General Chat

I get a bit frustrated with my brother sometimes. He is talking about taking my nephew back to work with him,as my nephew is bored. BUT,
they are in the building trade,nephew is not allowed to lift heavy things,he
is still having treatment,and has to see the specialist in June.
Pauline I could scream at my brother.
Does he not realise that my N,will not be allowed back on site,and should
god forbid,he have an accident,he will not be covered by the companies insurance,as he has not been signed off as fit to work.
It's so frustrating,I know my N is bored,but he is not fit enough yet.

Mo, my son is epileptic, it's under control now (touch wood) but it took years to work out what was causing the medication to stop working from time to time. If he drinks anything fizzy it stops the medication from working and if he gets constipated it stops it from working.

As long as we're careful what he eats and drinks we can keep it under control.

Hi Pauline.
He could have other fits,but they have upped his steroids,and given him medication that should control the fits.
But like epileptics,he could have on even with the meds.
I had many a clout round the earhole as well. Plus dads belt on my backside on many occasions. I was a good girl really. NOT

Mo, does that mean he won't get any more fits?

Exercises?? I don't think so Rita....lol

I always thought the word clout was an ambiguous North East word.

My mother and grandmother always called the dishcloth a dish-clout and they used to tell me if I back-answered one more time I'd get a clout round the ear. I often back-answered and often got a clout for it.

We were always told to never cast a clout till May was out - meaning don't go out without a coat on.

My mam's mam had a Scottish father and Irish mother so she had a lot of strange sayings that were a mixture of Scottish and Irish.

Whew Rita,I am exhausted,worn out just thinking about doing excercise.lol
Just finished doing all the swear word H****w**k. And having a nice cup off coffee,please join me.
(**)? (**)? (**)? {^^}/ {^^}/ {^^}/ [_] [_] [_] @@@@@ # # # # #.
I spoke to my brother today. My nephew did not have a brain bleed,it was just a fit after the operation. Thank god for small mercies I suppose. But he certainly waited a long time to have it,four months after his op.
Another wet day today. Really fed up,I washed a pair off bed room cutains today,along with the liners,it was dry outside earlier ,but I have had to put them on the clothes horse now to finish drying.

Hello Liz

I use a sheet under the duvet during the summer but my duvet is one you can seperate winter and sunner so I have these in two seperate covers so I can roll the top one over and uae the borrom one (if that makes sense. ?)
I know about the saga of the Hornthron Tree I go onto open University from time to time and reseach things.

My Grandmother Shara came from Shropshire my Dad use to say she called her self a Brummie you will find the census call it Salop Shopshire and Birmmingham among other things she didnt have much of a brummie acent like my friend Valere has. but she came out with some quirky saying and she use to sing to me" Toola Loola Babey "that is the only time I would have said she showed her birth palce. where as some of her words were from Shropshire and she always used the word clout I thought it was a cockney saying I will give you a clout
but she never failed to tell me Rita never cast a clout till May is out. Mum said it was the vest and to keep it on till May had passed and the better weather had arrived.mind you there were Libity Bodices then
my Gran died in 1946 aged 78
The weather here is very cold I had my heating on all day yesterday as I was shivering looks like I need to put it on again in a minuite.

Well you lazy things get up out of thoses beds and do your exercises .
Rita

Rita, we use a top sheet under the duvet so the duvet cover doesn't need stripping off each washday and can go two or three times longer. Because there's no central heating here we use a flannalette top sheet in winter which makes the bed lovely and cosy, and if you do get hot and shove the duvet back you still have the sheet over you, it works well in summer too with a thin cotton or polycotton sheet instead of flannalette, I don't like laying in bed with nothing over me, however hot it is.

Lizx

My Mum used to say the same thing Rita, and I took clout to mean some sort of warm clothing. Just googled and found this:


Ne'er cast a clout till May be out
With most phrases and sayings the meaning is well understood but the origin is uncertain. With this one the main interest is the doubt about the meaning. So, this time, we'll have the origin first.

Origin

'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out' is an English proverb. The earliest citation is this version of the rhyme from Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732, although it probably existed in word-of-mouth form well before that:

"Leave not off a Clout Till May be out.

