DIARY OF THE PONIES BY FIONA CUMMINGS

I have been described as so many things by friends and Bloggets, some of my Bloggets are my friends now, so I guess my Bloggetpals?

 

A friend reminded me today of this word, memory and description. I have been described as

Loquacious. Around friends I can talk the hind leg off a donkey! Not that I want a donkey to have three legs, but it’s an expression I find rather funny.

 

The most amusing description I have had this week and I still smile about it now, not sure really how to take this, but I was likened to a, oh, I can’t bring myself to tell you? Haha. Okay, I will. After chatting to a lovely friend of mine I was told I reminded them of a . . … . . …

Smurf!

For those still laughing, I shall leave you to that bit of enjoyment for the time it will take me to let those know what exactly is a smurf.

 

It’s a fictional tiny blue humanoid, from the Smurfs created by the Belgian cartoonist, Peyo in the 1950’s.

  They are meant to bring good luck and are three apples high. Sounds cute, right? Well, if you could hear their voices? Hahaha. They are as if they have inhaled helium balloons.

 

My voice isn’t that high.

It’s not.

Stop it.

Naughty Bloggets.

And I’m not blue. Well not on a good circulation day.

  

Dreadful news about what is happening in America with the riots. And something that hasn’t been on our TV news, not that I have seen, but I learned from a dear friend that in India, a place called Gorakhpur, a hospital there has had a dreadful occurrence with lack of oxygen and 60 babies were killed. New born babies. Oh, my goodness, that is the worst news. I pray for peace for the parents of those darling babies. And I hope there will be calm in the US

The world is in a hell of a state. And it doesn’t have to be.

 

 My Son was working before the birds had their breakfast. My Hub has never stopped either. Bless him. He is doing something to our bath. He even did some ironing for me and, helped to hang washing out. He’s a good man.

 

My Son has started his course work at last. Well, he’s opened the lap top. Shamrock came around last night. At midnight. For an hour. BW started work so early I was hoping he would get a good night sleep but now he’s back from work, he’s sleeping, the kids are like vampires. They come out at night time. Beautiful sun as we have daylight till after eight in the evening. He came home at four. He will go out to meet Sham or she will come here. When it’s dark. Smile.

  

It was on our TV today about our Dartmoor ponies. For the kind people out there, close your ears and eyes for this paragraph. We are killing them. Shooting them. Why? Apparently, to keep the numbers down because if we don’t, they will starve. Yeah, right. So, feed them? Or, put them on the animal equivalent of the pill. Or do something to the poor animals so they can’t produce. There is no more iconic sight on Dartmoor than a herd of ponies grazing with stunning majestical moors as the backdrop.

  

I have made a dinner for the family so will go and serve that now.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend.

 

 

ELVIS DAD AND ME BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Gosh, we have just watched the top twenty of Elvis Presley’s songs. I was doing well, until the song Dixieland came on. Oh, my goodness. The pain, the emotions the feelings just burst out. I was in America with some special friends and we went to a wonderful place where some amazing men were singing and one song they sang I had to beg my husband to try to take my mind off the song, the tune, the words, the memories. I asked Hub to please please talk to me and distract me from the absolute agony I was going through, that was seven years ago, the same pain agony hurt burning feeling lump in my throat that I thought was going to split my neck open all those years ago as I was a little girl. Same feeling then as tonight. Same song, why?

 

My Darling Dad who I worshipped he was is, my hero. He was working as a coalminer cutting the coal on his stomach with old fashioned cutters when the pit caved in on him. He was for dead. It was during the night. I was eleven. It was just before I went to my new boarding school far away from home. The irony was, I went to boarding school when I was six, my Mum fought for me to come home at nights and it took until I was ten before we got our dream. The head master of my first boarding school was a mean man. Little did I know was, I had only a year and a half before I would be sent away again to my second school. So only eighteen months as a normalish child that could go to school in the morning and home to my parents at night. Right through my life I couldn’t seem to go long without sadness hitting me. This night I will never forget. I heard my Mum and big brother talking in our living room I had to learn what was going on, I sneaked out of bed stood on our freezing landing and listened to words I just didn’t want to believe to be true. It turned out, the pit caved in on my Dad they eventually got him out and he was rushed to hospital. They didn’t think my Dad would survive.

 

Months later he was allowed to come home after so much rehab but he was still in bed in our living room downstairs. He was too ill to climb the stairs as for our bathroom was downstairs. We lived in a miner’s cottage which was simple house two bedrooms upstairs, downstairs a sitting room, kitchen and small bathroom. No front garden garage or drive and a back yard with a coal bunker and high walls around it that had a gate which lead onto a back lane, where the coal lorries would drive down leaving us our sacks of coal to keep our fire burning. We had no central heating back then.

 

My beautiful Dad who worked all his life, since the age of 14, and later in life, seventeen hours every day six sometimes seven days a week for me to get to Russia. The guilt I feel for the lives my parents lived, will never leave me.

 

My Dad lay still ill in his bed. I never thought he would walk again. My Dad was so sweet. Would do anything for anyone, even total strangers. He never had a bad word to say about anyone. I never heard him curse when I was a child. He took my hand. He still looked pitiful. I overheard him talking that day to my Mum saying he was worried sick as now who would work to get the money to take me to Russia for my eye treatment? As a child, I felt so sad. So sad. I sat with my little hand in his and he started to sing that song, Dixieland and the words broke my heart, oh God, the pain. I couldn’t cry in front of my parents. I learned from a tiny girl not to show them my feelings. When we came home from boarding school on a Friday, we even had to recite the words to go home but come back Sunday, cheerful, not tearful. We had to chant this in assembly every Friday. Almost like browbeating. Brainwashing us.

