Issue 434 22nd April 2016

We are informed Rising Brook Library will NOT be re-opening on Monday 25th April due to building work Rising Brook Writers’ Monday Workshop will be returning at a future date as yet tba.

FLASH FICTION: cream, tongue-twister, kettle, lonely, ruse, toilet,

trousers, kilt, fence, wall, relegation, avoid (150 words)

Assignment: drinking water or 90yrs (400 words)

A warm welcome awaits. COME to WORKSHOP ... Temp home: Rising Brook Baptist Church Cafe

Workshops same time 1.30 Monday.

Here’s a jolly

wheeze ... F.F.F.

Fast Flash Fiction:

Write a story in

SIX words ...

Observation:

The more I hear and

read about the EU

referendum, the more

confused I get!

Observation: ROCK v HARD PLACE. The

EU referendum camps seem to be drawn

politically that the far right wing want to

leave so they can ride roughshod over work-

ers rights and the left wing want to stay so

they can try to reform corruption and

inefficiency from within the EU ...

Observation:

EU Referendum ...

Why is nobody talk-

ing about EU farming

subsidies?

We need to hear some

agricultural impact

statistics ...

If our farmers loose

EU money our food

prices will go up.

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Heritage: Going . . . Going . . . GONE! They‟ve ceased discussing History, in the red-brick university. The Bard‟s „To be or not to be?‟ too non-PC apparently. If bearded undergraduate, don‟t hear of every past mistake, and lessons learn and errors make, burning midnight oil when eyes do ache, so canst appreciate verily true from tawdry fake. The board of sage Dons from on high determined in wisdom: „But Why Oh Why?‟ Leaving dusty tomes sleeping long years to lie unopened! Fragile heritage for sure will slowly die! No more Henry! No more Bess! Forgotten Cromwell and all his mess. Cousin Mary‟s gone too and all head-less But, I never liked her anyway! Must confess! SMS 2009

MONDAY 18th April 2016 Facebook

Call yourself a writer?

Going anywhere this year?

Got a camera and a notepad?

How about trying to write a warts and all travel blog?

Do you walk round with

your eyes open?

What have you observed?

Would you recommend where you went? If so why, or

perhaps, why not?

Nigel’s Home-baked Lemon Cake

Ingredients

Cake: 6oz/175g Butter 6oz/175g Caster sugar

3 eggs beaten

6oz/175g self-raising flour (sieved, this makes the cake lighter.)

Grated rind (zest) of 2 lemons

Syrup

4oz/115g Caster sugar

Juice of 2 lemons

2lb/900g loaf tin lined with baking parchment Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan oven/Gas 4

Beat the butter and sugar together, I used a food processor, until light and fluffy.

Gradually beat in the eggs. Again I used a food processor slowly adding the beaten eggs. (This helps to prevent the mix curdling.) Carefully fold in the flour (sieved) and lemon rind (zest).

Put the mixture into the lined loaf tin. Bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours testing with a skewer after 1¼ hours which come out clean when the cake is

cooked. The cake should be golden, well risen and set in the centre. Remove the cake from the oven but leave in the tin. To make the syrup, gently heat the sugar and lemon juice until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 15 sec-

onds. Poke a few holes in the cake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cake in the tin and leave to cool.

Bridges: Assignment To cross a bridge is to change merely by crossing from one side to another. A bridge spans an obstacle be it mental or physical. Think. How often have you crossed a bridge? Coming to this workshop you may have crossed roads, railways, rivers and canals. If those bridges were not there would you have come? When we travel bridges are a part of our lives; some bridges are beautiful like the Clifton Suspension Bridge or the Ribble Viaduct. Many are simple spans across a road or plain and practical but ancient like Tarr Steps on Exmoor. In the past to travel more than a few miles was unusual. However, even then some people travelled many miles as pilgrims, some for penance, to be cured of an illness, to give thanks for being cured or on a spiritual quest. The pilgrimage routes’ bridges were maintained by monks of the Frère Pontiffs. We take bridges for granted but count how many bridges you cross in a week. How often have you crossed a mental or spiritual bridge, overcoming a barrier in your life and being changed by the experience? Saying ‘no’ to the school bully, saying ‘yes’ to an adventure.

Tarr steps

Clifton Suspension Bridge Bristol

Bridge

Where is that bridge

Where has it gone?

