Sunday 29 July 2007

Molly Dancing

We have many traditions in these Great British Isles of ours 'Molly Dancing',is one of the querkier (my opinion)ones,but great fun ,and some talent,that has been revised ,maybe it never went away!!

Yesterday after I had posted my entry ,Debbie IM d me saying ''I see from your journal ,you are going shopping ,can we join you ? ''of course I agreed ,so off we set up to the town ,shopping done, we sat on a bench near the market in the sun for a while ,and a lady gave us a flyer announcing Molly Dancers who would be in the town centre at 4 pm ,so we decided we would like to have a look ,so back home we went ,to put away our shopping ,then back up to town we went, Debbie, Jason her son and Kizzie and I

Well we loved it ...colourful dancing ,story tellers ,Fen tales spooky and factual  they did a variety of different dances depicting ,the plight of the poor Fen ploughmen ,,and the head Molly dancer and story teller had to be a man ? hence the name Molly !  See the man in the red cardigan ,in the piture ,a big crowd had gathered,and after a few dances they invited ,cajoled some of the crowd to partcipate ,I use the word cojole here because they wanted us to join in,Jason Kizzie and I declined ,but Debbie thought one of us ought to accept the kind offer ,so good sport that she is she joined in ,and very good she was too .........

Why do the women wear masks and the men have black faces?

The custom of disguising yourself stems from many many years ago, dancers used to paint their faces with coal or burnt ashes from the fire so that they wouldn’t be recognized. In the case of Molly dancing, done by Plough Teams in the Fens when they weren’t in work, the dancers black up but also remain expressionless throughout their performances, again to remain unrecognised as a smile can instantly reveal a person’s identity. This meant that when the hat was passed around, nobody knew who they were and so they couldn’t be prosecuted, as begging was illegal. It’s also been attributed to the times when dancing was frowned upon by the Puritans so, again, nobody knew who you were. The tradition can also be traced back to the 17th Century when, during the Christmas period, the Lord of Misrule took to the streets, generally partying, entertaining people with singing and dancing and creating chaos in the process – a pastime that Henry VIII was known to enjoy on occasion. If suitable payment or refreshments were not received by the Lord of Misrule and his attendants, pranks would be paid on the audience. If the pranksters weren’t known, there could be no retaliation. I’d been impressed by a Border team I’d seen at a festival. They wore full facemasks with tatters on them and long tatter coats, and it was totally impossible to tell whether they were male or female. We also saw the masks used by the baddies in Lord of the Dance, which hid the identity of the people wearing them and made the dancing appear more mysterious. The men in Pretty Grim decided they wanted to be blacked up mainly so that nobody from work would recognise them and give them grief. The women started off by painting their faces with intricate patterns but as this was somewhat time-consuming they opted for masks to hide their identity. It’s also easier to get changed afterwards – there’s nothing worse that being stuck with the Ozzy Ozborne look for the next 3 days!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSirQF_KCKY  

Ifound a peice of dancing on you tube of our dancers ,though not in out town ,for you to watch ,so click and enjoy .....

Have Blessed Sunday everyone ,with love from

 

Saturday 28 July 2007

A Serendipitious entry

Thankyou to Emmi for this mornings graphic

Here I am again nearly a , week later .....Maurice is on days now for three .When he came off nights last Wednesday morning ,after a sleep ,we went into Peterborough ,first to Kates ,visiting her reminded me I had taken a picture of Norman ,her life sized sheep she bought with some of her birthday money ,after her fortieth in May ,you remember Martin took her to Derbyshire ,where she fell in love with all the lambs ,you can see Norman from her desk near the  window where she works,at home typing manuscripts for a publishing company ,a nice reminder for her .......

We then went round to Stuart and Vickies house ,,Maurice and Stu'went off to organise the wood ,for some decking they are planning to put into their garden ,Whilst Vickie, Kate and Ilooked at the pictures of the wedding ,they were as you will imagine breathtaking ,really lovely ,of course Im prejudiced ,but what a lovely couple they are ,There were so many pictures I cant choose ,even a number in black and white and also some black and white with just the red of the flowers or dresses or cravats and buttonholes ,can you imagine ? Certainly one I must have ,is one of Charlotte (Stuarts sister and my Grand-daughter )in black and white ,with just her red dress ...standing at the top of the stairs ,I suppose the best way I can describe these pictures are similar to the effects in the film 'Shindlers list' ....anyway in due course I will be showing them to you ,

I am going to get my trolly rolling soon and go to the shops ,and market ,we went to Huntingdon yesterday so dont need too much (famous last words ),Next Wednesday I am going to Skegness on a coach trip with the over sixties ,and then on Friday I have meeting ,With the Residents forum ,did I tell you I was elected secretary of that ?

And so on that happy note I hope you all have a lovely weekend ,with love from ....

Thankyou Donna for my lovely siggy today ,I know she had lots of requests for this one .....its lovely isnt it ?

Sunday 22 July 2007

Sunny Sunday ?

 I was going put a picture of lightening on here today ,but decided against it ,it seems churlish to keep complaining about this incessant rain(though at the moment the sun is shining )when so many places in Britain today are suffering from the results of  flooding ,it is a shame we are having no summer ,but there are people who are really experiancing their homes being ruined by the floods, which are affecting many parts of the country ,many of them wont be returning to their homes before Christmas ,and listening to the weather forecast this morning ,things dont look to be improving ,there are eight flood warnings today ,and many places are without drinking water .

