Cats I Have Known

 

Cats

Cats sleep, anywhere,
Any table, any chair
Top of piano, window-ledge,
In the middle, on the edge,
Open drawer, empty shoe,
Anybody's lap will do,
Fitted in a cardboard box,
In the cupboard, with your frocks-
Anywhere! They don't care!
Cats sleep anywhere.

Eleanor Farjeon

 "Quick! quick! ...

Quick!   quick!

    The cat's been sick.

Where?   where?

    Under the chair.

Hasten!   hasten!

    Fetch the basin.

Alack!   alack!

    It is too late,

The carpet's in

    An awful state.

No!   no!

    It's all in vain,

For she has licked it

    Up again.

By Anonymous

 

We have teenage cats, sisters Poco and Brio (odd but musical names). They are 17 now, and according to Purina UK, that's equivalent to 84 human years. They have slowed down a bit and spend most of their day asleep in the warmest spot available. They no longer hunt, so no more rescuing tiny mice cowering inside shoes in the porch. Arthritis seems to be a problem for Poco, who doesn't find jumping easy these days. Brio, on the other hand, can still be quite a kitten given a ping pong ball to play with, but sadly is going deaf.

 

I've lived with cats for most of my life. The first one, when I was growing up, was named Oedipus, I think by my sister, but from day one was known as 'The Pussy'! She was cosseted by my parents with fresh fish, best minced beef and calf's liver and slept in the airing cupboard in their bedroom. My dad was heartbroken when she died.

 

Then along came Tuppence, a big, beautiful silver tabby who was born in a neighbour's garage. He was a character and lived to be 18. He went blind towards the end of his life, so became a house cat. His best friend was a large, handsome Airedale Terrier called Nelson who lived down the street. I was heart broken when he died. 

We were told, in no uncertain terms by a vet at the RSPCA in Bradford when we 'rescued' Poco and Brio, "These cats will eat dry biscuits and drink water - nothing else." We've stuck to that regime and it seems to have been good advice. No calf's liver and fresh cream for them, although Poco has a penchant for Brio's sicked-up breakfast!

 

Writing prompts:

• Describe the place where you usually sleep, using all your senses.
• Imagine you are a cat and write about your day.
• Write about a pet you have known. 
• If someone cosseted you what would you love them to feed you?
  

'The Sound of Music'

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This year marks the 60th anniversary of the film 'The Sound of Music.' I remember going to see it when it was released, I think at the Gaumont Cinema in Bradford when I was nine years old. I loved it, and still do. 

My friends went to see it too and afterwards we spent our playtimes adopting the roles of the von Trapp girls:  Liesl, Louisa, Brigitta, Marta or Gretl and singing 'Do-Re-Mi' as best we could. Recently I've enjoyed singing some of the songs from the film in my choir. 

Click here to read more about how the 60th anniversary is being celebrated in Salzburg, the location for the film and where the true story of the von Trapps also took place.

Click here for interviews with the actors who played the von Trapp children. 

Click here and here for video clips from the film. 

Writing prompts:

• 'Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens' - make a list of your 'favourite things' then choose one to write about in more detail for a few minutes.
• Can you remember being 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen'? Set a timer for six minutes and write about your experience of being that age.
• Have you got memories of going to the cinema as a child? If so, recall them in your writing.
• Write about your favourite film.
  

 

A Drop of Water

 

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"Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water."
Dōgen

"In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence."
Kahlil Gibran Jr.

Writing prompts:

• Look around you and write about the 'innumerable wondrous features' of something you can see right now, in your room.
• Now choose a distant mountain or ocean that you have visited (in reality, or in your imagination) and describe it in your writing using all your senses..
  

'Happy and Beautiful Crocus'

 

"Soon as the frost will get out of my bed,
From this cold dungeon to free me,
I will peer up with my little bright head;
All will be joyful to see me.

Then from my heart will young petals diverge,
As rays of the sun from their focus;
I from the darkness of earth will emerge,
A happy and beautiful crocus.

Gaily array'd in my yellow and green,
When to their view I have risen,
Will they not wonder that one so serene
Came from so dismal a prison?

Many, perhaps, from so simple a flower
This little lesson may borrow —
Patient to-day, through its gloomiest hour,
We come out the brighter to-morrow.

from Hannah Flagg Gould's Crocus poem 'The Crocus's Soliloquy'

A colourful river of crocuses surrounds the green in Wyke, near my home. It's a spectacular sight and guaranteed to raise one's spirits, especially when seen in the Spring sunshine. 

The crocus is a symbol of hope for this poet.

Writing prompts:

• Set a timer and write for six minutes about your 'gloomiest hour.'
• Do you agree with the poet that if you are 'patient' through difficult times you will come out brighter in the end? Can adversity make us stronger? Write about it. 
• Like the crocus, what else is a symbol of hope for you? Explore this in your writing.
  

Poetry Survives Uncertain Times

 'Whatever happens, laughter survives.

Whatever happens, birdsong survives.

Whatever happens, poetry survives.'

Ian McMillan

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Covid pandemic. There were events all over the UK to mark the anniversary. Click here to find out more.  

