Sticking up ears edition

In all the reverberating past presently I'm going through something came to mind that I hadn't shared here.

 Actually for what passes as my formative years, and across two properties we lived in, we had rabbits, you know, pet rabbits, not the sort your butcher may stock. 
They were generally grey rabbits.
Our first property had a fair sized garden so outside of the burrow, they had quite long run and play escaping soldiers in. The amount of times Dad had to go find them doesn't bare thinking about!
Our second properties gardens weren't so good being a Mews development, so the went run in the rear which was a bit better and as far as I can recall they didn't seem to escape so often but I don't if its we'd gotten more wise making it harder for them to escape of if they were more docile.
Rabbits always remind  me of spring and of renewal which at this difficult  time seems an apt thought.

Coping with change

This was an unexpected randomly thought out blog entry that came crashing to me this afternoon so do bear with any typos or quirkier than usual grammar.

View image | gettyimages.com

Every day starts out pretty much as any other for most of us unless we're planning on going somewhere special we follow routines feeling confident that today will be like yesterday and no doubt tomorrow with a change here or there but otherwise of itself uneventful.
So it's hardly a surprise we become accustomed to the idea that everything will remain 'just so' which to be honest is one thing I sure loved when I was younger, the whole certainty with its sense of well-being from repeating that pattern week after week.
Every so often though, something comes along and knocks it over. You feel lost if not numb and bewildered too as it seemed to going along so well.
It is okay to feel that way, sad things happen, we hurt and a good number of us are hurting right now. 
I can't speak for all of you but things often seem to go in cycles and my last lot of cycles have seen me  do different things, learn and improve on skills that I've struggled with, form new and more helpful friendships and understand more about myself and others too.
All those things can and are helping me deal with this because they've given not only ears to listen and understand how I may feel but also the strength to carry on when I just feel like lying there crying (and I know that feeling so well).
You know, those we miss so much would never of wanted us to stay like that forever and you might imagine this friendly nudge coming out urging you on, reminding you can start again, even if we find it hard.
Personally, I feel it's helpful to think about those things that I have reason to be thankful for over the years from the situations that just appeared from nowhere and to which I had no real plan for. 
Just thinking about it, my life has changed quite a lot in the last ten years for the better and much of that isn't down to some super medical recovery on my part but more because I've been working on dealing with more how it's handed out to me, making the most of it smiling even through some of the Meh moments.
It is easy to get into a cycle of beating yourself up when things aren't going to plan, thinking we are useless (been there and done it) or feeling guilty over things that maybe we didn't have that much of a say over but I'm going to try to get on with life the best I can from now on.
That's a much of lesson from my childhood that I can use today and maybe it's of some use to you.

Drink up!

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes, Susan.
As some of you will be painfully aware there are other things on my mind right now but in all generally dark stuff that there was an experience I hadn't said much about that came back to me.
A good number of you know I have multiple disabilities and with the problems I have in carrying, holding and walking with hot drinks it's not uncommon for you to have to do things and in the past when when with my folks it's been necessary to change a standard adult  tall cup or mug to something I can use. I can and  have spilt hot drinks on me, carpets etc so to an extent need to be protected from scolding myself.

Usually Dad would transfer it to yes -a sippy cup-just  as I'd usually frowned at being given this to drink from. 
I know it may be some peoples idea of cool regression but while I could and still easily roll being treated more like a tween feeling very comfortable with it, this just felt very baby and embarrassing at the time.
Mommy at least would give me a small proper cup even if had a cute character on it which I felt happier with.
I think the moral here is for others to consider what you feel comfortable with and maybe just ask.

Carded

Slowly recovering from the rotten stinking cold here that arrived with brilliant timing for my birthday and that was one of my cards. Very apt!
Thanks for persons from the various sites for your birthday wishes across the period and for your comments on last weeks entry as Jessica and Lucy seemed to have caused a bit of a stir and unlike the ceramic ones I have and have had from the 80's, are most playable with.
And play is good for me. 
Brief note to Rachel Bear-I too now have The Lonely Doll book you brought to camp!
Of course the other thing if you're in the UK is that yesterday was Mothering Sunday and like most I got my Mommy a card and some flowers as she's super special in my life and is happy for me to play more when folks are around which is really appreciated.
As well read readers are aware,I do like my music so I had two new Micro SD cards for my music player as I find picking up pre-loaded cards easier than having to fire up the computer to start swapping out files before I go off with the player.
As an increasing number of these recordings are  'lossless' if not High Definition lossless and take up more space than regular Mp3 these are 64GB which allows me to pack almost as many albums in lossless as I did with 16GB cards in the past.
If you've not been shopping for memory for a while, you may be surprised just how cheap solid state memory is and these worked out at around £ 21 GBP shipped which isn't for removed from what I used to pay for 16GB and 32GB usb sticks in the past.
If you player can handle lossless and you have a formatting utility (my player has one) to reformat 64GB cards to player friendly ExFat you might as well stick with the lossless for the best sound.
Talking about formatting reminds me of the days when we learned to us the first personal computers and having to learn all that Dos stuff to do stuff! 
Memories,eh?

Circling yet again around the sun edition

Recently it was my birthday although I never feel older because for medical reason's I've never and can't really grow up as in being an adult although I can be mature and learn some new things so inevitable birthdays for me are little.
This year was no exception except for the arrival of a couple of soft bodied dolls.
 
 Although they're not as 'classy'  as some dolls, the little loves ones are pretty good value  and my version of 'Lucy' which is 14 inches in height  was the one on the left with the big pink bow coning with a nice dress and leggings.
A nice touch is that the eyes shut when she's on her back sleeping.

Elspeth may have a 'young pretender' for the throne!
That's 'Jessica' a 18 inch Gotz soft bodied creation which being that size it's easy to get new dolly clothes for such summer outfits and school uniforms to dress her in. Her box was a bit damaged but she's fine so I was able to get her at a discount as after all I have dolls to handle and play with rather than that sad boxed collectors stuff that sits on shelves gathering dust.
I had some money, a few cds and finally got the outstanding Christmas present from me brother!

Laneside recollections

That's cool. I mean it's sunny of not exactly warm today as I was out walking around locally, taking in the smell of the farms, seeing the lambs in the fields grazing and even watching with amazing a flock of over forty birds take of in a 'W' formation from a field near the woods circling just above me. They were all occupying the field ready for it.
Isn't nature just so awesome?
I just so loved watching it patiently as a child usually as we walked to school along the sidewalks and farmers fields unless we were fortunate to get a lift with one of them taking their daughters to school in his car with mud covered tires.

 That's the tie I had on at Camp, a silk deadringer for the one I had at Junior school where we kinda had to wear it.

 

The photo didn't quite do full justice to the badge - and two schools I attended we did have prefects and house systems -  so here's one of it in its shield design.

Some schools use either rectangular or rounded badges to denote such earned status.

Did I ever say I did on a few occasions I got mentioned in 'Special Mentions'  on Friday weekly assemblies and given a badge to wear on top of my uniform connected with it?