Where the Heart Is...

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to"
John Ed Pearce

"Where we love is home, Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts"
Oliver Wendell Holmes Homesick in Heaven

"Through the dancing poppies stole,
A breeze most softly lulling to my soul"
John Keats

"And far and wide, in a scarlet tide,
The poppy's bonfire spread"
Bayard Taylor

I have been dog-sitting this week for my (second) favourite niece, Ellie. I decided to take my camera with me today up the "bumpy lane" to try and capture the beautiful sea of poppies which borders the walk. They are so stunning, I don't think these photos will do the scene justice. But you'll get the gist!
Spot my friend Caroline's old house in the fifth picture down (what a view she had growing up!) and see if you can see the Forth Bridges in the pictures underneath. What a peaceful time I am having and Ellie (the big lump of love) is a joy to be around.

"People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit with a typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it"
Harlan Ellison

I had totally forgotten...

..just how much I love the album "Purple Rain" by Prince and the Revolution until I put it on in the car this morning to let Junior have a listen. Needless to say, he loved it too (he has great taste in music) and I got a right old chuckle watching him playing air guitar to "Let's Go Crazy" in the rear view mirror.
This album always conjures up lots of memories for me but mostly it makes me remember the times when my best friend Beth and I would cruise around town in her Dad's car just after she passed her driving test. It was our first taste of freedom after years of experiencing the claustrophobic confines of the village where we lived. Every time I listen to "Purple Rain" the hairs on the back of my neck go up and I get the same rush of adrenalin I got when we used to stick this album in the cassette player (no CD players then, folks!), turn the volume up full, wind down the windows and pull out of the driveway to go and explore the big wide world courtesy of Jim's clapped out old Fiesta. Those were the days! It almost makes me wish I was seventeen all over again - without the angst and spots of course...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Rain_(album)

P.S "Let's go Crazy" simply must be played with the volume up as far as it will go - so best make sure there are no neighbours around! Oh, and there are Parental Advisory lyrics on some of the tracks.

Junior is doing a project called...

.."Keeping Ourselves Safe" at the moment. I guess it's deliberately included in the school curriculum for this time of year to coincide with the seven weeks holiday that is fast approaching. Kids are most vulnerable during this time so the programme covers everything from not playing on building sites/near water to stranger danger.
Last night we were discussing what he would do if he got lost in a shopping centre. It's a serious issue, I know but I couldn't help but think about this brilliant quote by American comedian Rodney Dangerfield
"Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, 'Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid...there are so many places they can hide"'

Thought for today...

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost"
Charles Caleb Colton

Am I the only person...

..who is finding our recent heatwave a little hard to handle?
I was helping out on a school trip today which involved walking around a huge field in the blistering sunshine (carrying schoolbags, coats etc just to add to the torture!). There was absolutely nowhere to hide and the heat was relentless. However this was nothing compared to the journey home on the hired coach. Forty primary one children and their poor, sweaty teachers crammed into a boiling hot bus (circa 1973) with no opening windows! The wee air nozzles in the ceiling only blew in hot air so that was no help at all. The only thing we could do to relieve the wee ones of the roasting atmosphere was to close the red velvet curtains across the window to block the searing rays from the sun. We got stuck in traffic on the way home and I thought I was going to die from the heat.
I know it's nice to get a bit of sun (goodness knows we all need some to perk us up) but sometimes it feels like this country is really ill equipped for this kind of weather. Surely it's about time air conditioning was just the norm? Anyway I read that there is supposed to be frost at the weekend so don't put away those winter woollies yet!