Accept it’s winter and get on with it
Brothers Jasper (3) and Felix Roach (2) having fun the snow at The Racecourse, with their sister and Saskia Lee (9)
WHAT a song and dance about the cold spell. As a level-headed guest said on a TV show at the weekend, we should forget what the scientists are saying about climate change and accept it’s winter when it gets cold and snow falls so we just ought to get on with it like the older generations did and forget about the predictions we are at the start of another Ice Age.
On reflection, perhaps if we were, it would not be such a bad thing if some of the world’s trouble makers were put in cold storage.
We all seem to be wrapped in cotton wool these days.
Once our bedrooms were colder than igloos with icicles forming on the inside of windows. Now, thanks to central heating, they are as warm as other parts of our homes.
I am not sure we are any fitter because of such home comforts. On the contrary I think the way we used to live toughened us up.
There used to be something comforting about entering the house to find a roaring fire in the sitting room, rubbing our frozen hands before it and perhaps making some toast from its heat.
Many modern homes don’t even boast a fireplace.
THE planting of six million trees across the United Kingdom to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is an inspired gesture for not only will it help to compensate for the loss of so much woodland to development but will provide a lasting and fitting legacy of her long and illustrious reign.
I wonder whether any parents will name their newly-born offspring after the anniversary.
I remember interviewing a man born the year Queen Victoria reached the 60 years milestone being lumbered with Diamond Jubilee among his Christian names.
It is not so bad for a man but for any woman who is coy about her age it, must have been highly embarrassing.
It was also the custom to call new arrivals after some hero or heroine.
A late colleague of mine who had three first names was loth to reveal what the last two initials, BP, stood for.
When we learned his birth date we correctly guessed they signified Baden Powell, hero of the Relief of Ladysmith and founder of the Scout Movement.
Nowadays many unfortunate infants have the names of a so-called celebrity foisted on them. Their parents ought to be ashamed.
ON Sunday my wife and I attended choral evensong at Northampton’s All Saints’ Church. We formed a third of the congregation.
I don’t know whether this is a typical turn out or the weather was responsible. It’s a lovely building with a splendid organ.
Jerusalem was one of the hymns and the gusto with which it was sung belied the sparse attendance.
I hope that this week’s services there to mark the Queen’s accession anniversary attracted better support.
The Church of England must have a real headache in raising the funds necessary to preserve the many fine and historic buildings in its charge.
Incidentally, the boys’ choir at All Saints leave the town on Friday to perform in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands, singing in five languages.
Good luck to them and I hope they wow their audiences and remind them of Northampton’s fine musical heritage.
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Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
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