Category Archives: Beloved

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Clementine

If I lose my memory, at least, if it’s Alzheimer’s, it’s like a trip back through time. People seem to lose recent memory and then they are in past memories, which burn out like small fires. Like matches, taking the neuron with it.

I have joked that if I was in memory care, I would be singing. I know 9 verses of Clementine and I would sing and sing and sing, because my earliest happy memories are singing.

I know the silly add on verses.

“Now all ye boy scouts, learn a lesson
from this dreadful tale of mine
Artificial respiration
would have saved my Clementine.”

“How I missed her, how I missed her,
how I missed my Clementine
‘Til I kissed her little sister
And forgot my Clementine.”

“In my dreams she still doth haunt me
dressed in garments soaked in brine
In my life I would have kissed her
Now she’s dead, I draw the line.”

Here is Pete Seeger, banjo and all.

The words change. Second verse for me is “Light she was and like a feather”. His version is “like a fairy”. It’s lovely to see how the versions change over time. I did not learn the churchyard verse, and he does not sing the three verses that I add above.

Meanwhile, Steeleye Span did not do Clementine, at least not on Youtube. But this is my favorite moral song from their albums. Would you run as, well, you’ll have to listen to the ending to hear the three seven year penance punishments.

Anyhow, I learned to sing at the same time that I learned to talk. Singing was the happy and safe part. That is where I will go if my memory fails me.

The photograph is from my father’s 70th birthday, in 2008. He is the one with the guitar. Andy Makie is on harmonica and CF is in the back. I don’t know what song this was, not Clementine. My friend Maline took this photograph. She died in 2023. My father died in 2013 at age 75. He was not confused when he wore his oxygen. Without it, he sounded drunk.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: dementia.

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Winged week

This week has been mercurial. Both my daughter-in-law and I have birthdays. All three of my children were home, my son and daughter-in-law from the east coast and my daughter from Colorado. This feels luxurious after Covid-19. My son and daughter-in-law are making the rounds, spending time with her parents and friends on the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. It has been delightful and busy too and this is the first week in ages that I’ve missed a day blogging (yesterday) and I think THREE Ragtag Daily Prompts. I have driven round trip to Bremerton twice and once to Kingston over the last three days. My daughter leaves on the Port Townsend ferry later this afternoon. The cats are still wondering WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT? I think that Sol Duc wonders, but Elwha is mostly just in a state of wonderment. He found my son large, fast-moving and quite overwhelming at first, even though Elwha is the biggest cat we’ve ever had.

The photograph is the table all decorated and ready for family guests, on Tuesday. The cats were quite mystified because they got closed out of two bedrooms for the week and then people arrived. Very confusing!

We had a lovely time.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: mercurial.

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Painted sky

I think the sky and water here are more sophisticated than I anything I can imagine.

After my mother died, I wrote a poem about her and my kids. Her part:

I keep wondering
what the art supplies are like
and if you work on sunsets
or mountains
or lakes

The rest of the poem is here https://drkottaway.com/2021/09/23/painting-angels-2/.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: sophisticated.

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Ages

Here is my daughter on the lap of her great grandmother Evelyn Ottaway. I think my daughter was a little over one and my grandmother was 90 or very close. We flew from Colorado and visited friends and family. My grandmother was living with my aunt Pat right then. My daughter was very relieved when we got home, but she let many people that she didn’t know hold her. This was the only time she saw her great grandmother.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: age.

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Early morning

A friend and I go down to coffee and walk out on the dock, on a fabulous sunny morning. The Northwest Maritime Center and the water are photogenic and lovely! All of the colors in the polarized light are just beautiful and it is almost warm.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: photogenic.

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East Beach

I hiked East Beach on Marrowstone Island yesterday. The wind was howling! It was not warm, but I was dressed in a foul weather sailing coat and rain pants and hiking boots. Gloves and hat. Ready for spring, right?

It was beautiful. I was alone on the beach. I did slip once and bruised my left hamstring! How annoying. I should leave a dashboard note of which way I’ve gone.

I did find some agates. I did not stay out for more than an hour, too cold. I walked into the wind so I was warmed coming back. Here is the prettiest agate.

What a fabulous hike! I was glad I’d guessed right for outer wear. The beaches always feel ten to twenty degrees colder, especially when it was windy. Does Marrowstone Island qualify as an esoteric destination? At any rate, I love it.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: esoteric.