Welcome to the Twenty First Edition of Our Newsletter

Edition 21 Monday 7th September 2020

Welcome to the Twenty First Edition of our Newsletter

This is our third fortnightly edition of our newsletter and it will be the final fortnightly issue. I am sorry to say you will have to wait another month for the next edition which will be the October one and then monthly thereafter. This will give all members plenty of time to send me any articles for publication. A favourite poem, a short story, a recipe, gardening tips, craft ideas, interesting photos, jokes – the list is endless, so please have a think about what you can submit and let’s make the October issue a bumper one.

Please send any contributions to Karen: [email protected]

Music in Our Time

Music Inspired By Autumn by Alan Malloy

From September 1st we are now into meteorological Autumn which Mother Nature also seems to reflect, with shorter, cooler days and falling leaves. So how could I not choose music to reflect this season? On drilling down into this, there are a significant number of songs which try to capture the essence of this time of year. I hope you like these less well-known pieces.

‘Autumn’ from Folk Songs of the Four Seasons (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

This is a jolly tune and one I’m sure you’ll know. VW wrote these songs in 1950, as a commission from the Women’s Institute. They were first performed in the Albert Hall with a choir of 3,000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2U3L3Lcwo

‘Autumn’ from The Seasons (Alexander Glazunov)

This piece has a more mellow feel. The music was written for a ballet entitled ‘The Four Seasons’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dum-2EKDBtY

‘Autumn Almanac’ (The Kinks) Released in 1967, written by Ray (now Sir Ray) Davies, this song was inspired by Davies’ observation of a hunch-backed gardener in Muswell Hill, North London. Critics have rightly praised this song as ‘an absolute classic’. I agree, hope you do too. As a gardener, I empathise with the lyrics of the song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VDATV6dmY

‘Forever Autumn’ (Moody Blues)

Written by Jeff Wayne in 1978 and sung by Justin Hayward, Wayne included this song in his musical version of The War of the Worlds. The scenery in this video is stunning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al-ESH-XfQc

1 1

It’s a good year for the heather by Rhoda Malloy

Next month, Alan and I will have lived in the Highlands for six years. Up to now, we have never

seen as many hills, mountains and moors so abundantly covered and transformed by heather as we have this year. Vistas normally various shades of green and brown have recently been brought alive by the purples and pinks of this hardy plant’s blooms. Their adornment of the landscape has taken it’s beauty to another level. As summer has gently turned into autumn, our walks with Hector have been enhanced by the blossoming of the heather and its accompanying honey-like fragrance.

Heather belongs to the Ericaceae family of plants that includes other familiar species such as rhododendron and blaeberry. The most common heather in Scotland is called ‘Calluna vulgaris’. The word ‘Calluna’ derives from the Greek word ‘kallunein’ which means to sweep, to cleanse or to beautify, depending upon the context. This harks back to the plant’s traditional use as a twiggy, sweeping material for brooms.

Tails of a Bearded Collie (Xemxi and the stranger’s dropped phone)

By Anne Fenech

Later in life, Xemxi (having recovered from the injuries caused during the eclipse) used to walk across fields to get to the coach road in order to head for the local stately home where her human Dad worked. She only did this on days when her human Mum (an academic) was working at home. This walk was undertaken twice a day, once to accompany him to work and back and again in the evening to herd him safely home.

One evening, the weather had been fairly filthy and so the coach road was more mud than flint. The two humans were muffled up in their water proofs discussing their day’s experiences. Xemxi was bouncing along, her nose leading the entire family home to her supper. Just at the point where we usually turned off the coach road to cross the two fields towards the back gate of our cottage, Xemxi started to woof excitedly. It was her habit to woof at new things and at things which were in her way. For example if she woofed at a closed door it was inevitably opened for her. We wandered up and found that the anomaly being woofed at was a mobile phone. It lay in the mud looking very sorry for itself.

A few seconds later however it came to life. It lit up and started to vibrate and ring, so we answered it. On the other end was a relieved sounding person who explained that they had lost the phone earlier that day, but had no idea where they had dropped it. We agreed to take it home, and gave our address to the phone’s owner to collect it later.

He duly turned up after we had had our supper bearing a box of treats for the finder of his phone. We never saw him again, but I was very pleased that he arrived with a gift for Xemxi. After all it was her who had spotted it and alerted us to the presence of something wrong on her walk home; a phone that she was not used to seeing.

