Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

With all my travelling back and forwards this past week, I have had plenty to time to think but not a lot of time on my site. I have had a couple of really serious postings, so I think I would like to have a lighthearted posting today. During this travelling time, I started to put a meme together in my head, so here we have Daisy Lupin's First [sometimes slightly cheeky] Meme. Most of it is a quick trip through the years. I will answer all my questions, dare you? I am not going to tag anyone but let's see how many feel like taking the chance with it. Here goes:-

What was your first childhood pet?
A goldfish called Cleo, she lived for 19 years,yes she was a girl because she once laid eggs.

What was your favourite comic?
Bunty for Girls, an english girls comic, later I also loved Superman comics that my cousin had sent over from America. As a young teenager I adored Petticoat magazine, I thought I was so cool reading it.

What was your favourite childhood book?
The Secret Garden, I think that's what I would choose, though I had so many favourites.

Did you ever have an imaginary friend as a child?
Yes, a boy, he was two years younger than me and called John.



Did you play an instrument as a child?
Yes, I had piano lessons for many years.

What was the first hit single record you bought?
The Young Ones - Cliff Richard [cringe!]

What tune sums up teenage summers?
Yellow Submarine, a silly song but reminds me of my last family summer holiday at Scarborough when I was beginning to think I was too cool to be seen with parents. I must have been 13 or 14.

What was first pop concert you went to?
The Walker Brothers, but amazingly enough Jimi Hendrix was a support act!

Fave teenage TV programme?
Apart from pop music programmes I adored The Monkees as a young teenager

Were you a naughty or a good girl at school?
Well, I was a good girl in my first year at secondary [high] school, but things went downhill from then on. It was a convent school, which I will post about at some time, the rules and regulations were smothering me and I just had to fight against them, so I ended up in some eyes 'naughty' but to me 'individual'.

Miss Popularity, Artsy Pants, weirdo or geek, which of these groups classify you at secondary[high] school?
Very much in the small artsy pants group who were always in trouble for their individualism. See I have always marched to the beat of my own drum.

Girl most likely to [as in year book]?
I would imagine according to the nuns, 'come to a bad end!' but my friends would say 'cary out a crazy idea'.

What colour did you paint your bedroom as a teenager?
Leaf green wall, sunshine yellow paintwork, bright orange curtains. Good day Sunshine room.

Very first paid job ever?
Babysitting, of course

Have you ever been really drunk?
Yes, once in very late teens, flat out on the floor, unable to move, just wanting to sleep there, very very sick, and have never drank Southern Comfort since. [That was what I had been drinking] . The smell of it still makes me shudder.




Did you smoke dope? and if so did you do a Bill Clinton [ smoking but not inhaling]?
Look I was at art college it was the beginnning of the 70's it was all around, of course I did and I inhaled.

A stupid thing you did?
Looking back I get shivers going up and down my spine when I remember how I used to hitch-hike, I have travelled the length and breadth of England with a friend or boyfriend when I was an art student this way. If I thought my daughter had being doing that I would be frantic. How could I have taken such a risk, I could have met the mad axe man!

Left handed or right handed?
Left handed and proud of it.

Should you play a board game with me?
Yes, if we are all friends, no if it is just family, sometimes with family I tend to cheat and cause chaos in board games, but only since the children have grown up, I played correctly with them when they were young.

If you came to visit me what would we do?
Assume it is a lovely sunny day. We would take a ride on a country bus, get off at the stop near the woods and go into them and have a picnic lunch. We would return to the cottage at tea time and have a lovely tea sitting in the garden, then as evening drew on we would open a bottle or two of wine eventually lighting the garden flares, and sit in the warm dark smelling the night fragrance of the flowers and earth talking of how we would sort out the world.





I have also been thinking about those three songs that describe you, that I mentioned a couple of postings ago, which were on Tara's Silver Apples of the Moon, site. I have chosen three that one in title and some lyrics and the other two in lyric I think sum me up at the present time.

1. Still crazy after all these years - Paul Simon
It's mostly the title, I like to think I retain some of my younger self's implusiveness and I know I still have flights of fancy. I see it as a gently comfortable craziness.

2. Ladies of the Canyon - Joni Mitchell
Basically, its the ladies' activities, dress, lifestyle that sum up my aspirations and describe the perfect life. I do enjoy living parts of this lifestyle.

3. Songs from the Woods - Jethro Tull
I don't know how familiar you will be with this. Basically to me it means living in harmony with Nature and using the things both mental and physical that the woods can give to you. I have printed the lyrics below.



Songs from the wood
Let me bring you songs from the wood:
To make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
It’ll make of you an honest man.
Let me bring you love from the field:
Poppies red and roses filled with summer rain.
To heal the wound and still the pain
That threatens again and again
As you drag down every lovers lane.
Life’s long celebrations here.
Ill toast you all in penny cheer.
Let me bring you all things refined:
Galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale.
Greetings well met fellow, hail!
I am the wind to fill your sail.
I am the cross to take your nail:
A singer of these ageless times.
With kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
Songs from the wood make you feel much better.
[copyright Ian Anderson/ Jethro Tull]

Update on the Mother front before I go. She is still in the care home, by Friday, yesterday, no one had been to see her or assess her, she is still in pain, but she was a lot more talkative and kept a more or less cheerful conversation up and fully realises she will have to live somewhere different, and we discussed various options. I have got my Mother to understand that now I am just waiting for a social worker to assess and start the red tape machine moving. Have also made it clear I am keeping a tight watch on what is happening.

Don’t forget to join in Daisy Lupins’
Halloween Ghost Story Posting
Post a ghost story, something strange that happened
To you or a tale you want to tell
On 31st October, or as near to before
As possible.
Let’s have a Giant Story Circle

Have some fun
Coming soon in early November
Daisy Lupin’s stream of consciousness game
Pick one of the words or phrases
Let it take you where it will, Go with it,
See where you end up, then post it on your site.
Come on, join in, let’s ramble