Maria Donovan's Blog, page 3

August – Last on the card

Berry me. Taking part in bushboy’s last on the card challenge. For fun!

For months now, I’ve been absorbed in writing and editing stories for my short story collection. At last, I think I have the right stories in the right order but there’s more to do before it’s ready ready.

Paradoxically I find no time for blog posts about writing.

I like to join in with Last on the Card because photography is a fun thing for me. Writing is fun too but it’s also work work work!

Thanks, Brian.

It’s easy to join in with bushboy’s challenge:

The rules are simple:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 31st August.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do
4. Create a Pingback to bushboy’s post (here) or link in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

This is my last photo for August – as usual, something related to nature or gardening.

Autumn raspberries are reaching their peak – enough for breakfast and some to put in the freezer.

Looking forward to seeing your photos!

July – Last on the card

Co-incidentally, my 100th published post.

Here’s the last photo I took in July. I was so taken by the sight of the waxing crescent moon from my kitchen window that I tried to photograph it. Not so easy with a smartphone!

If I hadn’t done that, the last photo would have been these homegrown summer berries. The autumn raspberries are coming in just as the spring raspberries go out. Yum. As for the redcurrants – it’s a race between me and the blackbirds. I don’t mind sharing as long as they don’t take them all! That’s probably what they say about me.

If you want to join in with Brian’s challenge these are the rules:

1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the month of July.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do [but some of us can’t help ourselves: MD]
4. Create a Pingback to bushboy’s post (find it here) or add your link there in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Often the delight is in the way your last photo can give you a surprise. Not for me this time!

I always enjoy this challenge for its random, eclectic and forgiving nature. Thank you, Brian.

June – Last on the card

Bushboy Brian’s continuing (hurrah!) challenge: post the last image on your phone or camera for June. No editing required. I love this one because it’s easy for anyone to join in, you meet such nice people, and somehow that last photo you took is always a surprise!

If you want to join in with Brian’s challenge just post your last photo for the month of June, however random it might be, and link to the post here on bushboys world.

The rules:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the month of June.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do [but some of us can’t help ourselves]
4. Create a Pingback to bushboy’s post (find it here) or add your link there in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Here’s mine

All I wanted to do with this photo was record my pleasure in finding out that andjive has these lovely flowers if you let it bolt. My hope is that it will self seed and germinate enough little plants to survive the slug attack.

I’ve had some success in letting Swiss chard go to seed and now it pops up everywhere. It’s providing seeds for the sparrows right now too. I have learned to steel myself to be so ‘untidy’ among neighbouring gardens that are kept neat but the rewards have been great. I really hope it will work with andjive.

My Dutch husband loves this leafy green as the signature ingredient in stamppot andijvie. A stamppot is mashed potatoes combined in one pot with other vegetables. It’s usual to add crispy blocks of bacon but if you’re veggie or vegan you can leave that out. The shredded andijvie isn’t cooked separately but goes in at the end to wilt in the lovely hot mash. Traditionally served with smoked sausage for a complete meal and I like to make gravy with the cooking water and some herbs. Ooh. It’s a warming winter treat and our aim is to have plenty of this great vegetable. But the slugs love it too! Hence the attempt to let it spread by itself.

In English it’s probably called Endive, and might be eaten as a salad vegetable but it doesn’t seem to be very well known round here in this part of the UK. The botanical name is Cichorium endivia, which might help you find it if you want to try growing this lovely green.

Thanks, Brian, for continuing to host this challenge. It was so lovely to see all the support last month when you had a little dip. We all have those and it’s good that you could share it and find out how much we value joining in with this one.

And if you have a go at the recipe (also good with kale etc) then: ‘Eet smakelijk!’

A Solstice to remember

A baker’s dozen of local photos from the March Equinox to the June Solstice 2022

These photos are all taken with a mile or two of each other so the span is not great, geographically, but they remind me of how quickly things change from the cool promise of spring to the beginning of true summer (in the Northern Hemisphere).

A walk on the day of the March Equinox between bare trees.

It’s a miracle to me that I managed to grow violets in the front garden.

Nine star broccoli germinating on the windowsill in March.

15 April – almost-bare trees back to back

18 April – harvested one good spring cabbage. The only one to develop a heart!

April was so warm and dry here. By 15 May these were the last of the bluebells.

