A to Z challenge A

 

 

This is the first time I have attempted this challenge, but here goes.

 

 

APRIL

 

A bland choice of subject I know but registering a the last minute, and inaccurately at that, this gives me a chance to get something posted.

 

April Fool's Day was unexciting except for a few bits and pieces on Facebook which had me taken in. 

 

The weather here is untypical for April and I still have snow in may garden and not a daffodil in sight.  The East wind is unremitting and the only good point is the lack of April showers.

 

 

 

 

 

 





A slow start to Spring

It has been a miserable March, what with the weather, poor health and hospital visiting, but here a few highlights:

Visitors

We were delighted to welcome our family from Sweden, who were not expecting similar weather to theirs.  When they visited last year at the same time, the weather was glorious.

 

 Drinking Yorkshire tea
 

 Grandad made us all a veggie fry up

 

A visit to Tropical World warmed us up a bit:

Gardening

As an East wind has brought temperatures which have been less than average for the time of year and the garden has been under snow on and off for weeks, everything is very late and it has been impossible to do any jobs.  In fact, Spring judging for Yorkshire in Bloom has been cancelled for the first time ever.

 

Pictorial Meadows

Mike Evans of Ashworth Nurseries/Green Estate talked to our gardening club on the pictorial meadows and green wall his company supplies.  A social enterprise, which started out to deal with unsightly, inner-city, wasteland areas, the company is based in the Manor Lodge, Sheffield, where Mary Queen of Scots used to stay. It looks like an interesting place for a visit; see www.manorlodge.org.uk for more details.  The seeds supplied for the pictorial meadows are non-native to give a longer season and exclude grasses in the mixture.  In fact, the ground needs to be cleared before sowing. The range includes various mixes from Pastel to Volvanic and both annual and perennial mixes.  The colours of the meadows alter as the seasons progress and the flowers are a magnet for birds, bees and butterflies.  This is a change from the norm; wildlife is no longer attracted to the fields in the countryside where pesticides are used.  You probably saw the results of the pictorial meadow seeds at the Olympic Park in East London.  For more information and photos, see www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk  

Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds

 Photo from FB page of Leeds Back in the Day

 

This independent cinema is 100 years old this year and has seen huge changes over that period; sound, colour, non-smoking, digital.  Although it has been refurbished, it still sports the old gas lights and a tour of the building revealed vintage telephones and Victorian sinks.  Run mainly by volunteers, it is one of the few independent cinemas in the area, which means that it shows some really good films rather than the commercial blockbusters   

Our writing group had the opportunity of a tour of the building and we produced some pieces inspired by what we saw and learnt.  We were shown two short films, one of which wasthe entertaining Conversation Piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYsdGqPfhW8

 

Holidays

Enjoyed having the family for Pesach/Passover; reminiscing, debating, singing and catching up across the generations.

 Helping to lay the Seder table with personalised name cards.  This has become their tradition.

We had to find indoor activities to amuse the grandchildren during the school holidays, so we painted these.  I’m not putting names to paintings!  

 

 

 

 

 

Caravan

Although the season opened two weeks ago, the weather has prevented us from going to the coast.  We took the usual paraphernalia needed to observe Pesach and went for the day to open up the caravan.  Half way there, all traces of snow had disappeared and the temperature rose a degree or two.  We saw daisies in the grass,baby lambs and, whilst not a sign of Spring, a pair of peacocks strutting across the road near the children's playground. It was like a real holiday!

 Blue sky!

 Goal!

 Helter Skelter at Far Grange

 

Written:

Hanging on in there with the weekly challenge.  Managed a factual piece for local radio and a fictional piece inspired by my picture house visit.

Some exciting news!   I have been matched up with a fellow writer through The Matchelor on Falling for fiction blog to critique each other’s work.

Read:  Ice and Slice by Della Galton. I can highly recommend it; try it and you’ll see what I mean.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ice-and-a-Slice-ebook/dp/B00BSA3JHW/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364068042&sr=1-2

Seen:  Not worth a subheading this post.

And ditto The Healthy Writers Club (with apologies to Shallee McArthur) although I'm not quitting!

Looking forward to Good Health, good weather, good gardening and good writing.

 

 

 

 

Spring hasn't yet sprung

Spring almost arrived briefly and then went, leaving behind a few signs in the garden in the shape of shoots and sprouting bulbs. The lawn has never been so waterlogged but the Gypsy Girl crocuses I bought last Autumn in Sweden are now out.

