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Pussy Willows

Tonight part of my evening was spent preparing pussy willows for Palm Sunday.  Each year my mother-in-law goes out and cuts down a few pussy willow branches when they are in their full silver splendor.  Then, when Palm Sunday approaches, we spend an hour or two cutting them down to size and tying colourful ribbons on them for use in the Palm Sunday service.  (Among other groups Ukranian Catholics carry pussy willows in place of palm leaves on Palm Sunday.)

I think of pussy willows as the butterfly of the plant world. They transforming completely with the season shedding their silver coat to become a thready green flower.

I love them.  I love their colour, a silver white that makes me think of rabbits in winter.  I love their softness, so contrary to the wet hard season they grow in (early spring) on the west coast.  And finally I love what they promise; spring and transition.

Novel update:  I am still procrastinating, but have dedicated an hour this evening and four tomorrow to work on the novel.  In good news my procrastination continues to inspire new novel ideas.  I am up to six novel ideas, five of which are almost fully fleshed out in my head.  My pipe dream is that my first novel will do so well that I can quit my job and actually write the rest of these stories…well I can dream.  🙂  My more real goal is to simply get the novel published, but dreams can come in stages right?  Did I mention my new novel idea is about dreams?

Writing Exercise:

Pussy willows have inspired several songs and poems.  (Researching this post I even found a retro band from the 80’s called the Pussy Willows.)  My favourite is the following:

“I have a little pussy,
Her coat is silver grey,
She lives down in the meadow,
Not very far away.
She will always be a pussy,
She’ll never be a cat;
For she’s a pussy willow;
What do you think of that?”
– Author unknown.

This poem tells a story with a twist.  It describes something we are familiar with (a young cat, or pussy) and then in the end reveals that the subject is actually something else (a plant).  Choose an item in your environment and try your hand at this type of description.  This can be done with an item that shares a name word (such as pussy in the poem) or with an item that simply shares the characteristics of another item.  Choose something, describe it, and then give your reader at a twist at the end when you reveal the item is not what is expected.  If you are having difficulty with this exercise consider using similes to draw out the comparison between your supposed and actual subjects.

NB – I don’t know the author of the above poem.  If anyone else does, please share it in the comments so I can credit the author.