It’s become a ridge

I’m sure it had one

I’ll ask that cow

That cow over there

Are you sure it’s a cow

Looks more like a bear

That merciful sheep

He took the plunge

Other sheep did weep

As bear it did lunge

That poor tiny sheep

Was eaten by bear

Some sheep fell in a heap

But that bear didn’t care

Some munched contently

Next to the stream

Some coincidently

Though it was a dream

Another did inquire

About bridge that had gone

Apparently it caught fire

One night and it shone

Now the sheep stranded

Trapped upon one side

It may sound underhanded

Barr one, all died

photo courtesy of Keith O'Brien

Random Words Exercise

They played spotty dog Local football substitute

Who replaced vicious frog After causing big dispute

Frog however did wallow

Drinking lemonade so fizzy He found it hard to swallow

As he‟d gotten in a tizzy

Dog was football leader Leader of the pack He‟d go off to the feeder

To get an extra snack

He then played a beauty To the striker deer

Dog took a call of duty That deer what a dear

Dog passed to deer

Played a cataclysmic shot? The goal shook with fear It‟s netting glowing hot

Frog now had heartache That he‟d been sent off

Nibbling on crumbling flake That triggered of a cough

He wasn‟t very happy

With manners being rude Found himself so snappy And cursing very crude

Then a tiny duck fan of his

Handed etiquette football book Said this should do the biz So frog indulged to look

The un-bridge football finder Football match what a blinder Book signed by book binder Frog slurping on some cider

EDITOR COMMENT: What are we? Some might say we are the sum of the collec-tion of our memories ... RBW did many years of memory collecting and recording oral social history ... Possibly, a bit too much and we were overloaded by funders who always seemed to want that bit more from our volunteer recorders for that bit less funding and always with so many strings attached you could have used them for knitting. The upshot was we stopped doing community outreach workshops. This also meant we stopped doing memories work in group workshop: now as we all know many people start writing in retirement hoping to produce a record of their life or that of their family history and become over faced by the emotion of it all. Having given this some thought we are going to begin again doing some mem-ory work in a small way. The first memory topic is: memories of primary school. To give some idea of what kind of memories we were collecting, here is one of my personal favourites from the RBW 2010 memories book about holidays : “Oh we did like to be beside the seaside!”

C M Hewitt: Rising Brook Writers For many years my family holidayed in Blackpool. Things were different back then. Not hotels or guest houses, they were far too posh and expensive for us. The 'class system' limited what you could do so the 'working class' just had boarding houses. Unlike hotels, where you could stay in all day, you left after break-fast and didn‟t go back until teatime, about 5.30 pm, when you had your dinner. You took your own meat ration with you; it was just the vegetables that the landlady supplied. The beach, made famous by Mr Holloway‟s monologue, was a long walk for me. It must have been about a mile to the front but, once there, you could dig forever. Alongside burying dad, building motor boats and sand castles on a daily basis took up most of the time. Walks on one of the piers looking at the shops was always interesting because I wondered why they sold all those odd things. My proper dinnertime, I didn't eat much and that worried Mum to death, was something like a small part of the packet of sandwiches or

fish and chips Mum or Dad had, or, for a treat, we went to the Woolworth‟s cafe. This was on the third floor of the, now long defunct, Woolworth's sea-front shop; and those stairs were a tough climb for a skeletal youngster of questionable health. I did like visiting the Pleasure Beach to have a go on those rides it was thought „suitable‟ for a child of my age to go on and just walking around it was fun. The excitement seemed to be in the air and you could catch it in your hands. The Ice Rink, on the few times we went in, was always cold and I did not like that! My fascination with the trams has stayed with me from that time. It was a marvel to be riding on them: I‟d have stayed on a tram all day if I could, clanging along from Star Gate to Fleetwood was, and still is, a magic carpet ride!

Random words: manners, beauty, wallow, leader, umbrage, heartache, deer, dog, lemonade,

cataclysm, substitute, book binder

Henry was trying not to wallow in self-pity, but he had never been lucky in love. However, his new

flame was Sadie and she was a real beauty, with breeding and impeccable manners, so how could

he have told her he was a humble bookbinder by trade, who lived with his mum, drank lemonade

and whose hobby was stamp collecting? Well obviously he couldn‟t, so he built for himself an

imaginary life style which was far more appealing to a prospective girlfriend. Henry told her he was

an airline pilot, in fact an ex RAF squadron leader, who spent his weekends enjoying country pur-

suits with his faithful dog, a deerhound called Watson. And Sadie was well-impressed! They ar-

ranged a date. That‟s when it all started to unwind. Sadie asked him to come in his pilot gear.

“I just love a man in uniform!” she gushed.

“It‟s at the cleaners”, Henry told her, but knew it wouldn‟t wash.

He scoured the local fancy dress shops for a suitable substitute, but the best they had was a

pantomime dame or superman. Henry could sense the cataclysm that was about to befall him, for

he knew that Sadie would take umbrage when she learnt the truth, and that the heartache for him

was about to begin all over again.

Assignment:

Bridges

If, like me you wear glasses, You need ways to keep them in place.

Things to stop them slipping off your nose And help them stay on your face.

Two ears are really quite useful And the bridge of your nose is just right

For keeping your spectacles where they should be, And thus helping improve your sight.

Pam Ayres once penned a poem

Called “I wish I‟d looked after me teeth.” And when you visit the dentist He‟ll check „em above and beneath.

