Autumn in the Village

Trekking along to work the other morning, D. stopped and took this picture. It’s been an odd couple of days; we had a… heat wave, which resulted in 75°F temps (23°C) on Wednesday, dropping only by a few degrees for Thursday and Friday. It’s slightly hazy with intermittent clouds, but the warmth is appreciated, even if there’s not much sun.

We’ve had the last ripe corn from the nearby farms, and enjoyed it — it put D. in the mind of San Diego, so you know it was tasty. The big wind storm a few weeks ago during the last East Coast hurricane destroyed a lot of still-green apples and soft fruit so there are no more “plooms,” but bramble berries are ripening apace, and there are raspberries and a few strawberries left. In these oddly humid and dry days, the big combines have come in to slash down and roll up gigantic bales of hay from the fields, and the blackbirds and rabbits are gleaning the leavings. The leaves are yellowed and coming down in drifts, and with exasperation we glower at the birch tree in the back and realize we’re going to have to either buy or rent a leaf vac, or all the neighbors will soon hate us. The chaffinches and the bluetits are noisy and busy, rapaciously gorging themselves on all the ripened seeds. We are actually having a moment of autumn – it’s warmish, with only slightly cool nights and mornings, and even when it rains, it remains in the high sixties. After being cheated out of much of summer, it’s a nice change.

And in the village, we’re hearing and learning new words. This week it was “Umne” and “Er.” These are words used for argument. The second is a phrase “a big girl’s blouse.” These fine words and phrases can be used all together. Like this:

“I’m not panicking, I’m just asking where we are!”

“Not panicking? You’re flapping about like a big girl’s blouse!”

“Umne!“

“Er!”

Do you feel enlightened? Well, neither do we. Umne and Er are, of course the enormously mature, “Am not,” and “Are.” But we’re just not sure why a big girl’s blouse (is it a big girls’ blouse, as in, a blouse intended for all big girls? Or, just a particular big girl’s blouse? And, why are we asking you?!) comes into it… it’s an insult, and it means a man’s not quite being manly, but… blouse? (Would a small girls’ blouse have worked? Is the mockery centered on the size of the girl, or her clothing?) “We aren’t lost, you big girl’s blouse,” would have also worked in this particular exchange. This is apparently the equivalent of calling someone a pantywaist (America, 1943), a milquetoast (America, 1935) or big old baby (Mythbusters, any time in the last ten seasons). All of these things mean to insult a guy.

So, a girl who’s not displaying normative girly-ness gets called a belt loop? A big boy’s undershirt? No? We still find it so very interesting that a bad idea is called “pants,” as in, “What? You want to dance in torn sheets in the rain? Well, that’s pants!” — and remember, that means underwear…And, when the “hens” in T’s circle in chorus want to insult someone (usually a certain bass), one of them has been known to remark, “Ah, he’s all mouth and trousers.”

We’re going to have to ponder that one for awhile.

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The end of another busy week. Last weekend’s Policeman’s Memorial Service was a lot like attending a funeral, something we hadn’t counted on. We were glad to know the hymns, since the audience of family members and friends could not sing, and were gratified by how well the chorus performed — we really did John Rutter’s Gaelic Blessing and Eric Whitaker’s Sleep almost perfectly. The service was moving — but at times dreadfully so. Despite the presence of such honored guests as politicians and princes, there was a palpable sense of grief in the crowd. After family members lit candles, the chorus was on hand to do their a cappella piece — and found themselves barely able to sing. The two of us felt like we were attending the funeral service we had missed of another policeman back home… which, in a way, was a kind of difficult and unexpected closure.

While we did indeed catch a glimpse of the Duke of Rothesay, Prince Charles (and noted his absence in the first twenty silent minutes the auditorium of over two thousand people waited for him to deign to come inside – punctuality is apparently not the provenance of princes), we were more amused that the Lord Provost of the city (essentially the mayor) wore a gold chain of office — a really huge gold chain, with massive gold medallion, like an Olympic medal stuck on rapper jewelry. (Yes, we freely admit this amused one of us, and one of us has the sense of humor of a ten-year-old. Moving on.) While not exactly stylish with a suit from Seville Row, the chain of office is left over from Tudor times, and probably looked quite the thing with ruffs, doublets, hose, codpieces and such.

We duly noted that Duke and Prince is a lot shorter in person than he appears to be on television — isn’t that always the case? On the up side, his ears, which have appeared so exaggerated in satirical cartoons, are also positively ordinary. Anyway, we’re finished with concerts and royalty for awhile, and won’t have to don the chorus garb again until nearly Christmas. Since with company or concerts and such, we have been up before eight every weekend for the past three, we’re looking forward to a good wallow of sleep this weekend, too.

Last night began the celebration of Rosh HoShanna for many of our friends, and if you celebrate, L’Shanah Tovah, and may you have sweetness follow you into the new year. The Hobbits welcome any chance to start over at any time, so we’re dipping our apples in honey and trying to catch up with many a neglected project… We’re looking forward to paging through a new cookbook by a gent with the improbable name of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. We’ve been gifted with his Veg! book, just in time for the Vegan Month of Food, in which we strive to participate at least a little each year. We’ll also be joining in with the Bread Baking Babes as Bread Buddies this weekend, and making the tasty looking soft pretzels — and experimenting with roasting flaxseed (linseed) for their tops, as well as trying out nigella and possibly some sweet toppings, too. We’re making a seitan roast with caramelized apples, and carrot cake muffins with coconut frosting. And, we’ll probably find time to clean the house, organize the garage, do a photo hike, and find some more rabbits in there somewhere, too.

And sleep. Did we mention that?

Hope you have the anticipation of something utterly lovely to occupy your time this weekend, too.