Dear reader,
I have often wondered where the saying: 'enough blue in the sky to make a sailor's trouser' comes from. Apparently it was believed by sailors that if they saw two patches of blue sky in a cloudy morning, the day would bring good weather. Dutch sailors wore wide trousers the same blue as the sky, hence the saying.
It is thought that British and American sailors first wore bell-bottomed trousers in the 19th century because it made it easier to snag a man who had fallen overboard. The wide legged design of flares made it easier for sailors to remove the trousers when wet and roll them up when working in muddy conditions.
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My sister and I loved going to Yarmouth beach for picnics and my mother would only take us if she saw a little sun and a blue sky. This, I have to say, wasn't very often as the Norfolk weather was not tropical, in fact I seem to remember lots of rainy days. In those days we lived in a small cottage near to a river and spent much time capturing tadpoles and riding our ponies. And of course trotting through the lanes with Joey in harness. Joey was rather fat and not too keen on those expeditions, sometimes he refused to go ahead at all and needed coaxing.
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From Richard Jefferies 1878 November 3rd in Surrey
'The horse-chestnut buds at end of boughs; tree quite bare of leaves; all sticky, colour of deep varnish....Still day: the earth holds its breath.'
From James Woodforde 1795 November 6th in Norfolk
'There was a most violent gale of wind this morning early about 3 o'clock, continued more than an hour. It waked me. It also shook the house. It greatly frighted our maids in the garrett. Some limbs of trees blown down in my garden. Many windmills blown down.'
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Small moments of warmth I remember a little warmth, Joey trotting the family through Norfolk lanes, the small yellow trap swaying in the sunshine. I remember picnics on Yarmouth beach with enough blue sky ‘to make a sailor’s trouser’. We ate cucumber sandwiches, Penguin biscuits. I remember dark evenings, the small warm flame from a Tilly lamp lighting the kitchen, and sometimes for supper we had chicken, chocolate mousse. I remember a warm holiday in France squeezed into the back of a car, singing old thirties love songs. But will these small moments of warmth, at the end, be enough to heat and split the heavy stones that circle the human heart, allow salt tears to trickle through the cracks? * With very best wishes, Patricia
