Autobiography

What A Relief

Date 21 st July 2016 Dear Diary... After living through the hell of Tuesday's hottest day, I was so reassured that today had cooled down slightly and...

Yacta Mache -2

All our meals were provided within our contracts, as was our room, and a cleaning lady to boot. I fell in with the other four girls as we made our...
Cherry

Yacha Mache -1

July 15, 1965 This was the first day of the rest of my life. I was going from Podunk, North Dakota, to New York City, and boy was that scarey. I had...

Leggings - the infection & beyond

After two days of headache I succumbed.

Untitled

The unedited version of my english final. A reflection of my work in the past that compares formal to creative writing.

island (ii)

These are the island's seas, through which I dive in dreams
Gold cherry

island

No one came but they knocked god did they knock

Obsessive-Compulsive

What’s that? Oh yes, It’s that tongue in my ear again. Burrowing down inside Tickling the nerves that make my heart race And carving numbers into my...
Cherry

Trip to Say Goodbye - 8

Cathy got up early on Monday and went for a five mile run up to Mount Tabor. She didn't get a very good view of Mt. Hood and was disappointed about...

Trip to Say Goodbye - 7

Mary K was sure that Kathleen's nearly comatose state was not typical, and that she would be all right the next day, the day of the family gathering...

Leggings - the Cake & other Stories...

Leggings - the Cake & other Stories... friday morning - met strange friendly frozen fruity drinkers in cafe... Mr. Lee's discussion re early/late...
Cherry

Our Finest Hour

Don't be afraid of your quest to seek us out... we wait with anticipation; refuse to be timid; remember the pleasure stepping from lonely shadows.....
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

Attrition

Image: 
Slick vast crush of bare ocean, split white with dolphin crest and the roll and the roll, frets and worries at the lip of the world.

Trip to Say Goodbye - 6

We got on the way about 6.30, but didn't want to arrived in Portland before 2, as we had said we would have had lunch. We were to drive to my niece...
Cherry

For my sons... (Poetry Monthly)

If I ever get to see those pearly gates, misted like a distant hill, or if I'm caught on charcoal shores, waiting for the open hands of God, I'll draw for you, in all their grace, the sinners kissing angels' feet.
1 likes

Trip to Say Goodbye - 5

On Friday our Quality Inn provided a very nice buffet breakfast, and we took advantage by having waffles and omelettes and a little bit of just about...
Cherry

Her

Silver plimsoles, Pigeon steps, Tracing tracks, Flooded by the gold Of the last of the evening sun. She speaks of her naivety With a certainty Of...

Haunted

Haunted Across the corridor an old lady cries “nurse, NURSE!” for the umpteenth time. She sees and hears only in the dark shadowy recesses of her...

Leggings - The Parachute story.

Leggings - The Parachute story. In the morning Kitty took the bus droopily, her eyes half closed, as she tried to stay awake. The bus steamed past...
Cherry

Me?

Charcoal-smudged swirls – a holiday quick-sit, no time given to fidget or stiffen the grin – … more alive than old photos …

Trip to Say Goodbye - 4

We got off to our early start, and as soon as we had gone ten miles down the road, it was time to change our watches back by an hour to Mountain...

Trip to Say Goodbye - 3

Knowing that we had only 400 miles or so to cover, Larry wasn't in any big hurry to start in the morning, but we did get going about 7.30. The...

Caravan of Delights

Awoke this morning to your musings in tunes that melted this heart of mine; your wisdom kept its promise of shared hopes and whimsical dreams,...

Trip to Say Goodbye - 2

Tuesday morning Cathy and I left her house and drove to her dad's Foley, but stopping en route at the Hmung Market.(pictured above) This place has...

Trip to Say Goodbye - 1

Two weeks ago, I was packing my bag, and the thought that predominated my mind was, “In two weeks, I will be home again.” It was a very long two...

Badger update

I am back from my American trip, and will probably write up my adventures bit by bit, but first thought I should bring you up to date with Billy...
Cherry

La Boisselle (Raprochement)

Overthetop1 (Julia Macpherson) This piece was written by my daughter Julia and typed up with great care. I'm afraid my own abilities are more limited, so the layout may not do it justice. However, I wanted to post it as it's highly topical, and Julia was a great student of all things connected with WW1 - in particular, the Battle of the Somme. Coral Jane (seashore)

The Battle of the Somme. (1st Draft)

The Battle of the Somme. The air was foul, thick and strong. The war was strung with barbed wire, the rats ran. The men who knitted, sang, smoked an...

Leggings - Stray thoughts & time-out situations.

Leggings - Stray thoughts & time-out situations. Stray thought of the day: Is there a correlaton between the lack of music in public places and...

Leggings - 69p for a bag of Oranges!

Leggings - 69p for a bag of Oranges! It was the day of the Norfolk show, and Leggings was on the No. 4 to Norwich, trying to stay awake at something...
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

Edges

I can't remember the things that Happened How can I keep thinking about it when it's not clear what it is? This morning the sky is that Wonderful...

