The Dutchman’s Trousers

I thought I may have bragged a bit too much the past two days about all the sunshine that we’d brought with us… today wasn’t looking too flash.

But luckily, there was just enough blue to patch a Dutchman’s trousers!

” Well, that’s a weird thing to say”, I can hear you all saying, but it’s actually a thing. Me Jenny said it to me once and I too looked at her with furrowed brow, but other people have confirmed it on the internet, therefore it must be true…. and there’s a song!

Click here for the You Tube clip

And…. here are the lyrics in case you’d like to sing along…

Dutchman’s Trousers

In the times when I was nothing but a lad,
I never did see much of m’Dad,
Oft’times that was reason to be sad,
For him and m’Granddad too were deep-sea sailors,
But m’Grandmother took me for walks by the sea,
To teach me the ways that the weather can be.
She’d study the sky and say to me:
“There’s just enough blue to patch a Dutchman’s trousers.”

“In the wintertime when the North winds blow,
And the sky takes on a silvery glow,
That’s a certain sign that it’s going to snow.
You must be ready to chip the ice from the rigging,
But if the wind is from the Southwest,
And the spray’s being blow back from the wave’s crest,
Batten down the hatches and hope for the best,
If you’re lucky you’ll see the blue of the Dutchman’s trousers.”

Chorus:
The Pilot gives us a “farewell” hail,
Haul on the halyards of the mainsail,
The wind is steady, there’s a following gale,
With just enough blue to patch a Dutchman’s trousers.

So when I became an Able Hand,
I remembered the lessons that I learned from m’Gran
The mates would call me: “the weather-man,”
On each ship I was the one with the reputation,
Who knew if a breeze or a gale would blow,
When I came on deck from down below
The Skipper would always want to know:
“Will there be enough blue to patch a Dutchman’s trousers?”

Where the saying came from I really don’t know,
The Hollanders used to be our foe,
That was a very long time ago.
For centuries now we’ve sailed the seas together.
From the great Southern Ocean to the Mediterranean,
On a sailing ship or a submarine,
The days are few and far between
When there’s not enough blue to patch a Dutchman’s trousers.

And it turns out that ‘they’ were right, cause this was the sky about an hour later.

This was a little lane off a narrow ‘B’ road we were travelling along. We were taken in by the sign for a “Historic… anything” and also the autumnal leaves. This building at the end looks a bit like a face with a screaming mouth.

It was probably screaming “Get off my lawn, this is private property!”

Today was mainly about getting from A – B using some A roads, some B and a bit of a motorway. Once you’re off the motorway here the roads get smaller/narrower with every letter of the alphabet. I’ve only ever been up to a C road… I think if you hit a D road, you do have to get out of the car and walk sideways.

On our journey west we passed through Oxford… we did a little drive through to have a look at the buildings. We’d been there once before and it was so busy, and confirmed that we are definitely village people rather than big town people.

So much so that tonight we are staying in the small village of Greater Cheverell – in The Old Stables of The Old Rectory.

Nothing new here!