The Plum
The Plum
You should learn that you cannot be loved by everyone.
You may be the finest plum in the world -
Ripe, juicy and succulent - and offer yourself to all.
But there will be some people who do not like plums.
You must understand that if you are the world's finest plum,
And someone you like doesn't happen to like plums,
You have the choice of becoming a banana.
But you must be warned that if you choose to become a banana,
You will be a second-rate banana,
But you can always be the best plum.
You must also realise, if you choose to be a banana,
There will be some people who do not like bananas.
Furthermore, you could spend your life
Trying to become the best banana,
Which is impossible if you are a plum,
OR
You can seek again to be the best plum !
Author unknown. I did not write this, I included it in the biography section of the earlier site. I was a young adult before the huge change in social attitudes in the 60s. How many reasons are there to be excluded ? up to the late 60s girls were still considered genetically inferior, brainy girls were frowned on as less likely to be marriageable (being as good as a man at anything was disapproved of), among the brainy - scientists were considered less cultured and less interesting, among scientists - psychologists were considered less rigorous, among psychologists - applied psychologists were less pure. . . Well, I'm not black, fat, LGBTQ+. . . ♥️
And I do need to be very private.
Heaven Haven
I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
Where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.
And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
My personal icon :
© drawings from Imogen Lamport and Jill Chilvers
An 'ideas fizzing' person who has difficulty with being balanced.
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What have I been doing for the past 30 years ? mainly :
90s recovering from being completely burned out.
00s quilting.
10s writing sewing blogs - Sewingplums, Aim for Quality.
early 20s preparing this new version of my work papers site.
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Goodness - if you look at on-line 'images of lisanne bainbridge', someone has managed to find a photo of me taken in the early 60s while working in Oxford. My boss at the time, Ted Crossman, had decided to 'brain drain' to the University of California at Berkeley, and I had decided to go with him. At the time there was much newspaper fuss about the brain drain (luckily this was long before the internet and social media), and I made the mistake of allowing a newspaper photographer to get me to sit on a stool and show my knees (this was before the advent of short skirts as introduced by Mary Quant). This caused much amusement in the department, as the photo was included in the pin-ups on the wall of the technicians' workshop 😀 How innocent it looks now ! Though I think it has been 'photoshopped' as I remember it being taken in an attic office not a control room. I do hope there is not an electronic version of a newspaper article about me from that time. Based on a telephone interview, the journalist reported me as saying the complete opposite of what I had actually said. Fortunately my boyfriend at the time found it funny that he couldn’t exist, and I had good friends who also laughed and helped me to weather it all.
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