Little Green

So happy to report that Django is home.  His surgery went really well yesterday, the vet removed the ball at the top of his femur and assured us the muscles on both sides will strengthen and create a cradle that will do its job. The wonders of modern surgery! If he lies on his good side you wouldn't know there's anything wrong, except of course for the plastic collar! On the other side he's been shaved over his hip and has a 3in scar. The wound on his paw is healing well, but this will take longer and he has to go back to the vets every three days for redressing under sedation.  He's very stoic though and is enjoying sitting in his new dog-sized bed listening to BBC Radio 4. He may end up with a slight limp but he'll be the most knowledgeable kitty in town.

Izzi and Ava were here for a sleepover at the weekend and Izzi made a lovely card for me to take to Django while he was in the cat hospital. So sweet.

All my own work Isabella Moss!

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Been working on my new sweater design all day. It's funny but I've got out of the habit of doing sweaters. Recently I've always been asked to create small projects, practically everything under the sun other than a sweater so it's quite an interesting if challenging project.

However, there's so much more involved, especially when you want to add tailoring to a design. This one uses several different stitch patterns so there's some big-time number crunching involved. Add to this six sizes and you can see why my head is spinning and needing to stop by six o'clock. By then even knitting a swatch was beyond me - I was starting to make irritating little mistakes that would never creep in if I was doing it fresh as a daisy in the morning.

I love to play music while I work and always have a song going around in my head. Today the spring green of my yarn set me off with Joni Mitchell's Little Green from her Blue album. Several months ago I watched a documentary about her life and was very sad and moved when I heard that she had to give up her daughter for adoption. I can't imagine what it's like to give a baby away, I can only assume it must be one of the most heartbreaking things that could happen to a woman.


Born with the moon in Cancer
Choose her a name she'll answer too
Call her green and the winters cannot fade her
Call her green for the children who've made her
Little green, be a gypsy dancer

He went to California
Hearing that everything's warmer there
So you write him a letter, say, "her eyes are blue"
He sends you a poem and she's lost to you
Little green, he's a non-comformer

Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the nights when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow

Child with a child pretending
Weary of lies you're sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed
Little green, have a happy ending

Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the night's when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow

It's fantastic that Joni's story has a happy ending, as she's now reunited with her daughter, who has a son and daughter of her own. However difficult that might be for them all emotionally, she's now got the chance to build a relationship with the baby she lost, which I'm sure is not the case for many women, some will go through their whole lives wondering what happened to their child.

Listening to Little Green, it occurerd to me how Joni Mitchell never shied away from difficult subjects - I can't think of another song that addresses the agony of adoption, let alone in such a sensitive and expressive way. Am I right in this?

She named her daughter Kelly, which the adoptive parents changed to Kilauren, but it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to realise what Little Green is all about. The pain is so raw it sends shivers down my spine and this song which Joni wrote more than forty years ago is just as relevant today as it was when she wrote it.  Here's a clip of a performance not long after, very different from the one that went on the album.