Thursday 18 July 2013

1976 / 2013

I remember 1976. I was still a teenager. Life was good and the sun was hot.

We had an invasion of ladybirds and some said they would bite you to get moisture from your body. I can’t say I was ever bitten or that I knew anyone else who was – but I do remember being decorated in ladybirds for much of that summer!

Also I got my first kittens in 1976.

Leo…



And Star...



I got two as company for each other as I was out at work all day and I’d nip home in my lunch break to feed them. I’ll never forget coming down the road to see them both swinging on my net curtains. Bless. They loved to watch the world go by and I knew the time would come when I’d have to let them out into the big wide world.



Star was dumb and couldn’t make a sound, but he could purr with the best of them. He was a very affectionate and loving little chap and he had a magnificent tail! 



He went missing when he was a year old and we never saw him again. The local newspaper even did a piece about him, but to no avail.

Leo was bereft without Star. Enter Huggy, orphaned feral kitten who hadn’t a clue when it came to personal hygiene.



But Leo took care of him and taught him the ways of a cat.



And Huggy fixed Leo’s broken heart.





Huggy was beautiful, but always had that wild streak and he used to stay away for days on end until eventually he stopped coming home. I used to see him sometimes and he always looked healthy and content.

So, once again we have a heatwave + kitten = windows shut!

We’re all roasting. When Fizz goes to sleep, we rush round opening all the windows. I’ll be glad when she can start going outside… except I know I won’t, because I’ll be worrying until she comes home!

How grown up is she looking now?



If you like stories about animals (and their people), you might like You Can’t Love a Stranger and Other Stories which will be at the special price of 77p Amazon UK and also on special on Amazon for the next week. (Note to Indy: I still managed to get a photo of you and Tilly in amongst all these cats!)





Stay cool!


37 comments:

  1. I remember that year well, too, Teresa. The heatwave started with Wimbledon and seemed to go on for ever. We had 3 foreign students staying with us - 7 of us in the house altogether - and we just took it in turns to get under the shower. Cold ones, of course. I'm embarrassed to think of all that water we must have used! :-(

    Enjoy that gorgeous kitten while she's still little. I'm off to look at your book.

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    1. I don't think showers use much compared to baths, Gail, so clear your conscience :-) I spent a lot of time in the sea that year! :-) x

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  2. I was fifteen at the time of the 1976 heat wave. I remember sitting on the field at school with my best friend and, if we were lucky, the gorgeous Irish hunk from the sixth form might sometimes sit with us. When the heatwave ended and we were no longer able to use the field - and the sixth formers returned to their 'hut' - I was naturally devastated!

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    1. I was working as a legal secretary in 1976 - my boss bought fans :-)

      Lol at your Irish hunk returning to his hut when the heatwave ended :-) x

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  3. Hubby was manufacturing snooker tables (not the full-size slate ones) back then and the bases warped in the heat. I didn't like that Summer at all and I'm not enjoying this one much! LOL, I moan whan we get iced in up our hill as well, but there must be a happy medium somewhere.

    This made me cry, Teresa: "And Huggy fixed Leo’s broken heart." Brought back doggy memories.

    Fizz is looking more beautiful than ever.
    T&T send tail wags and hot woofs
    xxPat

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    1. Blimey - the snooker tables! This is why I like spring best (unless it's like it was this year). I don't much care for the extremes of heat and cold either :-)

      Aw, he did fix him though. And when Huggy left so many years later, he did it so gradually that Leo was fine. Perhaps he did it that way deliberately. And he deserved that name, Huggy - he was such a cuddly cat.

      Hope T&T are keeping cool! Indy's not taking walks while it's hot, but just potters round in the garden :-) x

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  4. I remember 76. We were the only people in our village with plenty of water as it was needed for the farm.

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    1. Glad you had plenty of water for the farm, Patsy :-) x

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  5. Hi Teresa,

    And you reminisce back to Leo and Star. Yes, the summer of 1976. The year I came to visit for the first time after leaving for Canada as a little boy. It was early September, the hills were brown. "Dancing Queen" was playing on the jukebox at the World's End pub in Chelsea....

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    1. It was a very memorable year for so many reasons, Gary - and what a year to choose to come back. The only World's End I've ever been to is a garden centre :-) x

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  6. 1976 Ah yes there was a year. I even remember where I was when it started raining.