19 May – biggest radish ever! Nothing nearly so successful after this.

19 May – poor Robin, bemused after an attack that left him bald on top.

4 June – these street-side poppies took me by surprise. Sorry about the double yellows.

6 June – East Beach at West Bay. A reminder that I live a mile from the sea!

15 June – a welcome handful of spring raspberries and the same every day.

21 June – Mr Blackbird at the allotment, hopping in to fill his beak.

21 June – harvested garlic. Here are just a few of the Usual Suspects!

Have you been home or away in these last few months?
Growing your own?
We’ve done less walking in nature and spent more time working the allotment but after all it is a kind of Shangri-la, so peaceful and everybody doing their own thing without bothering anyone else. It’s a lot of effort sometimes for a little reward and makes me appreciate more than ever all the people who grow our food.

Wishing you well for the coming months whatever the season!

Jubilee – Last on the card

Late for Brian’s challenge but here is my offering for the end of May. Does it look like anywhere you know? The featured image is a (very big) clue.

If you want to join in with Brian’s challenge just post your last photo for the month of May, however random it might be, and link to the post here on bushboys world.

The rules:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the month of May.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do [but some of us can’t help ourselves]
4. Create a Pingback to bushboy’s post (find it here) or add your link there in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Here’s mine

I’d love people to guess where it is because I feel it could look like a lot of places. Please let me know if it triggers anything for you.

For this one, we were in a very high place, and I got out of the car only briefly and zoomed with my mobile phone trying to capture some of that breath of wilderness there is sometimes about a sweep of scrubby coastal countryside. But even though it was the end of May the wind was bitter cold and I didn’t hang about to even attempt a second photo.

If you want to know where it actually is the featured image (penultimate on the card) is a big clue.

Thanks, Brian! I love this challenge because it’s so open to everyone.

Final PuN

Where is Napoleon’s tongue? Am I anything like my character, Marjorie Campbell? Bringing you more great artwork and a final round of questions about ‘Pumping Up Napoleon’ from students in South Korea studying dystopian science fiction.

Blessings upon you for joining me here for the last time to see what the marvellous young students from South Korea wanted to know about my short story ‘Pumping Up Napoleon’. At 21 years and counting it’s older than they are! I love their questions and their artwork inspired by their wider reading and hope you will too. Can you tell which books they have been studying?

Thanks again to all the students from the Chung Dahm Institute, and especially to their teacher Richie Madewell for making it all possible.

First today is Liam.

Why did you make Napoleon without his tongue in the whole story, do you have any reasons?

Liam

Dear Liam – what a good question. The short answer is: no tongue = no talking.

The slightly longer answer is that sometimes writing a story can be a bit of a puzzle. In early drafts I tried out a ‘voice’ for Napoleon. It was hard to get that right because it needs to sound like him, but in a modern English-speaking version. I also worried that he would dominate every conversation.

Then it dawned on me that I could solve this quite easily in a way that would fit the story: a missing body part is a reminder of his gruesome reality and a missing tongue in particular contributes to the comic possibilities for someone who is hired to speak to students.

Are you similar to Marjorie? If so, how so?

Bum Soo

Hello Bum Soo. Thank you for your question. I am not exactly like Marjorie but we have a few things in common and I found it easy to imagine being her. She and I were about the same age at the time and both worked at a university in Wales.

One of the things I gave her, and made fun of, was the way I used to feel awkward and clumsy when I fell in love. She discovers, as I did, that idealising someone without getting to know them means there is a good chance they will not live up to your expectations.

I am concerned about what is going to happen to Napoleon and so is she, and she is also worried how his presence is going to affect her personal freedom, just as I would be.

I also gifted her the knowledge of encountering a portrait of Prince Rupert, as I did when I was fifteen or sixteen, in the National Portrait Gallery on a trip to London. I was impressed by the way he could look out of the painting and make what felt like a real connection with me. It was so odd that I kept going back for another look. That strange feeling stuck with me for years and years until I was able to give it a place in Marjorie’s story.

Why did people bring Napoleon back to life despite that Napoleon could ignite controversy, protests, and cause harm?

