Welcome to Old John's blog!

17 Jul 2009 10:49 PM

Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog about my yearly visit to the Blue Bell Wood not far from where I live.

I took this photo, at the time of my visit, but, as you all know, I have only just-with help from my wonderful blogging friend-found out how to put my photos on my blogs.  Please forgive me if I make one or two mistakes for I have much to learn yet about the photo set up.

Having said that, I really enjoy blogging to 'overfifties.'  Some of the other sites, I have blogged on, have been good for some things and very poor at others; they all have their own little set up systems.

I do not use the email system, on this blog site, but I do enjoy the wonderful comments from the mature people that contact me.  It is like having my friends coming round for a chat, much like it was when I was younger.

Enough of that, what about the photo?

I have forgotten what I wrote about this particular outing but one thing stood out, in my mind, and that was the fragrances coming off the masses of blue bell floweres.  The smell is a 'one off' for me. 

If I was to go round the same woodland again, now that there are no blue bells, the wood would be completly different for it keeps altering with the demands of the weather and the amount of light that filters through its canopy.

I have probably mentioned this before but, just in case, before the advent of electricity, the woodland areas were very important areas; without them, life would have been unbearable.

Woodland owners, due to village people not being able to read, in the early years, all had their own sighns erected outside the wood.  A bit like having something outside an old Inn.

The woodland sighns, for they had to stand the brunt of all year round bad weather, were less obvious to those who did not know what to look for.

The sign, if the woodland owner could afford it, may be a simple ditch around the wood or, if the area needed to be fenced, the sign may have been in the way  the gate had been built.  Every sign may have been different but the signs were a guid and warning to those who might contemplate entering and taking wood without paying for it. 

I can, as a boy, remember collecting fire wood but this was only to use to get a coal fire going. 

It was usual, in warm and dry weather, to roll up old newspaper, into 'spills', and bend them so that they would fit into the fire place.  The paper 'spills' were lit, any kind of wood, made into 'sticks' were placed on top and when there was sighns of life, coal was put on top of that.  If it was needed, a 'draw tin' was placed over the fireplace-to create an up draft-and when there was a roar, the tin was taken away in the hope that there were enough flames to make the coal burn into a good fire.

We did not have a 'draw tin' and an old shovel was placed infront of the fire place.  On the shovel, an old piece of newspaper was placed.  The trick was, when the roaring 'up draft' came, was to remove the paper before it caught fire.

Today, this would be seen as a very dangerous task for any adult to do but, at the times I am writing about, this was a task sometimes undertaken by an unsupervised child.  In those days, much of the knowledge we gained was 'hands on.'  It was either get the fire going, no matter who did it, or sit in the freezing cold.  How we came through unscathed I will never know.

That aside, once the fire was going, there was nothing nicer than to sit infront of an open fire watching the flames dance and move creating a firelight that had wiskful shadows on a darkening winter room.  (Not as good as central heating though.  It may have looked lovely but it took a room a long time to get warm.)

No matter, as is the case with my thoughts about the making of a coal fire, my thoughts, as I picked up a blue bell, when I was a child, to take home to my mum only to find that it was wilting before my journey was complete, is one that I will hopefully never forget.

Today, because of the blue bell being on the decline, children may never get the chance to pick them. 

I hope you enjoy seeing the photo.

By for now,

John. 

View Comments (6)