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    1. I hadn't thought of that, Colette! I don't remember at all when it started raining. I remember the sunburn, heatstroke, lots of swimming, ladybirds and kittens, but not the rain :-) x

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  7. I love your kittens from 1976, Teresa, especially the lovely thought of them swinging on the net curtains. And Huggy was an amazing character, brought into Leo's life by destiny perhaps, to keep him company.
    It is so hard keeping a kitten inside, but it must be particularly difficult at the moment. We once acquired two kittens - Brian and Muffin - while we were having a new floor laid in the hall. The builder kept leaving the front door open and they decorated his glossy, smooth, wet cement with the cutest paw-print pattern.
    You Can't Love A Stranger looks gorgeous. The picture is beautiful and I know the stories are going to be fabulous - this is the perfect weather for reading, as long as it's somewhere cool.
    I was doing O Levels in 1976 (some girls fainted in the heat of the exam hall) and my husband was the singer of a punk band and wearing a bin-liner. I didn't know him then. Just as well. I suspect he may not have smelt terribly fresh in black plastic. xxx

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    1. I just wish I had better photos, Joanna! Yes I always felt destiny was involved there.

      Oh that's funny about the paw prints and you've reminded me, when we had some concrete laid in the back garden, Gizzie walked down the edge leaving little footprints. I'll have to see if I can still see them :-)

      Ooh he must have been hot in that bin liner - I would never have thought of how a person in a bin liner might smell :-) x

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  8. Lovely post Teresa, and that picture of Tilly and Indy is my favourite. Makes me want one of those lovely dogs, but I haven't got the time they need to be with them, one day though. My novel is set in 1976, the one I entered in to the RNA new talent competition last year. I didn't feel too confident with it, and I remember you saying, 'be confident' so I was, and now I'm polishing up the first three chapters to go places. I've already got your book on my kindle, it's beautiful, and well worth reading for many reasons.

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    1. Thank you, Sue - and thank you for the lovely review you wrote too :-)

      And I still think you should be confident - it'll be lovely to read your novel when it comes out, which it will I'm sure :-) x

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  9. Awwww how cute were they. And Fizz and Indy too. Caroline x p.s 1976 - what a year - I was 13 and still remember how hot it was.

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    1. It was a great time to be a teenager wasn't it - although I was at the other end of my teens :-) x

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  10. Yeah - heatwave of 1976. Swam in Lake Windemere and an infestation of ladybirds committing harikari on the car windscreen. Have you seen any this year; I've seen about 3.

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    1. I've seen very few ladybirds come to think of it - probably about the same as you! 3! :-) x

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  11. Oh I did not know you were a cat person Teresa, but obviously you are an animal lover in general, I know you also have a lovely dog. You feline gets along with Indy I hope :).

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    1. Indy is so good with her, Petronela - when we go out, they are usually snuggled up together when we come home :-) x

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  12. I remember that year too as we were off to Switzerland on holiday and had to get a train to London for the flight - the train's air conditioning was broken and everyone was melting! Great photos.

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    1. Oh no, ROsemary - being stuck on a train in that heat must have been like being in a baking tin!! :-) x

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  13. I had forgotten about those ladybirds until you reminded me. We went on holiday (Norfolk, maybe?) and the windscreen was covered in them.

    Gosh, that kitty is already looking very sleek and cat-like.

    Stay cool. x

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    1. I swear she is growing before my eyes, Joanne. Every time I look at her she seems bigger. And she sleeps on my pillow so there is less and less room for my head!! :-) x

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  14. I didn't know you loved cats too, Teresa! I absolutely love your kitty photos from yesteryear, they are so lovely and it's great to remember them!
    x

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    1. I had another two between Leo and Fizz. Sammy and Gizmo (one ginger, one black) and they were lovely too - I used to joke that Gizmo was part Ragdoll as he was so cuddly and laid back. The last 5 years is the longest we've been without a cat in the family - too long :-) x

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  15. Hi Teresa, two weeks in Portugal at the beginning of the month, meant coming home, we looked forward to some fresh cooler, air - no such luck! The heat is certainly draining and I have been regaling family with tales of 1976. Thanks for reminding me about the ladybirds - I had forgotten! Have just come out of hospital after planned surgery and been ordered to rest for 6 weeks. In this heat, that is a pleasure! Fizz looks gorgeous and I am not a true cat person! :-)

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    1. Hope you can enjoy your rest and that you are completely recovered soon. I was just reading about your girl in the red towel - fascinating :-) x

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  16. I remember collecting jars of ladybirds and tipping them out in my bedroom all over my carpet - my mum wasn't happy!

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    1. I had to laugh - what a wonderful thing to do, but I can see why your mum wasn't happy :-) x

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  17. The pictures of your kittens are adorable! I remember a couple of years ago when we first let Izzy out, I was terrified. Although it was nice to be able to have doors open again with out shrieking at someone "shut the door the cat!!!"

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    1. That sounds just like here! Yesterday she bolted for the back door while I was waiting for Indy to decide whether he was going out - or not - and I did a dive David Seaman would have been proud of and managed to catch her - but I also bashed my shoulder!! :-) x

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  18. I remember the great ladybird invasion of '76. Love the heatwave. Great for cycling.

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  19. I remember the great ladybird invasion of '76. Love the heatwave. Great for cycling.

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    1. Cycling? I can barely walk in this heat! Swimming though - it's great for swimming :-) x

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