Acorns.

[JohnP]

 

[Clicker]

The Squirrels have  decimated  the acorns locally ...they are such a pest . They can live for 20 years!.....  They  hinder the growth of saplings  in the forest  by stripping the  trees of  the acorns when they are still green  so it's nice to even see a picture of some John ...

[FUJI]

A fantastic shot of a pair of very healthy looking Acorns John..... ....they remind me of the fun we used to have as wartime-brats with the fruits of the fields.... Acorns made excellent catapult ammo.

We had so few toys owing to severe shortages of materials, acorns could be joined together with twigs into figures or animals....the acorn cups became caps... the girls imagined tea sets.

Hawthorn Haws , made incredibly accurate pea-shooter ammunition....the Pea-shooter’s were the hollow stems of Kek....or...Cow-Parseley.

 

.. From the inside Rose-`hips We obtained the itchiest ...itching-powder ...ever... the hairy seeds from inside put down a victims collar would soon have them jumping about.

Ripe elderberries, when squashed made fantastic skin paint / dye for our...Native America ... make up......a beggar to wash off though.

We ate.... pig-nuts from under the turf....ate sour ..Vinegar-Leaves of wild sorrel ?...as well as the usual Blackberries, and very time Sloes.

The tiny new leaves of Hawthorn was known around here as...Bread and Cheese...we nibbled that too.

Crab-Apples we’re far too sour to eat.... but stick one on the end of a sharpened whippy stick, and it could be thrown far, and accurately.... we held competitions.

A wide grass leaf, if placed between thumbs could create the most awful squealing noise .... likewise the split end of a freshly cut dandelion stem ...became a Mecieval... Fart-Poipe ....it made ...raspberry  noises when blown....

Dock-Leaves when spat-upon, were the salve for treating the numerous nettle stings we suffered after being pushed into a nettle-bed, by so-called pals.

`spider-webs could be collected with a hooped twig, to look like miniature tennis racquets....

We became the men of our imagined Sherwood Forest , with our bows and arrows and stout fighting staves.......arrows made from straight hedgerow sticks.

A straight arrow-like stick with paper, flights and a wire-bound tip, could be thrown for yards, if a short loop of string could act as a sling... learned from natives, seen in Saturday-Morning cinema shows.

We made deadly slings, as used by ...David...of the Bible story.... from string and a pocket, cut from the leather tongue of an old shoe.

Hollowed out Ash-twigs made fantastic whistles.... we became expert at wood crafts with our sharp penknives....or whistles and arrows, decorated with knife-cut patterns or initials.

Willow-wands, made hoop-la hoops or we attempted to weave mats or baskets....we built dens, made camp-fires...got, splinters, scabby-knees and deep cuts and blue bruised...all to be suffered as part of growing up and learning.

Smooth-flat pebbles could be made to skim and hop for yards across still-water....

 

invisible writing on the back of a laurel-leaf.... 

Tall grasses tied together at the top, over narrow field paths, as deadly trip traps.

 Bunches of bluebells...posies of wild violets or primroses for our long suffering mum’s.

Conker’s and sweet chestnuts....the first to string up for the competition, and the second for roasting and eating together with the blackberries and wild mushrooms.

Yiu can tell that I was a ...Country-Kid...carn’t yer !

Thanks for the memories John.

See what the mobile phone has done.... all of that...Folk-lore gone....and forgotten...

 

TEMPUS-FUGIT.

 

FUJI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JohnP]

Thank you Polly & FUJI.

FUJI... you might be surprised to know that a great many of the things you used to do... I did too!  My favourite home made toys were catapults ( the local hardware store sold square elastic which was very strong), bows and arrows and whip darts. I reckon if I had been born a few thousand years ago I would have been a hunter...

[Clicker]

Isn’t it just amazing that  the power of an image can stir so many memories. . ... photographs really are bridges  over which our memories  can travel and link us so vividly to the past .  

[Kobione]

Nice detail again John.