 

Since then, that song has brought back all of those feelings. My Dad has been dead 19 years and the pain I feel now is the same pain as I felt 38 years ago. It hasn’t got any better . So, that came on tonight and my poor Husband asked if I wanted it turned off. I said no. Oh but really one hour later, I still am so very much in such dreadful distress. Gosh, if only I could turn back time and beg my parents not to have taken me to Russia all those times, in fact the trauma I went through on my first visit there as a six-year-old child, I wish I had never gone at all. Then my parents would have had a better life. So, I would have been blind at a young age, I would have coped. I would have coped better then losing my vision as I did many years later as an adult who was in total denial that my vision would ever go. Better than I did with a one-year old baby to care for because the shock of blindness would have been long ago in my life. Like a play I guess. Actors who rehearse for the big night. I had no time to rehearse. If I had not have gone to Russia, my life would have been so different but most of all, my parents would have had a life, because of my stupid vision, my parents existed. They never lived.

 

Elvis to me was the best singer ever to have lived. As a young girl, I thought he was the best-looking man ever to have existed and I loved his films but moreover, he had the ability to be able to sing a song from not only his heart, but his soul. And as for his soul, he was subnormal to me. He was as if from another world. I have never seen anyone who looks like him, even the lookalikes, are nowhere near to what he looked like as a young man.

 

I have always been able to feel compassion and empathy for others. From a tiny little girl. I always could read people. And Elvis’s eyes told a very sad story. I felt so sad whenever I saw him on our TV. It was as if my heart was his and his pain was given to me.    

 

     How can songs leave someone in such a devastated state of mind? Memories, people say we are what we are because of our past so to remove memories would leave a soulless state, but surely why do we need to hurt? Because of pain, does that really make us nicer people? Those who don’t have a problem in the world, those who go through lives smoothly, I guess they are not as nice as those who have known sadness and tragedy, but why punish people in such a way, and others seem to get away with everything. I think I would rather be that hard-uncaring person rather than to have to go through this every time I have a memory of something from my past.

 

I’m rambling I guess. So back to a short Diary. sorry I have not been around for ages, it’s been a strange week. I have had numb words. And, lots of them. My head is all over the place. I have been really busy what I have achieved is almost invisible though.

 

Here we are again, another weekend. A couple of nights ago, we went out with our friends to the local pub quiz. It was great. I absolutely loved it. Great company and wonderful punters. I actually had alcohol. Yep, peach snaps with lemonade. Ha-ha. Two I will have you know. That is not like me, but peach snaps tastes like pop/soda, doesn’t it, my Husband said that I was tipsy, but I wasn’t I was just relaxed and happy, I think he said what he said because of the questions I was answering at the quiz. Well, get this one, one of the questions I must say, it was the easiest question of the night as they were so difficult, was what group had the song yellow out in 2000? I knew the answer. Hub who loves this group by the way, said no, not a chance. I said it was and my friend luckily wrote the answer down and I was right. They are an English super group. I just cannot believe it has been 17 years since this was out? The group?

Coldplay!

 

I love going to the quiz with our friends. I’m totally rubbish at answering the questions. In fact, I think I answered five right. But Hub with all of his degrees, about seven. Smile. Thank God, our two friends managed the other fourteen between them to get us to 26, out of 40. But the team who came first only got thirty, the questions were really difficult this week.

 

Our boy came home from a very early start to his place of work. Him and Shamrock took our two dogs out for a walk for the second time today they have been out. Firstly, with June our lovely lady who walks them and then the kids. So, tonight they will sleep

 

Ok, off for now, I appreciate you all. Take care. X

   

 

KNIGHT ON A HORSE BY FIONA CUMMINGS

KNIGHT ON A HORSE

BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Tears I have cried

challenges I have tried

walls I have knocked down only to be built again

isolated pain

thoughts deep inside

troubles I had to hide

but then my knight came along

on a white horse

and together we went for a ride

over mountains high

reaching for the sky

I did what I wanted

No questions why

Breathe the fresh air

 Took a big sigh

With you my life I wanted to share

We didn’t care

Where we ended up

Walking through grass

Picking butter cups

Back on our horse

For the next course

Through pathways narrow

Bird songs from the sparrow

Ready to face the new asks of tomorrow

Together we can face anything

Church bells ring

Choirs sing

We said I do

Under a rainbow of reds, yellows and blue

The dark thunder days are history

Where you came from is a total mystery

Whatever land

Hand in hand

Strong

With each other we belong

 

© Fiona Cummings

 

DIARY OF CARTLAND DIANA AND THE BASQUES BY FIONA CUMMINGS

So, my dear friend and Blogget was telling me about Basque people. How they have Rhesus negative blood. If they have a baby to others with other kinds of blood, their baby will have much less of a chance of survival. Some people used to say that the Basque people are from space. They are very tall people with blue eyes. The Basque people of Northern Spain and Southern France have always seen themselves as a population apart with their unique language and appearance that is different to others around them. Dipping into their DNA, geneticists have found that farmers interbred with hunters. And their genepool was similar to Basques.

