The strange thing is Housman was born in Worcestershire and barely set foot in Shropshire. To him Salop - the county's old English name - was a place of magic and wonderment to be imagined rather than visited. Being on the border of England and Wales added to its mysticism.
Housman was a classisist, a professor and something of a withdrawn figure whose sharp temper could break out in an instant. Apparently he had problems with his female pupils and an inability to remember their names, often reducing them to tears. In other words he was something of a male chauvinist. He disliked music and any idea of his poetry being set to music.
Housman doesn't sound to be a particularly pleasant man but his poetry is shot through with beautiful imagery of nature and the human condition.
As I prepared a piece for the next Hethersett Herald on increased vandalism and anti social behaviour in the village I decided to listen to a song cycle on Housman's poetry by Vaughan Williams. It's entitled "On Wenlock Edge."
We skirted Wenlock Edge on our recent visit. It runs from Craven Arms touch Wenlock - a distance of about 18 miles. This time we drove it, next time we will try to walk at least some of it. But first we need to walk to Blakeney Point in Norfolk. I can't remember whether I've ever walked to it but need to do so just on case I haven't if you know what I mean.
And talking of coves. I must make a return journey this summer to Covehythe. It's got a very historic ruined church and a lovely beach and it's on the way to our favourite seaside place Southwold. I will leave further descriptions of the place to a travelogue to be written after the visit.
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One for the statisticians. In a few days' time it will be 15 years since Norwich lost to Ipswich.
In that time the clubs have played 14 times with Norwich winning eight and there being six draws. Norwich have scored 27 goals to Ipswich's 10.
The first match between the two was on 15th November 1902 while they were both still amateur clubs.
There have been 149 matches between them in total of which 116 have been competitive and 33 have been friendlies.
Overall Ipswich have won 60 and Norwich 59 with 30 draws. In competitive games Ipswich have won 45 and Norwich 48 with 23 draws.
Never say you don't learn anything from these blogs even if it's stuff you aren't interested in.
And my final comment on football (well at least for a few days). It was good to see Carlton Morris in tears on Saturday after scoring the winning goal for Luton against Bournemouth.
We have a soft spot for Carlton as he stayed with us for a short time 10 years ago and I have mentioned before his flashing smile. So why were we happy to see Carlton cry? Because these were tears of joy and emotion. Carlton is living his dream and the emotion overcame Jim. To us it says that he truly believes and is passionate about what he is doing.
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I often look back in my diary of the previous year to see what I was doing. Easter this year was early. Last year yesterday would have been Easter Sunday.
We were in Cordoba in Spain watching a very strange procession featuring women and children dressed from head to toe in white robes.
Today would have been Easter Monday and we were on our way to Seville - possibly our favourite place of the holiday, although my most memorable was a Sunday in Porto in Portugal.
Nothing like that to look forward to this year but we do have another trip to North Norfolk coming up.
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So how was Barbie I hear you ask? Well I can't say we enjoyed it much. I thought it was highly contrived and at times pretty incomprehensible and ridiculous. But I suppose it was colourful and made a few points.