He might suggest a few fillings,

Crown or implant is just what you need. An extraction or bridge or tooth whitening, Or treatment for gums that recede.

Of course there are other bridges

Which no doubt other folk will describe. But teeth and glasses are what sprang to mind

To this particular scribe.

Lots of Wind and Wet.

Ever trying to grow more types of different and “interesting,” fruit at home and now

vegetables in my allotment, I decided to buy one of those enormous cloches that have

been on sale all winter. At one metre in height at the peak they can only be called a

cloche, but at two metres long and a metre wide they are not what you would nor-

mally think of as a cloche, but more like a mini greenhouse. The idea was that such a

cloche would give a real boost to one of the more exotic and delicate vegetables that I

was trying to grow. My Sweet Potato “Slips,” that had been ordered some weeks be-

fore arrived and I managed to get a good deal on a giant cloche. Erection was rela-

tively simple, even for someone who had never mastered “Mechano,” as a child, and

the ground was dug and watered underneath. Access was a little awkward through the

large zipped, top and side that unzipped as one piece. Pleased with the cloche I care-

fully placed house bricks all round to hold the cover down firmly having seen similar,

smaller ones blow away the previous year. The plants settled in and looked good.

Then one day, after about only 2 weeks, in a bit of a hurry, I was a little careless with

the zip and broke it. High winds were expected the next day, so in pouring rain, I

bundled up the cover and took it home with the intention of replacing the 1 metre

long zip with “Velcro,” tape. That hasn’t been done as a stupid fall sprained my fin-

gers making it impossible for me to sew such a heavy material. Maybe it was not

such a good buy after all, but I still think the idea was sound. Things like sweet Pota-

toes definitely would like the warmer, sheltered growing conditions that my giant

cloche would have given them.

With the problems that my bean canes had on the windy site last year, I took a

lot more care putting them up this time and I also put them up a few weeks before the

beans were to be planted. This gave the trenches and the deeply dug loose soil

around, more time to settle down and firm up a little to make the canes just that little

bit more secure before the beans grew too much and put up too much resistance

against them for the wind.

Using 6 foot canes for my Sweet Peas was perhaps a bit of “over kill,” but on

our very windy site, it meant that the canes could go in deep. Everyone thought that

the Sweet Peas wouldn’t grow at all in the persistent wind, but they are now flower-

ing quite happily and full of scent. The old Chrysanthemums stools, saved from last

year, seem to be standing up to the wind as well, but I am tying them in regularly to

canes. Globe Artichokes are something else that is not recommended for a windy site,

so I thought I was being silly putting some expensive plants in, but while talking to

another plot holder, she proudly showed me her magnificent plants that had been put

in last year and that were full of fantastic “Heads, or Globes”.

Not only have we had a lot of wind to contend with, but at times, a lot of wet as

well. Bark chips seem to be keeping the slugs off my strawberries and stopping them

from rotting on the ground, although to be honest the soil is so free draining I don’t

really think that would be a problem anyway. The chips do help to stop the soil

splashing onto them in the rain though. I am blaming the heavy rains for causing the

loss of almost all of my early sowing of Dwarf beans, but I may just have been too

early for the cold weather at the time of sowing. My later sowing of Soya beans came

up very quickly after only a few days from sowing and a re-sowing of the

Dwarf beans came through quickly as well, so perhaps it isn’t always a

case of the earlier the better. Sometimes the tortoise wins the day - as long

as he doesn’t come on my allotment because we have had just about every

other animal!

“ALL THAT JAZZ”

Text edit now underway

POETRY LIBRARY UPDATE: Latest Competitions: Dylan's Great Poem | Closing Date: 05-May-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1908 Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competi-tion | Closing Date: 31-May-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1907 SPM Publications Poetry Book Competition 2016 | Closing Date: 30-Jun-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1911 The Battered Moons Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 30-Jun-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1913 PENfro Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 31-Jul-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1905

Latest News: The 2016 Keats-Shelley winners for poetry | 14-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1496 Items added to the Poetry Library in March 2016 | 13-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/library/?id=1495 Griffin Poetry Prize 2016 - shortlist announced | 13-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1494 Arvon launches new writers' retreat | 12-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1493 National Poetry Competition winner announced | 11-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1492 The Ted Hughes Award for 2015 winner an-nounced | 11-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1489 Saboteur Awards open for nominations | 07-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1488 Poetry Magazines Received in March 2016 | 07-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/library/?id=1487 Callum Macdonald Memorial Award | 05-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1486

Events MUCH WENLOCK: Wenlock Poetry Festival | 22-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/events/readings/?id=12086 MUCH WENLOCK, SHROPSHIRE: Wenlock Poetry Festival | 22-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/events/poetryappreciation/?id=12093 MUCH WENLOCK: Foyle Young Poets at Wenlock | 24-Apr-16 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/events/readings/?id=12339

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