Meaning

Let's look first at the 'cast a clout' part. The word 'clout', although archaic, is straightforward. Since at least the early 15th century 'clout' has been used variously to mean 'a blow to the head', 'a clod of earth or (clotted) cream' or 'a fragment of cloth, or clothing'. It is the last of these that is meant in 'cast a clout'. This was spelled variously spelled as clowt, clowte, cloot, clute. Here's an early example, from the Early English Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, circa 1485:

"He had not left an holle clowt, Wherwith to hyde hys body abowte."

So, 'ne'er cast a clout...' simply means 'never discard your [warm winter] clothing...'.

The 'till May be out' part is where the doubt lies. On the face of it this means 'until the month of May is ended'.

There is another interpretation. In England, in May, you can't miss the Hawthorn. It is an extremely common tree in the English countryside, especially in hedges. Hawthorns are virtually synonymous with hedges. As many as 200,000 miles of hawthorn hedge were planted in the Parliamentary Enclosure period, between 1750 and 1850. The name 'Haw' derives from 'hage', the Old English for 'hedge'.

The tree gives its beautiful display of flowers in late April/early May. It is known as the May Tree and the blossom itself is called May. Using that allusion, 'till May is out' could mean, 'until the hawthorn is out [in bloom]'.

Other rhymes in which May is ambiguous are:

- April showers bring forth May flowers.

- Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. (Shakespeare's Sonnet 18)

The Hawthorn has long been a potent symbol of rebirth and appears, as May, in other old rhymes. For example, 'Here we go gathering nuts in May'. That is probably a corruption of 'here we go gathering knots of May [blossom]'. After all, there are no nuts to collect in England until Autumn - certainly not in May.

Putting the case for the month, as opposed to the flower...

A French proverb - 'En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil; en mai, fais ce qui te plaît'. This translates as 'In April, do not shed a single thread; in May, do as you please', which has much the same meaning as 'ne'er cast a clout...'.

Captain John Stevens's work, 'A New Spanish and English Dictionary', published in London in 1706, translates a Spanish proverb, as "Do not leave off your Coat till May be past".

Those rhymes may well have originated in England and migrated across the Channel. It is difficult to understand why the Spanish would coin such a proverb, which would seem a little cautious for that part of the world - the average temperature in Seville in May is 20°C. Quite a few correspondents from Spain, and some also from France and Italy, have pointed out a locale version of the phrase which goes:

'Hasta el cuarenta de mayo no te quites el sayo', i.e. 'Don't leave off you coat till May 40th'

There is a homegrown version that supports the 'month' theory - a fuller version of the rhyme, which goes:

"Button to chin, till May be in,
Cast not a clout till May be out"

The first line appears to have been added later and can't be found earlier than the 20th century. It clearly refers to the month though, as May blossom can come out, but can hardly be expected to go back in again, which indicates that whoever coined this additional line thought that way.

There's an explicit mention of the month in the version of the rhyme from F. K. Robertson's Whitby Gazette, 1855:

The wind at North and East
Was never good for man nor beast
So never think to cast a clout
Until the month of May be out

Wise words for the North Sea-facing Whitby, which can't match Seville and can be icy cold even in mid-summer.

All in all, although the May blossom interpretation seems appealing, the 'May' in this proverb is the month of May.


It's perishing here in Norwich and been raining most of the day and evening too.

Stay warm folks, and keep your winter drawers on...


Lizxx

Linda you will need to wrap up warm it is so cold .I know May is a difficalt month but this is really going over the top.
my gran use to say "Never cast t a clout till May is out " I have no idea what she meant by Clout but she use to say keep your vest on till it is warmer..
I still have my winter duvet on the bed but I wake in the night too hot yet when I roll it back I am too cold there is no pleaseing some people.
I am looking forward to see my daughter and son in law tomorrow. my sister has said she would like to come for the day Monday so thats an other visitor. which is nice
well hope you have a good time and dont drinkk too much or your end up with a headache.

Rita
x

Oh Rita I hope you enjoy the printer if it is like one advertised on TV it will be chgeaper for ink too. So you will have a bargain as well.
I hope you have a nice time with your daughter and son in law. Please give them both my best wishes, you know I have been thinking of them.
Yes it's too cold here .
Not sure what I am going to wear tonight? I was going to wear a skirt and blouse and now it is so cold I think it will be for comfort and not glamour !!!