 

I have heard of Basque people, but never knew anything about them. I wonder if a Basque reads my blogs?

 

Another subject I have been learning about is this person, someone asked me to write about her, so here goes.  Barbara Cartland was one of our most prolific authors of romance novels. She wrote 723 novels translated into 38 languages. I think she had 23 books published in one year and in total sold over a billion books. She was given an award for selling 25 million books in France. It was the highest award given to anyone from Paris.

 

She was given many honours for different reasons in her colourful life. Talking of colour pink was her thing, she wore it all of the time. I read somewhere that she brought out a cream for beauty and a pill to keep the mind alert. She became a councillor too.

 

 She died seven weeks before her 99^th birthday in 2000 and though obviously she was very rich, she was buried in a cardboard box, under an oak tree that was planted by Queen Elizabeth I

 

I would love that where you have a house that will be passed onto your family. People move about so much these days and my parents had so many houses but their last one I really wished that I had took a tree from their garden as I bought my Mum a lilac tree when I was very young about eighteen! It was a stunning tree lilac is my favourite tree in the world.

 

When we moved house just after my Mum in law died, we brought with us the roses she gave us. It’s lovely to have a part of our parents growing in our garden, gosh, that didn’t come out right, did it? I mean a part of their spirit. I love the idea too of taking a photograph of a small child next to a small tree and each year on their birthday say, taking another photo and watching the child grow with the tree that was perhaps planted near their birth. Trees to me are so alive, well, you know what I mean, of course they are alive, but I love to write poetry about how trees are always listening and whisper words of wise tales.

 

Cartland left behind 160 unpublished books that her Son is now publishing every month via eBooks. They are in English, German, Spanish and Italian. It’s called the pink collection.  

 

Our beautiful angel Princess Diana, was Cartlands step Grand Daughter. It was written that they didn’t get on and Cartland was not invited to Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles.

 

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since our Diana was killed. I remember that day so well. My Son was six months at the time. Her funeral was when I was on holiday in Grand Canarias. The hotel lobby was silenced all day the death of such a wonder was too painful and I have never ever experienced such respect and grief so widely spanned out across the world. I very much doubt there will ever be anything quite like it again. Her Sons William and Harry are much loved, but there will never be another Diana.

 

I found out a few days ago that my Brother in law is coming from Australia to see us so my Son is very excited as he loves his Uncle though my Brother in law isn’t bringing his partner with him so Boy Wonder was disappointed at that, as I think my in-law is the big brother my Son would love to have.

 

It’s sunny today eventually stopped raining. BW and Shamrock are on a health kick to loss weight. Shamrock is tiny in height, so I guess any weight she puts on will show. My Son was very trim so I don’t think he needs to lose any weight but having said that, for his heart, less is going to be better for joints too. The two of them ate loads of take outs in a week. Thankfully now both have stopped fantastic, they will live longer for sure. I don’t even like take away now we don’t have a decent one where we live.

 

My Son is working till late tonight, nine. Sham will be working too, she is a hard worker for sure. If they stay together they won’t have a lazy child in the workplace.

 

Going to put the lotto on for tonight. Wish me luck? Please? Smile. Hub an I was saying the other day if we watched the numbers come up live and knew we had the winning numbers, what would our reaction be? Wow, I wouldn’t jump up and down for sure. Funny that, I don’t know if I can jump up and down these days. I don’t mean physically, but emotionally I don’t have the energy to jump. I’m kind of walking flat on the platform of life. So, if we won the Lottery? I would I am sure be calm. Scared, in disbelief. I would make sure my loved ones as in Son and bros would be OK and make sure my best friends would be happy. Trix, JB, Trace Artie, Geordie and my friends in America and Canada were looked after well I would buy property and a coffee shop for our Son, it’s his dream to own one. And the rest of the money would go to charity. Mainly to get a cure for blindness and animal charities I would also love the money to be able to watch the news see someone who needed help and be able to help them. I don’t need a yacht or speed boat. Or a mansion. Though a swimming pool would be at the top of my list.    

 

OK, on that note, I shall go for now. Take good care.

 

 

 

SHORT STORY TILLI'S TALES (THE FAIRIES HOUSE)

TILLI’S TALES

BY FIONA CUMMINGS

(THE FAIRIES HOUSE)

Tilli asked me to take her for a walk in our local woods. Well, it is the school holidays and what else to do even though it’s wet, in fact soaking outside. Though my little girl can’t see, she loves the rain. I guess it’s a kind of weather that she can feel as the drops fall against her forever smiling face.

 

So, waterproofs on and wellington boots. I took my umbrella but it didn’t get as far as the front gate before I ran back to the cottage and put it back in the hall with a spoke broken in half with the wind.

 

As soon as our gate closed, the rain stopped and the sun came out. But still we were prepared if the water was to fall from the sky again.

 

Tilli has just started to use a white cane. Though still we go hand in hand. She laughs as her cane finds the puddles and followed by her tiny dancing feet.

“Look Mummy, listen to the sounds of the water as it splashes?” Yep, nice one Tilli, I tell her. I don’t go mad these days never mind how dirty she will get and if we are on our way to school, well, what difference will it make if in her school bag are a spare pair of socks and shoes.