Aiden

Dear Aiden. I think they did it because they could and because they felt there would be glory in it for themselves, and fame. Possibly also they did it to attract attention and funding for further research and less high-profile resurrections. They also felt they could keep control of him with the threat of withholding further treatments. The story does not intend to say it was a good idea – but it is an interesting one, to me anyway.

Do you think a perfect yet unreal love (like Marjorie’s) or a real yet imperfect and breakable one is better?

Julie

Yes, Julie, that is a good question and it’s the very one that Marjorie is left asking herself. The first kind of love has served her very well for many years and she is feeling some regret that her ‘perfect’ love for Napoleon is no longer an option once he appears in person. At the same time it is both thrilling and sad to have met him.

I feel that an idealised love means emotional distance: it’s rather quiet, and easy to keep under control, and so everything can remain in harmony. But to me it also seems rather lonely.

My answer these days would be that I prefer something real, even if it is flawed, because it is wonderful to love and be loved in return.

In the story, Napoleon gets back to life by science, but becomes all worn-out, and miserable. Then I heard from my teacher that you like nature. So I came to think that maybe you designed the story to emphasize how preserving nature is important. Because making Napoleon live artificially didn’t work out well. And I thought maybe you were criticizing scientific acts like experimenting with animals. Is my guess close to what you intended to point out?

Narim

Dear Narim

Yes, I feel that it is important to give nature room to be what it needs to be – to look after it, or at least to do no harm. I feel that humans tend to put their own interests first and yet all creatures matter and so does everything in nature. We’re all interconnected.

And yes, I certainly intended to question the ethics of allowing an animal to suffer in order to do something to prolong human life beyond its natural span. It is amazing what people can do – but should they do it just because they can?

Which factor or intention took a bigger portion of the story? Dystopian or Comedy?

Rex

A difficult one to answer, Rex, because I feel it is very hard to separate them into what is more or less or more important as they are meant to balance each other. I know that I wanted both elements right from the start.

If there had to make a choice I would say the dystopian element is unmissable. I could have written a story with no comedy at all but it would have been a different kind of story.

If I had to put a label on it, I would call it comic dystopian fiction, rather than dystopian comic fiction.

The last image and I don’t know if it is by Bob or Anonymous and haven’t found a question it links to. If I got that wrong, apologies! I love the picture anyway. ‘Everything is beautiful and nothing hurt’.

Finally, I want to wish the students all the best. I hope you enjoy your present and your future. I’m really glad you read my story! And to Richie, thanks again.

And you, dear Reader. Are you a fan of dystopian science fiction?

What has stuck in your mind as a classic?

Did you spot any of your favourites reflected in the students’ artwork?

The previous two posts in this series can be found (part 1) here and (part 2) here

‘Pumping Up Napoleon’ appears in the collection of the same name published by Seren and is also available to read as an standalone story at East of the Web

More PuN in South Korea

More questions about ‘Pumping up Napoleon ‘ from the lovely students in South Korea. Once again all the illustrations are original creations, inspired by their reading of dystopian science fiction.

In my last post I shared part of a Q&A with students studying English at the Chung Dahm Institute (CDI). Thanks again to their teacher Richie Madewell for the invitation!

‘Pumping Up Napoleon’ appears in the collection of the same name published by Seren and is also available to read as an standalone story at East of the Web

On with the questions … The first is from Irene N.

Unlike other love stories which end up with happy endings – men and women become much closer, the book ends up with Napoleon and Marjorie getting farther than before. Are there any reasons that you wrote a story like this?

Irene N

Hello, Irene N

I thought it was difficult to write a truly happy ending given the circumstances. There is some tenderness and a kind of understanding between Napoleon and Marjorie but they don’t know whether they will be able to build a future together and that makes them both feel alone with their own feelings at this point. And yet they are trying to bridge the gap between them. I think that is important.

In the quote “Lying down, he didn’t seem as short. With the blinds lowered his skin didn’t look so grey. His body cavities were as clean and odour-free as they had been for two hundred years. But his new nose was beginning to decay and even the students had started to complain about the smell it caused in the classroom”, I think you are arguing that it is not helpful for us to correct the past.

Zoey

Hi Zoey

Correcting the past in reality is very difficult. We had better think about what we are doing in the present. Soon that too will be the past.

People in the story make different comments about Napoleon. So I was just curious, what are your thoughts on the historical figure Napoleon?

