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Tuesday 30 August 2016

H stands for HUMPTY DUMPTY

HUMPTY DUMPTY.......sat on a wall,

  Humpty Dumpy had a great fall,

  All the king's horses and all the kings men,

All the kings horses and all the kings men.

 couldn't put HUMPTY together again.  







HUMPTY DUMPTY ......

Is really a character and literary allusion,

  He has appeared,  or been referred to  in many works, including Lewis Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass'.

  He is typically portrayed as an 'anthropomorphic' egg.


(Anthropomorphic:  Having human characteristics or ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things.)


In 1996 the Colchester Tourist  Board's website revealed, after years of research that  HUMPTY DUMPTY  was in fact a giant cannon which was colloquially known as HUMPTY DUMPTY.



Colchester Castle.
town centre.

Colchester was a walled town with a castle and several churches and was protected by a city wall.

HUMPTY DUMPTY  (the giant cannon) was strategically placed on the wall to protect the town from the enemy. However a shot from a Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath HUMPTY DUMPTY,  causing the cannon to tumble to the ground.

The Royalists or Cavaliers ("All the King's Men") couldn't put HUMPTY together again.

The story goes that attempts to raise the giant cannon again proved impossible.


HEARTFELT thanks to Denise for devising ABCW, to Roger our HARD working administrator, Also to Leslie, who with many others, HUGELY HELP the smooth running of ABCW meme.
Best wishes to all,
 Di.
ABCW team, xxx.

 


Tuesday 9 August 2016

E-for Equestrian.

I love horses and all that is involved in the Equine world.

 I have been sitting in my favourite reclining chair just wracking my brains for a suitable subject, then...... Lo and behold.... Before my very eyes....on TV the coverage of the Equestrian Events in the 2016 Olympics Games.......Inspiration at last!

One of the British entrants competing in the dressage section.
Horses have been used through the ages for many purposes. When I was a child we used to have our freshly baked bread delivered daily by a large covered cart drawn by a huge shire horse called Bob we used to give him a large juicy apple off one of our Grandpa's trees. When the Cart horse had finished his deliveries Grandpa would diligently follow in the horse's big clodding shoe steps and shovel the loads of steaming horse manure into a bucket, he then would spread it around the garden on his various fruit and vegetable plants and particularly on his prize winning rhubarb. Needless to say my brother and I would not eat the lovely rhubarb pies our granny used to produce.

Shire Horse similar to Bob the Bread Horse.

In the UK we have many Police Horses that are used in crowd control at sporting events and protecting and escorting Royalty etc. Our Equine friends are also used in many sports including the most famous of all Horse Races; Where I live the world famous Grand National is staged annually at the Aintree Race Course.

 The famous horse called Red Rum who was from Liverpool and was trained on the wonderful beaches going from Liverpool up to the Lancashire seaside. 

               Red Rum won the Grand National three times.



Red Rum cantering along Formby Beach, during his daily training




Red Rum's Grave at Aintree Race Course.



My sincere thanks to the Enchanting Denise who devised ABCW, also to the administrator Roger who in his Endearing way, has Encouraged us all, and along with help from Leslie whose Erudition has helped Each one of us to keep contributing to this Excellent and most interesting Blog site.  Last, but not least the team of helpers who work with Exactitude in helping  with the visits to other sites.

Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.















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