A lifetime away

Strange how certain stimulae will throw you back immediately into your childhood. I had such an event two nights ago.

I fell into bed, completely exhausted at about 8pm. Because we are heading into a S. Hemisphere summer, it was still light. Several birds were still making their presence felt – a fantail was flapping about in the cabbage tree, and our resident song thrush was singing a cheerful ditty from the neighbour’s tv ariel.

I was seven years old again, tracing the pattern of pink sweet peas on the white curtains in my tiny bedroom. I could smell newly mown grass from the back lawn and my parents chatting in the garden of the bungalow where I grew up. Dad would be checking the rose bushes for greenfly and mum would be telling him about the parent/teacher’s association meeting.

Mostly, I fell asleep dreaming about the seaside and our caravan on the moors and the wide open spaces of the countryside where we spent our weekends. Forty years on, I will probably be strolling along the dramatic coastline and remembering the shell seeking weekends of my childhood. Wonderful how things do come full circle.