What news? Octopus, for instance? Crab? WAIT.
1) There are no flies around. Or mice.(Global warming?)
2)In our rainy season, no clouds, little wind, no rain. Sun sun sun. (Also global warming?) Noone is yet planting.
3) Tiresome terrier has rooted up half granny's carefully cultivated nasturtiums in search of lizards; she is in disgrace.
4) Granny's first batch of candied peel is drying out in the oven (beware anyone who turns it up. Beloved please note.) The second lot is boiled up, awaits its sugaring. Impatiently; no doubt. It all, still, smells nice.
5) The swimming-pool frequented by Granny and Beloved is closed till late December. (How will they keep their aged limbs from creaking?)
6) THE OCTOPUS HAS EATEN THE CRAB. Was found this morning cosied up besides the crab shell. Had also been at the sea cucumber, judging by the little flower which had opened to its rear and through which its guts etc had been extruded - little translucent swollen strands of stuff that Beloved removed with tongs. Strange habits sea creatures have. It would be ?speciest to consider them nasty. This one protects sea cucumbers from harm so isn't nasty for it.
Octopus meantime sprawls, looking sated. Eyes open for a while; now shut. He has completely changed colour - is a delicate pearly grey, bluish in places, almost pink in others. This maybe because he's lying on pale sand instead of hiding under black plastic. (He was blackish before.) Also, maybe, because, no longer hungry, he's happier. Octopus do change colour with mood according to Beloved's acquarium bible. Granny likes this. Animal man Beloved would scoff at notion of happiness as such in animals. Still a pink and blue octopus when well fed? Suppose we - humans - did the same? Does our use of colour names for mood 'in the pink' 'blue' etc reflects some atavistic memory of evolution from invertebrates? Beloved, the scientist, would indoubtedly call this, too, crude thinking; never mind. Granny does not propose to let such practicalities inhibit her.
The carnage in our tank, though, makes her reflect on discussion in another blog, around ethics of hunting, killing animals, eating meat etc. She can hardly take a moral highline can she, as long as she allows nature red in tooth and claw to flourish in her (and her Beloved's) kitchen?
How come it's taken till her downhill plod towards the grave to discover the (morbid? no not morbid) fascination of all this? Grannyp
Your "downhill plod towards the grave"? Bloody hell! Are you expecting that octopus to eat you or something? (They can't actually walk across the floor, can they? This is a really disturbing thought.) And boo hoo hoo for the crab... I was hoping for better days.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of changing colour to suit your mood is fantastic, and I've adopted it immediately. I'm currently exuding a lovely sunset pink/purple glow. Gorgeous.
Best of luck with:
a) rain, and soon; and
b) your book. Do you feel like revealing what it's about?
'uphill' is alternative. Better?....For (sad) update on colour schemes see latest blog....As for book...hard to say just now. Yours? Love your rain clouds.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, just get right away from that grave altogether! As for my book... There isn't one. I'm doing the NaNoWriMo, but this is just 50,000 words of rubbish, practice in persisting at something I would ordinarily give up on. It's a first-person stream-of-consciousness thing that appeared out of nowhere and is based in the place one of my forebears lived as a child. There's no story, though. It's just a boy's thoughts, really. There might be a short story in it somewhere, though I can't see it at the moment. I should actually be writing the aforementioned crap at this very minute (no smart comments about what I'm writing here, thanks very much), but it's just not very interesting... Better be off, though. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteYou're brave to do the blogging novel Na whatever. But actually it's probably as good a way as any to get going. I've written all sorts - and published stuff - but it's very private in early stages. And always plod plod plod - never to much glory either! Present book is about cranes... take that any way you like!
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