Here’s a random thought:
I often wonder when I see mums with youngsters in strollers walking along the sidewalk – do they realize that the baby’s face is usually in a direct line to the cars’ exhaust?
A very long time ago when I was 11 years of age I got my first pair of glasses. I was reminded about it recently so thought I’d tell you a wee story. (Don’t panic – it’s short).
I can remember vividly that day. The glasses arrived in the afternoon and immediately my mother told me to put them on. “Oh, mum, you’ve got wrinkles!” I exclaimed.
Her response… “Take them off!!!”
I saw a lot of “firsts” that day – my sister’s freckles, my brother’s burgeoning lip fuzz, the veins on a leaf and the individual petals on the daisy flowers on the lawn – in fact, I even saw the blades of grass. But the thing that fascinated me the most – was the bumblebee. I had never seen the wings before. Oh, I knew instinctively that it must have had wings because it flew, but I’d never seen the wings – never seen how small they were.
From then on the bumblebee became my hero – we shared the same attitude – not supposed to be able to fly….but just watch me! To the point that I stylized the bumblebee as my personal logo and take him with me to remind me that anything is possible (yes, that means I have a discreetly placed tattoo).
Although I must add here, that science has busted the myth about not being able to fly. They are perfectly engineered to fly as, of course, they would be. But at the time, I thought it was a wonderful concept to follow.
What prompted me to write this? An article I read the other day that pesticides are killing honeybee populations worldwide. I have no doubt that it will be affecting my darling bumblebee as well.
If bees on organic farms are not affected…..doesn’t that say something about what the world is doing with the chemicals that are routinely used on farms and in garden centres? The bees in these areas are in a much more vulnerable state.
The world cannot lose the bee – honey or bumble!
I knew at the time I shouldn’t……but it was late, I was tired and coming home with the thought of having to turn around and start cooking dinner just wasn’t doing it for me.
“Shall I get takeaway?”
“No, better not, you know what it does to you”
“But, it’s late, I don’t want to face cooking.”
“Don’t think about it, you know you can have something quick at home.”
“Yeah, but can I be bothered”
– and so the conversation in my head continued
Call me crazy, but I’m picking that you also have, what I call, “monkey chatter” going on in your head when faced with a dilemma ???
So, on the one hand, I had the option of stopping and picking up a burger (yes….a veggie burger) and fries the other option being that I whip up something quick at home. Let me add here that there were no other people involved so it wasn’t as if I had a family meal to get. It was the thought of “whipping up something” that just wasn’t appealing.
Oh, what to do. The trouble with fast food is that it really doesn’t “sit well” in my stomach overnight…nothing dramatic, just end up with a “yuk” feeling but, even knowing this, the little devil in my head was putting up a really good argument and in the end, she just wiped out the angel and forced me to swing the car into the nearest take out restaurant 5 minutes from home.
Mmmmmm, it was good. The parcel was warm and the smell permeated throughout the car (“let’s hope the smell is gone by morning” said one little monkey in my head).
Needless to say, I sat down and polished the lot off – not good – over-ate – feel yuk now – damn, why did I do that?
3.24 a.m. – Nope, just can’t get back to sleep…there’s nothing for it…will get up and have a cup of peppermint tea and see if that settles the tummy.
Oh, and while I’m up – I may as well do some vacuuming, or clean something, or watch a movie……..hey, I know, I’ll write a blog!
Fast food? Please remind me next time…it’s so much better to cook my own.
There are times when I feel so blessed to have been born to the mum and dad that I had – and yes, I do refer to them in the past tense. Being a little girl in the 50s was both a fun time as well as an affluent time.
We lived in a small town on about an acre of land around the house. We had a few fruit trees – the plum tree in particular was a fabulous tree for climbing and sitting in the branches eating the plump fruit. The veggie garden was filled with a wonderful array of delicious produce. Sitting shelling peas was one of the “jobs” we kids had to do, I don’t know how many were either eaten or flicked at each other, but probably more than actually went into the bowl.
Chickens also provided beautiful free range eggs and one would give her life to be part of the Christmas dinner (chicken was actually a real luxury back then). Every so often mum would get meat from a local farmer, usually a few friends would share the meat as the farmer would kill and butcher one animal specifically for them. However, she did go either up to the slaughterhouse which had its own butchery or to the local butcher. I never connected the dots between the animals I saw in the slaughterhouse yards and what we were served.
Mum was really ahead of her time when it came to cooking. She was a great one for creating “new” dishes, experimenting with food, never over cooking and taking inspiration from anyone she met who came from a different culture. Apart from baking, she never used a recipe and very seldom wrote anything down, consequently we very rarely had the same meal twice.
Luckily I have be blessed with my mother’s talent, I also don’t need recipes and can be creative with food. The only difference now is that I don’t have meat of any kind, don’t have the fruit trees or the chickens – I do have a bit of a veggie garden albeit a spit of the size. I have to be careful of the foods I buy, looking at labels etc, and I shop in a supermarket which is very different to going shopping with my mother.
Ah, yes, I have been very blessed to have been born into such a cool family and such a lovely era. But then, if we give our children a warm, fun loving, family orientated home with great (healthy) food and plenty of outdoor play we ensure they will have great childhood memories too – any era is just perfect.
I’m On Bluesky
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