Monday 7 May 2012

In And Out The Shady Bluebells


Do you remember the game In And Out The Shady Bluebells? We used to play it in the playground at school. All the children stand in a circle holding hands in the air to make arches whilst one child skips around the circle and through the arches whilst everyone sings:-

In and out the shady bluebells
In and out the shady bluebells
In and out the shady bluebells
Who shall be the leader?

The child doing the skipping then chooses a child in the circle and stands behind her tapping her on the shoulders whilst everyone sings:-

Tap a rap a rap her on the shoulders
Tap a rap a rap her on the shoulders
Tap a rap a rap her on the shoulders
She shall be the leader.

The child who has been tapped on the shoulders then joins the front of the line skipping round the circle, whilst the rest of the skippers follow behind her and so it goes on until there's a long line of skippers and not enough children to form a circle anymore.

We had a lovely evening walk last week in the local woods where all the bluebells are now in flower.


Archie loves walking in these woods, which are only a few minutes away from where we live, as there's lots of lovely smells for him to sniff out.


As well as bluebells, there's also ramsons, or wild garlic in flower at the moment. I've seen quite a few recipes on blogs which use wild garlic in them, though I've never tried it myself.


The forecast over the bank holiday weekend wasn't up to much, but I'm pleased to say that it turned out to be a lovely sunny, warm day yesterday, and it's started off much the same today.


I think I'll take Archie back to the woods whilst the weather holds up.

15 comments:

  1. Thank you for this lovely post.

    I am DESPERATE to go to the Bluebell wood.

    Hoping to feel better soon so I can!

    Sft x

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  2. Yes, I played that in my childhood. Thanks for the memories. We went walking through bluebells yesterday .... the highlight of spring for me!
    xxx

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  3. I don't remember that, we sang in and out the dusty windows to that tune though.
    Hope you managed to get out, our bluebells were pretty thin on the ground when we discovered some today.
    Lisa x

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  4. Aww bluebells bring to me soo many memories...Just love this time of year....Happy Monday!

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  5. I had completely forgotten that game until you prompted my memory. Now I'm trying to remember some of the other games we played from my childhood... I wonder if any of them have survived? Jx

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  6. Hi Jo, this brought back memories of when I was a child and you could legally still pick the bluebells and bring them home! The bluebell wood we went to was at Cutsyke near Castleford, I'm not even sure it is still there.Arent they just gorgeous?

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  7. There's nothing so enchanting as walking through a wood carpeted with bluebells............I remember the game well, althouh for some reason we sang 'In and out the scottish bluebells' in these parts........Archie looks like he's having so much fun on his woodland walk. xx

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  8. I remeber that song.. I don't thinks any of my kids ever heard this..I will sing it for them tonight...beautiful flowers!!

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  9. We sang - In and out the dusty bluebells and the chorus was - Tippety, tappety on my shoulder.
    Funny how words change over time and in different areas.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  10. There are so many bluebells! The wood looks attractive... :-)

    When I was a child, we used to spend many hours playing games like this but I wonder whether also children of today would be interested in them. There are so many possibilities nowadays how to spend time.

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  11. Lovely, and it sure looks like Archie is enjoying himself! Flighty xx

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  12. Never heard that song here but I have to laugh at my granddaughter who in her Christmas program sang, "Up on the roof top reindeers pause, out jumps poodle santa clause."

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  13. Thank you for all your lovely comments.

    It seems that there are many variations of the song. I wonder if the game is still played in playgrounds today.

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  14. Wonderful bluebells! And lucky you getting some sunshine!
    Our version was a little different, we sang "dusty" bluebells instead for some reason around here!
    Thanks for sharing Jo!

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  15. It was a lovely day again today, Gill, but it's spoilt itself by raining. I'm hoping that we get some more sunshine soon.

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