memory lane: more snapshots

I remember...the house in which I spent the first 11 years of my life. It was a big house, with high ceilings and many rooms (I was the youngest of 5, and my grandmother also lived with us).

I remember...the big, drafty sash windows with which we used little wedges to stop them rattling on a windy day.

I remember...the wind coming under the front door and lifting up the hall carpet in billows - and me sitting on it, wishing that I was feather light and could be lifted up with it.

I remember...the huge curtain I used to roll myself up and hide.

I remember...the fire that was lit at Christmas and I would lie on my tummy and gaze into the flames.

I remember...pretending the staircases were waterfalls in one huge imaginary landscape.

I remember...the gong that hung outside the kitchen door, to summon us to dinner - 'Mummy can I bang the gong puhleeese...'

I remember...the Christmas trees that were sown in a row in our garden, and that the last of them needed its head chopped off to fit (and remember there were high ceilings!)

I remember...trying to persuade my 'youngest' sister (10 years older than me), to join in my imaginary games, and having fits of giggles.

I remember...the excitement of when my brother set up his railway on the floor of his room, and looking at all the tiny figures and buildings, while the trains raced around the track.

I remember...Bonnie the black Labrador whining at the back door, wanting to come into the kitchen.

I also remember...Bonnie rushing up to me when I had fallen down the stairs, sniffing me to see if I was hurt.

I remember...the sound of my grandmother (Nanny) playing her piano.

I remember...my mother laying out all her seed trays and tending the seedlings.

I remember...my sister Debbie coming downstairs wearing a face mask and being silly - much to my delight.

I remember...the strange quietness after bedtime, and the eerie hugeness of the dark.

I remember...the freezing winter mornings, when Mum brought in an old fan heater so I could stand in front of it while I got dressed for school...and she huffed into my socks to make them warm.

I remember...many other moments, but I will save those for another time...