Blidworth & Ravenshead Memory Group Shared Reading Newsletter Number 22 Hello to you all from Jackie, Jayne & Margaret At this time, we find ourselves restricted to our homes, for our own safety. So, we are distributing this weekly newsletter to keep in touch. Hope you enjoy it, let us know what you think at [email protected] or by calling 07971039832 Monday 31st August 2020 – is August Bank Holiday! (except Scotland)

The August Bank Holiday was instituted by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 to give bank clerks and shop people a day of relaxation not connected to holy days such as Christmas. Today, this holiday gives workers of all stripes a three-day weekend before the summer holidays end and employees must return to the workplace and students to their schools. A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom and the Crown dependencies. After Bank Holiday by Elizabeth Daryush

Now deserted are the roads Where awhile the lovers went; Vacant are the field-abodes Where a vivid hour they spent: Solemn dark Broods again in lane and park.

'Tis no matter where are gone Those warm lives---to halls, maybe, Festive, or to lodgings lone: Of the land their tenancy Now is o'er; Earth to earth belongs once more.

Gone are they as hourly goes From the sombre fields of space Our world, with its little glows— Passion's ship that has no place, Leaves no track, On time's endless ocean black.

How are your gardens growing? How are your Runner beans; potatoes and beetroot – yum. Have you any herbs growing? Check out the mint below.

Do you like mint with your dinner? Or maybe a mint julep?

Great for a birthday party, bbq, or just for sitting and relaxing after a little gardening.

Mint sauce, in British and , is a green sauce made from finely chopped peppermint ( × piperita) leaves soaked in , and a small amount of sugar. Lime juice is sometimes added. The sauce has the consistency of double cream. It is often served as a for roast lamb, but usually not other roast meats, or, in some areas, mushy peas. It is normally bought ready-made, and is easy to find in British food shops. Mint jelly, thicker and sweeter, is an alternative for lamb, also normally bought ready- made. Mint sauce can be used in some recipes in place of fresh mint. It can be eaten on or .

September, is the ninth month of the calendar but originally named as the seventh month of the Roman year – in Latin Sept = seventh. Sapphire stone is birthstone.

Forget-me-not and Morning glories

Plus, Asters.

Interesting times in the first week of the month: 1st September 1159 – the death of the only English Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspeare).

2nd September 1666 – Great Fire of London began in Pudding Lane and raged for 5 days; but kills only 9 people.

3rd September 1939 – Britain and France declare war on Germany. Do you have any celebrations coming up in September? Happy 75th Birthday to Maureen Allinson on 1st September,

September 1819 by William Wordsworth

Departing summer hath assumed; An aspect tenderly illumed, The gentlest look of spring; That calls from yonder leafy shade Unfaded, yet prepared to fade, A timely carolling. No faint and hesitating trill, such tribute as to winter chill The lonely redbreast pays! Clear, loud, and lively is the din, From social warblers gathering in; Their harvest of sweet lays.

Nor doth the example fail to cheer; Me, conscious that my leaf is sere, And yellow on the bough:- Fall, rosy garlands, from my head! Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed; Around a younger brow!

Yet will I temperately rejoice; Wide is the range, and free the choice Of undiscordant themes; Which, haply, kindred souls may prize Not less than vernal ecstasies, And passion's feverish dreams.

For deathless powers to verse belong, And they like Demi-gods are strong On whom the Muses smile; But some their function have disclaimed, Best pleased with what is aptliest framed; To enervate and defile.

Not such the initiatory strains; Committed to the silent plains In Britain's earliest dawn: Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale, While all-too-daringly the veil; Of nature was withdrawn!

Nor such the spirit-stirring note; When the live chords Alcæus smote, Inflamed by sense of wrong; Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the lyre; Broke threateningly, in sparkles dire Of fierce vindictive song.

And not unhallowed was the page; By wingèd Love inscribed, to assuage The pangs of vain pursuit; Love listening while the Lesbian Maid; With finest touch of passion swayed; Her own Æolian lute.

O ye, who patiently explore; The wreck of Herculanean lore, What rapture! could ye seize; Some Theban fragment, or unroll One precious, tender-hearted scroll; Of pure Simonides.

That were, indeed, a genuine birth; Of poesy; a bursting forth Of genius from the dust: What Horace gloried to behold, What Maro loved, shall we enfold? Can haughty Time be just!