Pam ,from ''Times of my life ,One Nurses story ''asked me recently for more Kizzy pics ,so as you see ,I added a few at the top of the entry ,,The first three are of Kizzie wishing we didnt have the door closed ,she likes to go in and out ,but ,yes it was raining hard ,The last two I took on Thursday ,the first part a lovely sunny day ,I was indoors ironing ,and Kizzie kept pinching my knickers ,What fun ! me chasing her to get them back ......You can see how the grass keeps growing ,and that there are no cushions on the swing ,due to the weather, they have spent most of the summer in the shed , Maurice has just gone off to work ,three nights ,so Kizzie and I are home alone ,I  am going to make some dinner soon and curl up with her and the tele ,so what is left of the weekend ,every one enjoy .With love from ......

     

Todays graphics by Chris      http://journals.aol.com/cacklinrosie101/ADayintheLife/

Thankyou

Sunday 15 July 2007

Its Thundering and Lightening !

Well as the pictures I took last evening at twilight , promised a nice day''Red sky at night shepherds delight ',....thats blown that theory out of the water ! Suppose it meant the shepherds hut was on fire ....

More good news to cheer you up ,today is St Swithens and you know what that means ....

 

“St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t’will rain no more''
 
and as I sit here typing away ,its spitting with rain  ,I dont know about you ,but Im heartily sick of this weather ,when are we going to have some summer ?Any way to cover all eventualitys ,as you can see I have got the Ark ready !
We are having a quiet Sunday ,Maurice is here watching the racing from Doddington,and Im ..well you know what Im doing ,Stuart and Vickie came over earlier,with dsome pictures of their honeymoon ,Iscanned some and will post them soon ,but not now as its thunder and lightening now ,and if Idont finish this soon Icould lose the entry if the power goes ,so have a blessed Sunday every one with love

Tuesday 10 July 2007

Better Late than never

Thankyou to Emmi2sweet,for this graphic....

Here I am a week and two days later ! A week ago everyone was choosing and awarding these little tags to their favourite journals ,its no wonder its taken me this long !..you cant give one back to people who sent you one ,or to people that already have one ,now that is difficult ,

Kath from mysimplerhymes sent me one ,closely followed by Jeannette (jottings)then Ally emailed me one and then Katie,from turning the pages ,thankyou so much Ladies ,the people who gave you, your awards I applaud their choice ...Well as the week went on I found everyone I read was getting theirs ,I still want to add mine so here goes ....

http://journals.aol.com/labdancer51/SandrasScribbles/

Many of you know Sandra ,she has been posting in  her journal ,long before me ,she along with Jeannette encouraged me to write mine Sandra ,talks about her family ,her garden her pets ,she has recently come back from a family holiday in Russia and has treated us to some great pictures and ,her view  of Russia

 

http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/.This Lady is a teacher and has all sorts of tales to tell ,recently her friend had to leave her job and move ,she very kindly helped her to move ,...always an interesting read

 

http://journals.aol.co.uk/beckiepainton/TheallNewBeckieboo/

Becky has two little boys and she in  works in the evening ,a difficult job that she tells us all about  and has the most wonderful sense of humour ,when she descibes her life ,she always leaves me laughing .

http://journals.aol.co.uk/lindaggeorge/GeorgeMansions/

Lindas journal ,is one when I see she has posted I know Im in for a good read ,her husband is  radio presenter ,she talks about her family ,her pets which include two chickens that she adopted !               http://journals.aol.co.uk/debsdabs/debsdabs/

And last on my list but most certaintly not least ,My Friend Debbie ,who lives round the corner ,she started out doing a journal entry containing poems about her life ,,she is the editor of 'Toy town news '(the next edition well over due )Debbie has turned her talents to graphics and is amazing ,She makes graphics for me quicker than I can do entrys lol ....  Debbie made me my closing graphic today

There now I have given those out ,I feel I qualify to put mine on my side bar ,Seriously though this was hard because you all rock ,with love from

Monday 2 July 2007

A concert for Diana

Yesterday ,afternoon The BBC ,took us to the newly opened Wembly Stadium,in London ,to see the concert the Princes William and Harry had helped to organise for their late Mothers 46th birthday ,15 million people saw this and it was televised in140 countrys.It was on from 3.30 until nearly 10.30 pm and I watched most of it ! I hadnt  really planned to watch but ,I had  a peep and was hooked ,like Jeannette (jottings) and I see Astra,watched it too,As did Jayne (single girl ) who has also done an entry ,and many others  Im sure enjoyed it as much  I did .

The Princes introduced the show ,saying it would be a programme of all their Mothers favourites,and some of theirs too ,Harry sent a message to his regiment the Blues and Royals ,currently serving in Iraq,saying how he missed them ,wished he could be with them ,and told them to keep safe ,many wonderful acts includedSir Elton John ,who opened and closed the show ,Bryan Ferry,,Status Quo,,Duran Duran,,Will Young..Tom Jones,,Nelly Fortado,,James Morrison,The show also featured a medley  of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber songs ,performed by Anastacia,Josh Groban,Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman,we saw Lee Mead ,singing songs from 'Joseph 'with Donny Osmand and  Jason Donavan, and Connie who won the part of 'Maria 'last year,was there, singing beautifully  too . The Royal ballet had the whole audience spell bound as they danced from the final act from Swan Lake ,Diana loved the ballet and indeed all kinds of dance ,music and the theatre,beween the acts all sorts of people were fimed telling what a difference Diana had made to their lives ,I agree with Jeannette it was spoiled only by the lack of a proper compere ,but that is my only complaint ,I saw that Harrys girl,friend Chelsy sat beside him ,but Kate Middleton although there, wasnt sitting beside William !Their cousins, Prince Andrews daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie ,were there boogying away each time they were caught on camera,and I spotted Dianas Brother Charles , The Earl Spencer,and her sisters The evening closed with some family film,of Diana as a baby at her Christening and growing up ,at Park house Sandringham,in Norfolk

All in all it was a wonderful celebration of a life so very sadly cut short nearly ten years ago

               With Love Jan xx