There is no place like home!

There is no place Like Home.

I so love being away and spending time doing things I do not do at home. Last week I cycled around Coniston Water every day. Not a long cycle, only fourteen miles, but a very hilly and hard on the legs cycle.  I remember the route well from my running days. Once a year there is the Coniston 14. My best ever time competing in this run was 1hour 28 minutes.  So you would think it could be cycled in a much faster time. last week my best round trip was 1 hour 10 minutes.

All that just to say the old saying that I often find myself saying, "It is so good to be home."Or as my father used to say, "There is no place like home." 

Amazing how we gather those sayings and never really give much thought to where they come from. Last week I met a good friend who lives in Coniston. he has a habit of touching the table and without saying it he means, "Touch wood all will be well."

I asked him if he knew where that saying came from? He did not. It comes from the times of the crusades when the soldiers in the holy land would be sold a bit of the,  "original cross."  This they would carry in the breast pocket and from time to time touch wood for good fortune. The good fortune of course was for the sellers of the bits of wood. 

Why do brides carry flowers at they're wedding? 

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June.

However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the aroma.

Scotland  is a small land, and land is precious, so  they started running out of places to bury people. 

So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a house and reuse the grave. In reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive. 

So they thought they would tie a string on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell.

Hence on the "graveyard shift", they would know that someone was "saved by the bell" or he was a "dead ringer".

It is amazing just how many of those habits and sayings we have and the source from whence they came. 

One great saying and one worthy of using frequently is the good old Scots one. "Man it is great tae be among freends."  or translated, "It is great to be among friends."

I hope you my friends have a great day and remember, "Every day is a school day."