I wouldn’t say that things went from bad to worse, more from ‘doh’ to ‘wha’?’ As reported earlier I had been busy getting ready and baking for my Gaelic class… only to discover it’s next week…
http://loiselden.com/2013/02/02/i-despair-of-myself/
…never mind, I had the visit of my dear friends to look forward to in the afternoon; they were coming with parents for a cup of tea and I’d made the cake, found the serviettes and taken out the best china.
Nick and Celia were having a meeting on the other side of town but would drop in for tea on their way home… then Celia rang. Their car had broken down and they were having to wait a couple of hours for the rescue service to turn up and she suggested I joined them for a cup of tea and a chat at the hotel where their meeting had been.
I put the cake in a box to give them to take home and set off; I arrived at the hotel and found the rescue service had turned up and was charging the battery of Nick’s car which was flat. Nick is a real car person, so it was bad luck that his battery was playing up. I headed to the hotel to have tea with Celia; she poured a cup and we were just settled to chat when there was Nick beckoning us to come; the battery was charged enough to get to a garage to buy a new one. The rescue van would follow him in case he had a problem, if I could lead the way.
Now, I knew where we were, and I knew where the garage was, but the only way that I knew to get there was round the headland, into town, along the seafront, down the Boulevard, past Tesco’s over the Hildersheim Bridge, along the Winterstoke Road… a long and circuitous route. Long and circuitous it may have been, but I got us there and the new battery was bought and the lad came to fix it. As I mentioned, Nick is very keen on cars, and to have someone else messing with his motor… and then part of it was broken… and it took an hour to fix…
So later, back home and with a cup of tea in the best cups with a slice of cake, we agreed it was indeed a very strange day.
Lois Elsden 
Oh dear, well you got to your tea and cake in the end… But yes, there is something special about Feb 2: this side of the Atlantic it is Groundhog Day, the day when we learn whether spring will come early or late depending on whether the rodent doesn’t or does see his shadow. Various communities have their designated groundhog and a ceremony, and of course the media spread the prediction far and wide. According to the two eastern Canadian fellas, spring will be early; according to the American one in the eastern states, it will be late. Hah! I guess the warmth will stop flat at the border….
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What is a groundhog? I’ve heard the phrase but didn’t realise it was a real creature! Supposing he’s short-sighted, how would you know whether he sees his shadow?
What a lovely tradition!
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He’s a woodchuck, who hibernates. Folklore says he staggers out of his den beg. February and if he sees his shadow that means 6 more weeks of winter so presumably he goes right back to sleep. No shadow means less than 6 weeks to spring. For the full craziness of the thing, checkt http://www.visitwiarton.ca & meet Wiarton Willie and read all about his annual festival. (Wiatrton is a town at the south end of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, fabulous place for hiking and nature incl. some very rare species of orchid)
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Gosh, I never realised!
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So here’s the pub game, best played after a round or two. You have to chant the woodchuck tongue twister Q&A, as quickly as possible, stomping out the rhythm.
“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
“The woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could…. [dramatic pause] … IFFFF … a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
OK, enough rodents!
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I must try it!!
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