You know how it is when you have a neatly planned couple of weeks, with lots to do, everything neatly placed in a schedule, then something happens that drives a bus through the whole shebang — and Whomp! schedule in tatters projects awry, and life generally in a state of…

November Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Collecting Smiles” — They will be dry by February. The photo doesn’t do justice to the dampness of the day. Although it wasn’t raining, moisture hung in the air, and there wasn’t a breath of wind. Hanging out the washing was pointless, but it made a change from gathering apples. …

During the recent Massive Autumn Book Launch Event (MABLE) from Fantastic Books Publishing, two of the authors chose to be interviewed by their own children. For very different reasons, each of these interviews made for compelling viewing. The Budding Professionals In the first, Sci-Fi author Jack Mann was grilled about his space adventure…

Six Word Photo Story Challenge: Freestyle — Horse’s head? What do you think? Walks at this time of year are a game of How-Wet-Can-We-Get, with whole minutes sometimes standing under makeshift cover while a storm blows over. A benefit to being out in the thick of it is seeing these rain puddle reflection images form. When a sudden downpour catches me, I run…

November Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Collecting Smiles” — Would she really eat this toadstool? Would she? I admit it looks tempting and fresh, but it’s probably deadly poison — I have no idea. I’m not a mushroom/toadstool gatherer these days. But she’s a Labrador and it certainly looks tempting. In all our adventures over the years, the Caped Crusader and I have encountered many…

And some intriguing ideas — My Read-Later-With-Coffee list surprised me this week. In amongst the old favourites was a crop of 7 writers I’d never read before. Now that sounded like an adventure well worth writing up. The list came close to being trimmed to 6. There was an article in interview form that disturbed…

October Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Collections” — Bedraggled collection queues for boiled rice. The weather has been dismal — wet and windy — but a dino collection can be relied upon the gather at the sight of a treats bowl no matter what forces nature brings to bear. They can be warm and dry if they want. They have an indoors with comfortable…

Among the events in Fantastic Books Publishing’s Massive Autumn Book Launch Event (MABLE) have been some performance pieces that really deserve a huge audience. One of these was created especially for MABLE, from a wonderful duo called Mac and the Medic. Mac is the actor Penelope McDonald, a winner of…

October Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Collections” — Egg doubled-wrapped in a crinkly bag. We don’t get many eggs like this, perhaps one every couple of months. It’s not in a crinkly bag, of course, it’s in a robust crinkly shell, and it’s a whopper. There are many reasons for misshapen eggs. It can happen with immature hens, but we don’t have that problem…