Fiction

deep thinking

even at six years

darkness lurked

~

Ronovan has given us DARKNESS and DEEP this week in his weekly Haiku Challenge.

Mixing that with our Photo Prompt – FICTION.

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My childhood was not always a happy place to be. There is a hint of that in my expression in the photo of me at about 6 years old, that little frown. The photo is in its original 1950s frame.

My Grandad and step-grandmother, Dabbity, provided me with a haven of books, cooking, gardening and needlework, I was always supremely happy when I was with them.

I learnt to read early and loved reading fiction as an escape. Perhaps that is why I hardly ever read fiction nowadays – no need to escape.

These are three favourite books of my childhood: Swiss Family Robinson, Monty Woodpig’s Caravan and Miss Richard’s Mouse

The illustrations in Miss Richard’s Mouse are a bit deep and dark and I remember feeling a bit scared of this book

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Please leave your link to your work of FICTION in the comments, we’d love to see them.

One-a-Week Photo Challenge: Cross

the stars in my world

creativity blooming

with needle and thread

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Three generations of cross stitch.

The blue and yellow Binca pieces on the top were made by my children (now 35 and 41) at school. The white Binca is being decorated by Little Miss M (4) and Master R (7), he has made the first arm of the cross stitches, but got frustrated when he came to the corner, his mathematical Virgoan brain could not get it to be precise enough, so we had to take a break. I hope we can return to it next weekend. Shall I undo the corner bit? …… Hmmmm these moral connumdrums we Grannies face.

You can see my cross stitches on the fabric collage underneath, the start of another textile experiment.

Linking with Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge.

This week’s prompts: STAR and BLOOM

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Cathy and I have put together a list of subjects for the whole year – jump in as and when you feel like it with current or archive photos, and leave a link in the comments to be included in the monthly Round Up.

Favourite

dusty blue

Teddy’s favourite

keeps her warm

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Miss E very sweetly asked me if I could mend the first dress I had made for Teddy as it is her FAVOURITE. 

Of course I could not resist this Boro-esque challenge.

First I needed to darn the holes and stabilise the edge with a running stitch

Then I carefully washed the dress and took it to Miss E for further instructions.

She asked for a daisy to cover the darn in the front and for me to neaten the edge. I hope she approves of the result as seen in the first photo.

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“Work is love made visible”

Kahlil Gibran

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Joining in with Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge, prompt words: COLOUR and WARMTH

and

My entry for our One-a-Week Photo Challenge: FAVOURITE

Please leave a link to your FAVOURITE photo in the comments to be included in the monthly round-up.

Bird

plain grey pelican

diving into the shallows

small fry for breakfast

A joy whilst on Nevis was to watch the pelicans diving near the shore on my early  morning shell hunts

Joining in with Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge, prompts PLAIN and FAST

and

combining it with our One-a-Week Photo prompt for this week of BIRD.

Cathy and I compiled the list for the year, just for fun. Join in as and when you like using new or archive blog posts. We love to see your take on the subjects – always a fascinating variety. Leave a link in the comments to be included in the Round-up.

Modern

each other’s heart throb

hearts throbbing after leaping

over obstacles

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My entry for our Photo Challenge this week: MODERN

It’s a bit of a cheat really as I didn’t take the photo – I was the jet-lagged Granny at home with the children so that my daughter and her husband could enter a cross-country Rocket Run. I knew it was going to be a big ask for me to have their three balls of energy just two days after I got back from my trip to the Caribbean, my energy was on the floor, but I teamed up with my son and his boys and together we had a good day – AND this picture makes it all so very worthwhile. I’m so glad they were happy for me to share it with you – it makes me smile every time I look at it.

The picture shows just what good friends they are, they went round the 8k course together helping each other over the obstacles and having fun. They have been married for 10 years – my marriage was falling apart after 10 years, to see my daughter so happy …. well, that’s all we want for our kids isn’t it.

(Oh, and it ticked off one of my daughter’s 17 for 2017 – go A!)

Why MODERN?

When I was in my 30s nobody I knew ran for pleasure and/or to keep fit – now all my children and their partners and lots of their friends seem to do quite a bit of running. Jobs are not so physically active it seems to be one of the modern ways to keep fit and meet socially.

Ok, a bit tenuous maybe, but any excuse to squeeze this photo into a blog post!

Including a stab at Ron’s Haiku Challenge prompts: LEAP and THROB

Have a go, it’s fun. Pop across to Ron’s and see all the other great entries, it is a great supportive Haiku community.

Please leave links to your MODERN photos in the comments so that I can include it in the Monthly Round- Up. Cathy and I always look forward to seeing your take on each subject.

Next week’s subject (posted from next Tuesday onwards) is BIRD

Lunch

spying from my seat

beach activities below

wonderful delight

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Our Photo Challenge Week 15 : LUNCH

Ronovan’s Haiku prompts (10th April): WONDER and SPY

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Two weeks in the Caribbean! Lucky me!

I’m playing catch-up. Thank you so much Cathy for keeping the Photos purring along.

I can’t just leave out the two weeks of our One-a-Week Photo Challenge I missed – not after nearly three years of weekly postings, so I will be catching up with a couple of posts today.

A few more scenes from that balcony – not a bad place to sit and have lunch 😉

Looking towards St Kitts

Pelicans bobbing on the water in the early morning light

diving for fish

the boys going snorkelling

fishing

evening

storm brewing

Click on any photo to see it larger.

I was staying at The Hamilton Beach Villas which were beautiful, but not quite what they promise on their website. No Spa. When we questioned this we were told that they “had got a bit over enthusiastic on their website” !

There seemed to be a lot of that going on in the Caribbean. Often when travelling I have found people tell you what they think you want to hear – anyone else had that experience?

Van

spring into action

tidy up for a fresh look

and restore order

Our One-A-Week Photo Challenge prompt this week is VAN

combined with

Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge – prompt words: SPRING and FRESH

The photos were taken when I was making a photographic record, for my farming son-in-law, of the building of his enormous new robotic dairy. The massive project took about 3 years to complete. It was fun to see all the different types of vehicles and extraordinary equipment arriving at the farm. The first van above belonged to a builder, the second to the engineer installing the robots.

Spring cleaning has been a theme for me this week as I have been tidying out drawers. Drawer number one, from this:

to this

I found evidence of moths so every surface inside and out of each drawer in the chest of drawers was vacuumed and washed. Then I sprinkled them with lavender and covered it with recycled packing paper that I ironed flat.I really don’t know if lavender works but it is supposed to. Worth a try as I have masses of it, harvested from the garden in August.

Do you have any tips of how to deter or get rid of moths?

This has fulfilled another element of my 17 for 2017 challenge! hurray!

(clearing and sorting 13 drawers, cupboards or shelves 3 done only 10 to go! ha!)

Cathy and I have created a year of photo prompts for your (and our) delight, pop over to Nanacathy and see her cute little VAN!