A touch of Nostalgia and Rose Coloured Spectacles

Do you ever look back to the times gone by and think favourably of events people and celebrations.  I do and they are a big part of who I am and how I was formed.  It is funny how simple things take you back or at least me back to a particular time or place.  Today I have been sat eating some pork pie with tomato ketchup and some bread and butter.  Simple food but oh so tasty and I am immediately transported back to my Nan's where a Curtis Pork Pie was a big treat and greatly relished.  This was how Nan used to serve it however occasionally it was padded out a bit more with salad leaves and tomatoes and eggs.  That was salad and accompanied by her pickled shallots or a little chutney as well.  We children were never keen on tomatoes and were encouraged to eat them cut into slices and sprinkled with a little sugar.  It worked and it was the way we learned to love tomatoes and eat them.  Eventually the sugar was removed and we ate them plain but I can still taste those tomatoes.

I don't know where this spark of nostalgia has come from today.  I am on my own; I have slept late and do not really feel inclined to do anything and as a result I ended up watching the TV.  No ordinary TV however one with a step back in the past.

One of my all time favourites when  it comes to TV programmes is the Darling Buds of May.  It reminds me of growing up and the way my family and the villagers were in the village where my grandparents lived.  A happy and special time when we would in the summer months have tea in the garden, strawberries and cream.  My Nan always took the cream off the top of the milk and kept it in a pot in the fridge and then come Sunday tea time would whip it up and pop it on fruit of some description but in the summer it was always strawberries aromatic and tasty and in a summer garden with the scent of the honeysuckle and the roses and the tall majesty of the hollyhocks down near the chicken pen.  The garden was on one side of the garden filledby a beech tree hedge within which was inset an arbour one border had espalier pears the other Bramley apples and a rockery and pond backing on to the back of the house.  Oh I do miss those times and that house, especially the land and the seasonal trips to pick the apples and the plums and just generally going to visit my grandparents and to follow my Nan around the garden as she worked - it was the only way to get to speak to her and learning at her feet.  I suppose my dream home is somewhat based on this home that encompassed so much family love and also extended to friends and family/  My Nan was a generous lady no fool and I always referred to her home as "Nan's Peace" as when we were within the borders it was like being in a different world and life continued at a different pace and time.

Sunday we always had proper roast dinner and Nan always made the most of what she had.  The bulk of the work used to be done during the week with only a little done on the Sunday.  Nan always used to bake for the week on a Saturday.  Sunday if we were there we used to get sent to Sunday school and the church where we were christened and the church where my grandparents and my cousin are buried St Clements in Fiskerton, Near Lincoln.  We would have dinner always tasty and delicious and then the washing up was done then Nan would sit and have a cup of tea and then into the garden to load us up with veggies and then tea

Sadly the home as it was no longer exists.  The person who bought it asset stripped the property and built a couple of bungalows and took out all the copper beech hedging and the hawthorn hedging on the front, the conservatory etc.  Completely wrecked it, but at least I still have my memories of going to stay as an adult on my own after my Nan lost  my Pop I used to go regularly and stay.  First you would hear the chickens crowing in the early hours.  A daily ritual and somehow comforting and then  wake up to bright sunshine cheerily poking through the curtains and waking sprawling in the bed and feeling relaxed and very much alive and at one with the world. Then  my Nan spoiling me and pottering in with breakfast on a tray. She very much thrived on looking after other people and I think I am the same.  A  very down to earth lady who dealt with things as they presented themselves and who was often found down the garden in old rainmac with a headscarf in a turban like they used to have during the war with a cigarette on digging away at the veggie patch.  However she scrubbed up well and was very elegant in her own way.

Back to the Darling Buds of May life within that period of time beautifully encompassed and preserved for future generations taking us back to yesterday when life was at a much slower pace and life went on to a different beat of the drum. I think that's it really I am looking for a different pace of life at the end of the day.  How to acquire it I am not sure but it is what I am aiming for.

Perhaps its because I am a May born baby but I love the spring in particular when everything sprouts back into life but I love all seasons really as they all have something wondrous to give and act as markers in time and time seems to be going so much more quickly the older I get.  

I have other favourite programmes as well such as Call the Midwife and Down to Earth and there are a whole load more, but today it has been about the Darling Buds of May and thinking about then and now.  I think along the way we have lost so much in the way of progress.  Sometimes we have to slow down and find a different way or a way to find ourselves and suit us.  I know what I aspire to but so far I am still a work in progress and still searching.   Its been good to step back in the past for a brief moment in time - its helped me recharge and put things into perspective.

Catch you soon

Pattypan

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