To celebrate Chelsea Flower Show week I will post garden pictures every day, to save me bothering to write any blogs while I am busy enviously watching the show every evening on television.
Window or Mirror?
Even my beach hut has a garden?
A look back… I got a bit carried away during Covid lockdown when I discovered the local garden centre was doing deliveries, but you had to order a minimum amount… Visitors could only chat in the front garden.
Will you be watching Chelsea? Does your garden match up to the ones at flower shows?
Who would have imagined that the evil tendrils of international tyrants would have wound their way into the heart of my family and the Bournemouth Writing Festival? My sister in Australia had planned her latest two month holiday to encompass various cultural delights including the fourth Bournemouth Writing Festival. Her flights were booked well ahead. There is so much to do over the three days of the festival it is hard to focus. Last year this had resulted in a friend and I only making it to the free poetry on the bandstand. So this year we needed to plan properly and book well ahead. After much shortlisting and Facetime consultation I had booked six events at the festival.
Shortly before her departure WW3 erupted in the middle east, airports closed, governments issued warnings to their travellers. My sister was traveling in comfort to visit all her English relatives, not to have an adventure. Her favourite airline Emirates was due to leave Perth, stop in Dubai and onwards to Gatwick. Suggestions by some that she could fly over the North Pole were not appealing. When Emirates announced full refunds available, she cancelled her holiday.
The spare tickets were happily taken up by others in my writers group, though by this time I had forgotten what I had booked and why we had chosen them. A sunny weekend made it very pleasant to wander through the gardens between the various venues. Everything was taking place in Bournemouth town centre so easy for everyone to walk, cycle, skate, paddleboard, come by bus or train. Car parks are expensive and stressful from my non-driver observation so to be avoided if you can.
There was a real buzz about the festival and a buzz in town. Festival team members wore bright yellow T-shirts so it was easy to ask for help and they greeted everyone enthusiastically. I can only give my humble impressions with so much happening. But we have always been impressed with how well organised and supported the festival has been right from its inception. If you want to meet other writers of all ages this is the place to be. You could be on the go from the moment you got up till bedtime with breakfast, lunch and dinner meet ups at local eateries. In between talks and workshops you can chat and look around.
In the Pavilion you could buy books written by the speakers, while at Bobby’s any author can book a table ( well in advance I gather ) to sell their books. There were interesting and colourful characters from far and wide.
There were two workshops I particularly enjoyed.
‘Stop your Plot Deflating like a Sad Balloon’ with Helen Comerford
If you run out of ideas or have writers’ block just spend five minutes writing a list of What Ifs, as silly as you like. We did this and then wrote our favourite on post it notes which we stuck all around the room and read what ideas others had come up with. We then wrote a plot for our What Ifs. I wrote ‘What if you go to a writing festival and realise you have all been taken captive.’ Some of us read out plots out.
Adrienne Dines’ workshop on creating conflict had the tag line ‘How to make it bad, make it worse then make it personal.’ She gave us an opener, chap walking home from the pub late one night and comes across a road accident… and we all had to offer make it worse contributions… ‘he knows the victim in the crash’ soon became a whole complicated family story!
Next year’s festival is already being planned, last weekend in April again. Other events go on all year round so writers can continue to meet up.
This is a genuine walk, get off the bus, down towards the sea, turn right and walk all the way down the road. On the way can you spot one of the venues for the Bournemouth Writing Festival and the burial place of Mary Shelley? I did have fun photographing everything I saw.
Here is my bus on the worst road surface ever, a real bone shaker stretch.
Where were we in the last blog and where are we going now?
Bobby’s was one of the venues for the fourth Bournemouth Writing Festival. Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the last weekend in April. There was so much going on and a real buzz about town.
Off to one of the other venues…
Inside, a theatre and two studios with events and talks.
There were events at half a dozen venues all near each other and you could also do Writing on the Beach and go to a poetry marquee on Horseshoe Common. Look out for my next blog for my impressions of the festival.
If you have been wondering what did happen to the missing capybara, she is still on the run. This unauthorised picture shows a capybara family who are not related and live at a different wildlife park, but you will know what you are looking for if you do spot her.