Andrew

Thanks for your question, Andrew. If I had been living in England two hundred years ago, I would have been afraid of him, and defiant, because he had taken over most of Europe and there was always the threat of him attacking my country. Even when I was growing up I was aware of a kind of folk memory of Napoleon as someone feared, but also admired for his brilliance and audacity.

With the distance of time I find him slightly comical, which is probably a way of counterbalancing how I feel about his aggression and ambition.

He was an enormously important figure in his day and he has left a long shadow. I feel drawn to him because of his self-belief and his openness to new ideas. I regret the many people who died or suffered hardship because of him.

I think I am still in awe of his reputation as one man who affected the lives of millions for many years even to this day.

I thought that it was very creative to think of the concept of scientific resurrection of a historical figure. By this, I think you intended to show how a historical figure can be evaluated differently when people only understand him just by his historical achievements and when people meet him face to face after his resurrection. Or did you have any other intention?

Irene O

Hello Irene O …

Yes, I decided to make Napoleon appear ‘in real life’, with the help of medical science, because I wanted to see how people would react to him once he was no longer a distant historical figure but someone with thoughts and feelings in the here and now. The people around him know him by reputation but suddenly they have to deal with him as a person.

Napoleon’s historical achievements were truly awesome, but his presence is disruptive. I found it enjoyable to imagine him in a modern context among people who really prefer a quiet life.

Before reading this story, I believed that resurrection usually shows a positive thing, but I think in this story it might symbolize a negative thing, so I’m curious what resurrection symbolizes in this story.

Ella

Hi Ella

I think that the incompleteness of Napoleon’s resurrection in this story indicates how difficult it is to hold everything intact amidst the chaos of the universe. Also that decay is natural and part of the cycle of life.

Resurrection goes wrong in my story because it is an odd experiment by humans to push the boundaries of what can be done rather than something spiritual. Even so, the characters strive to make some sense of what is happening to them.

At the beginning of the story, Marjorie explained that she was quite guilty about ending the crush with Rupert, but later thought that something was uncomfortable, and the crush is over. Which means the crush through a dead person is over. Also, in chapter 7, Marjorie said “He is technically dead”, “he” meaning Napoleon. Are these two scenes foreshadowing that her love toward Napoleon, who is still a dead person, will fade out as she did to Rupert?

Maya

Hello Maya

You’re right that these things show how Marjorie could behave in future.

If Napoleon had not appeared in her real life I think it is likely that Marjorie would have fallen out of love with him after a while and moved on to someone else. But that would have been easy because she would not have had to let him down in any way or hurt his feelings.

The trouble is that he exists now and her life is taking on a new shape because of this relationship. She isn’t sure that she really loves him and yet, she doesn’t want to let him down. She’s feeling such a big sense of obligation to him that it’s partly a defence to remind everyone and herself that he is ‘technically dead’. I think she is searching for the freedom to choose what she wants to do.

I think Napoleon represents loneliness. He finds new parts of his body but he will end up being ripped and die. Also, people try to fill up their loneliness through many other things like money. However, people can’t get rid of their loneliness. Is this right?

Emma

Hello Emma

Yes, Napoleon is lonely, being so isolated and different to everyone else around him, and because it is hard to be slowly falling apart. Through his contact with Marjorie he is searching for some kind of human comfort. Marjorie is lonely too, because she can’t share with anyone what she really thinks and feels. I have left the two of them at at point where they are just starting to acknowledge that their dreams will not come true, so that is sad for them and they both feel alone despite wanting a feeling of togetherness.

Whether the two of them will come to an understanding, I don’t know, but it is possible and then I think that although they might still be sad they would not always be lonely.

Next week will be the final instalment of this Q&A: more great questions; more great pictures. Meanwhile thanks again to all the students for their artwork and their interest.

And if anyone has another question or comment please add it below!

PUN: Questions from South Korea

My short story ‘Pumping up Napoleon’, now 21 years old, gave a little kick of life recently, with some interest from young students in South Korea. This is the first of three posts in which I try to answer their questions about a story written before they were born.