My nephew, Simon Glass, showed his filmThe Tribe about the Jewish population who immigrated to our town both during the Pogroms and also the Nazi regime.  It runs like a documentary with interviews interspersed with old photos and footage.  The audience was made up of first, second or third generation immigrants or survivors of the Holocaust and Simon's commentary was followed by a good, interactive discussion.

Another nephew became a QC which means he gets a new wig and gown; sounds good to me!
 
Had my fair share of doctors and hospitals lately.  Wishing everyone good health.

Written:  A third article in the series Are We Nearly There Yet?  at http://www.yorkshire-east-coast-unofficial-guide.com/journeys-to-the-coast.html#Bishop  plus a  travelogue for local radio.  Hanging on in there (just) with the challenge Write 1 Submit 1 weekly.

Watched:Lady in Red, a powerful and thought-provoking presentation by the Certain Curtain company put on by a local branch of a national group who run a helpline, a refuge and counselling service and raise awareness of abuse being endured by women; assaulted, bullied or controlled in support of International Women's Day

Read:   A Plate of Bits by Avis Hickman-Gibb.  The title says it all; little bites of everything, some sweet and others savoury.  I can heartily recommend it.

This month's flower arrangement was Pot et fleurs so see if you can spot the two potted plants amongs the flowers.

Snowdrops and Snippets

 

Alpine Meadows
Angela Hanson gave a wonderful, illustrated talk to our gardening club on Alpine Meadows.  These are the upland pastures where the cattle are taken in the summer to graze, leaving the lower areas for the winter.  These meadows are home to a wide variety of flora and fauna; gentians, cowslips, orchids, golden hawksbeard, mulleins and yellowrattles.  Many of the flowers are hairy to keep them warm.  The skiing industry has left its toll, but now these meadows are recognised as important areas to be preserved.

It reminded me of my favourite story; Heidi.

Launch of The Chapel

The local writing group and radio station with which I am involved has received a huge grant to restore the old chapel which serves as their base.  It is a beautiful building with polished, wooden pews, an organ and a balcony held up by ornamental pillars.  The acoustics are amazing, allowing recitals without the need for a microphone.  The Lord Mayor attended and we heard poetry, songs and prose.  It will be a couple of years before the work is complete, but Rome wasn't built in a day!

Healthy Writers Club

Some voluntary gardening afforded strenuous exercise, managed a bit at home and Pilates.  I am also doing the 5:2 diet, where 2 days are on reduced calories leaving you to eat what you want for the rest of the week.  It suits me as you can pick your days and because you have been so careful of those days, you don't want to undo the good work on the normal days.

Someone I was at primary school with sent me this picture of when I was nine.  The lollipop lady was crossing us the road, a dual carriageway.  I was, and am, smaller than my classmates.  I am behind the  pole.  These were the days when you walked to school without parents.
 

 
Story Published on CafeLit

 
http://www.cafelit.co.uk/TheColleagueWhoCameToStay3.html



Flower arranging

The theme this month was Spring Treasures

Holocaust Memorial Day

On Sunday I accompanied my aunt to the local event to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau  on 27 January 1945.  This year’s theme was Communities Together:   Build a Bridge.

My aunt came to the UK as a young girl on the Kindertransport after Kristallnacht to flee the Nazis.  She and her sister managed to escape but her parents and many other members of her family perished in the death camps.  Members of my family died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Other camp survivors and their families attended.  The fact that these people have reached a grand old age and have been successful in their fields shows that, despite the holocaust, Hitler failed in his plan.

Unfortunately, many people in the world still suffer from persecution because of their race, religion, disabilities or sexuality.

One of the projects of this scheme is to keep alive the music of the death camps and a choir sang a Czech folksong composed by Gideon Klein (1919-45) while in the Terezin Concentration Camp.

Dr. Dolf Mogendorff spoke about his parents who survived the Holocaust in Holland and a group of young people acted out the story of Anna, a recent refugee w

ho fled to the UK from Eritrea.

Liesl Carter, who has only recently tracked down her father’s grave in Germany, lit candles and recited the commitments of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Rudi Leavor sang the mourning prayer El Male Rachamim and led the minute’s silence.

 

 

***********

 

 Written:        

 

I am keeping up with the weekly challenge and have had one short story accepted, one rejected (well send back for re-editing) and read out two of my pieces on local radio.



 

Watched:        Borgen, The Shrine, episode 1 of the new series of the excellent Moving On plus  cried my way through Call the Midwife.

