Whisks

  • 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…

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 3 months ago

    Anyone got swallows back yet? Was looking for them today but no luck yet. Walk along the beach did turn up a white sea brick though (now called Beatrice, mini lugged it home), a bit of sea tile with the letter E on, and a perfect conch shell. Along with the usual sea glass & good painting stones. A moderately good haul which will all end up in one…[Read more]

    • None at the palace yet. I checked yesterday.

    • “sea glass” – such wonderful connotations.

      • No swallows as yet but in the evening the beach (forbidden to humans) is full of birds congregating along the water line. It is getting light enough after supper to slip past the ‘interdit’ signs and watch them dart in and out of the little frothy waves or stand still on the sand and watch the sun set behind the islands.

        • What a delightful picture you paint, Raine. No, I have not seen any swallows yet, but many other birds visit our garden, as we have countryside all around our home. We are a long way from the sea and beaches, but we do have terracotta bowls of such items as you describe in our home – many dating as far back as when we lived in Cyprus! Have a…[Read more]

          • Looking out for swallows here. We only moved in in January, so not sure what the avian fauna are like, except there a rooks/ravens plucking twigs from trees and then flying off to build nests, and seagulls doing their squawking thing, and since we started putting food out the sparrows, tits and similar have been very enthusiastic, also the rats…[Read more]

            • Yes @raine, What is a sea brick?

            • 😂 It’s a brick that’s been washed up by the sea so it’s all eroded and smooth. We get a fair few normal ones but a white one was special! Sea tiles are my fav – bits of broken and smoothed ceramic from all sorts of things. Old decorated plates are the best.

    • Sounds lovely. I’ve never seen them though. Is there a reason why they wash up? Our beach, although lovely in every way, doesn’t get much washed up apart from bits of fishermen’s nets.

  • Squidge posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 3 months ago

    Hi 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]

    • 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]

      • 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]

  • 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]

  • Congratulations Raine. And thanks to everyone for their stories and the pleasure they gave me as well as John for the competition.

  • Bit different this time in an attempt to find beauty in our (confined) surroundings – look around the room you are in & find the oldest item (not counting people!). Now tell us something about it. Why is it precious, why have you kept it so long, who owned it before you… whatever.
    400 words. Hope it brings a little light. πŸ™‚

  • Thank-you so much John and everyone! I am delighted to have worried you all! I love how utterly different all our stories were, so well dones are due to the rest of you as well – each one was great. πŸ™‚

  • Congratulations, Raine, and thanks, John. Glad poor Henry lightened your day. I have absolutely no idea where he came from, but he was a timely visitor πŸ™‚

  • Well done, Raine! Thanks for the comp, John.

  • UNTITLED (395 WORDS)

    Rheology: the study of the deformation and flow of matter.

    Henry considered himself an expert in such matters. Lying on his back on the grass, unable to move, he was suitably impressed by whoever had applied the sky for this particular assessment. It was, he knew, the most perfect finish he’d ever seen. A solid block of c…[Read more]

  • RichardB posted an update 6 years, 4 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]

    • 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.

      • 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.

  • Thanks all. Was glad this one found a home, not having had much success with short fiction recently

  • I will say congratulations again on here, Laure! Absolutely brilliant. Well done!

  • Just caught up with this. What brilliant news, Janette. So very, very pleased for you. Congratulations! Well done. (News like this always gives me hope!!!) x

  • Absolutely brilliant news! So pleased for you πŸ™‚

  • I honestly thought I’d responded to this…
    Great story, Daeds. One that sticks around after reading.

  • That’s amazing Elle, well done. Thoroughly deserved, of course. I love your craft, your prose is amazing and you’re one of those writers where every word is perfectly chosen, so I look forward very much to the result!

  • Raine posted an update in the group Group logo of CoronaMoCoronaMo 6 years, 4 months ago

    Submitted a bunch of flash things to various magazines today AND did my monthly comp entry. For day 1 of homeschooling, I’m giving myself a gold star! πŸ™‚

  • (Bang on 400 words, I think)

    Spring-Hollow Secret God Sleeping

    Bring withy willows with you to weave a net on a night when the moon rides high. We will catch her face in the black mirror at our feet, dance her widdershins and threefold so that our withies weave moonlight all around.

    Bring silver sage and silver blades and your hair hanging…[Read more]

  • RichardB posted an update 6 years, 4 months ago

    Okay, so there’s danger in crowds. So let’s escape from the crowded city and go to the seaside, or the country………where we will crowd out the beaches and the cafΓ©s and the ice-cream stands…

    • That is what has happened here, Richard, and now the beaches and coastal paths are closed.

      • WTF is so hard to understand about social distancing? It drives me bonkers to see how people behave. I have a very large personal space zone at the best of times, which is serving me well. I have become adept at managing my supermarket trolley to keep people at a distance.

        • We’ve a very popular chippy in our harbour. It, and every other food place in the village had switched to take out/delivery only, which seemed doable for keeping them in business. But there were so many tourists day-tripping or holiday-house-visiting at the weekend that the chippy queue went down the street, meaning that they’ve had to take the…[Read more]

          • This emergency really does seem to be bringing out the worst in people – and I don’t just mean stupidity. MrsB relayed to me today a news item she’d found on-line, to the effect that refuse collectors are reporting a 30% increase in food waste, some of it still in its packaging. To spell it out, this means that the bastard hoarders are not only…[Read more]

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