JaneShuff

Thank you @Raine for the lovely feedback and for a comp idea that allowed us to think beyond our times, much needed at this point!
Congratulations to @Libby, yours is beautifully written and a well-deserved win.
Hapy May Day everyone!

Thank you @Raine and everyone, this is a lovely surprise! I enjoyed the challenge of writing some non-fiction. I loved everyone else’s entries too. A captivating variety as always, and such good writing.

I’ll go away now and think of a theme for the May competition.

Well done, Libby, thoroughly deserved.

Well done, Libby – so full of intrigue and resonance – and thinks to Raine for setting such a thought-provoking theme that I was actually inspired to write something. Oh, and yes, that bread-knife is still in daily use.

Well done, Libby! Loved your piece. Interesting to read the stories behind the objects from everyone.

Thank you Raine – both for setting such an interesting, informative and though-provoking challenge, and for picking my favourite as winner. Well done Libby.

Thank-you all. I just realised as I logged on to write this that we talked about making these comps run over two months rather than one? I’ll stick to one month being as that was how I set it. So. These were all a delight to read. So many memories and things that resonated with me very powerfully. Anyway, on to my thoughts.

@jllsted I am very…[Read more]

The Portrait

In the mid 1980s I bought a Victorian water-colour portrait of a young woman: anonymous, unfinished, unsigned. In the window of a London antique shop the half-profile head and shoulders were almost life size but only her face was complete. I stood on the pavement and dithered. Did I like this picture?

Part of the problem was her…[Read more]

I don’t remember this blog in detail, but I do remember thinking what a lucky individual you were to find such a wonderful spot.

A perfect fit

When my yoga teacher organized a desert trek, I signed up immediately. Something in me wanted – needed – a week away from my life. Time off to think, read and write. I bought a new notebook and fountain pen, packed a few books and before I knew it a plane brought our group of 9 yogis to the Sahara.

Between the full moon I cou…[Read more]

‘Shall we draw down the blinds?’

One of the things I took away from my mother’s house when she had to go into a care home, not long after our move to Wales in 2011, was a bread-knife. They don’t make ’em like this any more: it has a bone handle, smoothed from decades of use, and a finely serrated blade (in contrast to the great hacking teeth of…[Read more]

Bringing a little light

I suspected, on reading the rules, if I did submit anything it would be something of a cheat, because there’s not a lot that’s actually old in itself in this room. Not much in the way of ‘things’ really, anywhere in the house (although I do have, in the loft, my great-grandfather’s two writing boxes such as Jill describes…[Read more]