 

We walk along and she tells me with such pride of the leaves on the ground, she now knows the difference between leaves and paper. How proud she is. How proud I am of her.

“There’s a step here Mummy”” she warns me. I smile to myself as I of course saw it well before she found it with her cane, but I thank her for telling me and again she is happy as she can learn what is in front of her without me telling her. We have words like that step is huge or the path is rugged here. There is a metal fence there and watch out for the car parked on the path. It’s a whole new way for me to see my daughter telling me just what she sees what she is able to locate with her white cane.

 

It wasn’t all happy days though it took a lot for her to be persuaded to train with a white cane. She was so afraid how her school pals would react. I explained to her that they would look at her if she bumped into something or fell. With her cane, there is much less chance of that happening. Thankfully she got over the shame of being different to her school friends and even more thankful that her school friends were really excepting to their new way of life for their little friend. And I think they were so intrigued just how now Tilli who always had hold of a hand or arm, was able to get around her school on her own. It may take a bit longer, but she was so independent now.

 

We get to the gate where you have to climb over. As Tilli tells me how she can now smell the woods. I ask her what does she mean?

“Especially when it rains Mummy. I love that smell of soil and green ferns. I love the droplets coming off the trees and wooden seats and the smell of the wooden picnic table and chairs.

 

I also love coming here when it rains as there are not so many people and I can run. It’s really exciting when I run as I feel like a free horse running away from the stable.””

 

Tilli stops, she listens to the birds she says they are singing to her, for her. She goes into a daydream. Another world. She tells me she wants to visit the fairy garden. I smile an let her go ahead. Her tiny hand left go of mine and I watch with such thought and care. She finds a gap in the shrubbery and starts to talk. Not to me. And then she pops out and tells me the story of the fairies who have told her how clever she is. I asked her to tell me about the fairies and the place where they live.

“Well it’s always under a bush and the cottage is made from wood. It has a tiny door they say it’s red. Their garden has mushrooms for seats and fruits cut in half for plant pots. There are always bluebells around the garden. I’m far too big Mummy to fit into the fairy house, but the fairies come out to talk to me.

 

Oh, they are tiny, they fit in my hand. They are so trusting as I could squash them, couldn’t I Mummy? But they are so special. You should see their wings? They feel like foil and they point to the sky. Their clothes are funny not like ours. They do wear boots and pointy ones too. They have pointy ears and a pointy nose with round cheeks. Their clothes are as if they have been blown up like a balloon. Look at the flower they gave me today?””

 

Tilli gave me a flower that I have never seen before. The colour was as if from another world. I had never seen the colour it was orange but not orange as we know it. Each time she visits the fairy house, she brings a flower that never have I seen, but as soon as we leave the forest, the flower crumbles and evaporates.

 

There is a part of me that wants to follow her but another silly part of me that thinks this is her time and her vision. What if I go to follow her and her fairies stop coming to her? She is filled with such hope after a visit to them.

 

Today they told her she was going to be a very important person and the world would learn so much from her. She believes them, every word they say. I have asked her do they speak English? She said no not really, not like we talk, there isn’t much of a sound comes from them. But she still hears what they say as if whispers whistling in the wind.

 

Sometimes I do wonder if the sighted just see what is in front of them and not beyond. As we walked by the lake the ducklings were out and wanting food. Tilli told me she would feed the duckling on the right s that one gets left out. Well, she was right, this particular duckling was on its own. Gosh, wow, my little girl. She is learning every day, how to live without sight, but I’m, learning more.

 

© Fiona Cummings

 

 

MONDAY MOOD BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Good morning Bloggets. I have just been out in my garden. Everything is soaking wet with the rain we have had overnight. I nipped some mint, wow, it smells so good. I grow it, but I don’t use it in cooking or whatever else you are meant to use it in, tea perhaps? I have bought all sorts for my garden over the years but half of it has gone and the other half may as well be some kind of specimen from Mars. Gardening isn’t my skill.

 

My dog Waggatail is going out this afternoon but she doesn’t know it yet. Otherwise she will be so excited and she will be my shadow in case I escape without her.

 

Hub is in late tonight, he has a busy day in the office.

 

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. On Saturday, we were invited to our besties and travelled there by train my friends Daughter who I lovingly call my Niece, picked us up at the train station. We had a lovely day but there is always a tinge of sadness as at the end of the day we have to say bye bye, but not for long, I hope they are coming to see us in a few weeks. It is both of our dreams to have a house big enough to have each other sleep over for a night to extend the day.

 

My Son at last is feeling better. He is planning his next challenge of sporting events. It is a challenge over all sorts in a place called the Lake District. He will be camping overnight. I think Shamrock is going to this one. I know his friends are.

 

So far all is settled down at his place of work. So, for now, he is staying. He desperately needs a lap top to do the work required to get to the next stage. So, I hope he will be allowed to do that.

 

Chicken for dinner tonight. Possibly roast potatoes and veg. For me? I have two handmade vegetarian burgers. Not made by me, but came in my shopping. I was reassured by the description, they are handmade. Smile. I guess opposed to machine made, but anyhow, they are still made in a factory.

 

Hub and I spent the weekend planning our next stage in life as from September thank God things will change and we both can’t wait for that millstone to be removed from our necks. We also had a music night yesterday where he brilliantly played the piano and I very not much so brilliantly sang with him. I so need to learn the words to songs, then the tunes?

