For Cumbria. For All of Us

I had a lovely day yesterday - a fantastic family day away on the Northumberland coast with many possible pictures to blip. But when we returned home, quite late in the day, we learned of the terrible events that had taken place in West Cumbria and this no longer seemed appropriate. In fact to blip at all with my journal titled the way it is would have been crass. The title was originally simply a reaction to the economic climate, but now seems almost offensive given the tragedies Cumbria is coping with.

On Monday I blipped about the flower festival I visited and I commented on the number of entries based on the same poem. My husband & I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary today and I received these flowers (from my mother), which brought the verse back to my mind. Tragic events remind us that we are mere mortals and sometimes we comment that we should live each day to the full, but in reality we go to work & cook & shop and talk about tomorrow. Well maybe we should compromise. Maybe we should wear purple. Today.
Because tomorrow isn't a promise.



When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.