We were entering uncertain times in March 2020. I was just a few days away from becoming very ill with the virus, but as writer Michael Rosen reminds us, in his haunting poem written for the anniversary, many lost their lives to Covid. Click here for his poem.  

None of us could have predicted just how huge the pandemic would become, nor for how long its repercussions would last. Long Covid remains.

A degree of uncertainty still exists today. We're no longer battling Covid, but who knows how events across the globe will pan out in the coming weeks and months? In a message to mark Commonwealth Day,  King Charles is to call for unity and building bridges in what he describes as "these uncertain times" of international tension.

Uncertainty is stressful and unsettling, so it's comforting to remind ourselves of those things that remain stable and predictable. This spring, daffodils will bloom, lambs will be born, leaves will begin to appear on trees, the sun will continue to rise each morning and my baby grandson will chuckle when he sees me again.

It was good to see poet Mark Douglas (above) out in sunshine of Hebden Bridge this afternoon, offering his 'four-minute' poems to visitors. As fellow poet Ian McMillan reminds us this week, poetry is one of the things that we can rely upon to survive these uncertain times. 

Writing prompts:

• Set a timer for six minutes and write about your experience of the Covid pandemic.
• Do you think we live in uncertain times? Write about how you feel about what is happening globally right now.
• Apart from laughter, birdsong and poetry, what do you think will survive, whatever happens? Make a list. 
• Set your timer for four minutes and write a poem about Spring.
  

Mad As A March Hare

 

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Hares at Play
The birds are gone to bed, the cows are still,
And sheep lie panting on each old mole-hill;
And underneath the willow's gray-green bough,
Like toil a-resting, lies the fallow plough.
The timid hares throw daylight fears away
On the lane's road to dust and dance and play,
Then dabble in the grain by naught deterred
To lick the dew-fall from the barley's beard;
Then out they sturt again and round the hill
Like happy thoughts dance, squat, and loiter still,
Till milking maidens in the early morn
Jingle their yokes and sturt them in the corn;
Through well-known beaten paths each nimbling hare
Sturts quick as fear, and seeks its hidden lair.

by John Clare 

 All things that love the sun are out of doors;
The sky rejoices in the morning's birth;
The grass is bright with rain-drops;—on the moors
The hare is running races in her mirth;
And with her feet she from the plashy earth
Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun,
Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.

 from 'Resolution and Independence' by William Wordsworth

We may have disturbed a boxing match this afternoon. As we cycled past a long, wide field, near Pickering, over the hedge we saw two beautiful, nut brown hares. After giving us a cursory glance, they fled, at speed. 

I've been fortunate enough to see a hare almost every day this week while out and about around Normanby. They are very busy at this time of year as it's the breeding season. If you spot them boxing, the chances are that a reluctant female is fighting off a too-persistent male. Click here and here to find out more.

Much folklore is attached to hares. Click here to find out more and listen to folk music featuring the hare.   

There's a history of hares being linked to the moon, with 'moon-gazing' hares a symbol of fertility.  I was given a moon-gazing hare for my 50th birthday!

Hares feature in stories. As a child one of my favourites was 'Little Grey Rabbit's Birthday' by Alison Uttley in which Hare finds it hard to keep secret a surprise birthday party. 

Click here to read Aesop's fable about the hares and the frogs and here to read 'The Hare and the Tortoise.'

Read about a real-life treasure hunt for a golden hare in 'Masquerade' by Kit Williams. 

Writing prompts:

• Write about a time when, like the 'timid hare' in John Clare's poem, you were able to 'throw daylight fears away', then 'dance and play'?
• Have you ever found it hard to keep a secret? Write about what happened. 
• Write a poem about the most beautiful animal you have ever seen.
  

 

'Glad That I Live Am I'

 

  "Glad that I live am I;
That the sky is blue;
Glad for the country lanes
And the fall of dew.
After the sun the rain,
After the rain the sun;
This is the way of life,
Till the work be done.
All that we need to do,
Be we low or high,
Is to see that we grow,
Nearer the sky."

We used to sing this song (or is it a hymn?) when I attended Thornbury Infants' School in Bradford. The tune has stuck, as those from childhood do.

It came into my head today while I was out walking high up on Caulkleys Bank in North Yorkshire, above Nunnington Hall and the River Rye.

It was a beautiful day and really felt like Spring, with sunshine, blue skies and snowdrops in abundance. I was entirely alone, singing as I walked along and these words from Lizette Woodworth Reese seemed quite apt. I felt very near to the sky. 

If you click on the videos, you'll see where I was. You may want to turn down the sound as there is a lot of noise from the wind. Don't forget either to click on the hyperlinks I insert into all my posts for extra information. 

I would welcome any feedback re my blog, either via the comments box below, or my email:

judith.boardman@gmail.com

Writing Prompts:

• I felt lucky and privileged to be outdoors today, enjoying nature. Such times lift the spirits. Write about the last time you enjoyed being outdoors and how it made you feel.
• What makes you glad that you live? Maybe make a list of all the things that come to mind, then choose one to write about in more detail.
• Perhaps there are times when you are not glad to be alive.  If so, and you are able, set a timer for six minutes and write about such a time.