 

A dear friend of mine and one of our Bloggets whom I find so very interesting, has been teaching me of late. I love to learn new cultures and he told me about a subject I would love to read more on then get back to you on what I have learned. I bet I’m the only one who has not heard of these people who I will learn more on, but if it’s right what he said, and he is a very educated man, then wow, I can’t believe that I have not heard of these people before especially with the religious beliefs I have.

 

Talking of religion, it’s so sad, my Husband has no faith at all now. Since he lost his Mum he just can’t believe there is a God and this makes me sad and surprised as his background as a child was in the Cathedral.

 

I hope his faith will be restored even if it’s another faith. I don’t know how anyone can get by in life without some kind of believing in something, though perhaps the world would be in a better place if not for religion. Also, maybe it means that person is stronger because they don’t need a religion?

 

Monday, the start of a new week. For some the start of a nightmare, but remember, your nightmare is someone else’s dream. I read that last week and I love it. It’s always been important to people to get to the end of the week and face the weekend as to some the weekend is off work and out somewhere nice. For others these days, every day is the same.

 

There are some Bloggets who are on their own at weekends either their Husbands’ are out doing their sport or hobbies. I just wish those people normally men, would think about their wives they are leaving at home alone. Moreover, I wish those ladies could start to find strength to actually do something for themselves. Thankfully my Husband and I want to be together and still feel we have so much time to make up where we were both in other lives for so long without each other. During the week we have space when he goes to the office and I have my time with my friends. I write so much, that is always another world to be in. It’s been a while since I wrote a short story and I have been asked to write one this week for someone so will have to get back into that.

 

My house in the south of France or Italy still waits. Where I don’t have a care or responsibility in the world and I can write words on paper like an artist would paint a masterpiece.

 

It’s a new start today for my friend as she is moving house, moving area. She is moving to the peace of the countryside. She has had enough of the noise our area provides at the cost of our health as the pollution is awful with the engines.

 

I can’t believe outside my window I can hear someone cutting their grass. It will tear as it’s so very wet. It will just end up like mud. What is wrong with people, this is basic knowledge, even a none gardener knows this. Mind you, only because she was married to a gardener for 23 years.

 

My boy has the day off work and it’s after eleven in the morning he is still in bed but he has had two mornings where he opened at work at six too early. He’s back tomorrow and again I bet they either have him opening or closing. That’s fine, but he needs to be paid more money for doing it.

 

Right off to study these people I was talking about earlier. I hope your week is better than last week or at least if it isn’t, you have memories of last week if it was a good one. And you know that better is to come.

 

Before I go some words.

“Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive and intelligent people ignore.” Albert Einstein

(I’m weak.)

There is only one person in the world you can trust. That is yourself. If you are unhappy no matter how much you love that person, you have to take care of yourself as you would another and walk away from that relationship. Impossible you say? Try it but plan first and in a few months, come back to me and say not impossible. Nothing is impossible if it’s a case of you doing what you can. Being afraid of something doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Look at your life now and think in ten years’ time, do I still want to feel this in my heart and mind? Today is your day.

Fiona Cummings

 

SWEET DREAMS BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Just before bed. My Son must have caught a bug so it wasn’t his horrid caffeine pills as Shamrock came tonight, and with her she brought the same symptoms as my boy has had so now will we get it? Spread the love.

 

I hope Shamrock won’t be as ill as our Son has been. Especially because she is a care assistant in a hospital. Mind you she probably caught it from there.

 

I told you in an earlier blog that I had visited our pet shop and bought a dog bed and a new toy. Well Waggatail has had such a great day with her new whatever it is called. Kong makes it. It’s kind of a thick wheel with a ball inside it and it has handles on it and it squeaks. Oh, my, she loves it then the Little Fella came home with Hub and all the toys were out and guess what he did? Heads for the new toy and wouldn’t put it down. I said to Hub, how does he know that is the new one? Then he took his toy in the hall where the new dog bed is and lay in it. With his toy in his mouth. With Waggatail hovering as if to say, hey, it’s mine.

 

LF came from his bed and Then both of the dogs started to play with the new toy, going mad.

Dogs are so easy to make happy an yet there are people who insist in making them sad. God bless all humans who are kind enough and strong enough to give a dog love.

 

Not sure what Hub has been up to today but trains later he’s home safe that is all that matters. He said LF was a good lad. You wouldn’t think he had been out for over 14 hours he is running around crazy. LF, that is, not Hub.

 

And early start for Hub tomorrow normal work though. And the day after, whoop whoop. More on that later.

 

Words before bed I read today.

Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss, sleep, dream? Because the most beautiful things are felt from our heart and not seen. Mistakes are proof that you are trying.

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy. If people are trying to put you down, it only means you are above them. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

 

Tell yourself before bed that you have done good today. Forget any negatives and your mind will sleep, and if you sleep, you will start your next day better than you would with any kind of medication. Where do you think (Sweet dreams) comes from? Imagine if we could pick our dreams as if they are movies? Only sweet happy movies. This is when a good imagination comes in handy. Start your own showing of your very own play in your mind.

I shall be back tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep. Smile, at least my Son is home tonight. With love.

x

 

   

DIARY OF OVER THE MOON BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Good afternoon Bloggets. Before I start, a group that was suggested for me today, wait for this one. Chilliwack creep catchers

I didn’t join.

