I live in Serendipity
A bird flying high in the sky
Trees
Grass covered slopes
Do not forget the cows
The chickens
The Horses
What more could you wish for and above all
A river runs through it
Category Archives: Ragtag Daily Prompt
RDP Monday: Blast
Autumn came and so did the leaves
falling fast and leaving the trees
It was time to cut the bows that break
And they sawed all day, the tree did shake
Mr. Swiss likes to take a rest
after lunch, because that time is the best
Saws were cutting, screeching on the way
It seemed the woodcutters were here to stay
They got in the mood, their strength was vast
It was an addiction to create the blast
Day and night the saw did its work
The men were addicted, they had their perk
When Winter came the wind blasted through
Leaves were gone, no longer grew
At last there was quiet, it began to rain
Until next Autumn when they began again
RDP Sunday: Ring
I am one of the few people that had to have their wedding ring removed under anaesthetic. When Mr. Swiss and I decided to take the plunge almost 50 years ago, he reminded me that I should actually have a wedding ring. Money was a little scarce in those days. When you marry someone that already has two kids, aged 6 and 7, then you are not actually rolling in money. I remember we went to a jeweller shop in the town of Biel and I chose a plain gold band, just like my mum had. Mr. Swiss decided he did not want one, and that was OK with me. My dad never had a wedding ring. It is a bit of a custom in Switzerland, perhaps in other countries as well, to have your ring engraved with the name of your husband and date of marriage. It was not done so much in England at the time and we wanted to get married and not have an engraving session.
Now we can turn the clock onwards to about 40 years later. I was in London visiting my dad and my No. 1 son was with me. Mr. Swiss was in Switzerland and we only had contact by phone. I remember one evening my old schoolfriend and I went for a walk in the new docklands of London. I was staying with my friend in London at her house with my son. We decided to walk over Tower Bridge and then it happened. I still do not know how today. I must have tripped, fell, and saved my head by automatically placing my arm beneath it. Unfortunately I did not save my arm and it broke in two clean pieces at the elbow. Luckily my friend had her car and she said we must go to the hospital. I told her I want to go to the nearest hospital to where she lives, so we went on a half hour journey through London from Tower Bridge to Hornchurch in the car, me with an arm with two parts of a bone rubbing together.
We arrived at the hospital and my broken arm was diagnosed within an hour and I became a patient. The next day I was operated, an they told me the wedding ring must be removed. I asked how. Since 40 years it had never left my finger and the finger had actually expanded around the ring. I was sure the bone had grown as well. There was no way that ring would come off my finger. The nurse tried, I think three nurses tried, but no success. I was past caring and they wheeled me off to the operation with the ring still on my finger. When I woke from the operation I noticed I now had a silk band around my neck, and yes the wedding ring was hanging on it. I also had some suspicious black and blue markings on my ring finger. And that is how they removed my ring under anaesthetic.
I was released from hospital a day later and the day afterwards flew back to London with my son. My schoolfriend had been looking after him in the meanwhile. At one point Mr. Swiss called because he had heard nothing from me for a couple of days. My friend had the delightful job to inform him that I was in hospital with a broken arm. I told her not to phone him with the news. I did not want to worry him.
I no longer had a wedding ring on my finger, I was free wild, on the market again. After a further 5 years Mr. Swiss decided this state of affairs could not continue and one day he was measuring my finger with a strip of paper, not saying why, although I had guessed. It was around my birthday and yes, he had bought a new ring, this time even with a small stone in it. It was engraved with his name and date of our wedding and I am still wearing it today. I can even remove it if I want to, although I noticed that either my finger is expanding slowly in width, or the ring has got smaller, probably by washing. The photo is of my hand (with the normal golden oldie markings and wrinkles) and the ring.
