What the ... ?

[redhead]

Just having a late and idle breakfast, the scruffy one sitting at my feet awaiting his share of the honey off my toast, when suddenly:

Cheep, cheep, cheep - scruffy one freezes, ears all aquiver - and a baby blackbird hops out from under sofa.

Managed to grab Dougal (chunnering with excitement) and shut him in the kitchen. All windows wide open and slightly tattered young bird (finally) gets the idea and flies out, chirping madly as he goes.

Can someone please remind me why I love cats?

 

[redhead]

Don't believe it. Just found a ruddy frog behind my armchair!!

 

[Colin Phillips]

Dead????...........presumably.

 

[simmo]

chirping madly as he goes.

Mammy!!!!

 

[redhead]

Dead????...........presumably.

Happily, no, Clive.

Very much alive and not a mark on him. Dougal was most disappointed to find that his new friend had gone and spent the rest of the day checking behind the chair - just in case.

 

[redhead]

Working my way through a load of recorded programmes last night when an early night was suddenly and urgently called for - MOUSE!!!!!

Bloody thing came wandering in from the kitchen, sat in the doorway of the sitting room having a look round (Redhead hanging from light fitting at this stage). It then proceeded to wander over to Dougal's biscuit bowl and help itself - with 2 cats just sitting looking at it!

It is still at large somewhere downstairs. A humane trap has been set and my kind neighbour Matt, in between fits of laughter, has said that he will come and release it if it gets caught. (I had to remind him of when I had to rescue him from a frog so small that it was almost a tadpole.)

 

[Muttley]

My two moggies are in hunting mode at the moment - recent offerings have included mice, voles, small birds and a (live) grass snake.

 

[Raksha]

No moggies in this house (two dogs make sure of that) but last weekend I got called to see the Frog hopping about the living room....

 

[redhead]

Decided to have a day out yesterday, so set forth for Stow-on-the-Wold ...

... and walked straight into a Roundhead soldier as I entered the town square!

I'd forgotten this weekend is the Cotswold Festival and didn't know that the Sealed Knot were re-enacting the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold, which was apparently the last major (but little-known) battle, of the 1st Civil War.

Decided to hang about for the rest of the day and got chatting to various members of the Sealed Knot. As I had twisted my knee earlier in the day, I decided to rest it and sat on the steps of the Market Cross - and got a fantastic view of everything going on.

At about 3.00 a mass of Parliamentarian troops marched by - within an arm's length of my position. The drummers were so close to me (I could touch them) that the reverberations made my stomach go all fluttery. Very strange sensation.

Apparently the battle started to the north of the town, but became a running one, culminating in a mass of some 4,000 men fighting in the market square. The streets ran red as far as 1/4 mile from the square, right out to the Royalist headquarters in Digbeth Street.

There would have been so many men in that market square all bashing hell out of one another. It must have been terrifying for anyone who lived in the town at that time, especially those people in the houses around the square.

The costumes of the Sealed Knot are brilliant and well-researched and all the members know their history. I learned so much just chatting to them.

Very interesting day. Recommend it for anyone interested in that period of history.

 

[krizon]

What was the knot and who sealed it, Red? I assume it tied up some documents or something like that? So, which one did you go for? The magnificently booted Parliamentarians, or the colourful Roundies?

 

[redhead]

The officers on both sides had fantastic boots and lace collars, Kri.

The Parliamentarians wore mostly New Model Army Red but gentlemen and nobility showed their rank with rich lace at their cuffs and colars. Many men wore an orange sash. However, a uniform for the whole army was unheard of, as each regiment "belonged" to a different nobleman, (such as The Earl of Essex Hys Regiment of Foote), who would equip/dress their men as they wished.

The Royalist officers were colourful and wore their hair in long ringlets - very dashing - but the "other ranks", like the Parliamentarians, were dressed pretty much as they would be on a normal day, unless their commander preferred to equip them.

It was so tempting to shout "God save the King!" as all the Roundheads marched by - so I did, and got hissed at by the soldiers and cheered by a lady in costume who was exhorting the locals (also in costume) to go and support their lads who were dying for the King (Stow was Royalist).

(I was the child who shouted "Ban the Bomb!" during the 2-minute silence at the local war memorial - where my father was on parade with the RAF. My mother, by all accounts, walked off in disgust and left me (aged 3-ish). I don't think she ever quite forgave me, but I had obviously taken up the cries of the protestors in town that morning. Looking back, it was an appropriate moment!)

The Sealed Knot was a secret Royalist society of 6 men who were commissioned by King-in-exile Charles II to bring about his restoration to the Throne. The aim of the association was to bring about the restoration totally through the efforts of Royalists, without having to form alliances with foreign powers or other British parties who were opposed to Cromwell's Protectorship.