Tuesday 28 January 2014

Poem: Her Eyes


Her Eyes

Her eyes are dull, but living

Fury shining, he thinks.
And all because of him,
Now she is pining, he thinks.

Her mouth is tight, lips bitten,
And he wants them, he thinks.
But moving one step closer
Will condemn him, he thinks.

He watches from a distance,
Hidden from her, he thinks.
He hopes she’s never see him,
She’s too pure, he thinks.

Her eyes are dull, but knowing,
And then know him; she sees
His shadow stalking

When the light dims… she sees. 


©Lisamarie Lamb 2014 

Saturday 18 January 2014

Piecing Together The Past


I used to collect everything. No matter where I went, what I did, who I was with, I would gather together the remnants of the trip and keep them. I called them my 'souvenirs'. These items were anything from napkins to train tickets to leaflets to feathers to stickers... Anything and everything that could hold some memory of the day.

I stuck these treasures into scrapbooks (and the larger items, those that wouldn't bend or fold, went into my 'souvenir box'). I had an image in my mind of myself in decades to come, looking through the brittle pages, being transported back into the past, to happy days and fun times. I imagined sharing these memories with my children, perhaps even grandchildren.

But time marches of and things change and life gets too busy to collect little treasures. Sometimes life gets too busy to even go anywhere or do anything that makes collecting things worthwhile. That's how I felt for a long time. Years. My scrapbooks grew thinner and thinner, and finally around six years ago, I stopped filling them at all.

Recently, however, things have changed. My daughter is now three, and she attends a wonderful nursery school (Combe Bank in Sundridge, Kent). They are looked after there, they are taught well. And they have each - every single student - been given a scrapbook to fill in. These scrapbooks are given out at the beginning of each year, and are used as focal points for classroom discussions - a kind of show and tell. Helping Alice to complete her scrapbook has been fun. It reminded me of my own, and I even dug some of them out, and teared up looking through the - yes, slightly brittle - old pages.

Memories resurfaced, and it was wonderful.

So now, Alice and I are working on scrapbooks together. I hope in years to come, we will both be able to look back through them and remember the wonderful days we spent together.

Why not try it for yourself?

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Audio Books - Any Good?


I live in a place where the buses are infrequent, he nearest station is ten miles away, and if you don't have a car you're pretty much stuck. And everything - absolutely every place I need to get to - is about an hour away from my house by road.

The problem with having to drive everywhere is that it is really very dull. Very. Really. Especially when it's the same old routes all the time. 

So this year, in an effort to stem the boredom, I thought I would give audio books a try. My daughter received one for Christmas containing a number of Beatrix Potter stories, and I put it on in the car ostensibly for her... But I discovered that I really enjoyed it to! The CD is a great one, and the stories are read by Renee Zelwegger, Emily Watson, Ewan McGregor, and Lloyd Owen. It is available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Favourite-Beatrix-Potter-Tales-stars/dp/0723258856/

Alice enjoyed it so much that she wanted to hear it on every car journey. 

It was time to try something different. Which is when I decided that Harry Potter was the way to go. Stephen Fry's unabridged telling of all seven tales was just begging me to listen to it... So I did. We did. 

Halfway through the first book and neither Alice nor I mind the long car journeys anymore. In fact, we rather look forward to them!

What are your favourite audio books?