Today’s my birthday and I dedicate this post to the younger me. This is a list of the things I loved best not very many years ago. Some of them I can understand but others!!! Enjoy.

• Beetles

Why did I love them? Because they are shiny and when u tie one of their legs with a string and they fly away, taraaaaa…. You have a homemade aeroplane complete with the humming. It was not easy to catch one though. That is why I preferred the dung beetles that dug their homes in the cow dung. All I had to do was identify the hole and put water in it. In case there was no water around, urine would do just great!

• Mushrooms

Not the edible ones but the poisonous ones that are spherical. Why I loved them, because they looked like balls, pun intended.

• Watches

I had a thing for watches! You can’t even call them that! They were just old rusty things that were once watches. I liked to believe that I could make them work.

• Nectar

There was a plant from our hedge whose nectar was just so sweet! I would spend hours moving from one tiny, red flower to the next competing with the wasps and the birds.

• New things

Anything new was welcome at any time. It would take enough strength to refrain from taking my new shoes to bed with me! New erasers, dresses, geometrical sets, handkerchiefs, they were all awesome!!!

• Wild Black berries

This is where anything wild and edible falls. Leaves, roots, stems, flowers, berries you name it. Most of them had a sour taste but I still ate them. One of my favorite was wood sorrel (just googled the name) whose every part was edible.

• Maize stalks

The red ones were best. They served as sugarcane. They were meant for cows, but who cares?

• Cats

I loved cats. Reason….? They provided warmth at night. My mum would say that I’ll start snoring like them but that never stopped me. I’d stay up until everyone was asleep to sneak it into my room. I don’t know why I hate cats now.

• Colored stigma

There’s a plant that grows in the river whose purple colored stigma I’d apply as cutex. This could also be achieved by rubbing the red or yellow parts of the Tosti loaf wrappers on the nails. The more disgusting one was pricking a tick and then…. Let me spare you the details.

• Biros

I still don’t understand why I loved biros. It dint matter whether they were operational or not, they were still okay.

• Birds

Why? Because it was close to impossible to catch one. There was a type of a dove that used to tease a lot. You’d follow it and just when you are about to catch it, it flies, not all the way away, but just far enough so you’d follow it again. Damn you dove!!!!

• Creepers (Any plant that creeps)

These provided me with unlimited number of skipping ropes. That’s why I loved them!

Happy birthday creepy cess!!!!!