St George’s Day

English Reserve has gone too far
Been stifled for too long
Been closeted behind closed doors
The tight lipped English Song
That’s never sung; that’s never said
That fails to rear its head
To even stop just for a day
And paint the town so red
To celebrate the saint, Saint George
The knight who dragon slay
Upholding his faith to the end
To walk the Christian way
The man whose legend goes beyond
A story to a realm
A kingdom that unites all else
To stand right at the helm
The land who green and pleasant lands
Have paved through history
A reason to shout out about
My England; great country!

Today, April 23rd is St George’s day, England’s national day.  Usually a low key event, this year (2014) national pride is being promoted with celebrations around the country to mark its Patron saint whose feast day has been on this day since 1350.

Flag of England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Slumberbell

At the bottom of the garden
Upon the ancient well
A black cat sits a mewing
With a story now to tell
About a little fairy
All dressed in silver threads
And her mythical folklore magic
That children cherish in their heads

For every single evening
When the moon and stars shine bright
She visits each and every child
To help them through the night
For as they shut their sleepy eyes
She sprinkles them with sand
A fairy dust with mystic powers
Visions of distant lands

Then as her dustings settle
She promises them that she’ll
Return to them in morning
With a treat to make them feel
So good about the fact
That they stayed right in their beds
And slept all sound, right through the night
With sweet dreams as sleepyheads

And then when sun arises
She will once again return
And leave her promised offering
For each good child in turn.
And then she’ll vanish in the daytime
As children start to tell
The story of this fairy
That they know as ‘Slumberbell’.

When my children were little we used to tell them the story of Slumberbell to encourage them to sleep in their beds knowing they were safe and sound. In the morning, if they were still there, rather than all four children being crammed into our bed a bit like “10 in a bed”, they would wake up to find a little chocolate mouse in a fairy sized tin under their pillow and so Slumberbell became a much loved fairy in our house!

Audio visual available at http://youtu.be/5FG1xlIgtsU