I raise my head above the Spring Cleaning parapet to waive a cheery hello to the world. "The house is a tip", my Good Lady Wife said to me a few weeks ago. This was neither literally correct (the tip is down the road in Brighouse next to the late lamented Tip Inn) nor was it anything new: it is a lament as frequently recited in this household as the recurring chorus of "On Ilkley Moor B'art At". The difference this time, she informed me with a frightening degree of determination, is that visitors will be descending on our house in a few weeks time for The Wedding (the use of the upper case is not the result of my usual sloppy grammar; the said event has now achieved the capitalised status of the Good Lady Wife, the Queen, the Bible, God, and Sheffield Wednesday Football Club). So I have been sorting out the back passage, hoovering the dust from under the beds, shifting wardrobes, filling skips, and trying to make order out of chaos.
The GLW has just gone out for coffee with a friend so I am able to take advantage of this slight respite to scan and publish a photograph I found on a strip of 35mm colour negatives lodged under a bookcase. Like most of my old photographs, I can remember taking this particular picture even though it must have been more than thirty years ago. It was Robin Hood's Bay in East Yorkshire and it was early one morning, just as the little fishing boats were heading out on the morning tide. We were staying in a little cottage overlooking the bay. As I describe this I can almost feel the chill of the sea fret coming in off the North Sea.
But is that the sound of a car in the drive? I must rapidly press the "publish" button and grab the waiting bezam brush(*)
(*) Bezam Brush = Old Yorkshire dialect for a rough cleaning brush used for clearing dust and spider's webs from inaccessible places. .
Hee hee, nothing like the threat of visitors to make one spring clean. We stayed at Robin Hood's Bay on out last trip to "the old country". It is a beautiful quaint spot with a colourful history. "Photos are the pilot light for memories."
ReplyDeleteYou could write a novel about that back passage.
ReplyDeleteWell when you've finished could you do my place for me, please, Would be most appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI think I may need a Bezam brush.... I hoovered (actually thinking of today's item on the BBC website about genericide) dysonned under my bed this weekend and it is all too obvious that our friendly neighbourhood spiders have visited there once too often. Our spiders are not too big or scarey but they are webtastic. And as for dust? Our house wins world championships.
ReplyDeleteThe word is Dutch in origin!
ReplyDeleteWell, bless my bezam! I have been away for awhile and now I come back to the announcement of The Wedding. How very exciting. Congratulations to you, the GLW, and the soon-to-be-wed.
ReplyDeleteRobin Hood's Bay; I remember doing the Lyke Wake Walk in 1965, Osmotherly to Ravenscar, and finishing up in a pub in RHB. Seems a long time ago - maybe because it was.
ReplyDeleteBezam brush. That's a new one to me!
ReplyDeleteJust found the photo of paper sellers outside Halifax market on your blog! It brought back memories - not of the 1970s but -probably- the late 80s, hanging around chatting to the Militant lads (Ken and his brother?) selling papers there. They did a sideline in knitting football scarves and hats.
ReplyDeleteSuch a calm quiet morning in a North Sea harbor. Lovely photo, I'm sure I can smell the sea.
ReplyDeleteI could use one of those Bezam Brushes in my garage! I hope you get your cleaning done soon..and yes Wedding becomes of the utmost importance when you are the mother of the groom...detail details. Soon it will be over and they will be married then you can RELAX! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat Wedding?
ReplyDelete