Debatable Lands and Debatable Times

[steepholm]

Last night I realised that the time between now and the end of October sits in the same place in my brain as the Forest of Dean. Both are filed under 'A' for Anomaly.

You see, the River Severn isn't the border between Wales and England all along its length (as I feel instinctively that it ought to be), and I always seem to forget this fact. When I find large swathes of Gloucestershire on the western bank, it makes me uneasy, with a whiff of the Reek of Wrongness.

It's the same with the calendar. In March, the clocks go forward at the time of the equinox (well, within 5-10 days of it), a more-or-less simultaneous signal that we have eased from winter to summer. This, I feel, is as it should be. In autumn it's a very different story, and we have to wait about six weeks after the equinox before the clocks change. What am I to do with the resultant temporal liminality?

I don't say that either of these feelings is important, but I wonder if anyone else shares them?

Comments

[hoodcp.wordpress.com]

My son feels the same about the River Severn being the boundary. It gets interesting once you get to my furusato of Shrewsbury since so much of the town would be split between England and Wales. I guess technically both bridges would need to become either the Welsh Bridge or the English bridge depending on your point of view.

I also suspect that the north of Wales wouldn't appreciate becoming a part of England! 😂😂😂

[steepholm]

Good point! I should add that my feelings taper off, much as the river does, the further north you go. Shrewsbury does seem like a border town in some ways - as in the famous old ordinance about shooting Welshmen after 6pm. (My Anglo-Welsh family came from there and from Wrexham.)

[steepholm]

Or was the shooting-Welshman thing Chester? I have relatives there, too...

[heleninwales]

I think it was Chester. There's a Welsh saying that means getting up at the crack of dawn which is "Codi cyn cwn Caer" (getting up before the dogs of Chester), which I think is supposed to date back to that law about being able to shoot Welshmen.

[steepholm]

Interesting!

[cmcmck]

Shropshire's on both sides too! Ironbridge on one side and Broseley on the other. Same with Buildwas and Much Wenlock.

[steepholm]

Yes, mine is very much a south-Severn mind maggot.

[ashkitty]

I'd like to just skip the clocks going back again at all (also it's 24 degrees here, so I can't say that autumn feels especially imminent). But I can't be bothered with what early mornings look like, and want the evenings to stretch on as long as I can make them.

[ashkitty]

Seconding that; I learned it as being from Chester as well, though things are known to move around.

[ethelmay]

Sounds like sundown towns in the US!

[steepholm]

It is (or was) exactly like that!

[steepholm]

You can fiddle at either end, but the basic problem is days getting shorter.