Cow pats on the football field...........

A day off and what am I doing? Well actually I am sitting here listening to music and relaxing! I do feel I deserve it, though, as I have been working most of last week and all over the weekend.
I do wonder how people, years ago, used to spend their days off work? I have been trying to think back to when I was younger, and what my parents did. Thirty years ago....okay, ha ha, maybe forty years ago.....shops were not open as long as they are today. Most women who had children did not work, and most men worked during the week and maybe a Saturday morning. School children did not have teacher training days, and I cannot recall as many school holidays as now, but then maybe that is my selective memory? So what do I remember about the days we spent as a family? My father mowing the lawn while my mother sat in the sunshine on a bench and my brother and I played 'tents'. Picnics at Bradbury Rings, before it was hacked about and had the archaeological dig, with lots of other friends and families. Swimming in the sea at Bournemouth Beach, and making sandcastles in the sand. Oh and eating sandwiches that always, somehow, managed to have grains of sand in them however careful you thought you were being! Visiting other aunts and uncles and playing with my cousins. Sitting in the car on cold windy days with my mother, watching my father play in his amateur football team. One great moment springs to mind of my mother, my aunt and myself sitting in the car when we ended up surrounded by a herd of cows who then decided it would be great to rub themselves up and down the side of the car. The resulting shrieks from all of us as the car rocked from side to side makes me giggle now....and yes my father's football team played in all sorts of open areas, and usually had to dodge the cow pats on the pitch! I also remember, at the end of our Saturdays out, sitting together in front of our new Parkray fire eating hot crumpets and watching the football results and then Dr Who.
All of this makes me realise what wonderful cosy memories I have, and I do wonder what memories my children have? Mu husband and I did make an effort to take them out a lot and spend time with them, but I also wonder what memories children today will have. Are their weekend memories of playing computer games? Will they only recall supermarket shopping on a Saturday or Sunday? Hopefully this wont be the case, as we seem to have become an alfresco nation once the sun comes out, or indeed in the rain during summer.
So back to my day off. Okay so I do not have young children any more. I work far more than I have ever worked in my life, and actually can see that still happening for quite some years ahead. So my day off is generally spent doing housework and catching up on bills and letters and all sorts. As I get two days off a week I try to have just one day for the 'work' and one day doing the relaxing things, like catching up with family, or generally reading. Depending on the weather this is inside or outside! Right now the weather is not warm enough for me to swing gently in the sun on my swing seat, while reading a good book or snoring after falling asleep, so I am curled up with one of the cats typing this. I am going to have a nice lunch of any bits I fancy, and a treat of a custard tart for after. The cats will probably get to share this!! seeing as Peanut likes savoury food she will most likely get a titbit of cheese, and Ripley is all sweetie addicted so I will let her have a tiny bit of the custard tart. No doubt we will all end up snoozing on the sofa for half an hour afterwards..........what a picture that will make!!

Living in Hansel and Gretel land..........

I have decided I am living the story of a fairy tale..... Hansel and Gretel to be exact! And why do I say that? Because my cat seems to think I need to follow a trail to find her. As I have said before, Peanut is getting old, and she does not seem to be well. Actually she isn't ill, just not as she should be, if that makes sense? She does weird things, like trotting around and then stopping bolt upright to gazing at nothing, and I mean nothing. There is nothing on the wall, nothing on the floor, nothing in front of her and nothing to look at. Yet she will stare very intently, with her eyes all huge, as if she cannot believe what she is seeing.....and I can't see anything there at all. Recently she has taken to leaving a trail of food all over the floor after she has eaten. Tiny weeny pieces of cat food will be dotted here and there, sometimes in a line and sometimes artistically spotted here and there. Getting caught unawares on dark morning, when you saunter into the kitchen to make a breakfast cuppa, without first putting the light on, means you can get a rather nasty shock. The resulting hopping from one bare foot to the other, as you feel the squelch of moist chunks of cat food between your toes, can be a source of amusement to all except the person experiencing it. The consequential shouting of annoyance can be even more amusing...except to the person experiencing it. I have learnt to put the light on, my husband has not! Sometimes the trail even leads into the sitting room. It could be construed as Peanut leaving little presents for us, but to be honest I think she is just old, and dribbles her food around. She ends up with it on her nose and all down her front. It is a sad state to get in, but she is amiable enough when we wipe her clean! Oh that I will be just as amiable when I get old and dribble my food..........