‘Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself…’
Shakespeare, Macbeth

British technology has been so dominant in motor sport for so long now that it is hard for many to imagine the time before World War II when British motor racing was an insular, gentlemanly affair (‘The right crowd and no crowding’ was the slogan…[Read more]

In July 1953 we  – Dad, mum. brother and me, left  our  now-echoing  and curtainless home on the edge of Dovercourt Bay – an Essex seaside town dominated by a pair of cast iron  lighthouses whose clean, and well-protected sands were sectioned by sea-slimy black wooden groynes within which squatted large black crabs. There was  also a…[Read more]

You are right – I am old enough to have gone through quite a few similar challenges in my time, so do echo your thoughts.  A lengthy training and practice of counselling and the p…[Read more]

I wrote quite a long reply, but cannot find it anywhere.  Blaming the heat or perhaps the computer thought my reply far too long!!!

Anyhow, thanks for asking.  We are coming th…[Read more]

(Immediately inspired by July’s theme)

When I was a little girl the high point of the school Summer break was our family holiday by the sea.  It was only for a week and very often to Goodrington near Paignton in Devon.

Just writing that paragraph has immediately brought back so many memories of carefree, happy times…[Read more]

Secondly, I echo Sandra in the fact that childhoods now past have been vividly evoked here in rich words worthy of Denizens!  In addition, thank you Sandra for introducing me to a word I had never heard before and one which is impressive in i…[Read more]

The much faded five inch Quality Street tin I inherited from my mother is near-filled with  buttons, their variety in part due to them having been donated by my aunt Muriel, who was a dressmaker and her mother Dora who was a tailoress. Needless to say, had there been such, I would’ve won ‘best-dressed child’ many a time had…[Read more]

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”

July 2026 finds me sitting in the shade in our garden, grateful for the slight breeze and half drifting off into a heat induced sleep.  It is Sunday and we have just finished a FaceTime call with our family in America.  Again, gratitude for the wonders of modern technology allowing us to keep in touch and part of our g…[Read more]

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.

Sandra, it was lovely to have a glimpse of your writing style, your ‘voice’ in the extract from your WIP.  I love your…[Read more]

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]

Pre-dawn on a midsummer morning, Tait Duncan, drove  south-east along an A1 empty of all but Highlands-bound supermarket wagons, conscience similarly uncluttered by the lie he’d last night told his wife as to the reason for his early morning departure. (In what had become th…[Read more]

Please, therefore,  in 500 words or less let your imaginations run wild conjuring up some MIDSUMMER MAGIC.

Of course, some may prefer to touch on dark magic and that is fine too.

Looking forward to reading your entries.  Jill

June’s prompt will be posted sometime today.  A few ideas are rolling around in my head!  Jill