It's been raining so hard lately...

It’s been raining very hard ever since I arrived home, at Les Tertres, last Thursday night.

Stormy weather... Downpours... Drizzle... You name it. I’ve had it!

It is still raining. And it is so windy outside. I can’t even leave the windows open or I’ll find puddles on my wooden floor. Oh well, it is quite cold too. Last night I had to put the heating on. I was holding out until one of my friends called me and said: “Guess what? We just turned the furnace on.”

The beach is empty. The trawlers are lying in the harbor. They are still there waiting for calmer seas.

I hate stormy weather because it always end up with problems with the Internet and phone connections and even more stressful, with power cuts! That’s what you get when you live far away from everything at the end of the electrical and phone feeders!

So what is left? Reading, of course. Thank goodness, there are plenty of books at Les Tertres and a huge supply of candles...

Tidying up. Which is one of my favorite things anyway especially when life gets not as easy as it could be! I am a freak, I know. Tidying up has a wonderful soothing effect on my nerves...

So I have been tidying up a house that is quite tidy already... So let’s say that I have been moving things around trying to find a much better place for them... That is what I call ‘improvement to my own personal space’.

I am a freak, I know.

From time to time, there are surprises lying in cupboards... Hidden objects from the past. Totally forgotten objects that once were part of our affections...

Today, just before I got my Internet connection back, I found a 30 years old sleeping bag... A very special sleeping bag, I’d say.

When Swee’ Pea was born and while he was growing up, we had two cats. Fluffy, the mother cat and Bilbo Baggins, her son. Fluffy was quite unfriendly towards the baby. Not aggressive but unfriendly.

Fluffy

Bilbo Baggins

Bilbo Baggins loved Swee’ Pea. It probably started out because of the baby milky smell. But they loved one another. We never feared anything bad would happen from Bilbo Baggins who relished being close to Swee’ Pea whenever he was not in his bedroom, which happened very often in the daytime.

At night, Swee’ Pea would sleep in his crib in his bedroom. Door closed. I guess we did not trust Fluffly enough to leave the door open.

During the day, Swee’ Pea would mostly take naps or relax in a Moses basket close to my desk while I’d be pounding on my typewriter...

When he became a little bit older, I’d set him down in a playpen where Bilbo Baggins was always so happy to join him and be his “nanny”.

“Who is minding your child while you are working on your translations?”
“Our nanny. Well, I mean, Bilbo Baggins. Not the Hobbit. Our cat.”

Besides working at home and raising a baby and waiting for an already  workaholic husband to come home very late at night, I loved to cook and to sew and to knit while chitchatting with Swee’ Pea and the cats who relished all the attention.

Those are really bygone days even though last May, I did sew a few nice cushions for Popeye’s Atlantic liner... Quite a surprise! For him and for me. I did not know I still had this creative streak in me...

In November 1981, Swee’ Pea turned 2. And for Christmas, I decided I’d make him a very nice sleeping bag because he was still falling asleep everywhere except his bed during the day...

It had to be a catlike sleeping bag. I enjoyed a lot working on this project even though it entailed working late at night while he was asleep... It actually was quite easy since I was waiting for Popeye to come home before going to bed anyway.

(Besides working hard and long hours, Popeye was commuting from our home - a full 2 hours train ride, actually 4 - Two in the morning and two in the evening. I know, this was totally crazy but at the time, we could not afford to live closer to his office. Greater Paris was way out of our league.)

So I used my free time at night either reading or working if I was late on my deadline - not so easy to work full time and raise a baby on your own, all week long. And I’d sometimes work on projects. Some were fun like this sleeping bag. Others were plain useful like sewing a dress or fixing pants or ironing shirts and sheets!

 It did happen that Santa Claus left a pretty gift for a funny-no-longer-baby, right by our fireplace!

For years, we carried the cat-sleeping-bag around... I never thought it’d be this useful... But it was... until Swee’ Pea grew up and out of it, of course.

Had you asked me where it was right now, I would have answered: “Probably in Belgium or maybe here, in a box in the attic.”

I found it in one of our cupboards. Actually in my den along with Swee’ Pea’s baby blanket I had knitted while I was pregnant and not knowing whether I was expecting a boy or a girl. The way it was some thirtyish years ago!

The baby blanket that Byerly and Sara, our last two cats, used to sleep on for so many years.

Somehow I never gave the funny sleeping bag away. I did not throw it away either even though it’s no longer well-padded. The cat’s face sort of faded away too...

But it still looks funny, doesn’t it?

 Spirit from the past even though I don’t believe in ghosts!

*Good Luck, and Good Night*