jmgoyder

wings and things

Sep 22

Love story 96: On the phone

by jmgoyder

Me: Hi, Ants, are you okay?

Anthony: Yes – when are you bringing me home?

Me: I couldn’t do the lunch arrangement and home as well today.

Anthony: I see.

Me: What’s wrong?

Anthony: I’m down in the dumps.

Me: Why? I thought you enjoyed the lunch.

Anthony: I did but then you made me go back. When am I coming home?

Me: Okay, Ants – I can’t manage you at home. You’re too heavy and I can’t do the nights.

Anthony: Why can’t we try?

Me: We have tried, Ants -please stop torturing me! And, by the way, why didn’t you speak coherently at lunch? Can you only do it when you’re telling me off?

Anthony: Okay, okay, Jules – please don’t cry.

Me: I’m doing my best, Ants! I thought lunch today would be great.

Anthony: I love you more than life, Jules – I’m sorry.

Me: Well you have a funny way of showing it – okay, I’m sorry too. Why did you have to get this stupid, rotten, bloody disease?

Anthony: I don’t know. Am I coming home tomorrow?

Me: Yes. Maybe.

Anthony: Are you picking me up?

Me: No – I can’t lift you so it’ll be the wheelchair taxi again. Ants, you know my blog?

Anthony: What?

Me: You know the blog I write?

Anthony: That clock story you wrote – remember that?

Me: No, not that. Well, anyway, I wrote about you today and admitted that I avoid you sometimes.

Anthony: Why?

Me: Because you are a pain in the neck, but I still love you.

Anthony: Jules, I have to go – it’s teatime.

Me: Okay, seeya, babycheeks.

Anthony: Jules?

Me: Yeah?

Anthony: You are wonderful.

Me: You’re not too bad yourself – I’ll ring you later to say good night – love you.

Ming: Will you idiots get off the phone so I can ring Davie? Oh, hi Dad – yeah seeya.

Animal LOVE STORY

32 Comments »
Sep 22

Mixed messages

by jmgoyder

Me: Good evening, my beautiful gang!

Seli: Julie!

Woodroffe: Julie!

Zaruma: Julie!

Pearly: Julie!

Godfrey: ABOUT FACE, gang, that vroom herder is coming. Quick, get into the yards!

Animal Family Friendship Wings

25 Comments »
Sep 20

Looking up

by jmgoyder

I’ve been asked a few times now about the rationale behind having so many birds when life is already complicated enough with Anthony’s Parkinson’s Disease, the nursing lodge transition traumas, Ming’s back surgery and subsequent life adjustments. So here is an explanation:

Last year, when Anthony was still living here at home and the idea of a nursing lodge had not even been contemplated, and I was already on an extended leave arrangement from my job as a lecturer at the local university, I decided to do everything possible to make our lives brighter. It began with the guinnea fowl because Anthony has always loved them; then poultry; then the peafowl (that was my idea). We had chookyards built, began to reap the delight of fresh eggs and the guinnea fowl (a dozen) made a very interestingly noisy addition to what had become an overly quiet life.

I befriended all of the birds and, to some extent, tamed them but it wasn’t until that first dusk when I watched, amazed, as all of the guinneas and peafowl flew up into the trees to sleep, that I realized I was hooked. Why? Because for the first time in years I was looking up.

Wings

55 Comments »
Sep 18

Indifference

by jmgoyder

I read once that the opposite of love is indifference, not hatred, and I think this makes a lot of sense. Indifference has a deceptive blandness to it, but is actually much more effective than hatred which, in my opinion, is a rather stupid emotion but does fuel a multiplicity of wars – within families, within countries, across history and geography. Hatred gobbles itself up in a futile way because it cannot forgive.

Indifference, on the other hand, is a wonderful emotional tool because you can use it to forgive and forget, and it is much gentler than hatred. The only problem with indifference is that, because it is so subtle, sometimes the indifferenced don’t  get it. I have learned these wisdoms from the antics of peafowl – ha!

Poor King. He keeps trying to impress Queenie but she just wants him to go away!

Family Wings

49 Comments »
Sep 17

Vroom-herding

by jmgoyder

The other afternoon, I was outside feeding the gang and trying to ‘herd’ them into their yards (I always have trouble with either Daffy or Pearl), Ming came home from milking the cows next door and did it in five seconds flat. He is a much more assertive ‘herder’ than I am.

The birds are wise; they obey his every ‘vroooooom’! If I were a bird, I would too.

