Tag: Life

First and last through the gates. #writephoto

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Image copyright Sue Vincent. From Sue’s #writephoto photo prompt.

This is my first ever ping back so I hope it works……

The stone gateway was imposing, the heavy gates looked too big to push open easily. The first time I walked through the gates I was 10 years old and very nervous. My grandma lived in the big house, but as we had only just moved back after several years abroad I had never met her. Seeing the gates and the stone gateposts made me think that someone very important lived there.

I remembered the long tree lined drive. The dappled sunlight warming the golden gravel. I wanted to know how far it was to the front door so I started counting steps, but lost track around 300. As I turned a bend in the path I saw  short, grey haired lady in horn rimmed glasses, she didn’t look as scary as I imagined her. She was waiting at the top of three steps made of grey stone. I wanted to run up to her, but mom had told me to be polite. So I walked up slowly and quietly said hello.

That had been 40 years ago. My gran must have been about 50 but I had thought she was very old. I remembered her putting a record on for me, a Beatles song. ” Help ” I think it was? From then on she would always play music when I arrived, some pop music, other times classical music like Stravinsky or Rachmaninov. Sometimes we danced together and laughed at each other.

Today was a sad day. The last time I would walk through those gates. I remembered all the happy times I had spent there. Afternoons after school always seemed sunny. Gran would give me a snack and Mom would pick me up when she finished work.

Now both of them were gone. Today I had to lock up grans house and hand over the keys to the estate agent. The funeral had been a week ago. I had her favourite music played at the ceremony.

As I left I shut the gates gently, knowing I would never walk there again…..

Boarded up

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He woke up in darkness, the window he has climbed through last night was now boarded up. He was alone in the barn, but his hands were tied behind his back. He heard a quiet rustling in the straw. A squeak and he realised there were either rats or mice sharing the space with him…..

Everything had been quiet when he had crept into the barn about 8 o’clock the previous evening. He’d been setting up the camera when something or someone had hit him on the head.

What the hell do I do now? he thought. I’m stuck.

He glanced about and he saw something black in the corner, an old scythe? Yes stck under some sacking. It was so easy in mystery stories. Just rub against the blade and escape…. Two hours later he’d got through one strand of rope, his wrists were bruised and cut and he was sweating with the exertion of trying to escape. If he ever got out of here he would have words with his mates…

This was not how a stag party was meant to go!

March Winds

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Tomorrow is March

Month of winds

Whirling round

Sharp and clean..

March comes in

Like a lion

Fights with the world

Shreds trees.

Like a dragon

Breathing cold fire

Bringing rain

And late snow ….

Or

March comes in like a lamb

First day of meteorological spring…

Gentle breezes

Kiss the blossom

Arriving early

In warm breath.

Then the old saying goes

In like a lion, out like a lamb

Or

In like a lamb out like a lion…

Whatever way..

March Roars !

Green

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What does the word green mean to you? A mixture of two primary colours, blue and yellow? The green of photosynthesis, plants growing and spreading across the earth. Or green (ecological) politics, trying to get us humans to realise we need to take more care of the world?

If its the latter what small things can we do to help?

You could try growing some of your food from seed. Maybe some tomatoes  or a pepper plant. Even if you don’t have a garden you can try growing things on a bright window ledge.

A bit more space and you could grow a tree. You can buy miniature fruit trees which grow masses of fruit on a small plant. This is done by a process of grafting where the fruit you want to grow is grafted onto a rootstock which tends to be more vigorous than the top of the tree. You can buy ones which bear two or three different types of fruit on one trunk. Or grow some potato’s or other vegetables. Maybe get an allotment?

More green ideas include recycling. The planets oceans are becoming clogged with plastic. That useful but ubiquitous molecule that seems to have over taken modern living. We don’t choose to let turtles choke on plastic bags, but they are doing, mistaking them for jellyfish which they naturally predate.

Green also means letting animals alone. Letting dwindling populations of Lions, Tigers, Elephants, Rhino, Zebra, Polar Bears, and others survive. Not hunting them to extinction. I dread getting images on my Facebook page showing hunters glorying over the death of a giraffe or lion they have just shot.

Why do we do it? There are scarce resources on this planet but we seem bent on destroying or feasting on everything we see.

Where are the inventors who will improve technology and cut our massive use of fossil fuels? When are we going to realise that global warming is real, whether it is created by man or other means. It doesn’t matter what you blame we still need to try and do something about it. We should share clean technologies with less advanced countries so we all gain an advantage.

About a week ago I saw a news item. Children around the country taking a day off school to march and protest against global warming and point out that they are the ones who will inherit our mess and mistakes.

Green must be on all our minds, green should be the first colour we think about. I hope green is the future..

Life

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I feel like I’m sinking down into a hole. So tired and aching. Viruses are horrible – how can something so small, barely alive, cause pain and misery? I am fed up of having this sore throat  My voice is gruff and hoarse.

I have food in the fridge that needs cooking but I don’t feel like doing anything, but I can’t leave it for another day.

Still I guess it’s not as bad as some illnesses. I will get over it eventually. I guess I’m basically feeling sorry for myself.

Bluebells in February?