Went to see the National Theatre production of The Magistrate screened locally.  Academy Award nominee and Tony Award-winner John Lithgow (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Shrek, 3rd Rock from the Sun) takes the title role in this uproarious Victorian farce, with Olivier Award-winner Nancy Carroll (After the Dance) as his wife Agatha. The director is Olivier Award-winner Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You and Into the Woods, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London).

With his louche air and a developed taste for smoking, gambling, alcohol and woman, it's hard to believe Cis Farringdon is only fourteen. And that's because he isn't. When Agatha dropped five years from her true age and that of her son when she married amiable magistrate Posket, it sparks a series of hilarious indignities and outrageous mishaps.Read:              Very little

Healthy Writers Group

 

Shovelled a load of snow in the past week, Pilates and some indoor exercise.  It's a start!

Busy doing nothing

Gardening

A couple of dry days gave me the opportunity to hack back a cotoneaster which was making a nuisance of itself to passers-by and had dropped its berries into my wall and produced clones; prickly thug!  I replanted the wall with more bulbs and colourful polyanthuses and vowed to keep the wall in flower all year.

At the Gardening Club, members filled a table area (8ft x 2ft approx.) with examples of what is flowering or showing interesting foliage this month.  It was amazing, to say we complain there is nothing in the garden at this time of year.  One member brought some frankincense which he had purchased while on holiday in the Middle East.  It is made from the resin of a tree and is available in three grades; for medical purposes, for cosmetics or perfume and for incense.  

Out and about

Our team did not perform well at the Quiz, where we usually hold our own.

Ate with friends at the Red Hot World Buffet, which I can’t rate highly enough.  Three courses from a menu offering Mediterranean, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Italian..... need I go on?  You can choose your dream menu and refill as often as you like!  I chose Mediterranean salads, followed by rice noodles and vegetables which were cooked in front of me and ended with a selection of Italian desserts.  For me, a vegetarian menu made in heaven!

 So that feast in addition to a 30^th Birthday Party hasn’t helped me to lose those pounds.

Writing

I am now in week 2 of the W1S1 weekly challenge which spurs me on to complete and submit my work. 

 

I recorded a couple of pieces for a local radio programme which I help plan.

Weather

We were forecast snow and it actually arrived.  Not a lot fell in our area but, for we Brits, it’s a main topic of conversation; will it, when, how much?

 And finally, check out this Facebook page for quotes by writers:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.511989498828376.128819.175634409130555&type=3

 

 I’m trying to choose one for my motivation.  Which do you prefer?

 

First footing

 

Happy New Year!

A swift look back at 2012 in no particular order

The ups:

Swam in North Sea

Completed a full year of the Write 1 Sub 1 monthly challenge leading to short stories being published.

Joined a writing group and wrote for a read some pieces on local radio.

Started Flower Arranging classes and won the trophy for best beginner out of two classes

Held a party at the coast.

A healthy new grandson

Special people treated successfully for cancer

Spent a weekend away with my sisters and an afternoon tea with many of my female cousins; ideas which had been talked about for ages.

The downs:

Lost close relatives and friends.  The downside of being blessed with a large family is that lots of celebrations are balanced with worries and losses.

I have much to be thankful for.

So what of the coming year?  While I subscribe to the Yiddish proverb which translates to “man plans, god laughs”,  I do believe in trying new things, so:

I have taken up the weekly W1S1 challenge.

I aim to complete my novel/novella

Finish those projects on my to do list.

The eat healthy, keep fit, watch weight are givens!

What would yours be?

James, from my writing group, is doing a survey and asked me my 5 best authors and 5 best books, which are not the same thing.

It wasn’t easy but this was my reply:

Authors:
Penelope Lively
Anita Shreve
Faye Kellerman
Anne Tyler
Nora Ephron

Books
The Millennium Trilogy:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl who played with Fire
The Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest
by Stieg Larsson

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

and

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

 

Reading:

Just read The Colonel and his Daughter by fellow blogger Teresa Ashby.  Great read, funny and pacy.

My next read will be by A life of two halves by my friend and ex-colleague Tom Murphy.  The title refers to the years being brought up a catholic and becoming a priest then leaving the priesthood to marry and a change career to teaching.

Watched:

Quartet.  Lovely film with great acting.  Apart from the main actors, other parts were taken by real musicians and artists.

Absolutely nothing on the TV over the holidays to mention. 

Writing:  As much as I can to keep up with the weekly challenge.

I leave you with the thought that the days are getting longer and shoots of bulbs can be seen in the garden.  Make your year a good one.