JACK AND JILL...

…went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

How many times have you quoted this nursery rhyme?  I remember singing it to our boys when they were small, almost fifty years ago and it is very quaint, especially in the second verse, where it says, “Up Jack got and home did trot, As fast as he could caper, He went to bed and bound his head, With vinegar and brown paper” - but no mention of what happened to poor Jill - I daresay she still had to cook the evening meal despite her tumble!

After a good Zoom Church Service this morning, the first one of this New Year, we were urged to “Ooze thanksgiving for what God is doing and who He is” throughout 2021.  Although we are in Tier 4, Mr. HCB wanted to give the car a run today to keep the battery topped up, so we went for a drive this afternoon, although as instructed, we did stay quite local.  We stopped to watch two Buzzards and enjoyed seeing them soaring into the sky and then diving downwards but they were too fast for me to get a decent shot.

We have passed a particular house with a large garden quite often on our afternoon drives, where I had seen these sculptures and have taken shots of them from the gateway, but although I had my Canon long zoom camera, they are quite a long way away.  

When we stopped today and I wandered near the drive, I was taking some photographs from the gateway, when I heard some movement behind quite a high hedge towards the house.  I ventured into the garden through the large gates and shouted “Hello” to a man who was obviously taking down his Christmas lights.  I obviously kept my distance, but told the man about Blipfoto - which meant taking a photograph every day and writing a journal.  I explained that we had seen the sculptures before and I wondered if he would mind if I took some shots of them.  He said that was fine, as long as I didn’t identify the house.  I told the man my name and said I very rarely do that and of course, would respect his wishes.  He then said, with a wry smile, that they are very heavy, it would be quite a difficult job to take them away anyway!

I then asked the story behind the sculptures.  He said that they were put up sometime in the 1980s, when the house had belonged to an artist who had set them in place in the garden.  He said that they were actually called “Jack and Jill”, to which I responded, because it was then obvious, “Ah yes, falling down the hill”.  He asked if I lived in the village, but I told him we lived in Swindon and that we had seen the statues when we had been passing by whilst out on a drive sometime ago and I had remembered them - to which he said he didn’t realise they could be seen from the road and that I must have “eagle eyes”.  I explained again about Blip and said that I was always on the lookout for something interesting, particularly if there was a challenge, and said we often stopped, especially when off the beaten track, in the gateway of a field, to see if we could see anything of interest;  I told him that when you take a photo every day that’s what you do.  Thinking about it though, don’t all Blippers have eagle eyes? 

After that we went on our way, finding lots of byways that we said we would come back to when the weather was better and the paths were not so muddy - but in any event, we didn’t have our walking boots in the car today so it wouldn’t have been a good idea to go wandering. 

As we came down into a particular valley, we saw lots of Red Kites flying around - in fact, at one point we counted eight, which is quite unusual and they put on a wonderful show for us.  Because I had my long zoom camera with me, I tried to get some shots - and although they aren’t that good - I have put a collage in as an extra - for my own benefit when I look back.  I have used some “poetic licence” because I have changed the sky in these photographs - today’s was murky and grey and I thought the Red Kites showed up better with a blue sky background.  Thank goodness for apps that can do this!

Although the weather wasn’t brilliant, we had a marvellous time together and it was so good to be out and enjoying all the wonders of nature;  we feel so blessed and both said it has set us up for the coming week.

Among other things, I had a wonderful book of poems and thoughts, as a birthday gift from our son and daughter-in-law and am working my way through it.  This is one of the quotes, which is quite pertinent in these times:

“I am choosing to believe
     the future can still be beautiful.”
Morgan Harper Nichols