@clebs
Active 1 year, 8 months ago-
Athelstone posted an update 3 days, 3 hours ago
Perilously close to the end of July for anybody wanting to enter the monthly competition. The prize this month is the unending adulation of your sister/fellow competitors. Just 400 words could see you enjoying all that. Do you remember the bell ringing on a platform to signal an approaching train, discussing whether careless words could cost…[Read more]
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 week, 3 days ago
Echoes of a life twinkling in time.
As years roll away from me I look back at reflections caught in memories rainbow.
I know I was lucky. My childhood was idyllic, because woven among the colours of my life and simplicity of youth, the feelings of each moment are held, perfect and bright, like small lights of sheltering warmth against the…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 week, 3 days ago
Dear All,
Please note that this doesn’t have to be about an object. From the theme up there (points up) “an object, or an event, or a saying, or anything at all really that you remember as commonplace when you were young”
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 week, 5 days ago
Me too, Sandra, mine’s a green one . I also have my grandparents twisted metal meat skewers too. 🙂
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 2 days ago
Thank you, Jill. I forgot to set a word limit, so I take your entry as “the bar” and set it now at 400 words.
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Athelstone started the topic Monthly competition July 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 3 days ago
When televisions had rooftop aerials shaped like an “H”, showed black and white, had only two channels, and one more turn of the knob found The Home Service and maybe The Light Programme, they often came with a slim metal rod perhaps 8 or 9 inches long. This could be slotted into holes on the back of the set labelled Horizontal Hold and Vertical…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition June 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 3 days ago
Incidentally, I wanted to call the girl Aelfwin but I had trouble getting the A and e to combine into a proper “ash” at the start of the name. Then it occurred to me that a drunk Teabreak would be unlikely to remember that anyway, hence “Alwin, or something like that.” I think Alwin is still sometimes used as a female name, but I could probably…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition June 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 3 days ago
I confess I feel slightly guilty. I read Sandra’s entry and thought it was splendid. Then I sneak in at the end and…
Anyway, thank you for the prompt, Jill. The solstice was my 70th and I went from not thinking I’d make it, to writing a little story about it so that’s something.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition June 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 3 days ago
Stonehenge
The moon has departed leaving an impenetrable night with a cold mist gently rising across the still fields around Amesbury. In the hedgerows around one expanse of grass, sparrows packed close are beginning to shift in their sleep. To the east of this field a steady gaze would be rewarded with the slightest bloom of purple in a world…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition May 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Well done Jill. A bittersweet story, beautifully told. And well done the rest of us!
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly competition May 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Congrats, Jill.
Looking forward to seeing the prompt for June .
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Terrie replied to the topic Monthly competition May 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Songs from the charts 31st October 1998 –
Aerosmith ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’
Bachman Turner Overdrive – ‘You aint seen nothing yet.’
Contains one, bleeped, swear word.
True story
This story involves my youngest daughter, who’s the sassy, won’t give an inch if she thinks she is in the right, type, and the anniversar…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Thanks, Kate. I’m trying hard to get better.
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Athelstone replied to the topic The Sheep Detectives film/Three Bags Full novel in the forum Coffee Shop 2 months ago
I’m not a huge fan of cosy crime, and I think that the television series of TTMC is rather better than the books, although only because the acting is good. However, there are many variations within that genre and I wouldn’t dismiss everything. The same goes for anthropomorphised animal stories. For instance, Charlotte’s Web and Animal Farm spring…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 2 months, 1 week ago
On a small scale, my daughter gave me a voucher for a foraging/cooking day for 2, for my birthday last year, and I’d just booked a day in March when I got ill. When the company heard I was in hospital, they gave me a six month extension on the voucher for free, so that I could book when I was completely recovered. I thought that was really…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 2 months, 1 week ago
<p class=”western”>So glad to hear this, Ath, and let me add my hopes to those already expressed about the resolution of your remaining issues.</p>
<p class=”western”>I have been on blood thinners for several years as I have atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular pulse, or as my GP put it with her customary no-nonsense bluntness, ‘a hoppitty…[Read more] -
Athelstone replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 2 months, 1 week ago
Hi Libby, a very big relief. And thank you. I had another read through my discharge notes. I don’t think they’d seen somebody so ill with such a mixed bag of symptoms before (who hadn’t been in an accident). They took advice from the teams at Guildford, Reading, and Kings. There was a consensus to deal with the immediate emergency which was the…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 2 months, 1 week ago
Thanks Jill. Yes, it is a big relief.
I’ve been on blood thinners (apixaban) since I was admitted to hospital. My problem is that the hospital doctors didn’t share any plan for dealing with the existing clots which have blocked two major veins to the liver. I strongly suspect that they were anticipating a worse outcome from the endoscopy and…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A bit "poorly" in the forum Blogs 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I hope that this is a footnote, although I forsee a few more tests from my GP.
Today I had the endoscopy which I believe some of the doctors in my hospital thought would show cancer. the symptoms were all lined up. There was even consistent evidence from CAT scans and other X-rays. To be fair to them, they never said that, though they always…[Read more]
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Ath, this is such a huge relief to hear, though I imagine the mindset prepping beforehand must have left you mentally drained. I have polyps and so have to be monitored with colonoscopies every three years – I’m guessing you might be invited to do the same. I hope your quest to find out the cause of the clots and anaemia is soon fruitful and…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition May 2026 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Caution: Stuart’s language isn’t for polite company. The anniversary was my 18th birthday, June 21 1974.
Stuart’s story
People call me Plug ‘cos they reckon I look like Plug from the Bash Street Kids I ain’t never seen him, so I don’t know. Stuart’s my real name, and I just done three months in nick for something I ain’t done. Possessio…[Read more]
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I’m in that can’t-tell-the-difference category. I’m trying to get my act together to produced something by the end of the month. My excuse is that I’ve been on holiday, have been socialising, and have watched some football. The time has evaporated, probably inside a tardis.