Out of the blue came a query from enthusiastic teacher Richie Madewell, asking if I would be willing to participate in this Q&A. His students are aged 10-14 and are studying English through the medium of literature. This semester it’s dystopian science fiction. Richie wrote: “We’ve already read Slaughterhouse-Five, Fahrenheit 451, and Paris, at Night. After ‘Pumping up Napoleon’ we’ll dive into Brave New World and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

My short story in that company of novels? I felt very honoured. And though there was the slight difficulty of forming definitive answers to questions I’d left open so many years ago, I felt grateful to be alive to give it a try.

Briefly: in my story, Napoleon has been resurrected and is working as a history lecturer at a small Welsh university. Unfortunately the techniques for keeping him intact are costly and controversial. It all becomes a problem for Marjorie Campbell, who fell in love with Napoleon when he was still an unreachable historical figure.

I don’t put many stories online but ‘Pumping Up Napoleon’ is available and can be read in full at East of the Web.

Many thanks to Richie and the students for agreeing to let me turn the Q&A, which they have already received, into a blog post (or three) and for letting me have their original artwork inspired by their current reading of dystopian science fiction. See if you can spot which illustration goes with which story!

What was the purpose of writing this story? What message are you trying to tell us?

Ahjin

Good question, Ahijn

I wanted to write a story that was entertaining as well as thought-provoking and to explore ideas that interested me. That was one purpose. But I feel you want to know something else – what is the story for?

On the one hand, the story aims to make some observations about the dysfunctionality of being human and what it means to be in love. One message you might take is that human contact is important but can be demanding as well as rewarding.

On the other hand, the story is also about bringing a famous person back to life and I believe I wanted to leave the reader with some questions to ponder, such as, how do we come to terms with the cycle of life and death? Do all living creatures have an equal right to existence?

On another day I might have answered this in a different way. You can cram quite a lot into a short story.

As far as I saw this kind of sci-fi story, it was mostly dark if it was a dystopia, but your story is kind of like a comedy. Are there any special reasons?

Rachel

Hi Rachel,

That is an interesting one for me to think about.

The main thing I remember is that the comic parts were always integral to the story, and that it all happened in quite a natural way.

Perhaps it helps me to make fun of things that worry me. I like the way the comedy offsets the bleakness of the story. Comedy can bring a welcome release of tension.

I think the comedy helps to create the surreal effect needed for a story like this, which involves making ludicrous things seem possible.

I am sure too that I was drawn to comedy as a way of getting the reader to engage with some difficult themes.

I thought that one of the themes in the story is ‘Controversy between human and animal rights’ because it mentioned mice used to revive Napoleon. Am I right?

Emily

Well spotted, Emily! Yes – it bothers me that we use animals to serve our human needs, beyond the basics for survival. I can understand why some people feel that it is wrong to exploit animals at all – because where does one draw the line? In this case Napoleon’s existence is in jeopardy but his needs are the result of interference in the natural order, and far from basic.

Always putting human wishes first seems to have caused an imbalance in nature. I feel it would be a good principle to respect the needs of all living things. But I also know that we will sometimes sacrifice our principles if it means saving an individual person or creature we care about, whether that is a man or a mouse.

Incidentally, did you know that there is a famous photo of a mouse with an ear growing on its back from the 1990s?

Does Napoleon love Marjorie?

Billy

Dear Billy,

I think if we were to ask Napoleon he would say that it is too soon to know.

I am glad that you wondered about it though, so I will try to give an answer.

Napoleon is drawn to Marjorie and he needs her more and more. Yet at the end he declares that he can’t feel any real passion. I feel that he, like Marjorie, wants to be in love, but he doesn’t quite recognise it in this new and quieter form.

I think that Napoleon is in love with Marjorie. He has feelings for her, even though he doesn’t understand them fully yet. But the story could leave you thinking he’s too selfish to truly love anyone else. So it might not be such a great thing for Marjorie if she gets what she has wished for.

Why did you choose Napoleon to be the main character? Why didn’t you choose a different historically famous person?

Hye

Thanks for getting me to wonder about this again, Hye.

I’m fairly sure that Napoleon just presented himself to my mind, as he would have done to the people in the story, who decide he should be resurrected.

There are a few reasons I can give why I chose him:

I knew his body had been embalmed so it still ‘existed’.

Even two hundred years after his death, Napoleon is still famous – and so I felt he could appear and I wouldn’t have to explain a lot about him and who he was.