Not lost, but found was a genuine axolotl . It is only found in South America, but somehow ended up under a bridge in Wales and was found by a ten year old girl who loves wildlife. Picture may not be accurate representation of the rescued axolotl.
When you suspect that the environmentally friendly GREEN car you were sold may have been a scam.
A lot has been happening in the world since I took my blogging break… find out more in tonight’s story...
The boss stared at the television screen in horror as a familiar face loomed into view and an all too familiar voice began to spout words.
‘We have the biggest rockets and we are going to blast the moon out of its orbit, blast it to pieces if necessary to stop those Chinese claiming ownership or IRan blockading our moonlight.
Our four brave astronauts, thanks to me, are taking off today, further into space than ever before, further into space than planned. I have authorised them to keep going till they get to Mars and claim it for our great country and rename it in my honour…’
‘Darling, wakey wakey, Darling WAKE UP aren’t you supposed to be going to the base, isn’t Artemis taking off today?’
‘Oh my God, what time is it? I just had the most dreadful dream… I must get to the base before he puts a jinx on the whole operation.’
Amid calls for NASA to take over running the USA with their calm, dignified efficiency, viewers are tuning in to a new live broadcast on News 24 to fill the vacuum left since the astronauts returned safely to earth.
At 47, Acacia Avenue, Surbiton the Smith family are preparing for the challenge of another boring day in suburbia.
‘Clive, what is the weather report and how will this affect the Smiths?’
‘Temperature warm for April, but showers expected later. However, there is a strong breeze which would make it worthwhile to hang the washing out on the line.’
‘We are going over to Sally who is observing the back garden, where Alfie the Caverpoo is investigating behind the garden shed.’
‘Yes this could be significant as there have been reports of foxes. But more importantly the back door is opening… yes, Mrs Smith is coming out with a basket full of washing, setting it down on the patio, looking up at the sky doubtfully. She is returning indoors, this is not looking good… Oh it’s okay, she has come out with a peg bucket. We do know wooden pegs are being used, having been found the most effective and environmentally friendly method of hanging up the washing. Now she is looking up at the sky again, a large black cloud has appeared, this is the sort of dilemma faced with English weather.’
‘Yes Sally, the Met Office has confirmed rain is sweeping in from the west and we hand over to our kitchen correspondent Claire who can confirm Mrs Smith has brought the washing back into the kitchen.’
‘Mrs Smith is putting the washing into the tumble drier, clearly distressed at the change of mission plan. It may be a surprise to some viewers, that like many English homes, the washing machine and tumble drier are in the kitchen, the Smith’s home has no utility room. At this point we should ask Mike, our reporter on environmental issues, what impact it will have, the use of electricity to dry the washing instead of wind and solar power.’
‘Yes this is bad news…’
‘If you are just joining us, after a long stressful day we await to see if all the Smith family get home safely for their dinner. Mr Smith is cooking this evening. John, how common is it for husbands to do the cooking?’
‘More common than you might think. We understand that Mr Smith works an early shift so Mrs Smith has a busy morning getting the children ready for school, tidying up after breakfast, taking them to school on her way to her job for 9.30 am. Mr Smith is responsible for collecting them from school and Mrs Smith is expected home any moment, hopefully before the children get too hungry. Sam is outside in Acacia Avenue awaiting her return.’
‘Yes John I can see her red car coming round the corner and this is the hard part where she must make a sharp turn onto the narrow driveway and line up to plug in her electric car to charge overnight.’
‘After a few tense moments the family are sitting at the table and Mr Smith is removing and switching off all electronic devices.’
Any viewers rejoining us I can report that the dishwasher was successfully loaded after dinner and our couple are now making preparations for bed. If we can get the camera in closer to the dishwasher, yes a red light is showing the cycle has finished. At this stage it is important to… good, Mrs Smith has opened the door and left it ajar, this ensures optimum drying conditions in the dishwasher. Meanwhile her husband has ventured out to the back garden to fetch Alfie the dog in and has now locked the back door. I can confirm the back door has been safely locked.
Rejoin us at six am tomorrow to see if the family have made it safely through the night.
Times and Tides of a Beachwriter 