Rachel Sunshine

September 13, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Tell me a favourite memory from your travels,” my golden-haired nurse asked me as she scoured my bruised arms for an accessible vein. I’d blown another IV and options were limited. Rachel Sunshine I called her, this wisp of a young woman who, at first hospital-glazed glance, glowed a with a yellow aura. So I […]

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #112: Take Care

September 7, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

Make sure you have lists for us when we come, my daughter messages me. Checklists with a gong to hit every time we complete a task, my son-in-law adds. We have no shortages of lists, in fact, every day or so, we are rewriting our lists: things to do, things to buy… Nowhere in those […]

Not Everything is “Stuff”

September 6, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

An apology, dear readers, if this week’s challenge came across as glib. By “stuff“, I was referring to the incidental: a broken foot, a set of stitches, a temporary setback. In no way did I intend to imply that trauma or loss is “stuff”. Some things, with a bit of grit, can be overcome. I […]

Domesticated

September 5, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The swans in nearby Stratford, are domesticated for the purpose of creating ambiance – replicating the original Stratford on Avon. Dug into my archives for this photo of a man with his two feathered pets. (For Bird Weekly challenge: domesticated birds.)

Pink!

September 4, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Pink petuniassuspended from white porch rail –gift to passerby. (For Cee’s FOTD)

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #111: stuff happens

August 31, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

“Just hang in till after the move,” I kept pleading with my body. Unrealistic in hindsight. Six o’clock, the morning before the move, I wake Ric with a request to drive me to the hospital. Turns out you can’t just pack chronic illness in a box and unpack it when convenient. While they pumped fluids […]

Eau de Fresh Paint

August 30, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

It’s day three at the new abode and I’m sipping my first home brewed cup of tea while sunlight streams through the uncovered windowpanes. Body has put the brakes on, so its a good day to catch up on all things social media. Lovely to see the sun; it has been overcast and stormy up […]

The Everyday

August 26, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

(For Lens-Artists Photo challenge: everyday objects)

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #110 – smell

August 24, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

“How long do you boil the corn?” “I don’t know.” “What do you mean, you don’t know?” “It’s done when it smells right.” This is why I can never replicate a recipe. I literally follow my nose. What is your relationship to smell? (Don’t tell me you didn’t know this was coming, lol.) Look forward […]

Currently an Eyesore

August 23, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

The boxes are piling up here. At the new house, the painters have been working diligently. Two rooms are completed and currently all the kitchen doors are off and strewn across scaffolding. The remaining walls are speckled with repair patches. Both houses are a sight. I try to close my eyes for sleep but the […]

Dear Child

I know a little girl,whose hair in ringletsfalls, unkempt from lackof brushing; who standswhen she should be sitting;who laughs with defiance whenchallenged, her dark eyes gleamingwith mischief; who holds her chin uphigh and stamps her feet, arms foldedin protest when she does not get her way. I see that little girl,have watched her play,with a […]

Re-de-fine-d

Ask me how I’m doingand I’ll say “fine”, notbecause I’m actually fine,but because “fine” is the onlysocially acceptable response. If I said that I have been lyinghere, for three hours now,willing my body to move,that would elicit unsolicitedadvice and tarnish my “fine”. I’d berate myself for breakingmy promise not to moan,knowing that complainingprovokes a compulsive […]