boron – Page 4 – Louisa Parry

Breakfast, animals x 3, showcase x3

1. The sweetness of the crisp bacon, the sourness of the muffin, the silkiness of the scrambled egg and the substantial chewiness of the sausage. A great breakfast.

2. Animals:

a) The chickens cluck around me, interested in what I’m doing to their drinker, to their grit hopper and to their coop. When I’m working on their nest boxes – in the strip of no-man’s-land outside their enclosed run, they gather around the run door watching and waiting for my return into their world – or plotting their escape, it’s hard to tell which. After I’m done, I take them borage leaves and before I can bend down to give them out, one cheeky girl flies up and snatches one out of my hand. Definitely getting braver.

b) She looks like a puppy when her back legs bounce up at the same time. I think she knows it too, knows to do that so we can’t help but fall in love with her more.

c) Boron is asleep in Lily’s bed – her big dog bed that’s actually a bit too big for her. Boron looks tiny in the cushioned oval, his extended paw clawing on/off at the blanket as I talk to him.

3. The last night of the showcase:

a) The scrap of paper – torn to just the minimum then folded many times to much delight – finally makes it back to me just in time for the start of the show.

b) I’m more nervous tonight than I have been because John’s in the audience and I want them to do a good job so he’ll enjoy it. Afterwards, he says he did.

c) From where I’m sat, I can’t see the action, just a slither of stage at the very back. Their shadows – from many different light sources – are overlaid so many times that they’re abstract strips of light and dark.

She’s a funny one, damn good kids, strangely romantic moment, sleep hug

7/7/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I go down to see the chickens – to fill up their food & water and take some photos for The Really Good Life’s chicken update. The one with black flecks seems delighted to see me and is intrigued by the camera – she looks at it, peers inside at the lens snapping shut and pecks at my fingers holding it up. I laugh and laugh, then looking at the pictures I’ve taken, I laugh again.

2. We spend most of the dress rehearsal nagging them to speak clearer, add more character and please oh please learn their lines before Friday – but I make sure to single them out afterwards and thank them for the effort they’ve put in thus far. Later, with the older kids, amid stalled improvisations & funny word games, I chat to them about fake tan mishaps, bra straps and chlamydia tests in public toilets. I’m going to miss them a lot over the summer.

3. They break the hug when the bus arrives and as she turns to the door, she licks her lips. Eyes shining & cheeks flushed, he watches her as she pays and moves up the bus. She sticks her tongue out as she passes him as if freeing him to go but he stays until the bus pulls away.

4. I’m hardly wake enough to realise what Boron’s doing – positioning himself under my arm for a cuddle. In my mostly-asleep state, I shuffle around him to get comfortable and he places his head next to mine on the pillow. Like Carla last week, he’s soft like a teddy bear but purring. I like when the nights are cooler and the cats remember where the warmth is.

Stroke, good dogs, crunch-crunch-crunch, stroke

4/7/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. They’re slowly getting used to us. At first, they quietly protest about being held but I’m barely holding the last one, just a supporting hand on her chest then nothing at all, and she stays there on my knee. She peers at us both without blinking for a few moments then slowly hops off my lap and returns to her pecking.

2. We meet two cute little dogs on the walk – Murphy at the start, Scraps at the end. Both are tempted to stop and play with Lily but like good dogs, they respond to their owners’ calls instead.

3. The baked egg shells crumble easily under the mortar and the sound straddles the fine line between wonderful and grating.

4. Boron joins us on the sofa and the position he’s in means I can stroke him with my full forearm, not just my hand. His fur feels warm and luxurious on my inner wrist.

Not at all alone with the moon – a day of company

28/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. All of Team Peach is on the bed when we wake up and we sing the ‘Team Peach on the Bed’ song. (“Team Peach on the bed, fa la la la la. Carla on the bed, La la la la la. Boron on the bed, Bee bee bee bee bee. Lily on the bed, Lil alil lil lil. Team Peach on the Bed, Carla, Bee and Lil.” Yes.)

2. We cook together for the second night in a row – last night working together filling skewers then bbqing them, today working side by side on our own mammoth creations. Cooking is usually a solitary activity, it’s nice to have company for a change.

3. He washes, I dry and we both sing along to the music.

3BT – skin tingles, head tickles, dusk chorus

22/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I’m too hot but the room is cool. The air tickles my skin and I feel equilibrium returning.

2. Boron follows me into the bathroom and I ask him if there is anything he needs – there is food, water and he’s just had some milk. He rubs at my legs to say he just wants a bit of love. I take him back out to the sunny window seat and he purrs and purrs while I kiss his head and rub his chest.

3. After dinner (the first we’ve eaten inside for nearly a week), I take my book outside. Around me the world slowly gets cooler and suddenly all the birds start singing their pre-dusk songs. The cat on my knee and the dog by my side watch with tails wagging as the woodpigeons divebomb past us as they gather together for the night.

3BT – it’s working, always time for bread & jam, comfortable

19/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. I spend the afternoon pottering in the garden – sowing more salad, potting on small seedlings and planting out their bigger siblings. Growing veg is such a waiting game – waiting and hoping – but when I see the first courgettes forming, it feels worth it.

2. John’s out all day at a friend’s stag do but pops home between the go-karting and the evening activities to eat some bread & jam.

3. Boron discovers a new place to sleep – my yarn stash between the sofa & the armchair. I hear rustling as he circles around, padding it into shape but by the time I turn around to look at him, he’s curled in a tight circle, his chin resting on a fluffy magenta skein.

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