PEAR TREE LOG

pear tree log: I started this blog to keep my younger son, Jonny, in touch with life in Lincolnshire, while he spent a year working in China. That year turned into five! Now he is home and training to become a physics teacher. This is simply a patchwork quilt of some of the things I enjoy - life in rural Lincolnshire, our animals, friends, architecture, books, the gardens, and things of passing interest.



Saturday 31 December 2011

Going Gently set a Challenge...

Fans of Owl Wood please read!   Going Gently,  here is my two-pennyworth 


10 Things You Don't Know About Me
  • At the age of 15, while living in the Western Isles, I played the part of The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, on a carnival float.  Owl Wood, (he was once a child, shock, horror) was an extremely cute Little Jack Horner, one of my children!  There he is with a peach-coloured hat and a pretty neck bow on his broad white collar.  He was a good sport!  Bribery may have had something to do with it.

  • I cannot tell left from right.  I have tried.  I try every day.  Some days I know I have finally got it figured out.  Those are usually the days when I am dangerously wrong.
  • I used to be quite good at milking cows - by hand.  I love the sweet smell of cows.
  • I won a scholarship to a rather posh high school (they must have been short of applicants).  I used to get straight A's in elocution class.  I was amazingly good at 'Hot coffee from a proper copper coffee pot' and nonsense such as 'Betty Botter bought some butter, but, she said, this butter's bitter, if I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter, so Betty Botter bought some butter better than the bitter butter...' you get the idea.   Such a useful skill!! 
  • My husband and I met on a blind date.  I almost didn't go, because the same couple who organised it had previously set me up with some dreadful man who had spent the evening trying to show me photographs of nude women.    I was not amused and left quite quickly!
  • When I was 16 I fell off a horse and was made to get back on; later it was discovered I had broken two bones in my neck.  I am still passionate about horses, but I don't ride.
  • I cannot ice-skate, I just seem incapable of staying upright.  I dread icy pavements, I have the same problem on them!
  • In my youth I was tickled pink to find that Donovan (remember him?) would be on board the same small light aircraft as my mother and I - disappointingly, he had his wife with him.
  • I used to be able to take shorthand dictation at 200/210 wpm.  No wonder my handwriting is so abysmal these days, my mind is always racing ahead of my longhand writing.
  • On my way home from work, about 12 years ago, I slipped and hurt my ankle.  I sort of knew I had really hurt it.  However, I had slipped in a public place right next to my car, so, being very stupid - stiff upper lip and British - about it, highly embarrassed, I got into the car, assuring kindly  and concerned witnesses that I was fine, then drove home.  It was my left ankle (yes, I am sure about that one - well, if it wasn't the left it was the right..) so I had to press the clutch pedal with it.  Home was 5 miles away, through the middle of town, up dale and down dale (lots of gear changes, hill starts, ouch, ouch)  I made it.  It turned out that it wasn't sprained, it was broken...   Dumbo me!

19 comments:

  1. My, you give new meaning to the phrase "stiff upper lip" with that last one!!

    My Mum couldn't tell her left from her right either. I think I read somewhere that it's a bit like being dyslexic; it's something you just have.

    And I don't blame you for giving up riding. My friend gave up riding two years ago after she was thrown from her horse. She ended up being airlifted to the city hospital with a fractured pelvis, concussion, and a tear in her femoral artery. Fortunately she has healed well (she was 64 at the time!) but it was a long process.

    But I digress. Happy new year, and maybe I will take up the challenge myself. :)

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  2. I too have the right-left deficiency and it's been a life-long embarrassment. I've had to live with the frequent reminder, "No, Mom, your other left."

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  3. Although I don't have trouble with left and right, I'm always getting lost in doctor's offices. I come out of the consulting room and have no clue which way to go. Eventually someone steers me in the right direction. I don't get lost in large spaces, only small ones.

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  4. Happy new year from a fellow non functional left/righter. I can point the proper direction, unless I simultaneously, and proudly, announce it to the person I will be amusing.

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  5. Oh goodness, I can't imagine how painful it must have been to have broken two bones in your neck! That and your ankle!

    Happy new year!

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  6. Happy New Year Knatolee! Take up the challenge!

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  7. Happy New Year Ms Sparrow! It is an embarrassment, I always think it should be as easy as up and down! I suppose the trouble is it is not constant - what is left in one direction becomes right when you turn around!!! etc. etc.

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  8. Happy New Year Jenny! It can be a very confusing world out there! That's an interesting one about small spaces.

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  9. Happy New Year Joanne! I know just what you mean. My most dangerous times are when I am confident - then I feel such a klutz!

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  10. Happy New Year Nilhuanwen! I am quite a 'bull-in-a-china-shop' so it's usually my own fault!

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  11. I love learning about you. And you make everything sound so interesting. It must be the elocution. Sorry you were disappointed that Donavan had his wife with him; I was disappointed when I learned he even HAD a wife. I originally thought he played for my team.

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  12. Mitch you say the sweetest things, and I really appreciate it. Good to know that we both lusted after Donovan! Now, where is that proper, copper, coffee pot?

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  13. oh, I winced when I thought of you pushing in the clutch with a broken ankle! ouch

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  14. It was great knowing you. Thanks for sharing a little more about yourself so I know you better:D I am not surprise that you won the scholarship for elocution:D

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  15. Hello Anon (?Linda), I had the blowers set to cold and my teeth gritted. I wanted to get home and have a cry - so silly, but then I wasn't thinking logically; I suppose I was an injured animal trying to get home.

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  16. Hi Veronica, I look forward to reading many more posts about you, your lovely husband, and your great recipes.

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  17. Ha! I can't say I ever lusted after Donavan. Not really my type. I just thought we shared the same "proclivities" and was disappointed to learn that wasn't the case. Anyway, I have never been mistaken for Mellow Yellow (quite rightly).

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  18. I can only figure out my right from my left by pretending to hold a pen and writing. I know I'm right handed. This would have been a problem if I was ambidextrious.

    When I was 12, I fell off a 17-hand horse when he jumped a ditch after bolting with me. (He stopped when I fell.) My ankle was badly sprained and I refused to get back on -- it wasn't worth the climb. I was back on the same horse 4 weeks later.

    Thanks for the additional insight.

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  19. Hi Janet, You are made of sterner stuff than I, you fell off a skyscraper, well, ok then, a VERY big horse!

    My daughter (a teacher) still tries, to teach me left from right. She watches my struggle, observes my lack of ability, but she doesn't give up! She has taught me lots of little tricks, all of which should be useful, but as soon as I am faced with a left/right decision my mind goes into panic and overdrive.

    Enough of my ramblings though. Happy New Year to you, I hope 2012 is everything you would like it to be.

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