We are such stuff

as ice-creams are made on

Little Petal and I couldn't be more different when it comes to dreaming. She can rarely remember a dream from the night before, but when she does, it is invariably a nightmare. I can nearly always remember at least on of the dreams I had when I wake, and I almost never have bad dreams.

I feel cheated if I can't recall anything from the night before, but trying to bring back the memories of some of them is still a puzzle to me. Sometimes, something in the day will just bring back a fragment, but mostly I have the strange feeling of knowing that I have an image or sensation in my mind that I can sense is there, but just can't quite touch. There is a similar sensation when you jolt awake after dozing and realise that you were dreaming, but can't picture or describe it to yourself. It's as if a shutter comes down, and it seems to be instantaneous. Tommy wrote a poem that describes it in another way. Her poem reminded me that I sometimes remember a forgotten dream when I am in another dream, and yet again, when I wake, I know I remembered a dream within a dream, but still can't picture it.

I dreamed the other night that I took a car (not mine or Little Petals's) to a garage because the brakes needed mending. I wandered away from the garage and found myself wading along a shallow stream, passing underneath a road bridge. I turned a bend and saw that trees arched up above me, and then once I had gone beyond the leafy section, found the water plunged down over a weir into a series of little pools. The water was suddenly very much warmer, but I climbed out of it and stood on the rocks. The pools were full of shellfish. I saw clams with the water swirling in and out of their open shells, and purple brown lobsters, and large crabs moving slowly through the clean bubbling water. I knew the name of the village where this was happening, but I also knew it had never had these pools, or even a shellfish shop.

After I woke up I tried to remember the name of the village, where it was, and if I had ever owned a light brown car like a Golf or a Polo. I did once own an old Passat, and it had a partial brake failure once which I fixed myself,but it was a much deeper red than the car I saw in this dream. And, once awake, I had no idea at all of what the village really looked like.

All I know, and I'm not even certain that it is true, is why the shellfish might have appeared in the dream. The night before, when I had been grabbing songs from the net, I had been humming to myself

Limpets,
There's no Limpets,
There's no Limpets,
No No, there's no Limpets