This Post is Brought to You Today By The Letter D

So in line with wonderful Absolute Vanilla and the equally marvelous Bee I have taken on a letter to blog about. Bee kindly donated the letter "D" and this post is an homage to all the "D" words that mean or have meant something to me. Here are but a few...

"D" is for Dreams and Daydreaming. Well I guess I've made no secret of the fact that I'm dozy cow who likes to fritter the hours away in the depths of my imagination. Sometimes I'm thinking plotty things - or plotting (as those more adept at our fair language would say) - but, to me, 'plotting' just seems more sinister than the workings of my mind, so I like to think plotty things. Sometimes I engage in pondering. I like thinking about stuff. It doesn't have to be deep and meaningful - I'm quite a fan of the silly and absurd - just whatever pops in the old noggin that takes my fancy. Yes daydreaming is one of my favourite things.

"D" is for Dinner and Dessert. I adore food. Eating is just a miraculously pleasurable thing to do. And I'm not just talking about treats and sweets here, I get as much joy from a plate of stew as I do from the most delectable of oozy chocolatey treats. Flavour is, for me, one of the greatest gifts to humanity. Occasionally in my daydream meanderings I wonder what luxuries I could be comfortable with if I won the lottery or hit the payload with one of my books, and I have decided that I would have a personal chef because even though I adore food and I'm a reasonable cook, I'm not a happy cook. It just feels like work to me. I wish I liked it better but I don't.


"D" is for Doggie. Oh the Pooch! My fourth child. She's curled up at the end of my bed as contented as a doggie can be and I love her to pieces. She's not actually my dog - she belongs to Hubby - but I'm pretty sure she likes me better. I would love to have another. Poor Pooch doesn't like being alone and even though I'm only out for a few hours in the morning I know she hates it (as is evidenced by the ripped up mail I come home to and her new habit of taking anything she can reach off the counter top)! It's lonely and it's boring. However I have to wait till summer when I'm off for 6 weeks so I'm around to settle any new puppy in. I'm very much a dog person. She's like my sidekick. Whatever the weather, however I'm feeling we are out and about everyday. I can't tell you how much getting her for my Hubby has enriched my life.

I pretty sure he feels the same.

"D" is for Differences. I am constantly amazed how we are pressurized, as human beings, to be the same. We are told how to dress, how to act, what we should look for, what we should strive to achieve - even how we should be feeling. From the second we're born we are being taught to conform to a hive mentality. Now in the broader sense this makes sense. As a species, having shared values and social skills has helped us to be very successful. I have no problem with values that promote respect and understanding between people. What I have a problem with is the notion of homogenization. We are, because of the multitude of traditions and cultures, the thousands of languages, the musical variations across the planet, the profusion of beliefs and so much variation of thought, an incredibly diverse and amazing lot. I love that my children are so completely different from one another. Each has their own unique abilities, each learns in a different way and none of them conform to the jelly mould of the perfect child that the school curriculum is designed for. I value every unique hair on their head and I won't force them into a box and label it up as "generic child". I hope that they grow up to value who they are and they don't get caught up in the teen cloning syndrome so many kids fall prey to. And, let's face it, adults too. Vive les differences I say.

"D" is for Daisies. The perfect flower. So simple and yet so incredibly beautiful. I have very fond memories of sitting in the Park back in Limerick in the warm sunshine making daisy chain after daisy chain and how disappointed I felt the days I arrived to find that they'd mowed the grass and there were no daisies left to pick. Since I've grown up I've fallen head over heels in love with the Gerbera Daisy. It's the vibrancy of the colours - they are so uplifting. And I'm not allergic to them. I love lilies too but they play havoc with my nasal passages so I can't have them in the house - but gerberas I adore.

I love daisies so much that when I was pregnant with my daughter I wanted to call her Daisy. I thought it a beautiful name and that it would be perfect for my beautiful daughter but alas my Hubby had quite a different association in his mind.

"You can't call her Daisy," he said, "that's a cow's name!"

That kinda ruined it for me too.


"D" is for Dentists. Just to prove that not all D words are wonderful, I have to include this kiddie. At the age of 8 I had an extraction of a molar where the anaesthetic wasn't given long enough to work and despite my very loud protestations the git took the darn thing out anyway. Unsurprisingly I'm a bit nervous going to them even now - thirty five(ish) years later. You can read about my last visit here but if you're squeemish I really wouldn't recommend it! Unfortunately this reminds me that I have to make another appointment to go.

Shit.

"D" is for Delight. I just love that word. It makes me happy.

"D" is for Darkness. I sometimes find it hard to believe I was so terrified of the dark when I was a child. I love it now. I find night time and the deep blue of the sky so heartwarming these days I'm at a loss to understand how I could've conjured up so many monsters in the dark when I was little. In fact I like the dark so much I only put lights on in the evening time if I'm looking for something or I'm reading, otherwise my house is filled with inky moonlight.

Then of course there's dark chocolate - another great pleasure.....

"D" is for Dad. In gratitude for mine and for my husband who are both pretty darn fab.

"D" is for Daughter. I adore my three children equally so I feel weird singling out my daughter but I couldn't let a meme about D words that are important to me, go by without mentioning my favouritest D word, now can I? My daughter is eleven. She has long beautiful red hair, is tiny, very funny and terribly sweet. I feel utterly blessed to have had her and I hope that as she grows older she continues to come up, throw her arms around me and say, "Huggie!" Always Honey. Always.

The only other thing to say is that this is the 100th post for Whittering On. I've been trying to figure out why I'm not all Woo-Hoo and super-duper excited, running competitions, hosting parties and whatnot but the truth is, it's not my 100th post. I had that last year sometime on my other (now closed to the public) blog and there was fireworks and champagne. Actually this turns out to be my 219th post. So I guess you can see why I haven't got a marching band.

Still 100 posts is something to be proud of so I want to thank you all for being so kind as to pop by for all, most or the occasional few of those 100 and I hope to see around here for the next 100.

You're the best.

Delightful actually.