Our walk today was a tad dull - along the B1172 to Waitrose and then back along the same path, loaded with quite heavy bags. The very warm weather made it a difficult walk back.
There were plenty of people walking/jogging or cycling and all were respectfully keeping their distance apart from the elderly man who staggered out of Waitrose laden with bags and walked within a foot of me seemingly oblivious to the "keep your distance" directive.
Not many photographs - please excuse yet another of Kett's Oak. It does seem to change in aspect depending on weather conditions. It's a very interesting tree, not because of its beauty. Indeed if there was a tree beauty contest it wouldn't make it through the first round. Obviously there's the historic association that has made it one of the most important trees in the UK.
Without its historical importance Kett's Oak would probably have been cut down many years ago. It is part held up by two large cross sections of wood and I believe it is filled with concrete (although that may just be a rumour).
I was taken by the happy, sunny display on one of the homes just down from Waitrose. you can see the pictures above.
One of the few events left on the Hethersett calendar for the next few months - the youth club fete and dog show set for the end of June has been postponed until September 5th. The organisers are hoping that restrictions will be lifted by then. In an e-mail to Hethersett Herald, lead organiser Gillian Saunders put the current lockdown into perspective by saying that without the cash from the fete the club would be struggling financially as it has lost all its community bookings for the Spring.
I am working on a feature for Hethersett Herald looking at some of the people who have kept things running in the village during the epidemic. These will include a local GP and business owners and should give an insight into how they have kept businesses ticking over.
To show the other side of the coin, I'm also hoping to talk to people who have been forced to shut their businesses until further notice.
Now it's time to have a whinge. Speaking of their dubious "double act" on the One Show (many of you will know how crass I find this show) Alex Jones and Alex Scott said "We're like the two Ronnies." No love the two Ronnies had talent and were very funny.
Earlier I heard a terrible song by Justin Bieber - one of those miserable self indulgent heaps of rubbish. This one was called "Love Yourself" and it included the lyric - "And I didn't wanna write a song". Well here's some news for you Justin - you would have saved us a lot of heartache if you hadn't bothered.
Below is one of Owen's poems written during the First World War and published posthumously in 1920 after the end of the war. It talks about the horrors of war. It is entitled Dulce et Decorum Est which is Latin for It Is Sweet and Fitting. The following line pro patria mori means "To die for one's country."
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.