 Well, here I am at last, it seems as if I have not written much for my blog page today ironically just after a lovely author wrote to me and said what a prolific writer I am. Haha, well sadly not this week, well not for my page. I have been writing for so many others but I have thought about you all.

 

 Yesterday I was out with my friend and today my Son kindly took me too the pet shop to buy yet another bed for my dogs. In the shop, it looked enormous. As if for a pony. Got it home, Waggatail sampled it and it’s huge for her but no way the not so Little Fella will fit in there too. They have had two different beds so many times but end up in the same one, so I thought if I buy a massive one, they will be fine, and I know the LittleFella, curls up into a ball, and I am sure they will both fit in, but there won’t be much room so I have kept their old bed too. I would have bought two if there were two. A huge shop with one of these kinds of beds. I bought them a new toy too. Almost £70 later, I walked out excited to bring my baby’s things home.

 

 Passing the bank machine, a lady was panicking because the machine had swallowed her card up. My Boy Wonder went to her rescue. Thankfully she wasn’t bothered by him pushing buttons for her, haha, I would be if it were my card, but she was in a right state. Jumping up and down saying.

“It’s got it, it’s got it.”” BW calmly spoke to her and thankfully the card reappeared. She was so grateful and relieved. I said that was nice Son helping that old lady. He replied. No Mum, she was in her twenties. Oh, my word? No, never. Her voice was as if she had smoked since she was six months old. My Son said he thought she may have got that voice with drugs. No wonder she was in a state if she couldn’t get her money?

 

Out walking yesterday with Waggs, she completely passed the turn we were meant to take. She hasn’t done that for a year. There was a dog there though with a man and I wonder if it was because of that she was distracted. She didn’t go to the dog, just I always wonder if they are biters and I guess it takes two for a guide dog and partner to work well as my heart was pounding as we passed this vocal dog, I simply lost track of where I was. Not a good day for that. But on the way home she was perfect.

 

My Husband left our home today at half six. He won’t be in until almost eight tonight. At least he is meeting with a colleague half way there today. He is going to work by train, quite a distance from home. His colleague will get on the train after an hour or so and I think Hub was pleased to be meeting with this guy as they get on well. They are a team for sure. He’s a really nice person. Hubs not bad too. Smile.

 

One of the ladies I worked for last year has left and gone for a new job. She is going to marry too very soon so a big year for her. As for my Son, guess what my stupid ex suggested today? For him to join the T. A. For goodness sake. If I had stayed with my ex how would my Son have turned out? He wouldn’t have done so well at school that is for sure. And he wouldn’t have had the vocabulary he has now. Though from a tiny baby he could talk and for his age he has always been years ahead of his class mates, but Hubs influence I’m sure has made him the man he is today as far as education. I think my Son wouldn’t be half as independent though and we would have been as close as we were years ago before Hub and myself got together. Sadly, we have made him so independent that he never comes for advice now and everything I say is of course wrong. He knows best. I still love him as much now as I did when he was one, two three and older. He has this assumption that because he is twenty, I can stop caring for him and he has his own life. Of course, he does, God help anyone who gets in the way of that, but I would love to bring the days back when we could have time together laughing talking about things in a pleasant way and just being a family. My friends say that will come when he meets with the girl he will marry and he is fully grown up. I guess I didn’t really feel totally grown up until I had my baby and that was when I was in my late twenties.

 

I tell you what though, this parenting is tough. When my Son is half an hour away telling me via text he is leaving and will be home in thirty minutes, and two hours later he isn’t home, I text him and his reaction when he gets home is Mum, why did you text, you knew I was coming home? I just say, yes Son, but you had a busy day, you were travelling on motorways you said in thirty you would be home and of course I was concerned especially as I had his dinner ready for him as I knew he was going straight back out after being home for a shower.

 

He was ill for a couple of days. I cared for him as a mother would. Because I love him. Not because he is a certain number, age. As a good parent, you never stop loving or caring for your child and when you have had the life I have had, you care more.

 

I do think though, if I hadn’t have had my child, I would look still in my twenties. I swear I only have aged because of fighting against a determined person every day for the past five years.

 

I tried to send my friend a birthday card via Moonpig.

Their website is totally inaccessible. So, my Son did it for me. Six days later the card that we paid £10.00 for, to my shock, has not arrived. You know the card that promised to be there next day? After five days, it’s not. So, be careful using them as the cards may say £3.50 but to post them, they charge the earth and if it doesn’t get there? Not good.

 

Perhaps the pig took it to the moon?

Or was that the cow that jumped over the moon? I loved that nursery rhyme when I was a child. Someone on FaceBook reminded me of that the other day. Whoever wrote that must have been on drugs. Perhaps their card got stuck too?

Published in 1765

Hey Diddle Diddle

The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed

To see such fun

As the dish ran away with the spoon

 

The rhyme may date back as far as the 16^th century

The cat and the fiddle were names of popular Inns. There was one called that in London way back in 1587

 

Oh, my blogs are just full of random rubbish. Haha.

 

There was something so very special about a nursery rhyme book for children don’t you think? I looked all over for my Son one when he was a baby. One just like the one I had. Sadly, all my books went when I was small. I guess my mum thought I would never see them to read, I can’t remember my Mum ever reading me a story before bed or anytime to be honest. I was so devastated when my Son couldn’t have one read to him too. My ex just didn’t bother and obviously I had just lost my vision when he was a year old and stupidly I was prevented to learn Braille when a child and like a lot of people who are partially sighted, they think they may never need Braille.

