martes, julio 22, 2008

Holiday Part 2 - A Celtic Connection

The thing about spending time with my grandmother was that she was also from a Celtic background. She loved nature and spreading her knowledge of it, which my little brother and I lapped up.

Take for example the 'Story of Tiny'.

Tiny was a small lamb who was born prematurely and was destined to die. My grandfather announced, rather gruffly that it was a case of natural selection and he had to concentrate on the lambs that would survive.

"Oh fiddlesticks" announced my grandmother and scooped the helpless lamb up in her frock.

My brother and I followed as she marched back to the cottage and promptly put the lamb in the Aga oven. We burst into tears and declared that we didn't want to eat the lamb - we didn't even like lamb.

"Shush" she said soothingly "Help me prepare the milk"

After a few minutes, she took the miniscule lamb out of the oven, now suitably warm, wrapped it in a blanket and started to feed it with a baby bottle filled with warm milk. After a short while, it fell asleep, as did we on the floor of the scullery.

The next morning, we were allowed to feed the lamb, now called Tiny and he became like a pet sheep. If he did poo in the house, I'm sure grandma cleaned it up and claimed he was house-trained to my grandfather.

Many years later, I was to do exactly the same thing with a small duckling who I called Wayne. Why did I call him Wayne? I have completely no idea but I do know that the love of nature passed onto me, in a Celtic way, stayed with me and remains forever.

12 comentarios:

Princess of the Universe dijo...

Awww Goth, you do have a sweet side! :P
xo

Daphne Wayne-Bough dijo...

Scullery! I'd have thought you were too young to know what a scullery is, young feller-me-lad. Was there a mangle in it? And an Ascot? And a copper, with a copper-stick?

Ani Smith dijo...

Awwww. Warmed my chops, that did. ;)

Leni Qinan dijo...

What a nice and moving lambstory, Goth! Sounds almost like a fairytale to me. So Tiny became a member of the family when he/she grew up, right?
Same thing with Wayne, I suppose –I can imagine adult Wayne smoking your blunts, drinking your beers and watching the soccer games on the TV with you, lol-. Love of nature certainly is such a wonderful thing!

Unknown dijo...

You old softie! Should have called it mint sauce and ate it!

Soup Waiter dijo...

spanish had a little lamb,
his granny had an aga,
they ate it curried on a nan,
with several pints of lager.

SpanishGoth dijo...

Princess -> Of course I have a sweet side, that's why girls like me

Daphne -> Yes there was a mangle but, before you reminisce too much - remember that they were my grandparents and I'm 400 years old so that makes you???

Ani -> Warmed your chops? try gravy

Ms Kravitz -> Unfortunately, Tiny died shortly after I left. Wayne was returned to his family but I think I unduly prolonged his existence

JG -> I'm having a holiday from being sarcastic so go and speak to Trigger, the dog

Joliet -> and this is why you are merely a guitarist. Words never fail me but, involve a project manager and....

Unknown dijo...

That is simply adorable....

Mr Farty dijo...

Aw, that was lovely.

...

...

When can we get back to the sarcasm?

Pat dijo...

I'll never forget seeing my grandma drown newborn, unwanted puppies. It was the thirties - during the depression. My sister and I watched - dumbstruck.

Anónimo dijo...

Hey, if I wanted any of this Disney shite, I'd visit a porn site and click on the "I am not yet 18" button.
(I actually do this. It'd be too embarrassing if someone found Disney.com among my bookmarks...)

SpanishGoth dijo...

(.)(.) -> I can be adorable... at times

Mr Farty -> sooner than you might think

Pat -> it's a circlee of life thing though isn't it

Che -> kind of figures....