I can't resist it. I went plodding through my blogs for 'Harvest Festival' blame Sue from Suffolk for that. I was looking for the baked corn sheaf that was pulled out every year for Harvest Festival, and remembering Christina saying she couldn't remember in which freezer of the villagers it was kept. But in very cold churches all over the country this traditional act of thanking Our Lord would unwind itself. As a child saying grace before we started a meal was normal in our schools, not so much probably in the home.
Anyway I stumbled upon John Betjeman poem for Christmas. Yes it is a bit early but he echoes so much of what I felt as a child when Christmas was on the horizon and we did find the corn sheaf looking immaculate after so much time in the freezer. The above one though is from somewhere else.
Just as an afterthought and seeing the small mice on the sheaf, there was also another mouse in the church under the wooden font lid, the work of a famous wood carving firm in the area, hiding under the name of 'The Mouseman'
I'm glad my post sent you off to track down your post from the past!
ReplyDeleteIs JB still out of favour? I rather like his poetry but it wasn't done to say that at one time.
Well I am not sure Sue, they did not make him Poet Laureate because he was too frivolous but whether today's critics would find fault remains to be seen.
DeleteI've always liked JB. My dad could recite a lot of his poems by heart.
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ReplyDeletehe caught the atmosphere of his time I think Tasker and of course his class.