Stravaigin in Romania Part 2 by Catherine Vass

Our usual holiday plan involves using booking.com to pre book the first few nights and the last night in a country then we use the app to book as we go looking for unusual places to stay. We look for a good breakfast, comfortable bed and a shower. We have met many interesting local people and stayed in many unusual establishments in Nova Scotia, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania over the past five year. We remember with great affection a 6ft tall Moslem waiter in Bad Gastein clad in lederhosen. He was unfailingly cheerful and told everyone to call me “Mo”. Another character was the patron of a hotel on the Isle de La Barthelasse close to Avignon. The hotel restaurant served spectacular French cuisine. His wife supervised and spent all evening running everywhere in the highest stiletto heels I have ever seen. The patron spent the evening going backwards and forwards to the enormous wine fridge in the corner getting more and more morose. After leaving the shores of the Danube we made our way through the Bicaz Gorge which separates the Transylvanian Alps from the Carpathians. It is awe inspiring and we choose a hunting lodge for our nightly lodgings. There were bear skins everywhere, lots of gloomy wood panelling and the sheets had camouflage and bears printed on them. It was comfortable and a bit like staying in a cave. The landlady has restaurants in the city of Cluj. Her food was local and delicious.

We walked up behind the lodge through a proper Romanian meadow with lots of wild flowers which smelt beautiful in the evening air. We came across stables with horses grazing the mountain. One the way down we met two young men on their way up to water the horses. They asked the usual “are you English?” We gave the usual reply, “No Scottish”. They immediately started laughing and said we know Scotland, Perth and Dundee. They were both graduates, multilingual and had spent time in the fruit fields of Angus. They were running an odd establishment “The Teen Ranch” which we passed on our way up to the lodge. They said it was a holiday camp for city families with teenage family who came to experience the great outdoors.

Stravaigin in Romania Part 2 by Catherine Vass continued….

Our next stay was in the ancient car free walled town of Sighishoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (the impaler), one of his titles was Count Dracula, the inspiration for Dracula. We learnt that the Romanians did not realise the tourist potential of the Bram Stoker story till the ‘80s when tourists started arriving clutching the book to look for his birthplace. We visited the mythical home of Dracula, Bran Castle. It is a cosy wee castle, not at all horrific. There is a big tourism presence, stalls with souvenirs and cafes. The souvenirs are mostly high quality, locally made. We bought some beautiful hand pained hen and goose eggs. The patterns look Ottoman and middle eastern.

We stayed in a boutique hotel in a 16th Century building. Our room looked out on to the church spire. The chef produced very sophisticated food.

We were now on our journey back to the airport. We stayed one night in a new pension in the foothills of the mountains. The young owner was gradually developing it as he raised the cash. He showed us an enormous suitcase which he said was all the paperwork he needed to proceed. We ate freshly grilled buttered trout and wild strawberries with a Romanian couple, the owners and their toddler son. All you could see on looking south was densely wooded hills rising like waves. We were told that there is a huge Austrian wood pulp factory nearby and illegal logging is becoming a huge problem. The patron told us that if local police stop and charge any illegal loads the drivers just phone and the crime disappears. He said you cannot see the destruction unless you are in a helicopter.

Romania has a system of tracks and refuges in the mountains similar to the Scottish Mountain bothies. You can buy a pass which entitles you to use the bothies for a set number of nights. Romanians do not have sophisticated walking equipment. We saw stout shoes and bin bags used as shower proofs. We did one mountain ramble. Because of the deforestation some of the paths were washed out during past flooding. We found that when we reached tricky bits there was a pile of stout branches propped against a tree. The practice was to take one to help you over the obstacle then leave it propped up at the other side for use of a walker going in the opposite way.

Our last stay was in Sinai which is a ski resort as well as an industrial town. We stayed in a very elegant villa which had been an industrialist’s home.

There are ski lifts into the mountains but it was windy and the lifts were closed. However enterprising businessmen have provided 4x4 vehicles with English speaking local drivers. Ours was a gem. He took us on roads that looked impassable, showed us a beautiful, painted monastery in a cave and explained the way of life.

Stravaigin in Romania Part 2 by Catherine Vass continued….

We saw shepherds living with their flocks. They practise transhumance farming. Their dogs look like big white bears and we were puzzled by the collars with large pieces of wood dangling. Our driver explained it was to stop the dogs running too fast and leaving the flock. The shepherd we met was wearing a traditional felt hat which looks like a fez. His wife drove up to see him every day in her sturdy old Volvo. Our driver said he had no idea how she managed because he struggled in the 4x4. He had noticed that I was really interested in the flowers so he detoured to show us a blazing “pink” hill top. It was mountain rhododendron, a national flower of Romania.