Torremolinos 2

Image: 
Holiday in Torremolinos. I come here to write (partly), for which I need peace and quiet, but as the holiday nears the end my wife and I cannot decide which tours to go on!
Cherry

Berrylands

The rain has settled in pearlescent globules on the fine, flat leaves of the brambles and bracken below. Through poorly constructed wire fencing The...
Gold cherry

The Silent Witness

As many of you already know, my daughter Julia (who wrote as Overthetop1 on Abc) died suddenly in May whilst on a short unescorted outing from a Mental Health Unit. She was due to move into a care facility in the community very soon, and as yet the cause of her death is still unknown. She had been to a cafe near the hospital for a sandwich, and the cafe owner, seeing how unwell she was, followed her out. Unfortunately Julia never made it back to the ward. Later the cafe owner told her sister and I what happened before we got to the hospital. Coral Jane
Cherry

Facebook

Can we all please stop caring, Please stop sharing Our views, We don't know, We can't know, It has no bearing, No truth. What use are our opinions,...

Leggings - Mid Brawling

It's mid brawling in the western wind, and the courtyard is shed with sins. Around the night the witches wait for deliveries by lorry or plane...

Leggings - Psychic capers... Notes.

the gothic fountain, which works btw, is in the town garden by the RC catherdral which was left to the people of Norwich... Its beautiful there, lovely place for a picnic.

The Officials get involved - part 4

On Friday morning, I entertained my U3A reading group. Our subject was the book Philomena, which we all thought was far too long, had too small print...

The Plop Thickens - part 3

Steve, my builder, fixed my front door so that the latch would connect without slamming. He then kindly said, “Is there anything else I can do for...

I didn't want to do it

I must have been about 6, and as usual I was the only girl. Only boys in our neighbourhood – ‘something in the water’ old ladies sniggered to each...

The House that Badger Built - part 2

Having returned from my week's babysitting stint, I was anxious to get to my garden and see what had happened to my uninvited guest. I suppose I was...

Leggings -All on a summer's morning...

Dame Warty and her son were awaiting news from their sources on the balcony as they feigned royalty and practiced their individual royal waves - to...
Cherry

Dignified

I've watched people dying... nursed elderly grandparents, declining. Had the call - best friend in a car crash, killed outright. I've seen animals,...
1 likes

Taking The Rough With The Smooth

Dear Diary...It was the middle of the 1970s , probably about 1977, the day I took a job looking after a three year old for a landlord and his wife...

Do You Remember

Do you remember the serene pace of life enjoying every day in our Florida paradise? Feelings of rejuvenation as we wandered miles and miles of soft...

The Uninvited Guest

I like living alone. I like doing my own things, when I want to. I like not having to weed my garden, that only I see, or dust my house, that only...

Flame-thrower

(In the style of rap) Music accompaniment: RJD2 - Ghostwriter The paper says I made a home-made flame-thrower I call bullshit, I'm a hardcore...

Dead Famous, Famous Dead

I almost bumped into my latest celebrity crush the other day at Birmingham New Street railway station. I’ll not give the name. Far too embarrassing...
Gold cherry

I reclaimed red

I reclaimed red. I reclaimed it while I was still bleeding, hobbled my way into town and bought the beautiful impractical expensive shiny red shoes...
Cherry

Holding Hands With Number One

One of the things I miss most is having no one to hold hands with. When I first met my (second, now late) husband John I remember being surprised and...

Smoker

It is not long, not long now; it somehow drags, deep, drag on a cigarette. Vapour intoxicates your unblemished lungs and fills them. Within it swells...
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

The tube

I stand amongst these well groomed men and women. Auburn wax jacket, like mud and scorched grass. Bright teal shirt, the morning sky, when the sun...
Cherry

To the Bank

“Inaccessible” is far too strong. “Awkward to get to” is more like it. It’s a quirk of the map to show so many lines of communication around a place...

Typewritten

Hiding mistakes under the integrated TipEx band with the automatic spell-check function on an electronic machine. Hitting all the keys at once on so...
Cherry

Heritage Roses

Happily, within a space of time after my wife's death, some very timely things occurred. Of course the first of these was that our daughter, Freya,...
Cherry

Banana custard and scrumped plums

Fruit would appear in the house at different times and for various purposes. We had no fruit bowl. There would never be, say, a bunch of bananas, but...
Gold cherry
Story of the week

It was our home

After you were born I took to walking around the neighbourhood a lot more and I came to love the charming Edwardian villa with the rambling garden...

Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and Mr McKissock

This is a place I clearly remember as being a stopping off point on a school trip from Maidenhead in the Thames Valley to Snowdonia National Park in...
Cherry

The Witches Came to Swindon

Dear Diary...adventuresome as I was in the 90s, I was led on a journey into the mysterious world of Roald Dahl. It all started when my friend...