I had a year’s subscription for the ‘Countryfile’ magazine for Christmas and also a large book called ‘The year in the countryside’. They are a mine of information but one article brought back memories of when we used to go to Arley Woods to collect moss for our hanging baskets (which isn’t allowed now). There was a huge patch of Wild Garlic which we called ‘Stinking Lilies’ because the smell was overpowering, but in the magazine they suggest making a Spring soup from the leaves. No thank you – I just couldn’t believe that these stinking lilies could be eaten!
I recently read a book called ‘Diary of a Medical Nobody’ , the true story of a doctor who qualified in 1929, mortgaged up to the hilt in order to buy himself into a practice. In the beginning nobody wanted to consult him but after many years he became the much loved old doctor. This was before the N.H.S. and the poorest even had to take their own medicine bottles to be filled. He lived in a mining area and the local Working men’s clubs paid (from patients’ small payments each week) six shillings (30 pence) for each woman and 3 shillings for each child. For Panel patients the fee was nine & sixpence a year (45p) and this covered all workers earning less than £400 a year. Private patients provided more than half the income of the practice. You realise from this just what a wonderful service the N.H.S. is.
It seems the scientists are right and the climate is changing. At school we had sayings on the wall for each month – January brings the snow – makes our feet and fingers glow. Well this year January was the warmest on record. February (fill-dyke) has this year been bitter cold, grey and hardly light all day long. Let’s see how March lives up to the past – March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the golden Daffodil.
You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
Marie Cove