At the end of our day we paid him 150 Euro, which we thought was appropriate, the cost was 400 leu which is about 85 Euro. He looked at it then said “you have given me too much”. We were very touched by his honesty and told him we had had a wonderful day and wanted to thank him. He said if we wanted to see bears to come to his house because they came down to his bins every night looking for food. We did not take up his offer! The experience just added to our very positive impression of Romania.

Romania is a “young” democracy but judging by the enthusiasm and welcome of the Romanians it is a valuable readdition to Europe. I would recommend a visit to anyone who enjoys low key sightseeing and once COVID is conquered I would love to visit the north which is famed for the painted monasteries,

Amusing mis-translations by Rhoda Malloy

Due to Covid 19, our long-awaited family holiday to Madeira in the middle of this month, has had to be cancelled. Although we are all disappointed, we quickly reached the decision that foreign travel during a pandemic is probably best avoided. A couple of days after receiving the email from Glasgow Airport informing us that our flights were cancelled, an article in The Times newspaper concerning linguistic errors or mis-translations discovered whilst on holiday caught my eye. I found some of these ‘bloopers’ so funny, that I could not breathe for laughing! As laughter is a real tonic, and something we could all do with at the moment, I thought I would share them with you.

Restaurants and menus: In a restaurant window in Greece - Don’t stand there and be hungry. Come on in and get fed up. In a Tokyo bar - Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts. In a Nairobi restaurant - Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager. In a Swiss restaurant - Our wines leave you nothing to hope to hope for. Aeroplanes and airports Instructions on a Korean flight - Upon arrival at Kimpo and Kimahie Airport, please wear your clothes. In a Copenhagen airline ticket office - We take your bags and send them in all directions. On an airsickness bag on a Spanish aeroplane - Bags to be used in case of sickness or to gather remains. Shops Outside a Hong Kong tailor’s shop - Ladies may have a fit upstairs. In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s - Drop your trousers here for best results. In a Rhodes’ tailor’s shop - Order your summer suit here. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation. In a Tokyo shop - Our nylons cost more than common, but you’ll find they are best in long run. Doctors In a doctor’s office in Rome - Specialist in women and other diseases In a Hong Kong dental surgery - Teeth extracted by the latest methodists. Other In a laundry in Rome - Ladies leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time. At a Budapest zoo - Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty. In a barber’s shop in Zanzibar - Gentlemen’s throats cut with nice sharp razors.

This recipe is from Franca Almond, courgette and lemon

cake

Ingredients Method

Oven 180/160 fan. Gas 4 175 g ground almonds Grease a 20 x 30cm tin 250g golden caster sugar

200g butter or margarine (at room temp) Mix all ingredients except courgette in large 280g flour bowl 1.25tsp baking powder Stir in courgette 1.25 tsp bicarb of soda Put mixture into tin 3 large eggs Bake for 35-40 mins Zest and juice of 2 lemons (I didn't have lemons so I used 5 tbspns bottled lemon juice and 1 tbspn lemon extract – just as good or maybe better than lemons) 140g grated courgette

FROM WHENCE IT COMMETH....ETYMOLOGY

1. Wife beating. In the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule of thumb.'

2. Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden'... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

3. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David,

Hearts - Charlemagne,

Clubs -Alexander the Great,

Diamonds - Julius Caesar

4. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...... 'Goodnight, sleep tight.'

5. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.

Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

6. In England, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' that is how we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'

7. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service.

'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

8. In 1696, William III of England introduced a property tax that required those living in houses with more than six windows to pay a levy. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up all windows except six. (The Window Tax lasted until 1851, and older houses with bricked-up windows are still a common sight in the U.K.) As the bricked-up windows prevented some rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was referred to as ‘daylight robbery’.

Just for fun

Edition 20’s ‘Guess the Object’ was, of course a bee house!

Many thanks to Anne Fenech

Can you guess what this object is? Answer in the next edition of the newsletter. Thanks to Anne Fenech for this week’s interesting object

Answers to ERAS U3A Quiz number 40

1. What is saxifrage? A small rock plant

2. In Eastenders which character killed Dirty Den in February 2006? Chrissie Watts

3. Who hoisted himself onto Sinbad the Sailor's shoulders? The Old Man of the Sea

4. How much are you paid if you hold an honorary post? Nothing

5. Which UK act was the first to score 0 at Eurovision? Jemini

6. What can be a five-card game, a smooth, woolly surface or a sleep? A nap

7. Which club did Will Carling play for? Harlequins

8. Which Australian movie director links Romeo and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom? Baz Luhrmann

9. Whose music albums have included An Innocent Man? Billy Joel

10. “Englander” is an anagram of which country? Greenland

11. Which actress played Michael Douglas's wife in Fatal Attraction? Anne Archer

12. What is a melodeon? A musical instrument

13. Which animal family are impala, eland and dik-dik all from? Antelope

14. Which famous stepson wrote The Year of Eating Dangerously? Tom Parker Bowles

15. In TV's Upstairs Downstairs what was the name of the cook? Mrs Bridges

ERAS Quiz 41

1. What type of animal is a Sooty Mangabey?

2. Which team lost the first FA cup final on penalties?

3. Whom did William III defeat in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne?

4. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016?

