Maria Donovan's Blog, page 5

Last on the card – September

Once again it’s time for Bushboy’s ‘Last on the Card’ challenge. What is the last photo you took in September? As usual I enjoyed the surprise! Forgetting has its charms, after all.

The rules are simple:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 30th September
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 or add your link in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Et voilà!

A closing down of tabs

The September Equinox finds me in the blessed space between stories. Warning: this post contains a photo of a spider.

A wasp spider? Probably. Hanging between things? Certainly

There’s a little time to enjoy doing practical things: clearing out the shed, unpacking a box (I moved seven years ago) and closing down some of the tabs I’ve left open on my browser ‘in case I need them’.

Here are just a few of the things I have looked up since the June solstice. See if you can guess which of them might have been needed for a story. Links are in bold.

Plus some photos from walks in the area.

When you can’t see the hills for the mist

The history of the swede

What is the word for swede in Swedish? Hint: it helps if you ask the online translation for ‘Swedish turnip’ otherwise you will get Svensk when you want ummm … kålrot ???

How to recognise and control understeer

Primitive net making from carving your needle to weaving your net

How to make nettle string

Decoding the death certificate

How long will dead animals smell for?

And finally, Time and date of the September equinox. Here is it the autumnal equinox: for Southern Hemisphere friends, Spring is on the way. The exact date and time if you live on the Greenwich Meridian is 22 September 2021 at 20.21 BST. Neat numbers.

The above whatnot is extracted from my diary: ‘June Solstice to September Equinox 2021’. I used to have one diary for the year but as it became too big and slow to load I split it into seasons.

Tomorrow begins a new diary, a new phase.

Merry Equinox!

Oh Glorious September! On Stonebarrow looking West

An accidental photo

I had no idea what my last photo for August would be: the one with the pumpkin bigger than my head? A rowan tree in distress – blossoming at the same time as it’s fruiting? No: it’s this accidental photo.

All my good intentions to write a blog post about writing came to nothing as I was too busy writing to write about it. So, here I am again with Bushboy’s challenge: to show the last photo taken in August.

I think you can tell I am sticking to the rule that it is unedited.

If you wish to take part in Bushboy’s challenge, the rules are simple (in his own words):
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 his post (read here) or link in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Here are some almost last photos:

Never eat anything bigger than your own head?

The rowan: white flowers, red berries.

On the cusp again.

If you decide to take part in this challenge please let me know!

Last Photo for July

The challenge (thanks, Brian) is to show the last photo on your SD card or phone for July – unedited and with no comment. See Bushboy’s post for all the details.

Here’s mine.

Stop reading now if you like but I am curious to know who recognises this flower, commonly seen right now in wild places in the South of England. The clue is that the plant is one of the ingredients in a traditional soft drink.

Let me know in the comments and if you’re not sure come back for the answer!

You could also look the flower up for yourself in the very useful app from Plant net.

Read my lips

An extract from The Chicken Soup Murder, read by me on Youtube. See me looking both owlish and like my mother, which is quite funny as I am channelling the voice and views of a ten-year-old boy.

Click here to see the video for part 1 of the launch of the magazine Indelible: Issue 5 Food and Nurture. My five minutes are right near the start.

Here’s the menu of contributors to the online event.

Writers of fiction and non fiction, poets and artists were all involved in this one lovely magazine, which appears thanks to our editor, Roula-Maria Dibb.

The cover for this issue features the work of Jolanda Stokkermans, an amazing rendering of Girl with a Pearl Earring in food art form.

Jolanda is a graphic designer who decided to make her plated meals into works of art. Her work is a bit hit on Instagram and elsewhere. Puts our faces made with fruit in porridge in their proper place (our tums).

How would you feel about eating Jolanda’s work of art?

Last Photo for June

The challenge from Bushboy is to show the last photo on your SD card or phone for June – with no comment.

For me the no comment part is hard!

Another suggestion from Bushboy is to link to Nancy Merrill’s challenge for this week, which is to post one or two or three unedited photos.

Thanks to Jude and her blog Cornwall in Colours for pointing me to Bushboy’s challenge last month. There are many challenges out there. This might be one I can manage, though I didn’t remember to make sure my last shot for June was a great photo! The point is the forgetting and the rediscovering, I think.

Indelible: ‘Food and Nurture’

‘The day before the murder, George Bull tried to poison me with a cheese sandwich.’

