Welcome to A Garden Variety Blog!

Although my neighbors are all barbarians,
And you, you are a thousand miles away,
There are always two cups on my table.
--Tang Dynasty


I hope you, whomever you are,
will sit down "with" me for tea,
or flavored coffee or spiced cider,
and have a garden variety chat.
Now and then.
I am not so consistant about blogging
as I ought to be.
I *am* consistant about
drinking hot beverage
and the coffee/tea is always on the hob.

Come on in!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Beating the Bounds Day

Yes, Bounds, not a typographical error meant to be pounds! LOL!

Today is Beating the Bounds Day.

"The custom of 'beating the bounds' has existed in Britain for well over 2000 years. Precise origins are unclear although it can be found as part of ritual celebration within many different cultures across Europe and beyond. In simple terms it involves people in the locality perambulating their farm, manorial, church or civil boundaries pausing as they pass certain trees, walls and hedges that denote the extent of the boundary to exclaim, pray and ritually 'beat' particular landmarks with sticks. Certain stones, trees or other marker points around the boundary would also be beaten by literally bumping a boy (often a choirboy) against the mark. The boy would be suspended upside down and his head gently tapped against the stone."

I thought about walking the boundaries of our 2 acres just to celebrate the day. But our 2 acres is FULL of greenbrier, and I don't want to fight it. Besides that, I don't have any boys to tap on any stones I find. Larry is being very pleasant right now, so I don't even want to bang his head on a tree or stone. LOLOL! Can't you just see all us lady walkers, chugging around our properties shouting and beating trees with sticks? Ah well. My smile for the morning before I go out and beat the bounds of my 1/8 mile long gravel two track driveway......