RDP Saturday: Fleek
I can speak english, often double dutch
Please do not use such strange words, being just too much
Speaking Swiss german all day long I sometimes make mistakes
It often gets embarrassing, I begin to get the shakes
Suddenly I have a new one, midst in the daily prompt
I have never used this word before, my knowledge is now swamped
They tell me how it should be used, and so I am on fleek
I used it in a sentence today, but everyone found it weak
I thought it would be “in” and original, all would clap with joy
They looked at me with questioning glance and asked if was a toy
Afterwards everyone laughed, I felt I was a fool
I only used it to show off and thought I could be cool
So why use these words in daily talk, when no-one knows what you mean
I will stick to Swiss German, even cockney, and something in between
RDP Friday: Damp
Growing old surrounded by mist is really not such fun
Your neck is fixed, it creaks as well, you begin to long for the sun
On a misty morning you only see outlines, the trees have disappeared
Or perhaps it is time for a new pair of glasses, your eyes feel like they are smeared
Every Autumn the same old story, we have a creeping damp
It is a ghostly invasion, nothing is clear, no light is seen from the lamp
And when the month comes to an end, it will be halloween
There are screams and sounds of ghosts and ghouls, only their shapes can be seen
A ghostly hand reaches out in the fog, and even that is clammy
Oh how I wish to leave this place for a holiday in Miami
I took a walk through the cemetery, and tripped upon a bone
My hand was cut, bleeding so much, and I heard a vampire groan
So don’t go down in the woods today, you never know what will appear
It is better to stay at home in the warmth and enjoy the atmosphere
Go to bed, hide under the sheets, to keep the damp at bay
Hoping that later the weather will change and you have a sunny day
RDP Thursday: Herd
The cow population of Switzerland is approximately one and half million, meaning that there is one cow for every five people in Switzerland. We are surrounded by cows in our village, every spare piece of meadow has a few cows. One day the cows disappeared. I would take my daily wheelies in my chair to visit the cows and they were not there. I was getting worried and decided to stop eating beef. You never know if it was one of the neighbours you were enjoying for Sunday lunch when you chewed your steak.
The problem was solved when I met one of the farmers mending a fence on the range. Actually it was the field next to the local castle. I asked him where the cows had gone and told him of my problems with eating beef. Did he have a smile on his face in sympathy? He reassured me that they were all doing well and sleeping in the barn during the day. Temperatures were too hot for them outside when the sun was so intense. They had been transferred to the night shift and only let out in the cooler evenings.
As I wheeled past the field I saw proof that the cows were still here. They had left a mark to claim their territory. Even the flies were happy.
RDP Wednesday: Colour
I took the photo of this colourful chicken at the local market this week. And the word colour I spell with a “u” after the “o” being a Brit. I grew up that way.
What would the world be without colour? Probably quite boring for most of us, if you actually see colour as it is. Some of us might even be colour blind, mostly the men, but they are blind to a lot of things according to the women. I suppose men are more into shapes and sizes. Ask your male partner which colour you should choose for your new dress. The answer is “it’s up to you, all colours are quite nice”, but perhaps he is looking at other details which please him better.
My dad was colour blind and if you asked him to give you the green box it will probably be a blue box when it arrives, if you are not colour blind as well. If a man is colourblind and has a son, the son will probably also be colour blind. If he has a daughter you might think the colour blind curse has been avoided, but unfortunately not. My youngest is colourblind. His dad is not colour blind, but my dad was and the gene continues into the next generation through the females.
So do not worry No. 2 son, it is not your fault if you wore a green sock and blue sock when you were a kid, just blame it on grandad and me.
Does this mean that a girl will never be colour blind? I asked that question once and was told that if the mother’s father is colourblind and the father also, and they have a daughter, then she will be colour blind. My No. 2 son did have a few problems with driving the car, but he eventually noticed that the red light was a different shade to the green one, but if he actually saw the colour I am not sure.
Being a very amateur photographer I love taking photos of colours. When I came across this display at the local Autumn fair I was fascinated by the diversity of the various colours and this was only kitchen equipment.
So what is your favourite colour? I always pick blue because it suits my blue eyes, but are they really blue? Colours are a reflection of the light apparently. I remember dissecting a cow’s eye in biology at school and the back of the eye was showing all colours of the rainbow, although apparently a cow only sees his 50 shades of grey. A human eye has a grey background, and we see colours. No I am not an expert, just a few facts I picked up in my 72 years of golden oldiism.
Anyhow that is my story and I am sticking to it, until someone reads this and tells me what I got wrong. Nobody is perfect.
