Greetings, Poetry Lovers!
I had a special treat last Sunday, when I headed "north" to Charleston to meet up with the multi-talented and all-around wonderful Jone Rush MacCulloch, who was visiting this side of the world from Oregon. She and her hubby Chuck & I enjoyed some tasty food at a new Charleston gem, The Honey Hive. We solved all the world's problems and enjoyed catching up.
My good day continued right on, as my daughter Morgan and her college girlfriends had met up in Charleston for a girls' weekend, and I got to see them briefly later! Morgan is expecting, and did you know there's a three-floor baby store downtown there? I didn't either. Very dangerous.
But back to Jone, and weaving these two things together slightly.... Jone and I share a love of Scotland (Ireland, too!), and ancestral connections for our families. I blogged about our family trip there in the summer of 2018. Jone had planned to go in 2020, but - alas, the pandemic squelched that. She is planning a fantabulous-sounding trip there this summer, and I'll be vicariously sneaking back....
Anyway, since Jone and Chuck and I didn't really solve the world's problems, and they've gotten horrifically worse since the weekend, I thought I'd offer something light as a tiny respite today. I have a book of Scottish Nursery Rhymes from the early 1930s. Really, they are songs, with music for piano. But they can work as poems, too. (FIFTY TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH NURSERY RHYMES, Collected, edited and arranged for Voice & Paino by Alfred Moffat, Augener Ltd., London.)
Here's one in honor of Jone and her upcoming trip, and in honor of wee ones.
(Note - a "kirtel" is a skirt, and a "kirk" is a church.)
WHEN I WAS A WEE THING
Air: Lennox love to Blantyre.
When I was a wee thing
Just eight or nine years auld,
I hadn't any petticoat
To keep me frae the cauld.
So I went into Edinbro'
That bonnie burrows toun,
And there I bought a petticoat,
A kirtel, and a goun.
And as I hameward wended
I thought I'd build a kirk,
And a' the birdies o' the air
They helpit me to work.
The herring was the high priest,
The salmon was the clerk,
The bullfinch played the organ
All in my bonnie kirk!
Speaking of birds and last week's post, I was only able to count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count on Saturday and Sunday, but it's always such a great thing to do. For the first time I tried the "ID by Sound" feature of the Merlin bird app, and - Oh my goodness - I'm hooked! I plan to use it to further develop my birding-by-ear skills.
Our wonderful Tricia has this week's Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Thanks for hosting, Tricia!