Memory is a funny thing

 Today I went to a crochet group afternoon. This is something my ex mother in law has been encouraging me to come to. I'm learning to crochet again (I used to know how and even made myself a gigantic blanket at one point, but then forgot how). My current project is a colour block scarf. It's going well and apparently my tension is good. I need to learn how to keep the same size though - I have a tendency to shrink the width. Oh well, more practice needed obviously.

Anyway, we all meet up once a month and bring something to snack on. Today one of the group brought in cape gooseberries to share. This triggered so many memories!

When I was little, my family lived in Queensland. My grandmother also lived nearby. She had a house that had a fairly large garden and used to grow these fruit, but called them chinese gooseberries. 

I can't have been too old, as we moved to New South Wales when I was around 6 or 7 and I don't recall being in school when remembering my grandmother's garden. I think my memories of this fruit might be some of the earliest I remember. That and a dog my mum and dad had - called Mincey. Only that wasn't her name... apparently her name was Mitzi and I only found out I had it wrong, when I was in my teens!

I remember so strongly that my grandmother called them chinese gooseberries and over the years I've tried to find them again. Googling revealed that the chinese gooseberry was actually rebranded as the kiwi, but I knew that wasn't what I was thinking of, so eventually forgot about them. Then when the fruit was brought in today, oh did the memories come flooding back.

Now I'm sitting here, thinking about what I remember from back then. It's really only flashes here and there. I remember my grandparents had a very very long driveway to get to the house. I remember the *cape gooseberry* bushes. I remember we once had a cyclone nearish and it knocked over the wooden telegraph pole. It came quite close to the house, as I recall. I do remember being so scared of the wind. 

Bits I remember of our house nearby was mainly that it was in a relatively newish area - I remember there were vacant areas around the house. I remember a shed down the back of the garden and I remember the dog Mincey (she's always going to be Mincey to me). I think Mincey was a black and white version of Lassie perhaps. My memory is a bit fuzzy there. Border collie perhaps? I don't remember going to school in Queensland specifically but I do remember my outrage when we moved to NSW. Because the school systems were different I was put back into 1st class in NSW and I was incredibly upset by this, because I'd already done 1st class in QLD!

I wish I remembered more about the time I lived in Queensland. It was so long ago now though.