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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly comp – May 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
A circuitous route – the same-old, same-old – but not so taken for granted as once it was.
Hot grey asphalt, its dull top layer peeled back by sun and tyres, glistening wet and black under, suggestive of a just-laid stickiness.
Pavements littered with the faded shadows of chalked rainbow messages to un-caped crusaders or old-fashioned hopscotch…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Arthur Machen and the Angels of Mons in the forum Blogs 6 years ago
Not entirely incidentally, there’s a certain resonance for me in all this. Caerleon was where my mother lived for nearly four decades, and so I have a passing, though not intimate, familiarity with the area Arthur Machen loved so much – though I have no doubt that he would be appalled if he could see it today, with the M4 passing within a couple o…[Read more]
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RichardB started the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Arthur Machen and the Angels of Mons in the forum Blogs 6 years ago
On 23 August 1914 the British army fought its first battle of the First World War, a rearguard action at Mons in Belgium. It gave a good account of itself – the British Expeditionary Force was composed entirely of long-serving regulars, and the years of discipline and drill paid off as the Germans were stopped in their tracks by such a w…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update in the group
CoronaMo 6 years, 1 month agoWell, still trying to edit Tilda 3. Have made some major changes to plot to keep the reader guessing a bit longer, but seem incapable of getting it all to ‘flow’. Feels like I’m making it worse instead of better! But keeping on keeping on, regardless…
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthly comp – April 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
Well done, Libby, thoroughly deserved.
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RichardB replied to the topic Monthly comp – April 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
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.
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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly comp – April 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
Well done, Libby! Loved your piece. Interesting to read the stories behind the objects from everyone.
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RichardB started the topic Chasing the Dream in the forum Blogs 6 years, 1 month ago
Sunday is the ninth anniversary of the day we moved in to our house in South Wales. The first blogs I ever posted on the Word Cloud (four of them, if I remember right) were about how this came to happen, so if anyone reading this (still) remembers them I apologise for the repetition. But being confined to quarters has made me appreciate my home…[Read more]
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Thanks for posting this, Richard. It’s interesting to hear how people land where they do. I’ve visited, briefly, the area you are in and I can visualise it easily from your piece. I can understand why you and Mrs B are so happy there.
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RichardB replied to the topic Monthly comp – April 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 1 month ago
‘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]
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Only a very small proportion of my payments are in cash these days and I think the last cheque I wrote was about 3 years ago. I have two pound coins in my pocket and I think that’s all the cash I’ve had for about a month. These are unusual times in that we are trying to minimise the shopping we do in person, i.e. I’m unlikely to nip out to the…[Read more]
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I had to hunt out our cheque book when confinement started as we’re having to do a lot of payments by cheque. I couldn’t even remember what colour it was.
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I’ve not written a cheque since October 2019. The one before that was written in April 2019. I haven’t handled cash since 31st March when the pharmacist called round with a prescription I had to pay for. Credit card points are building up nicely. Silver linings and all that.
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Amanda Berriman (Skylark) posted an update in the group
CoronaMo 6 years, 2 months agoHello *waves* How is everyone doing? So much for my intention to spend more time in the Den – it’s been two months!! Things went a bit hectic in Feb/March with a lot of time and energy going into researching/organising stuff for Peter’s ongoing recovery/physical health. Of course many of those plans have now been cancelled! But subsitute dates are…[Read more]
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Great to hear from you, @skylark! I’ve been wondering how you were managing with Peter with all appointments cancelled. Hope you have a good cycle out – I can imagine that big smile of his right now.
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It was a GREAT cycle (see FB post). We’re getting on fine – just muddling through as everyone else is. I’m not sure we’re that brilliant at the physio side of things but doing something is better than nothing. It’s great to have another exercise that he can do now though. Burn up some more energy!
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Lovely to hear your news @skylark. And so glad your bike ride was a success. Enjoy your family time!
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I saw the little clip on FB, and it looks utterly splendid! Especially wonderful to have right now I imagine!
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@raine It is! It’s been a bit of a worry the last month that his only exercise has been doing Wii sports in his standing frame and our unqualified attempts to mimick his physio sessions. I feel better knowing we can go out biking two or three times a week – a good cardio workout for him with the hills we have around here!
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@janeshuff Thanks! We are making the most of what we can of this strange time. Hope you are keeping well xx
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Amanda Berriman (Skylark) replied to the topic Dipping my toe back in in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago
Hi @johnalty it’s good to be back, though it would help if I came back and then didn’t disappear again for months! Sigh. I have good intentions and then life happens…
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Squidge posted an update in the group
CoronaMo 6 years, 2 months agoHi all. Been having problems logging in again, but Jules has worked her magic and got me into the Den.
How are you all doing? I’m a bit like Kaz – head space not into writing much, so editing Tilda 3 is very slow going. I mean, how hard can it be to describe an underground (ie in a cavern) market? We’ve taken to cooking and baking with the kids…[Read more]
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Hi Squidge. Much the same as you, my head space is not into writing. I’m doing what I can and have forgiven myself for the fact it’s so slow. Apart from that we’re pottering on, enjoying the glorious weather from the safety of our own garden and surrounding countryside during the permitted hour a day we’re allowed out.Nature is slowly expanding to…[Read more]
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Hello, Squidge and Jane. I was interested to read how present circumstances are affecting your writing. Like you two, I am keeping busy (and maybe distracted) with the simple things of life and enjoying the slower pace, actually. Not to say there isn’t the general underlying anxiety, but trying to keep hopeful and positive despite all the…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly comp – April 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 2 months ago
Not the best poetry, but hey ho…
It has no chain, though once it might,
It’s on a shelf, mainly out of sight.
I wound it up and heard it tick
Then set the hands with a firmer click.
Triangles mark the quarter hours
and rectangles? The intervals and other hours.
It’s made by Smiths, a British firm
Not Timex, Rolex or another well known.
It’s…[Read more] -
John S Alty replied to the topic March competition in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 2 months ago
So, four very different entries this month. Eenie, meanie, minie, mo.
Seagreen made me laugh, Jill made me smile, Raine worried the hell out of me and Athelstone made me melancholy.Can’t separate you, all excellent.
But I’m going to give this months prize to Raine for all that energy and power.
Well done all of you!
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John S Alty replied to the topic March competition in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 2 months ago
Last day to get your entries in!
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RichardB posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago
My elder son – 40 this November – is a bit of a free spirit and so is his missus. Just before Christmas they announced that they were going to give up their jobs, sell up (not that they actually owned a house) and go off globetrotting. They weren’t to know, but they didn’t exactly pick the best time for that, with the result that they are now…[Read more]
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I hope they are managing to make the most of it. My sister and brother in law were stranded in the Galapagos and it was no fun at all. They got flown to mainland Ecuador last week and should be on their way back to Canada today, all being well.
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His verdict on the situation was, ‘It could be worse.’ Knowing his attitude to life, not to mention his fondness for sardonic humour in e-mails, I rather doubt that they’re suffering unduly.
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