He was a powerful and fascinating character in his own life, and he lends some of his allure to my story.

I also liked finding out more about him, particularly things that gave me insights into the man behind the reputation.

He was such a great force that I could imagine his energy somehow surviving beyond its natural span, so that helped too.

Napoleon was once greatly feared and revered. He used to be in command of an Empire, so I thought it would be interesting to transplant him to a modern-day situation, where he is expected to obey petty norms.

Also, I find something comical about him, and tragic too, because of his great fall. Those things appealed to me and suited my story.

So, there were a lot of reasons but the main thing is that once he appeared to me as an important character in a story I couldn’t get rid of him again until the story was finished.

How can you get such interesting ideas? Like where did you get the ideas for reviving Napoleon?

Olivia

Writers will say that ideas are everywhere and this is true, but I remember starting out and being unsure what I wanted to write about or how. I have found that the more I write the more receptive I am to ideas and the more my creative brain feels allowed to be playful and imagine things too.

I might find an idea comes through a feeling or it might be triggered through something I have heard or read about. You can write about what you know and you can write about things you research because you are interested in them. I think it helps to be observant, to say ‘what if?’and to like making connections.

Now interesting ideas are always throwing themselves at me. If I was joking I would say, the secret is to know when to catch them and when to duck, but in fact, I tend to write them all down in case I run out of new ideas.

An idea can hang around for a very long time before it evolves into a story.

Sometimes it really helps to be given a starting point. For instance, ‘Pumping up Napoleon’ was written in response to a call from Mslexia magazine for pieces of ‘faction’: a blend of fact and fiction. They wanted us to bring a historical personage into a story. So then it was a question of deciding which person and how, and what the story was really about. Bringing Napoleon back to life as an experiment tied in with my interests in history, and in medical research and because I liked the idea of such an extraordinary person having to live in mundane reality.

Once my interest in writing the story was awakened I was ready for the ideas to come to me. Things can work themselves out in our subconscious too but it helps to be involved with your subject and interested because that gives the subconscious something to feed on.

When the ideas came to me I recognised them as something I could use because I already knew I wanted them and what I could do with them.

Sometimes the simplest question is hard to answer!

But Chekov said it more succinctly: when someone asked him how he found his stories, he explained his method by picking up an ashtray and saying, ‘Tomorrow, I will write a story about an ashtray’.

It seems to be a mixture of dreaming, making space for ideas to come and practical hard work!

Why does Marjorie start to question her feelings for Napoleon?

Callie

Hello Callie,

Marjorie used to be in love with an idealised version of Napoleon but once he appears in her life he can never be perfect and so she recognises that her old way of feeling about him won’t be a good basis for a future together.

If the story is about loving a person as they are rather than worshipping an ideal, she wants to know what it is like to be with him, and wonders if she can love him as he is now.

That’s all for now: Richie’s students seem to be in three groups so I thought I’d split the post up too as it will be very long all in one go.

Hope to see you next time, and meanwhile if you have any questions or comments, please let me know!

Pumping Up Napoleon is also the title story of a collection of the same name, available from the publisher, Seren, and all the usual places. Not all the stories are dystopian science fiction, though most of them are on the weird side in some way.

Once again, many thanks to Richie Madewell and his students at Chung Dahm Institute (CDI) in South Korea.

Last on the card – a bean in April!

Post the last photo you took in April – the latest round of the monthly challenge from bushboy.

These are Brian’s simple rules:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the month of April.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do
4. Create a Pingback to bushboy’s post (find it here) or add your link there in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Here’s mine

Broad beans plants on the allotment – sown in the autumn, ground treated with nematodes against slugs, plants covered up with mesh against black fly, protected from frost with extra fleece, fleece removed, caught by late frost, mesh removed in the hope of better pollination, weeded and watered: results so far. Attempting to grow veg gives me an ever greater respect for people who do this for a living!

Words and Washi

In ‘Quilt’, an exhibition appearing at the University of South Wales, two-hundred-year-old letters written on Washi – Japanese paper – are layered into works of art. We were asked to send our own brief words to appear alongside.