 

If my now Husband was the father of my child, he would have read my boy stories, whereas he had to put up with his mad Mum doing puppet shows with his cuddly toys and as I have written before, each of them had different voices, all coming from Mummy bear though and one day I was exhausted. I had a really bad day and my heart wasn’t in the adaptation of bed time bears, bouncing on blankets of baby’s beds.

 

Rodger, the naughty golden fluffy dog with the floppiest ears, his voice suddenly became Sarah’s, the malty coloured teddy with the pretty pink bow

 

My two-year-old said which such concern.

“Mummy, you are silly, that’s not Rodger, that’s Sarah!””

 

It was at that point that I realised that my madness before dreams, had sunk into the mindset of my beautiful darling Son.

 

Whilst conversations between me, my baby and all the soft colourful toys around his bed, lots of laughter, little did he know just how much sadness I had in my life. How alone I was. Talking of loneliness, I heard yesterday that being lonely was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Being alone is very bad for your health. I suppose I can agree with the scientists if you hurt when you are on your own. And we are talking about people who never get out of the house or have anyone visit them. My heart kills for those people. I was that person many years ago. My ex was a very hard worker and player and I was on my own for up to seventeen hours per day and when I lost my sight my parents died just after then so I had no one.

 

Boarding school removed any friends I may have had at home as I was hardly there and because my school had kids from all over the country, we never saw each other in holidays or after school. Shame really as they were great kids. Thanks to technology, I have been reunited now with some school pals and we will be now forever friends.

 

I married so very young I was a teenager and I wanted to be the best wife so I was dedicated to my ex-husband. My young life was spent constantly cleaning and cooking. It was only when I had my baby and he had to go to school, I eventually after parents learned I wasn’t the alcoholic but the blind Mum, with a name oddly enough, I met friends, after they saw one Mum come to talk with me and realise that I didn’t bite and I didn’t cling onto them begging them to help this poor defensive woman. In fact, after a couple of years, I was known as the popular Mum that everyone wanted to be with but to get there, took a lot of grief and sorting out the rubbish as a lot of rubbish got stuck to me as I was just happy to cling onto anything or anyone that wanted to say hello to me. Desperate was the word. After sorting out who were users, I learned actually, I am me, if you don’t want to be with me, tough, if you want to be with me, there is a reason why, I evaluated that why, and worked on it.

 

Once you are comfortable with yourself and learn who you really are, your life becomes so much easier.

 

Gosh, where did this blog come from today?

Well right now I am off to eat. It’s almost three in the afternoon and I haven’t even had a cup of tea yet. Then I am going to check my work email and see if I have a message from my favourite Blogget in South Africa. I hope I have as her emails are sunshine on a rainy day. If it’s raining where you are, I hope rainbows will follow. X

 

 

 

MY INDIAN JEWEL BY FIONA CUMMINGS

MY INDIAN JEWEL

BY FIONA CUMMINGS

As we stand upon the bridge of roots

The fragrance falls around us

We can forget about all the fuss

And take in the fragrant Seeta pushpa

And amazing bamboo papur

Among the willows, you whisper

Sending shivers, down my spine

I still can’t believe you are mine

People carrying meat, wrapped in leaves

Walking through the forest

your lips talk with my soul

The beauty all around

As I look to the ground

Yellow flowers with stripes of red

Look up as if to listen

In your chocolate eyes that Glisson

Full of love

I thank God above

For you are my best friend and lover

I never want another

You have my heart forever

As we stand on this bridge of wood

I am grateful for all that is good

As our hearts, beat as one

With you, I belong

In our world that hasn’t been spoiled

This land still talks with yesterday

But tomorrow is a brand new day

As we stand on this bridge willows entwined

Life for us is so very kind

With you by my side

My feelings I cannot hide

Our hearts excite each other

And have made a promise to beat as one forever

I love you my Indian jewel

We have broken every rule

Just to be, you and me

My past is free

You make me so happy

This is the best feeling in the world

You are pure gold

A story to be told

Keeping me warm in winters cold

And filling me with sunshine in summer

Making me feel safe in thunder

And giving me hope in life

I am so looking forward to becoming your wife

 

© Fiona Cummings

 

 

 

IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR? AND MY DIARY BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Well my busy week has turned out sadly a different kind of busy week. Not one for me but others I have to sort out. My plan of a coffee with a friend worked out yesterday, but we made plans to go out to a quiz this Thursday and sadly, Hub won’t be able to come because he is working away and won’t be home until late. He told me to go but it’s not the same it’s a couple kind of night out. Today I was to meet with Arty but I had to cancel because Hub decided to work from home last minute. Also, the most important reason, my Son is really ill in bed. He has been unwell for days. But he is getting worse rather than better. He is twenty, so I can’t do anything about it apart from today take him drinks and paracetamols and before he said for the first time he was starving. He hasn’t eaten in 24 hours, this is not like him. I took him a cheese muffin he didn’t want toast or scrambled egg as I suggested. He asked for a hot water bottle. I said I bought him over the years two. I asked, where are they? He replied. In the loft. Oh, very handy. So, I found mine and he now is nursing a really poorly stomach, head, ache and his limbs are painful. Being his age, he won’t go to the Doctors, mind you, I doubt our place would be able to see him for two weeks.