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These plants are growing outside in a box and my husband bought them in to show me as my cold is no better and I haven’t been outside because I feel too poorly.

What are they? They look like bluebells but they are not curved over like British ones. They might be Spanish bluebells which grow upright, with thicker stems. But bluebells don’t normally flower till April or May? Also the flowers are sticking out sideways. I guess they are actually a form of hyacinth? They don’t have many bells on them but they do smell like hyacinths. On the other hand they are not like the ones we had on the windowsill and are nothing like grape hyacinths that we sometimes grow in the spring.

So my question is to any gardeners out there…. What are they?

Witchery

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Old Belladonna Green watched as the moon rose. It was full and glowing tonight. Just the right time to be abroad for some witchery…..

She stood on top of the hill looking down at the old town. What enchantments could she weave to change people’s lives tonight?

She was a solo witch. A bit like solitary bees. Not part of a coven, but quietly making a difference where she could. The world was too modern for her really. No apprentice had been to see her for twenty years and her stock of charms had worn out long ago. Yes she could go to the local magic shop, but the stuff in there was mainly tat. Who wanted to buy a whoopee cushion to help indigestion?

And the Internet? It spread such falsehoods that no one knew what to believe anymore. When texting arrived she almost gave up. As it was she had to be very circumspect about what she did. All those satellites and droney things. She was good at weaving invisibility which she needed to keep out of sight of CCTV! More than once she had been forced to take the form of a black cat to avoid detection.

She looked over at Larch Street. A small row of terraces which were humble but cozy.

Oh yes. Mr Hughes, he needed some help, he was losing his hair rapidly…. She climbed up the drainpipe. She was still quite nifty at climbing even though she was 74… As she had thought, the bedroom window was open to let the cool moorland air in. She pushed the sash window open and deftly stepped through. Her soft shoes made no sound… She had a pouch of green herbs on her belt and she moved over to where Mr Hughes was sleeping. Gentle fingers massaged the green goo onto his head, he snored and turned in the bed, putting an arm round his wife. Belladonna stood back, approving her own work, then swiftly left the way she had come.

As the alarm clock went off the following morning Mr Hughes went into the bathroom. He was rather shocked to see in the his face in the mirror… A full head of hair…. But why was it blonde?

 

Noise outside

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My heart is thudding in my chest. I just heard something outside and now I don’t want to go to bed!

I put our empty milk bottles outside near the bins. They in turn are pushed up near the gate at the side of our house. The bottles are glass and they are out of the way so you can’t see them at night. About 10 minutes ago I heard one get knocked over. Then the shadow of a figure walked past the glass in the front door. I’d got the living room light switched off as I was preparing to go to bed.

We had my husbands motorbike taken a year ago although we got it back. We also had a bicycle stolen a couple of months ago. This has bought all those memories flooding back.

After a couple of minutes I turned on the living room light and looked out the door up the hill. I saw the figure of someone in a white hoody wandering slowly up the hill. What bothered me was he turned round and looked back. He was too far away to see features – about 100 yards so I doubt he could see much of me. But I’m in a dilemma. I’m tired out because I’m ill. On the other hand I want to stay awake a while longer in case he comes back. Logic tells me this is unlikely because he knocked over the bottle and secondly because I now have the light on and I looked out at him…. .

I hope he feels as spooked as I do! I have turned the radio off so I can hear any other sounds. We are having a ground anchor fitted for the motorbike and getting a heavy duty shed to store the bikes so hopefully that will deter people in future. A lot of these things are not planned but are done by opportunists . But I’m not going to bed yet!

Update: decided to ring the police. They will get someone to keep an eye out for him if they are in the area.

Looking out

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When a cat wants to look out of the window they don’t care what’s in the way. A few days ago I found one of my cats with their back half on the box of bird food and their front paws on the window ledge. The bird activity at the moment is quite busy because of the warm weather we have been having. It was 18 degrees Celsius yesterday in this area and has been 19 degrees in the Midlands today. The highest temperature in the country today was 20 degrees the hottest since records began for a February day. The normal temperature is about 5 to 8 degrees at this time of year. Last year when the beast from the east was here we were getting lows of minus 5 degrees.

Part of the reason for all this is the fact that Britain is in a temperate area. We have winds that arrive from all directions, and depending on the direction we get lots of varied weather. At the moment we have had a high pressure area situated over us so we are in a quite stable situation. There is a big dip in the jet stream so warm air is being pulled up from the south. We are actually in warmer air than in Greece at the moment. The pressure is due to reduce and we are expecting cooler air and some rain later in the week.

Anyway I was talking about birds but got distracted.  My husband bought a woven birds nest yesterday that wrens can nest in. We are expecting blue tits to nest in the garden this year and we also get blackbirds that nest in the hedge and the ivy on the house. The only problem is this warmth is bringing insects out but their food plants are not flowering yet. We need it to be cooler for at least another month .

The cats enjoy watching the birds, chattering at pigeons and sparrows. I’m glad we don’t let them out in the garden. But we have many cats that visit so we try and keep the vegitation cut enough but leave some cover for birds to hide in.

Anyway I’m feeling pretty bad at the moment with tonsillitis so I think I will just leave this ramble here.

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