BB2104 : For Auld Lang Syne

Monday 25th January 2021

Burns Night.  Terry suggested that we should conclude our outings with a BOOTboys BURNSbar.  Great idea I thought.  Our American correspondent wants more songs.  Putting the two together could only mean Rabbie Burns, the National Bard of Scotland.

What to choose?  “ Red, Red Rose”?  Too soppy.  “Tam o’Shanter”?  Hardly understand a word of it.  "Auld Lang Syne"?  Later on.  Meanwhile there are 43 other songs to play!

Normal Lockdown rules apply so independent reports (Nicola would approve). The challenge was to look for interesting things more than ten feet above ground level.

Don & Margaret

Again we were first out, or as Rabbie would have said “Up in the morning early”.  

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west,
The drift is driving sairly;
Sae loud and shrill’s I hear the blast,
I’m sure it’s winter fairly.

It had been a cold night and we wanted to travel the paths whilst the ground was still hard.

It was a familiar route on a cold but clear day.  From Natland to Sedgwick along the old canal then return along the far side of the River Kent to Hawes Lane and back up to Natland.  6 miles.

A big advantage of the early start was that there were less people about.  However I’m not a great riser.  In fact I tend to agree with Rabbie.

Up in the morning’s no for me,
Up in the morning early;
When a’ the hills are cover’d wi’ snaw;
I’m sure its winter fairly.

Don

Stan and Joan

As it was such a glorious day I set off with Joan to see if she could manage to walk up to Paddy Lane via Spindle Wood. Unfortunately, I didn't mention where we were going and when we got to the muddy path next to Castle Green I realized Joan was only wearing town boots. The alternative was to walk round the outskirts of town and see if we could find six things of interest above 10 feet.

First stop was a walk round Castle Street cemetery, followed by a detour to the Stock Beck factory chimney. We retraced our steps through Doodleshire past the Castle Dairy and Catholic church, over the river to Gilkes and through the old Goodacres site. A sorry site for Tony as only closed doors and empty barrels at The Barrel and The Tap, so we carried on home via the river and Parkside Road.

My music connection?  Van Morrison.  "Would you meet me?..Did you even hear about Wordsworth and Coleridge? Smokin' up in Kendal."

Stan

But Stan- it is entitled Summertime in England!   Don

Mike B

Song: The Witch of the Westmorland by Stan Rogers

Pale was the wounded knight, that bore the rowan shield
Loud and cruel were the raven's cries that feasted on the field
Saying "Beck water cold and clear will never clean your wound
There's none but the witch of the Westmorland can make thee hale and soond"

Mike

Written by Archie Fisher, his original version The Witch of the West-Mer-Lands is on his 1976 album The Man With A Rhyme.  The liner notes say: "I have borrowed, for this song, the form of the narrative ballad. The ingredients are a mixture of legend, superstition, and ballad themes brought into focus by the Lakeland painter, Joni Turner. As far as I know, the female centaur is not a creature of mythology, and this role of witch disguise was suggested by the tales of antlered women with bodies of deer seen wading in the shallows of the lakes in the moonlight.

For a New Age version try Kate Rusby.

Robin

Stephen

Mike T

1: Vaux Brewery (Sunderland) sign on the former Bowman Inn

2:  Up on the Roof or the Rooftop Singers

3: Henry Roberts' bookshop

4: Kendal Market Hall

5:  To the Dwellers in the Place God Grante Peace- No Vacancies at the Highgate Hotel

6:  Overlooking Gooseholme

Stuart

Tony

This week's challenge was to look for and photograph interesting things over 10' from the ground. To my fellow BOOTboys this meant mullioned windows, plaques on walls, flocks of pigeons and weather vanes.

However, to me it meant only one thing - pub signs!!

Off I went with my travel mug filled with Douwe Egberts on a memory lane trip round town to re-discover my pre-lockdown way of life. I did a full circuit of our old town, sobbing uncontrollably at the dark and empty, dusty windowed places of joy and merriment that I've known since my teens.

But hey-ho I've had my shot and I'm good to go when the doors re-open !!

Did quite a surprising four miles (according to my fitbit!)

Terry

Down in the BOOTboys BURNSbar:

Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
That Man to Man the warld o’er,
Shall brothers be for a’ that.

Being Burns night, Terry challenged each of us to talk about a whisky of his choice and why we liked it. Inevitably most chose a Scottish one (is there any other type, I hear the odd cry).  Mike T selected one not from Scotland.  Or to be more precise, he selected The One.  The Lakeland whisky from Setwurthby, just north of Bassenthwaite.

I went even further afield.  Or should it be adrift?  The clue is in another song, the one that preceded Burn's Auld Lang Syne as the Scottish Parting song.  Now adopted universally by the Irish as their farewell song, if you click on The Parting Glass, you will see and hear the best advert for a drink that I recall seeing and the name of my chosen Whiskey.  

Fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate'er befalls
And gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all

The last words must, of course, go to the man himself, Rabbie Burns, and Auld Lang Syne sung here by Maeve MacKinnon in this beautifully filmed Highland Saga video .

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Slàinte Mhath, Don

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