Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 17 May 2019

This week's picks are a bit different from usual in that they are linked. It goes to show how reading another person's work can spark a different but related bit of creativity in ourselves, with wonderful results. The original piece was Jane Hyphen's brilliant story 'I Woke Up (in inverted commas)'. Whether as warning for the future or commentary on the present, it sends shivers down the spine: https://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/i-woke-...

Wise About Morecambe

Posted by philwhiteland on Thu, 16 May 2019

This is a story that begins with a touching faith in the power and scope of the internet and ends with some very old technology indeed. I've always had a lot of faith in the ability of the internet to answer just about any odd or bizarre question you can throw at it. No matter what peculiarity you happen to be interested in, you can pretty much guarantee that someone, somewhere has been interested in it too and has already done the necessary...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point.

Posted by Philip Sidney on Fri, 10 May 2019

Spring is here and the cherries are ripening. So many it's been hard to select the most succulent. Rhiannon's poem is so vividly executed it transported me back to that special place - the North Pembrokeshire coastal path: https://www.abctales.com/story/rhiannonw/arrival-%E2%80%93-evening-wander Parson Thru takes us on a stroll too in another eloquent snapshot of the travelling life - it;s our poem of the week: https://www.abctales.com/story/...

On Volunteers and Victorians

Posted by philwhiteland on Thu, 09 May 2019

A couple of events over the Bank Holiday weekend set me thinking (which is a novelty). The first was on Sunday, when I attended my second day of training, as a volunteer, to learn how to man the Ticket Office at the Staffordshire Narrow Gauge Railway (SNGR) at Amerton Farm near Stowe-by-Chartley https://amertonrailway.co.uk/ , better known as Amerton Railway. Just before you start thinking 'Two days! Strewth he must be slow on the uptake!',...

Leggings - Harrassment continues...

Posted by maisie on Sun, 05 May 2019

In store in S..... local supermarket, a man starts shouting about someone having a poor credit history because they (and I did btw) pick up a vanilla gift visa card.... eek! lol! Somewhat surprised I watched the Supermarket Manager grab the offending neo-nazi by the ear and tell him off... I wasn't sure whether to say something or not, only he did seem to be a little below normal, and so I resisted... who wants to get down to their level? A day...

STORY AND POEM OF THE MONTH

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 05 May 2019

Our Story and Poem for the month of April has very kindly been selected by Parson Thru: Poem: Pick of the Month, Di_Hard hits the nail on the head https://www.abctales.com/story/dihard/change-address digging into our attachment to bricks and mortar - spiritual, rather than the more usual financial. Her well-chosen metaphor strikes a chord with many. seafret https://www.abctales.com/story/seafret/platform-remembering produces a crisp piece with a...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 03 May 2019

I was going to open this with a complaint about the rain, (for those of you outside the UK it is almost illegal for us not to comment on the weather at least once in any piece of writing) - but the sun has just come out - so things are looking up! Lots of wonderful pieces to choose from this week, as ever, but my personal picks are as follows: Poem of the Week goes to the deeply moving 'Wear and Tear' by london_calling79, and our Story of the...

Matt Haig (2015) Reasons to Stay Alive.

Posted by celticman on Wed, 01 May 2019

This is a short enough book to read in one, longish, gulp. It begins with an admission Matt Haig makes about 2014. Thirteen years ago I knew this couldn’t happen. I was going to die, you see. Or go mad. There was no way I would still be here. Sometimes I doubted I would even make the next ten minutes… One of the key symptoms of depression is to see no hope. No future. A book about depression need not be depressing. We all nod at the statistics;...

And finally...Cyril!

Posted by philwhiteland on Tue, 30 Apr 2019

Continued from Cyril and More Cyril We first encountered Cyril when we kept our pub, The New Talbot. Mum and dad rather collected ‘waifs and strays’ and seemed to have a weakness for odd characters. It was not unusual to have a living room full of people, after closing time on a Saturday night, enjoying an after-hours drink on the house. On these occasions, mum often put on a bit of supper because she was concerned that a number of her ‘...

Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Posted by Penny4athought on Mon, 29 Apr 2019

It was the daisy that held my attention and I’m not sure why…it was buttercup yellow and the sight of it…one lone daisy waving to me in a field of grass…made me sad, it was all alone… and I wanted to plant it a family. Strange musings over my first cup of coffee I thought…but that was the view out my back door and it had captured my imagination regarding flowers and feelings. So I wrote on my grocery list: “buy some plant seeds.” I was going to...

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