Yes, friends, do YOU ever feel sorry for the beans you get out of your tin? Who knows, after all, what those little guys went through, before Heinz or whoever stuffed them into that round-to-roundish bit of metalwork!
At least those beans are getting some apologies now, if a little grudging (!), for what they've been subjected to during Britain's imperial past, according to the local Onion News for East Hampshire, with even some of those apologies now coming from the mighty BBC no less !!!!!
Poor beans !!!!!
Did you see the story? My light-to-moderate wife Lois and I thought it was a bit shameful of Onion News to "bury" the story a bit, way back on p.94. Has the Onion been mistreating beans itself - maybe in some kind of horrible caramelised stew, maybe? I think we should be told!
Forgive the 'foodie' joke there, won't you, but what a crazy world we live in !!!!
The story nevertheless gives Lois and me a bit of a chuckle this morning, however, because it's our turn to be "mean to a bean" (!), now it's well and truly autumn again,
The reason is because after our daily walk over Old Man Lowsley's Farm, near our home in Liphook, Hampshire, listening to the birdsong etc, Lois invites me to take down her "wigwams".
And no, that isn't a euphemism - I'm talking bean-poles here!
Well Lois's beans have certainly had a good "run" this year [no pun intended!!!!], to put it mildly!
They've produced so much we've even had to literally give some of those little blighters away, either to neighbours or to our 50-year-old daughter Alison and family, who live just 5 miles away in semi-rural Churt, just over the county line in nearby Surrey - what madness!!!
flashback to earlier today: Lois and I take our daily walk, today over Old Man Lowsley's Farm,
listening to the dunnocks etc, before I use my muscles to take down Lois's bean-poles and plants
Poor beans (again) !!!!!!
Pulling those poles down is a lot of fun, as it is every autumn, but the rest of today turns out to be more hectic even that that, would you believe!.
Nine months after moving to Liphook, Hampshire, our old dear home in Malvern Worcestershire remains unsold, but maybe not for much longer, because a young couple, Sophie and George, are on the point of committing to buy it. At last the prospect of paying off our humongous bridging loan has appeared on the horizon, which will be nice. Today, however, I have to work out our family finances and send a report to our lenders - busy busy busy!!!
(left and centre) our dear former home in Malvern, Worcestershire, still unsold
after 9 months, and (right) our current home in Liphook, Hampshire
What madness isn't it !!!!
At least we can look forward tonight to the third and final programme in Welsh comedian Rob Brydon's enjoyable series Honky Tonk Road Trip in the American South, which is nice.
In Alabama, we see the African-American neighbourhood where Elvis was the only white kid, growing up. For his 11th birthday he wanted a rifle from the local hardware store to go hunting and help his family out by putting food on the table, only to be told that that was too dangerous - the end result being that they bought him a guitar there instead.
We also see the Sun Studios, founded by Sam Phillips, where Elvis and lots of other singers cut their first records, including Johnny Cash. In tonight's programme, Rob meets Sam's son Jerry and talks about those days, and his dad's first meeting with the young Johnny Cash.
Yes, apparently, being more sinful was the key to Cash's later success as a singer-songwriter.
But what kind of sinning did Johnny Cash go and do, exactly? I think we should be told, don't you?!!!
All we know is that, after sinning, Cash came back to Sun Studios with the song, "Hey Porter" - and here's the last verse, which suggests that Cash's new sinfulness might have had something to do with jumping the queue to get off the train, do you think?
Certainly, here in the UK, you can't imagine a worse sin than jumping a queue, can you (!).
I wonder....!
In Nashville Rob drops by the Bluebird Cafe, where Taylor Swift was first discovered as a 14-year-old, and he meets one of today's country music stars, Lainey Wilson. Brought up on a farm outside the small town of Baskin, Louisiana, she's now a Grammy winner.
And Lainey, with her memories of childhood down on the farm, soon has Our Rob (and Lois and me!) "tearing up". Awwww !!!!
And Lainey talks about the inspiration that little job gave her, which makes Rob get even more emotional. Well he's raised two daughters himself, just like Lois and me.
Lois and I are waiting to hear Lainey's song "Those Boots", but I guess there's no time for that - here's one of the verses, however, to give you a rough idea!
At this point in the interview, Rob starts to feel totally overcome by his emotions and he tells the camera crew to look away.
Poor Rob!!!
And poor Lois and me - sob, sob!!! We also brought up two daughters, now middle-aged. And you certainly know you're old when your children start to hit their 50's, that's for sure !!!!
When the programme finishes, Lois and I spend some time recalling those days long ago, when we four were the centre of the universe. Happy days !!!!!
flashback to 1990: Lois and me with our daughters Alison (15)
and Sarah (13), in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,
when we four were the centre of the universe
One of my fondest memory of Alison, our elder daughter, is one which she doesn't remember because she was too young, She and I, both inveterate early risers (still are!), I remember how she liked to sit on my lap at the breakfast table, when I was eating my boiled egg or whatever, before I disappeared to work, while Lois and Sarah would still have been snoring happily away upstairs.
flashback to 1980: our elder daughter Alison, riding
her bike down the pavement near our home in Cheltenham
- happy days !!!!!
Pass the tissues haha!
Will this do?
[Oh, just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!