It was a treat to be asked to contribute something to Indelible magazine: Issue 5, which is all about ‘Food and Nurture’. My offering is an extract from the beginning of my novel The Chicken Soup Murder.

The launch events for the magazine are taking place on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 of June 2021. Art and Prose followed by Poetry. The magazine will be available to view online from Saturday.

This issue includes a feature by poet Ruth Padel, and is a feast of writing (fiction, non fiction and poetry) art and photography, with a topping introduction by our editor Roula-Maria Dibb.

Hopefully, plenty there for people to enjoy. If you have time please come along to the launch events. I’ll be reading for about five minutes on Saturday 26 June. The events begin at 3pm BST/10am EST/6pm Dubai. I’m on London time: I find it handy to remind myself what o’clock it will be in the time zone where I live.

Here’s the full menu!

The launch is free to attend on Zoom and the link to register is available here and via social media.

Hope to see you there as we all dip in and share something new.

The Last Photo – a challenge

The challenge is to post, unedited, the last photo on your SD card or phone for May. My photos are mainly of nature but this one is packaged!

I have never cooked Quinoa – so after weighing the amount I took a photo of the instructions.

I’m breaking the rules already by talking about the photo as the challenge – set by Brian aka Bushboy, which came to me via Jude from Cornwall in Colours (read the post for further details – was to post the last photo on your SD card or phone, unedited, without explanation.

Jude says she often breaks the rules so I hope it’s OK to break a few more.

The quinoa was after all quite tasty and I liked the element of crunch.

Good luck with your photos! Please do a pingback (put a link in your post somewhere) if you take up the challenge. You are bound to have something more beautiful than this!

The long and the short

Lately, I have been writing a story. It’s the kind that takes a long time to make short.

Two strong characters each want their version of the story to be heard. I listened to both, and wrote about them, and decided to show one side – but you will understand that there’s a competing point of view.

I’ve been getting to work right after an early walk. But since I can’t share the story here (if you want to read it, please let me know) here are some photos, all taken in May, showing the same hill: in detail, in far-ranging views and from two sides.

Burgeoning: but the ash trees are very late; there’s one not quite out yet on the giant’s upper lip.

Bluebells in the woodland and along paths have been a sight to behold all month.

From the top of the hill facing west – a view towards Colmer’s over cow parsley.

From the top facing south – sometimes the sea is hidden by mist, sometimes it jumps out with an unexpected shade of blue.

The hill from the far side. Bridport is hidden behind it.

Back up the hill and into the woods.

I can’t share the birdsong (or the smells of damp earth, nettles and badger) but we listen out and sometimes see one of our favourites: like the greenfinch. This is what the sound of a greenfinch looks like, courtesy of the wonderful BirdNET app. You can hear it and see it on this YouTube link.

Was it the correct species? Yes – we saw it. And so we did our bit for citizen science.

Dandelion seed head glistening in the rain.

Ferns unfurl and make me think of walking sticks, shepherd’s crooks and seahorses.

Guelder rose is just coming into full flower. But the elder is way behind. This time last year, we were drinking elderflower tea.

In mid-May the beech leaves on the shady side seemed so light and fresh, like butterfly wings too soft yet for flight.

There was a beautiful bank of primroses and violets – no photo of that for May as someone strimmed most of it. Disappointing. But they will probably recover. And there are other lovely things, like this branch of May blossom.

Not pretty but useful: some of us have had our second vaccine and are starting to feel a little less anxious about C19, though perhaps not ready to push through crowds of people.

Now May be out, the blossom and the month. It’s time to cast a clout but perhaps not to cast off all caution.

Enjoy the end of May!

Friday Poem – ‘On Allt yr Esgair’ by Christopher Meredith

Cardiff Poetry Festival is ON and so easy to visit online via Zoom with many free events. Here’s a sample from Chris Meredith’s new collection ‘Still’. On Sunday 12pm BST he’s launching this and a novel, ‘Please’. Please wave to me if you’re there!

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘On Allt yr Esgair’ by Christopher Meredith from his newly published poetry collection Still. In a unique publishing event, Still is published simultaneously with Christopher’s tragicomic short novel Please. Both are available on our website now. Christopher Meredith’s new poetry collection Still, uses the title word as a fulcrum to […]

Friday Poem – ‘On Allt yr Esgair’ by Christopher Meredith