Month: November 2018

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Ollie: A dog’s weekend away

Ollie’s holiday ;

beetleypete

As I was getting ready to leave on Saturday morning, Ollie was showing signs of interest in my preparations. He noticed that I was dressed and ready earlier than usual, and that I was packing things into bags. By the time I got around to picking up his food and water bowls, he was beside himself. Could he be going out somewhere? Was I going to leave him behind? He ran around panting, and sniffing everything I touched. And his expressive face portrayed the full range of his emotions; from excitement, to worry, and eventual desperation.

Then I picked up his large bed, and folded it to carry to the car. That was it for him. If his bed was going, then he was sure he was going too. He scampered around like a pup, displaying every possible sign of canine enthusiasm. For all he knew, he might just be…

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Guest author: Karen Hugg ~ How My Cat Died, Was Revived, and Shook My World

What a beautiful cat!!!

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Have you ever been so shaken by an experience that you had to write about it? That happened to me a year ago with my cat. She’s now fourteen-years-old but we got her as a stray in 2004. My dog Arrow had cornered her in our backyard. She was a beautiful ragdoll calico with a black patch on her nose. Arrow had bit her, but not hard, so we rushed her to the vet to try and save her. After she was stitched up, we contacted our neighbor whose garage she had been sleeping in, but the neighbor told us she didn’t want her. Meanwhile, our little stray had a warm disposition and chirpy chattiness and sweet playfulness. So, with the cyclists in the Tour de France riding up the Col de la Madeleine that day, we brought her home and named her Madeleine. We joked it was Arrow’s punishment…

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Joy, and Sadness

Welcome to the world Violet 😉 xx

beetleypete


Violet Rose. 6lbs 1oz.

It has been a good few years since we had a new baby in my maternal family. I was delighted to go and visit the latest arrival, Violet, last weekend. She was delivered by C-section, and I am pleased to report that Mum and baby are both doing really well.

The added joy of seeing the new baby was that she is named after my mother, Violet, and also my grandmother, Rose. As I have never had children, it made me feel very happy to know that my own mother’s name will live on in this new addition to our family, and I know that my Mum would have been touched beyond belief.

Then this morning, along came the sadness. Violet’s great-grandfather, and my last surviving uncle, passed away after a long illness, at the age of 87. He never got a chance to see Violet…

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Weather window

I hate the cold!!!

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

We woke, the dog and I, to a white and wintry world. A hard frost stuck the soles of my slippers to the path as I went out to retrieve the first ball of the day. I have attempted to explain, over the years, that, given both her species and her parentage… she is supposed to do the retrieving, but if the grass is cold, wet or muddy, she disagrees. She gets it half right…the setter half of her will ‘set’, freezing into the classic stance and indicating the ball’s position with every tense line of her body. It is the retrieving half she refuses to acknowledge, except for the Toller’s ‘song’ with which she is apt to communicate if I am not taking enough notice. Especially when a ball is in play.

So, in naught but dressing gown and slippers, I went out into the frozen morning to retrieve…

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…Tony McManus poses the question… Voluminous Volumes or Tiny Tomes?

Sorry about the lateness of this post. Today has passed me by…

Seumas Gallacher

…followers of this ‘ere blog will recognise my great pal, Author Tony McManus, who frequently drops by with interesting literary discussions for me to muse over… enjoy this latest epistle from the man :

IN PRAISE

OF

LEAN, MEAN THRILLERS 

Remember them? Those small, slim paperbacks your father and grandfather used to read. Novels with titles like No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Farewell, My Lovely. True page-turners they were that punched their weight and usually got the job done in less than 250 paperback pages from the pens of such writers as, James Hadley Chase, Earl Stanley Gardner, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammet, Mickey Spillane, and the one and only, Raymond Chandler. These were hard-boiled thrillers, that Americans called ‘pocketbooks’. Novels that slipped easily into the inside pocket of your jacket to be read on your journey…

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Ollie: Back on Hoe Rough

More from Pete and Ollie 😉

beetleypete


***All photos can be enlarged, by clicking on them***

For a long time now, there has been a sizable herd of cows and their calves grazing on Hoe Rough. This has meant that I have been unable to go there with Ollie, and have had to find other places to go, to extend his walks. Earlier this week, the herd was removed, so I took the camera over there this afternoon on our walk.

On the way, Beetley Meadows was finally showing some Autumn colours in the surrounding trees.

This tree has fallen into the river, and been left there by the local Nature Trust. Last week, I spotted some squirrels using it as a bridge across the river. So today, I waded into the middle, to get a photo of it. Sadly, no squirrels crossed it when I was there.

Some of the trees have already lost most or…

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my confession
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my confession

…love this…

The Lonely Author

Prayers

Last week, my dear friend G. of Short Prose challenged me with the prompt of using the word “confession.”  When you have a moment, please read her beautiful poetry and/or wonderful excerpts of her manuscript Glass Lovers.

https://shortprose.blog/2018/11/13/i-miss-you-poem-poetry/

Here is my submission…..(of course it’s about love, when isn’t it?)

my confession

.

Blessed are those
who read your poems
For I am one of those
who was baptized
in the cathedral
of your words
You rescued me
from the apocalypse
resurrected me
from the dead
Now I give you my confession
etched in stone
Adoring your poetry
is my penance
Loving you in silence
is my sin

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Food for thought…

index

It has to be said – a great number of those among you who consider yourselves to be intelligent, leave a lot to be desired! The other day I posted the following passage from a well-known book onto my Facebook page. Given that most of my followers there are writers, I expected at least one or two to react. Needless to say not one of the 337 obliged. Very disappointing!!!

So, lets see if at least one of the 945 followers of this blog reacts positively…

~~~

Guess which book this passage is taken from???

A few minutes before, there had only been three real things before me—the immensity of the night and space and nature, my own feebleness and anguish, and the near approach of death. Now it was as if something turned over, and the point of view altered abruptly. There was no sensible transition from one state of mind to the other. I was immediately the self of every day again—a decent, ordinary citizen.

😉

PS – there is a simple way for you to give me the correct answer. I know because I tried it. Before you ask me, no I’m not telling you how. Don’t let me down…

PPS – just clicking like won’t cut it!!!!