Lucy likes...

This is a meme I picked up a while back at Rosie's, but hadn't got around to doing anything about beyond the research stage.

What you do, put your name, assumed or otherwise, followed by 'likes', into the search engine of your choice (which phrase ie Google, is reminiscent of Blue Peter's 'rubber solution glue' with the brand name 'Copydex' blanked out; we all knew what it was but they weren't allowed to say, in the days of the Reithian ban on advertising being observed to the letter...), and see what comes up. This is a selection from mine. Different names seem to lend themselves to different activities, some people seem to have names which lead into all sorts of salacious areas, another complained that her given name all seemed to belong to ladies of a certain age who like to knit, crochet, make jam etc (nothing wrong with that, I hear you protest, and I am with you totally). Many of the Lucy's I found seemed to be dogs and cats.

Lucy likes her science diet ... I can't say I usually like any kind of a thing called a diet, but apparently this one's good for furballs, so perhaps I should consider it...

Lucy likes to hide behind storage shelves ... depends what 's on the storage shelves really.

Lucy likes to dine... well I'm afraid I do rather. Rather too much, in fact. But this is actually a very funny and ultimately heart-breaking story by a graphic novel writer, Mike Baron, on his website, about how he decided it was grossly unfair he couldn't take his dog, Lucy, to eat in restaurants with him, so he decided to disguise her as a guide dog in training so he could. It's written a bit like a review of the restaurants in question, but Lucy was of a somewhat feisty nature and frequently acted in a far from impeccable guide doglike manner... you can read it here, I enjoyed it very much.

Lucy likes big expansive things - think beaches and skyscrapers... this was a blog or some such of two women called Lucy and Emily who I think worked for something like the Board of Film Censors or whatever they're called now. Emily by contrast liked 'small perfect things like photos and jewels'. On reflection, I think I'm probably rather more like Emily in this regard, though one needs contrast and variety. I prefer big natural expansive things to man-made ones; beaches, mountains and canyons leave me feeling awed and happy, whereas big human ones like skyscrapers and ocean-going ships can make me feel small and powerless and worried at the hubris of the human race. Of course, photographs, though small in themselves, can be of big things, but I think they are mostly better when of small things, especially if they succeed in making the small seem big ... ok, I'm digressing now, back to...

Lucy likes lovers - hmm, no thanks, give me a dog and a camera any day. Or perhaps it means likes seeing other pairs of lovers, which is OK, I suppose, depending on what they're doing and how in-yer-face they're being, and if they're too young and gorgeous and show-off about it... I like seeing middle aged to elderly lovers, makes me feel a bit hopeful. In fact this is the name of a garage band that probably everybody's heard of but me, since I don't even have an Ipod and wouldn't know what to do with it if I did ...

Lucy likes to play with milk bottle rings, fuzzy mice and ribbons... oh yes please! Much better than lovers I'm quite sure.

Lucy likes to sleep on Jason's clothes... Who's Jason?

Lucy likes to hold Ricky down by the tail and he likes to peck... enough enough already! Jason, Ricky... I deny all knowledge...

Lucy likes to bite her ears... well, having one's ears bitten is sometimes quite nice so I daresay if I could bite my own it might be fun, though it might be like tickling your own feet, doesn't really work. I can, as I may have bragged here before, touch my own nose with my tongue, and here's a picture to prove it. I've rendered it in black and white and uploaded it small to spare you the full horror...

Hmm, think I've probably lowered the tone enough now, I'll be back to poetry and pensive high-mindedness next time, be assured. Finally, to restore some of my dignity and use this as an excuse for a pretty photo post after all

Lucy likes to watch the goldfish ... I do indeed. I can spend far too long gazing into the garden pond when I'm supposed to be weeding or whatever. Not only do I watch goldfish,

but also other flora


water plants, and lily pad leaves, which I continue to photograph obsessively in all kinds of forms,

and the worlds contained in them,

and fauna, like this dragonfly nymph (which turned out to be dead, though I didn't know that when I first photographed it. I'm telling you this in the interests of authenticity and transparency. I did then consider setting it up in some dramatic attitude so you would all gasp and say 'amazing capture Lucy!', but I didn't.)

The newt is one of our little eath-and-water dragons. We often find them in piles of leaves and even rubble around the garden the rest of the year, but these have been in the pond for a month or two now. I keep meaning to look up their life cycle so I know what the young ones look like.

and there was even this narcissistic snail, which seemed drawn inexorably to its own reflection.


Any excuse to hang out by the pool!