Sunday Scribblings "Poem"

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "Poem".
I decided I am not a good poet, though sometimes I can write a bit so I would write about another persons poem. It sort of makes a continuation of the Adult/Child theme from last week.
Here ti's.
When I was a child I liked to read short stories and poems. The poem "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson was my favourite. I memorized it at a very young age and used to hop on the backyard swing and say it while swinging through the air. I loved that swing. It was a safe way to fly and I had control of the height, speed and just how long I stayed. When you are a kid there isn't always a lot you have control over all by yourself. I used to swing with the dog or one of our chooks on my lap and giggle madly when the chook was drunk and couldn't walk straight when I let it back on the ground. Cruel but funny just the same.
The poem though. Now as an adult I see that it is a view from a safe place. An adventure for a child behind the safety of the garden wall and I love that. Flying, feeling the wind in your hair, and a sense of freedom. When I was a child I was always singing, made up and bits of song I knew, and I did that on the swing, flying through the air. I was never a brave child, the swing suited me best.

THE SWING

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the country side

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown
Up in the air I go flying again, up in the air and down!

Funny how some things from our childhood are committed to memory so well and others are sifted through and away isn't it. There are of course others that I remember and love, some of them by this same author. Like the Land of Counterpane and the one where the child is watching the world pass by from the window of the speeding train.

Then there is "My Country" by Dorothea Mackellar. Love that one too. That one is committed to memory by all Aussie school kids. Or if it isn't it should be. Patriotic and speaking of the beauty around us. I must admit though I couldn't recite all of the verses nor do I know all of them.

MY COUNTRY

First Verse

I love a sunburned country
A land of sweeping plains
Of rugged mountain ranges
Of drought and flooding rain
I love her far horizons
I love her jeweled sea
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me.

********************

Other stuff:
The house hunting is not bringing results at the moment. We have a date to be gone from this house. The auction we attended was pretty bad because the house sold for way above our limit. but we sort of knew it was going to even though it was worth a try. Never mind, put it down as a learning experience. We won't be able to buy a house of our own before the moving date and have it all finalized before then so we are now looking at renting short term, maybe until the first home buyers grant is finished in December or even when the grant amount is cut in half at the end of September. Then the market won't be so competitive hopefully, and the prices might come down slightly.
There is a Frederick McCubbin exhibition on at the national gallery until mid next month and I would love to go and see it. I love his work. Yeah, more patriotic stuff. Beautiful scenes of early Australian life in the bush. Love it. Maybe later this afternoon if we don't get too wrapped up in packing boxes. I should buy a poster and have it framed. Hmmmmm I like that idea.
My cat knows something is going on with the packing boxes and was playing in them last night. Climbing into them, hiding and peeking out of them. So cute. She is also looking worried at them. This time though she is not getting away from us. Poor darling.
Last night I made a date and walnut cake. I didn't use a recipe because I was being lazy but it came out nice anyway. I left the dates and nuts in big chunks , good stuff. Next time round I might play with putting coffee in it as well, that might be nice. I like playing around with things and not using recipes, they usually work out, I also make biscuits like that. I said usually but I don't often have a failure with doing things that way.
I had better go and see what Pete is up to, then tackle the linen cupboard.
Bye
Live Linda.