No wonder that hymn went through my head the other day It is the time when tins of baked beans make their solemn way up the aisle of the church, clutched in the hands of tiny children and the vicar blesses the bountiful nature of harvest.
People gather the riches of the hedgerow, blackberry jam bubbles on the stove and sweet chestnuts are roasted on the fire. Well some people do, but it is probably dying out as a tradition.
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| I don't like stuffed marrow |
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| Sensible use of old stones from the past |
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| Note the scythe |
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| The homeliness of an old church |
I remember when he brought his computer over to gather some stuff and the computers were attached to each other, umbilical cord like, and the letters started dropping off the screen off one of the computers. A hidden virus had erupted and panic ensued. The early days of computers....
Normanby village barbecue (it was raining) that is why it is in a barn.
Thank you for this Thelma. I am feeling a bit low today and your photographs were a real 'pick me up' to snap out of it and get going. They were a lovely reminder of harvest festivals of my childhood - methodist family, big methodist community in a lincolnshire village and spending the whole of Saturday on Harvest Festival weekend decorating the church. I shall do a post on it today to seal the memory for me.
ReplyDeleteThat's good Pat, your visit yesterday must have been a bit scary. The eyes, windows on the world, seem delicate orbs when the doctors start poking around. Unpleasant but not painful. So cheer up and visit that memory, I bet it was cold in the church.
DeleteI don't see many people out and about when I go blackberrying these days, the hedgerows around here also contain plum and apple trees from the days when this was a big fruit-growing area, so any excursion can be quite productive. I haven't noticed much harvest festival action in the churches I've visited either.
ReplyDeleteWe have become too rich John and the poor cannot afford the transport to the countryside and maybe have never been taught about picking blackberries, which is a somewhat scratchy business. I missed Victoria plums this year. Probably don't grow them up in the cold North!
DeleteThe small four acre field I can see from our house was ploughed and sown this week. A bit of a shock watching it turn from green grass to earth as since we’ve lived here it’s always been a sheep field with just one annual hay cut taken. I am sure the green shoots will soon emerge and I am interested to find out which crop has been sown. Frankly I take my hat off to our farmers, it is almost impossible to make a living from growing crops or raising livestock nowadays and there is a worrying trend to plant vineyards (funded by hedge funds usually) in the South Downs on former arable land. Worrying because the actual cost to produce a bottle of English sparkling wine is high which results in a retail price of around £35 a bottle and therefore most of the wine is exported to China and Hong Kong and other rich nations. We are taking good land out of food production and producing a high end commodity for export, meanwhile the UK becomes increasingly dependent on imported food which comes with its own risks and costs. We are having harvest supper in our village hall tomorrow and a group of us will be producing shepherd’s pies and apple pies for about 100 people. We have the Sussex Folk Singers coming along for entertainment and they’ll be joining in with supper too. I recently heard about a nearby church whose harvest supper was held in the pub at a cost of £30 per head plus whatever they had to drink. So happy that our village still has the energy and manpower to do it the old way. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteThis gradual change in England is to be expected I suppose Sarah but it is sad. Land needs to have food grown on it, especially vegetables so that it can be sold to the people around the area. The money put into wine growing in this country is foolish considering the amount of rain that falls. Our village would also have meals together, but just paying about £10 a head. I was the one who collected the money, and I am sure some people snuck in without paying ;)
DeleteWe have lost a lot along the way, I remember as a child sweet smelling hay for my horse, and little pastures full of a variety of herbs and grasses. Now big fields, no hedges and the lonely sight of a tree standing solitary in the field.
Sounds like you have good memories of Mark's friendship with Tian Chen.
ReplyDeleteI hosted language students so the house was always full and the front door open. Tian Chen was a quiet lad but they were both computer struck and of course landed up with jobs in the industry.
DeleteThe Harvest festival at the Baptist Chapel I went to ages 7 - 16 was quite a big event. Always crowded and another Hat Day for the ladies. What I remember is the chapel had wood panelling to 4 foot high all round the chapel with a ledge on top and someone would put tiny crab apples all the way round - must have taken ages
ReplyDeleteI suppose when the church was the focal centre of the village those who were retired took a pride in the various happenings inside the church. Crab apples after all Sue make a beautiful jelly.
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