Keep warm and enjoy the rest of the weekend

Linda :o) XxX

linda
that is what birthday money is for to spend and buy something for yourselves and it sounds as if you have a bargain as well so thats even better. it is raining here as well and so cold I have put my heating on I was shivering and thought this is silly sitting here like this.
My son brought my new printer and came and fitted it for me it is a Kodak one he said it is easier then your old one my old one was 14 years old. lol but it will take a lot of geting use to as it is one that shows you scanning and printing it gets rid of red eye in photos and it prints photos out with a white boarder. so I will have fun and games when I start using it.
My daughter phoned to say they were coming over tomorrow for a couple of hours my son in law cannot sit longer then that he gets so much pain in his back and legs.so I am looking forward to seeing then .

Rita

Hi Ladies
Sorry I haven't added for a couple of days. Have been trying to get some of the garden done, managed a few pots, troughs and baskets, Have to wait for the bluebells and bulbs to die back and the forget me nots to finish.
Finally spent my birthday money this morning, I got a really nice watch that was reduced to half price, so a bargain too.
Spent a fortune in the garden centre !! Compost this morning as I had run out and then just a few fushias.
It is now raining quite heavily so decided to come in check my e-mails and GR and go have a leisurely bath before going off to a house party tonight for the girls who went on the hen weekend !!
Hope you all have a good weekend

Linda :o) XxX

I have problems my computer is playing me up.
I was saying I have no idea as to attchments I tried but my daughter siad she thinks it is to do with the line up of my photo and was going to do it for me but her husband has cancer so I have not been able to get her to sort it for me, I now have trouble with my printer/scanner it packed up so my son is going to get me a new one tomorrow and fit it for me.
the wireless router he has fitted let me get straight onto the internet without clciking on to the icon. it is so strange. I have lost two of thesewriting i have started to do. so I am sending this and will try another one later.
Rita

Rita, you must have seen a lot of changes in your lifetime. It would be interesting to read that book you're writing about your life. You'll have to keep putting little bits of it on here for us to read.

Sounds like you had some good times in your youth as well, so many memories. Can you put that wedding photo in an email for us to see?

Morning all, I'll have to go back and read the thread because I don't know what's been happening with you all.

*Sending sympathy to Marilyn*

Never mind Marilyn, at least you won't get bored.....lol

I've got curtains to make as well but they won't get done today.

I need to clean the inside of the windows as well - that's another thing that won't get done today.

Morning All,

Wont be on this weekend as I got lumbered with grand kids.

Mother is away Golfing weekend, and Dad has had to go away to Cornwall his job .

Yesterday the grand daughter was not well so I had to sit with her ALL day and Chat , I think she was missing her mum & dad really .
Anyway I have them until Sunday.

So will you all give me some sympathy ......Please !!!
Also trying to do these curtains that are not going anywhere for a long time .

Speak later......xxx

Morning All

It is a rough old day outside it looks like a grey cloud had decended over my aera.
65 years to day VE day how time had flown I cannot beleive it ?I can still recall what I was doing that day and I was dancing around the square in the westend then landed outside Buckingham palace with all the crowds singing and dancing" There be blue birds over the white clifts of dover." "Land of hope and glory mother of the free." I was out till 3 oclock that moring well walking home from the WestEnd with two english sailors and my friend. you could walk about in those days and not worry.

My son is coming this morning to put a wireless router onto my machine to increase the megs and I can get onto the interent without all the bother l get now Lol I have no idea what it is all about l only know it depends how near you are to the BT.for the megs

I said while your here I need a couple of other little jobs you can do. ..
I think he wished he had not said he would come and do one job.

Have a good day.

Love
Rita

mo rita you both been bizzy chatting away tonite

i think iv got marilyn in an even bigger muddle with this tree with all the records i sent her lol

MARILYN were you been tonite

LOL Rita. Your son must have excellent eye sight,if neither you or your husband had noticed it.
It was like us,when we saw the cine film that someone had taken off our wedding.
We did not manage to view it till the late 90's,as we did not have a a screen or projector to watch it on. Oh my,did we laugh. It looked so amateurish and we looked like a couple off shop dummies on legs.
But we were grateful to the person who did it for us for free. And it gave us a good laugh, 30 years later.
Now it's been 46 years off the ball and chain. LOL