Animal Family Wings

18 Comments »
Sep 16

Love story 95 – Mother and Son

by jmgoyder

You know that wonderful series, Mother and Son? If you don’t, it is well worth watching for its tragi-comic episodes.

Anthony and I used to watch it and laugh our heads of because in many ways it reminded us of the days of his lovely, but wiley, mother, Inna. In her 80s when I first met this family, Inna was definitely the boss and Anthony, in his 40s, was the only unmarried ‘kid’ so he looked after her and ran the dairy farm [you can see ‘Love story’ offerings in previous posts].

Then, when Ants and I got married, I was in my 30s and he was in his 50s and there were definitely some hilarious resemblances to Mother and Son in a weird, Freudian way.

And now? I am the mother in her 50s and Ming (our son) is approaching his 20s and some of our scenarios, conflicts and shared hilarity, remind me of Mother and Son, because there are some disconcerting similarities.

Speaking of motherhood – what the hell is Tapper (duck) doing inside the tiny space of the chook house? She has been sitting on a million eggs for two weeks now. Today, I said to her, have some daughters as well as sons please!

Family LOVE STORY Wings

21 Comments »
Sep 15

An (un)successful day

by jmgoyder

It was a day of contradictions with a good dose of anger thrown in. Ming was angry with me (characteristically) for not warning him that Anthony was being wheelchair-taxied home for lunch; I was angry with Ming for not going with the flow; and Anthony was angry with me (uncharacteristically) when the taxi came to pick him up to take him back to the nursing lodge after only 3 hours of being home.

However (and thank goodness for however) it was a sunny day, I cooked a lovely lunch, we sat outside and Ming played his guitar and a friend came over to see us later on and she was there when Ants was taxied away and she tolerated my mixed emotions about a whole lot of stuff – a good friend who also tolerated the fact that I have still not pruned the roses!

When I kissed Ants goodbye, he was quite nasty to me. No, that’s not quite accurate; he was quite unhappy with me – for sending him back. We had had several tail-chasing conversations during the day about him wanting to stay the night, about the impossibility of this because I cannot lift him etc. Ming became impatient and told us both to shut up and I have to admit I just wanted the whole ordeal over and done with.

So, when Ants had been taxied off and Ming had gone off to milk cows, and I was alone, I waited for the usual sobbing to happen, but it didn’t!

Instead, I decided to look at a few pictures I’d taken earlier in the day, to see if they worked out. Here they are – our one white peacock (we have two white peahens as well) finally grown up enough to display!

Animal Family Wings

67 Comments »
Sep 13

Humpty dumpty

by jmgoyder

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again

This little ditty has been dissected and analyzed by hundreds of literary scholars and nursery rhyme enthusiasts, but I’m just using it here to describe how ghastly this week has been in so many ways – not just for me but for Ming and Anthony too. The good thing is that I have found a way of putting Humpty dumpty together again and he will be sitting back up on his wall again tomorrow with a big smile.

Animal Family Friendship

38 Comments »
Sep 12

Rooster rage 1

by jmgoyder

Take a good look at this gorgeous rooster (named Tina Turner for obvious reasons) because you may not see him again.

Why? Well, quite simply, I have fallen out of love with him.

Why? Because he attacked my left leg the other day (the same leg attached to the twisted ankle) with such ferocity that he drew blood in five areas above and below my knee.

Ming had a friend visiting and, as I limped back to the house, I showed this friend my blood-stained jeans and he was very sympathetic (not).

Okay, so for the next few days these puncture wounds got bigger and infected and I could hardly walk and I had to get antibiotics. The worse it got, the more determined I became to outwit my foe.

Keep tuned for the next enthralling episode.

Animal Wings

74 Comments »
Sep 11

It’s such an honour!

by jmgoyder

On my third trip into town today (on my son’s behalf) this was our conversation:

Ming: You must feel really honoured to know me.

Me: WHAT did you say? [I was negotiating a difficult bit of road work, having forgotten my moonglasses]

Ming: Well you’ve known me since you had me, so you’ve seen me from the beginning.

Me: Your delusions of grandeur are really starting to irritate me, Ming.

Ming: No, Mum, all I mean is that you’ve known me from beginning to end.

Me: When is the end though?

Anyway, the conversation got a bit philosophical/hysterical after that. Nevertheless, I dropped the brat off for a concert and on my third trip home I thought of how Anthony waved to us today after our visit.

Me: Why are you giving me a wave like the Queen does?

Anthony: Because, my darling, I am royal.

Is arrogance genetic?

Animal blogging Family Friendship LOVE STORY

43 Comments »
«Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Blog at WordPress.com.