Hilary

Terrie, I had a tricky January but that’s no excuse. Sorry for missing a super monthly comp. Well done Libby, a really great entry. Well done all.

LOVE

399 words

Isabel woke from her nap to be greeted by the sweet scent of freesias.  Sunlight was flooding into the bedroom she now occupied in her daughter’s home.  Isabel was very old and frail, but still mentally astute and the scent of the delicate flowers which she had always loved set off a raft of thoughts about love.

She associated f…[Read more]

Congratulations, Libby – I, too, winced but enjoyed the humour in your story.  I enjoyed Sandra’s offering also and even picked up a discarded copy of Anna Karenina after the mention, but could not get into it I fear.  Thank you,Terrie for setting the challenge and for the kind comments.  Mine was fiction but did have echos of much earlier life ex…[Read more]

Well done Libby, like Terrie my mind was contorting to keep up; the wellies adding much to the scene. And thank you Terrie for a theme which was instantly  fulfilled (and I’m still re-reading and finding further inspiration, except I can’t get my head around irony)

I know that feeling. I was also a government employee who found himself parcelled up and sold to the highest bidder, or at least the one that made the most empty promises and said the things that our betters at the high table wanted to hear. I recall now how our managers queued up to tell us what a good thing it was and, yes, they used that exact…[Read more]

We must venture that way. We’re at the other side of Bannau Brycheiniog near Abergavenny.

In the few months since I wrote this blog about ‘our’ pub, the Ancient Briton has won – count them – four awards:

Welsh Pub of the Year;

Welsh Eatery of the Year;

Welsh Gastropub of the Year;

First Place, Welsh Good Food Awards.

As I said before, it seems that the owners, Nils and Emma, are doing something right.

It so happens that we have a…[Read more]

Fingers crossed, yet another resolution

New book and a new – and very welcome – experience for me:  a “How To” write book received as a birthday present which I found many times more compelling, educational; entertaining and personally useful than the many “How To” books on writing I own: a dozen on my bookshelves, and knowledge of one di…[Read more]

Winds of Change   460 words

The New Year came in accompanied by a furious gale.  Undeterred, Eva wrapped up warm and left her husband sleeping off the New Year’s Eve excesses.

She sat on the bench up on the hill which overlooked the northern town where she had lived all her life to this point.  As she mused upon all the happy and sadder ti…[Read more]

Well done,Terrie.  Look forward to your challenge for January.  Enjoyed each entry very much.  Thank you, Athelstone for your kind comment on my contribution, which was fun to create!  Wishing you all a Very Happy and Healthy, Creative New Year.  Jill x

Well done Terrie, and everyone else who between them provided a kaleidoscope view of Christmas, and thank you Ath for prompting me into putting a long-held memory into words.

Right, here we go.

Is there anybody who hasn’t had at least a small part in the production of a nativity play? Jill, that’s just how they go. A perfect evocation. And your story has a Christmas miracle as well – or was it a mischievous young actor?

Janette, I was there in that supermarket. No, really, I was actually there I think, barging past…[Read more]

OK, it’s a fraction after midnight so 2026. I’ve read them all. They’re annoyingly good. So sorry, you can all wait until tomorrow is well and truly underway. Happy New Year!

Wouldn’t be Christmas without the occasional disaster.