 

I had no sleep at all last night. I’m not joking. He was out at Shams until two this morning. He said he slept. Well he should have been home in his own bed how boring for Sham. He said he tried to go for a walk and couldn’t get out of the car. Oh, you know, I’m worried sick. It’s almost three in the afternoon and he is still in bed. And, get this, my dog isn’t too well either. She keeps threatening to be sick. It’s funny as each time she starts to do that sound no dog owner wants to hear, The Little Fella walks away from lying next to her. He goes as far across the room as possible. They know don’t they when the other is going to be sick? She will have eaten something in the garden, but BW hasn’t, so what is wrong with him? I think I know. He on Shamrocks instructions is cooking his dinners prep as he calls it and freezing them.  Then defrosting and microwaving. I told him not to do that, but Sham says she does it so in the freezer they went. Of course, a just turned eighteen-year-old lass knows best. Then he has bought fat busters. I mean, he has not got a bit of fat on him. He bought them from what he called a reputable company. He also bought tablets to give him energy. With caffeine in them. Again, he read the ingredients out to me and I’m no wiser. The only thing I understood was vitamins but I suppose if they put the odd word in them like vitamins, then some, people will think they are good. Well since he has been taken them he has been really really ill. Today he has been in bed so I pray to God he will stay there and keep away from them. But if he doesn’t get better soon and continues to take them, what do I do? He isn’t a child as he keeps telling me.

 

My Son eventually got his clothes cleaned yesterday from when he did the mud race. Oh, you should have seen my kitchen. It took me two hours this morning to sort our kitchen out, not just mud, but last night I didn’t tidy up before bed and it was left. So empty dish washer, fill it, wash down work tops and cooker as well as wipe down the fridge as our groceries are coming tonight. Took my Sons washing out on our new line, it’s great, once I find the blooming thing. We put it down every night so it’s like a stick in the middle of a large yard and then it’s hunt the pole. Then to clean the washing machine. Then the floors oh boy, but all done now as for dinner tonight? Really don’t care. Smile.

 

It’s a nice day. Not too hot but a gentle breeze coming through our open window. Right now, I will go and do some more work around the house then I have a couple of calls and dates to enter into the Diary for various appointments.

So far, I hope to meet up with my friend tomorrow then I got a text from Greece to meet up with another couple on Friday night with Hub. Not sadly in Greece, haha, but they are on holiday and are coming back tomorrow so want a catch up. So that will be nice. I just hope my baby will be feeling better by then. I pray he stops taken them blooming pills. He is so very stubborn.  

 

And before I go some news.

In Melbourne, they are very close to developing a small device that is implanted and is better than the previous bionic eye which is much more intrusive but this is only good for those still with sight. In China, they are working hard with stem cells. The news looks good from there. It’s in Northern China and about 20 days of pretty intense treatment. Again, the only reports I have read are from those with some sight not those of us who are totally blind. But this is great news for us. CRISPR Breakthrough: Restoring Vision by Reprogramming Cells

April 25th, 2017 by FFB Canada

The eye’s photoreceptor cells are essential for vision because of their unique ability to convert light into visual signals. The loss of photoreceptors is at the root of many blinding eye diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and Stargardt Disease – to name just a few.

Restoring photoreceptors therefore has tremendous therapeutic potential. Many research teams, around the world, are developing sight-restoring treatments that involve replacing damaged photoreceptors via stem cell transplantation.

Stem cell transplantation is not the only way to restore vision. Last week, an incredible discovery demonstrated that gene-editing can also restore sight.

The team, led by Kang Zhang from the University of California, San Diego, used the gene-editing tool, CRISPR, to change the genes that are expressed in rod photoreceptor cells. Specifically, they used CRISPR to turn off the genes Nrl and Nr2e3, which play an important role in the development of photoreceptors cells. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Humans have approximately 6 million cones and about 120 million rods. Amazingly, the team observed that turning off these two genes in rods caused the cells to become cone photoreceptors. This “reprogramming” of rods into cones has powerful therapeutic potential, especially for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which primarily involves the loss of rod photoreceptors.

Currently, there are no treatments for RP, which is an umbrella term for a group of inherited blinding eye diseases that are caused by mutations in more than 60 genes. Although there are different kinds of RP, all forms involve the death of rod photoreceptors, which are responsible for peripheral and night-vision. In contrast, cone photoreceptors are responsible for high-acuity, central vision.  In RP, cones continue to function after the rods are gone, but ultimately begin to die toward the later stages of the disease.

To test if their reprogramming approach could work as a treatment for RP, the team studied two different animal models of RP. In both cases, the team demonstrated that reprogramming rod cells with CRISPR led to improved cone function, thereby reversing the development of RP and restoring visual function.

The team is optimistic that their approach could also work as a treatment for people living with RP because their proof-of-principle results in the laboratory are very encouraging. Although they are not able to test their approach in a clinical trial yet, they are certainly looking toward treatments in the future, especially because the need is so urgent.

This urgent need for new treatments and the fast-pace of promising vision research motivates the FFB’s Restore Vision 20/20 Initiative, which will fund sight-saving research with the greatest potential to move into a clinical trial.

 

http://ffb.ca/crispr-breakthrough-restoring-vision-by-reprogramming-cells/