CATS, LARKS AND KOSSOFF
Aside

We visited Son #2 at the week-end for his birthday. Only one grandchild is still at home so the cats reign supreme. The two elder ones George and Joe have now got two pains in the neck to cope with; young Zoot and Syd. The young ones are totally bonkers and hurl themselves from pillar to post with great élan. It is important to remember their names – not that they take a blind bit of notice but it pleases the human parents.

Zoot is black as soot, George is ginger, and Joe is black and white and lusts after me as only a cat can, for a non lover of cats. Syd thinks he’s James Bond and expects you to genuflect when he stalks in the room. We left them after lunch to visit Salisbury. We only saw the beautiful cathedral from the distance as shopping was top priority after a long, very strong coffee. I always forget to tell them I only drink decaff so was buzzing for the rest of the week-end.

My goal was to buy Holtz’s Planet Suite for the birthday boy, new rechargeable batteries for my camera and Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ recommended by Zinnia Cyclamen (see side bar). I got the book and the batteries (I hope that is what the problem is with my digital) but not the CD. In one store I asked a pretty young thing for help and she clacked away on her computer and looked blank.

‘It’s Classical’ I volunteered.

Clack clack clack!

‘Holtz’s Planet Suite – spelt H O L T Z!’

More clacking. More blank looks and then she called over a male colleague. He told her it was SUITE not SWEET and there was more clacking and I repeated the whole thing whereupon he corrected the spelling of Holtz to Holts. They will probably be getting it some time soon but not I suspect in my lifetime. That was only going to be part of S 2’s present so he had to put up with a cheque instead. I was longing for her to say “The computer says ‘No!’”

On the way back we called in to see the new baby girl – my son’s step grand-daughter. She was delightful and was good as gold as she was handed round and cooed over and after about an hour she let rip with a pair of very healthy lungs which to me is always a good sign. I was so entranced with her I scarcely noticed the parrot whose name was Monkey.

By the time we got back, there was barely time to change before dinner at an Indian – so we didn’t, although my elegant black and white ensemble was now a Harris Tweed, courtesy of four cats. We were warmly greeted at the restaurant and we all ate too much and were given a birthday digestif.

Sunday was special because I got to have a walk on Salisbury Plain – just the Birthday boy and I. I was treated to a bootleg tape of Paul Kossoff, in the car – recorded in 1969. S 2 raved about his vibrato and it was impressive. Paul was a classically trained guitarist and then he heard Eric Clapton and changed his life. He joined the ‘Free’ band – remember ‘Alright Now’, and got into drugs? When the band broke up his life was shattered. He fought a long battle with drugs with the help of a loving family (his father was the actor David Kossoff) and died of a heart attack at the age of 26. Jimi Hendrix was also greatly influenced by Clapton Hendrix died of a drug overdose and Clapton came close but has survived and done much to help rehabilitate drug victims, this in spite of losing his baby son when he fell out of a fourth storey window in New York.

On Salisbury Plain we walked up a gentle incline for a mile or two until we reached a grassy air strip. Son 2 asks me if I could hear the larks.

‘How can you tell they are larks?’

‘Dad and I used to try to photograph them in Ashdown Forest with a long lens. We’d get closer and closer and one of us would put a foot in a deep hole filled with water that covered your gum-boots. That’s a lark trap!’

We came to a viewing point and Son 2 said it was about halfway. We saw flock of starlings near ground level and then they swarmed up in the sky. I now know this is
a murmuration. If you want to estimate the number – count the wings and divide by two. We talked as one adult to another and I was able to ask him things I couldn’t when talking as a parent. A parental note crept in later – but from him - when he made me promise to take care, running up and down stairs. Yes Dad!

Suddenly we were lashed by a vicious rain storm. There was nowhere to hide so we continued – silent now – two hoodies bent double against the wind and rain. We had changed direction and I was disorientated but could see a hill rising from a deep dip. We hadn’t walked down a hill so I dared to wonder if the road, where we had left the car, was hiding in the dip. It was – oh frabjous day - the sun came out and with the strong wind helped to dry our clothes.

It was a wonderful exhilarating walk- made more difficult with flooded paths and slithery, squelchy mud. It will be some time before I tackle my boots. Back just in time for a roast lunch, another baby cuddle and then an easy drive home. The happy ending is the young parents are getting married in July and we are invited. My son has been asked by his step-son to be best man; two years ago he was asked by his step-daughter to give her away at her wedding. He must have been doing something right!