The artist Matthew Fasone is from New York and lives in Japan. He creates art that speaks of the passage of time, using found and collected materials. In his solo exhibition, Quilt, individual pieces of Washi are joined into large sheets. To me the writing in characters is mysterious and beautiful, while here and there I recognise an image of a plant. The paper seems to have some of the qualities of cloth in its strength and the way it falls, yet it has also been changed by time: individual pages, grubby and worn at the edges, make the work seem fragile. Some of these letters are two hundred years old.

What is Washi? I found out a few things, mainly from Washi Arts: ‘Wa means ‘Japanese’ and ‘shi’ means ‘paper’; traditionally it is hand-made using plant fibres, to give a very strong and flexible paper, which can last a thousand years; the knowledge of making paper came from China but by 800 AD Japan’s mastery was ‘unrivalled’.

For hundreds of years, many families were involved in its production. Today, a dwindling number remain. Nowadays a lot of ‘Washi’ is made using industrial methods and has very different properties. It might not even be produced in Japan as it is cheaper to manufacture elsewhere. The only ‘Washi’ I could find on sale in the UK was a kind of craft paper and some ‘Washi’ tape, which looks like some fairly ordinary masking tape with some nice patterns and colours.

I bought this from Etsy but it was made in the People’s Republic of China.

What do I know of Japanese aesthetics? This article on Medium helped me. I already knew something about ‘wabi sabi’ – ‘beauty in imperfection’. The greatest attraction is not the peak of perfection but when something has entered a stage of decay and decline. I thought how the feeling of sadness about change and time passing can be alleviated by an appreciation of the marks of time. This might be the loveliness of a flower with drooping petals, or the aging of the papers that make up the artworks in Quilt. I see there, too, evocation of the hands that made these marks in ink so long ago.

It didn’t take me ages to decide that, for once, I had already written the best thing I could offer. Some time back when things were in domestic turmoil and there was no space to sit and think, I used to write a haiku in my head when I went out. It made me notice things and helped me enjoy the time I had away from building works. The town I live in is small and old: a friend who has studied these things tells me that many of the houses are Tudor, with a Georgian front. I find the rooftops fascinating and like to look for signs of the town’s history and see how nature reacts with all that is human-made.

I know that in modern haiku people don’t feel they have to stick to the 5 7 5 syllable ‘rules’ because the form doesn’t necessarily translate that well from the Japanese and because you can be a bit more free, but for me the only way to do it was to stick to something standard. It helped me to have a strict form to work to and no other choice – because everything else was so chaotic. I could feel the rhythm too, as I walked.

In a sense, I re-found this poem, written some time ago and that seemed to fit the aesthetic too. I gave it a title. Though I thought about sending more than one piece I decided not to do so and to let this small thing have all the space around it.

This is the one I sent to be part of the exhibition.

Look up

moss furs an old roof
grass weeping from the gutter
over the High Street

Soon we heard that the arrival of the artwork for ‘Quilt’ had been delayed by the war in Ukraine. Matthew Fasone had to retrieve his work from the Japanese Postal Service and redirect it via a commercial shipping service so that it could make its way to Wales. The exhibition is now up and running. ‘Quilt’ and the words we have sent to keep it company will be in place until 2 June 2022. It’s all free to visit at Oriel y Bont in Trefforest.

There is no pamphlet of our collected words this time, but our offerings now hang in the gallery alongside Matthew’s artworks. Whereas he takes existing words on paper and layers and rotates the pages in such a way as to make it hard for anyone to read what is written there, our poems, our words, are in hard neat type on white paper, ‘the right way up’ and meant to be read as well as seen.

I want to thank Barrie Llewelyn for asking, once again, if we would engage, for co-ordinating everything, and for taking photos of the exhibition.

I don’t have a list of contributors to offer this time but please make yourself known in a comment and share any links you have to your work.

This exhibition also marks the end of Chris Nurse’s time as curator – time to thank him for these opportunities and wish him well for the future as he concentrates on his own art practice.

And many thanks to Matthew Fasone for sharing ‘Quilt’. I have felt comforted by an acceptance of the imperfection of things, including myself and my work, and grateful to feel there is beauty as well as sadness in a sense of time passing.

*Every time, the call to respond to works of art exhibited in this space has put a spoke through the wheels of my wordy creative process and sent me off in a new direction, asking questions that I would not otherwise have thought of. I am very grateful for that too.

Who knows if we will be asked to do it again?