And what have I been up to?

Planting, watering and watching the herbs flower. Don't trust me on the Latin names when I provide one, I've lost the labels.

Columbine Aquilegia chrysantha

Speedwell Veronica spicata

Yarrow Achillea

       When I'm not reading, playing music or even wasting time sitting here at the computer listening to BBC Radio 4 on iPlayer I can now play all my old vinyl discs. Wow, both sides have music on them. I felt like dancing this morning; boy, am I out of physical shape.

There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket,
Seventeen times as high as the moon;
Where she was going I could not but ask it,
For in her hand she carried a broom.
"Old woman, old woman, old woman," quoth I;
"O whither, O whither, O whither so high?"
"To sweep t' cobwebs from t' sky,
And I'll be with you by-and-by!"

Why thrup'ny bits?

I just like them and just happened to have a couple to snap. Sorry the quality of the picture is so poor. The twelve-sided nickel-brass coin on the left was introduced in the 1930s.
Silver threepenny pieces remained in circulation but became much less common. 

I started a second blog (This Sceptred Isle . . .) to record my forthcoming trip to England. I last visited England in 1998 before my father died.

The primary purpose of this visit is to attend my niece Clare's wedding in Colchester on the 25th April . . . but I expect I'll ring a few bells and down a few pints of real ale; catch up with dear friends and do a bit of sight-seeing (play the tourist). Oh, and I'll be going to a matinée of Oliver!

Now I wonder if I'll be able to get to Upton-upon-Severn for the folk festival?