified,  and they were joined eventually in their protest by Israelis and others.   At the end there was a round of applause which is not usual.
One sad thing in Ditchling is that the choir is temporarily stopping, not enough support particularly from the MEN. We must save our choir, so many of us really love it!

over the hills and far away......

I have decided to ignore the Queens Jubilee. I was going to go to the Ditchling Jubilee Lunch in the churchyard but all the tickets have gone, so I will concentrate instead on the Ditchling Fair which only takes place on alternate years and has been doing so for 700 years! It is not till 16th June, but there is a scarecrow competition so that will take me a bit of time to make.   Sadly I have no crows to scare in my little backyard, but I can make one anyway.  The choir are singing, twice, and I am helping with the refreshments and the Quaker bookstall.. So it is all go.
The rust bucket passed its MOT so I will continue to drive the scruffiest car in Ditchling which is not good for my image, but I can still whizz over the Beacon to Brighton and elsewhere.       I went for a wonderful bike ride yesterday with F- over- the- road, who knows the all good places, nice villages called Plumpton, Streat, Westmeston, Chillington, and we went in to two Saxon churches and a lovely country pub for lunch. I have to get off at the measliest of hills these days with my creaky knees, but I do love being out in the countryside.