5. In Old English which word meant a field?

6. What were the oldest sons of French kings called from the 14th century?

7. Ely stands on which river?

8. Which 60s singer married the designer Jeff Banks?

9. In 1945 who became the British Prime Minister?

10. In which month in 2006 was Top of the Pops aired for the last time?

11. Who had hits with “The Streak” and “Misty” in the 70s?

12. Who was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986?

13. Which Gate is a memorial to the British Soldiers who fell at Ypres?

14. Who played Fred Kite in the film I'm alright, Jack?

15. In 'Bringing Down the House' Steve Martin starred with which rapper?

Franca will be sending out the answers to this quiz next week by email.

This was sent in by Pat Webster

Secret Garden Diaries Episode 10 by Franca Reid

Well as I write this it is 12 degrees outside, wet and breezy. It definitely feels like autumn. I hate this time of year because it leads the way to the dark, cold days of winter. Of course this year it is even more gloomy because it looks likely that we will be in some kind of Coronavirus restrictions.

Anyway let's try to be a bit more positive and I'm hoping that by the time you read this we will be having a long Indian Summer!

So what's been happening in the Secret Garden over the past two weeks?

Well as I said I am definitely feeling in autumn mode which in the garden involves tidying up and shutting down in preparation for winter.

I have been harvesting and freezing vegetables especially peas, beans and courgettes.

We have a good crop of apples this year so I’ll be busy peeling and freezing them for winter cooking. We also seem to have a good amount of brambles on the bushes which again just “appeared” in the garden. At least they don't need to be peeled before they go in the freezer.

In that same bed but slightly less wet I transplanted my rhubarb crowns last winter. For the past five years I have had little rhubarb as it was clogged with couch grass. I am totally amazed at how it has grown. I did split the crowns but was wary that perhaps they were too old to produce much. How wrong was I! However I haven't pulled any rhubarb this year as I have always been told that you have to leave it for a year after you move or plant it.

Is this true? Have I missed out on a great supply of rhubarb?

After Before

I have cut back the dying flowers of the Bride's Mantle because if I allow it to seed I am pulling out baby plants all of the next year.

It takes me a couple of hours every week to cut the grass but I'm hoping that will slow down soon and I'll get off with doing it every fortnight until winter.

I have also potted up some baby Lycesteria plants. These self seed on the gravel below the Bank so I let them grow so much and then pot them. Lycesteria are great for birds and we are frequently entertained by watching the blackbirds especially trying to get at the berries while swinging on the branches of the bush. If anyone wants a Lycesteria let me know. They will grow anywhere and are very hardy as well as being lovely, quite showy plants which give colour all through the winter. This is my plant of the week. It is a truly spectacular plant.

So that's the main jobs I've been doing. Please do let me know what you have been up to in your garden. Have you too felt autumn in the air and started those winter preparation jobs?

Happy gardening Please email me on fnreid@btinternet with how your plants are doing. It'd be Franca great to share experiences.

From our Chairperson, Franca

Newsletter Prattle

Hello All I hope you are all surviving and that as summer ends and autumn begins you have had a chance to catch up with family and friends and possibly get away for a little break yourselves. Who knows what this winter will bring but I am bracing myself for more lockdown measures. Unfortunately a vaccine does not seem to be coming soon so I guess we will just have to go into semi hibernation. At least we Cucumber are a little more prepared as we know what to expect this time round. Of course ERAS will always be here to support you. I would really like to hear from you as to any ideas you have for how we could support you and keep in touch as winter

approaches. As you know we have tried doing the Newsletter and the Quizzes but we

have no way of knowing whether you found these useful or just a clutter for your

inbox. Suggestions for the way ahead would be much appreciated please. Email me on [email protected] I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe and enjoy the last of the lighter nights and warmer weather.

Franca 18

Just a thought to end on

Coming in the Next Edition Don’t forget that the next edition will be in October!

 Desert Island Discs – Could it be your selection?  Franca’s ‘Secret Garden’  More Tails of a Bearded Collie  As well as lots of interesting news and features

Please remember when sending in items for inclusion in this newsletter, make sure you let me know if you are happy for your name to be added.

Many thanks The Editor (Karen) [email protected]