A stroll in the countryside (by alaric)

On Sunday, I was looking after Jean as Sarah was in Cheltenham to run a writing workshop thing.

So I suggested that we might go for a walk, and Jean liked the idea - however, she decided she wanted a LONG walk! So after some discussion, we set off for the furthest of the three pubs in the Parish, which is about three miles away, with a packed lunch and lots of water, and Jean's teddy bear, who she decided should come with us.

To my delight, Jean didn't tire and demand to come home; we made frequent stops to drink water, and sat down in some shade in the woods to eat our cheese and biscuits, but we pressed on cheerily, past some lambs:

Eventually we reached the Fostons Ash for some lemonade and crisps.

Then Sarah rang as she was on the bus home, which stopped off by the Royal William, the pub nearest our home - so we decided to walk straight there to meet Sarah, taking a different route, where we got a little closer to some of the lambs:

At the Royal William we ate a filling dinner of chips (not so unhealthy if you've been walking all day!), and came home.

Jean was still enthusiastic at the end, despite having now walked about six miles from 2pm to 8pm!

The best thing was, I recorded about two hours of it on my concealed camera. It's mainly shaky footage of bushes and sky, but it offers the context for the audio track, which records all the awesome conversations Jean and I had.

Recording Poetry (by sarah)

Tuesday I went into Cheltenham to record poetry 🙂 Cheltenham's Arter Dark magazine videoed me and three others doing a variety of poetry and prose (our own work). It will be appearing on their site in a couple of weeks 🙂

Harry Potter is Jesus (by sarah)

(Because I got told off here is an added Spoiler warning - I do mention the end of book four and the whole Harry Potter series)

As some of you know and disapprove of! I am reading Jean the Harry Potter books, we are on book four which I had some trepidation about reading to her due to the ending but she is really into the story. I try and pace it so that we start the reading session with a scary/intense bit and end in a low key moment (so not generally at chapter endings!).

It was getting to the bit where Cedric dies and though there is a death at the beginning of the book this is the first one of someone you are emotionally attatched too/and or Harry is. So I thought I'd make things clear to Jean, 'Jean we are getting to the really sad and scary bit now, worse than the giant snake, we can change to another book?'

'No Mummy I've seen this one on telly.'

'Oh yes you have haven't you? But Jean I think the Harry Potter story gets very scary now.'

'It's ok Mummy because Harry is going to die and come back to life again because he's Jesus.'

I stare and think - how did she know the ending of the series - I ask her.

'I saw it in a film in my head when I slept.'

'Oh ok'

The I thought about it and you know she's right - Harry dies sacrificially to save the other wizards, because he chooses to die to save them his sacrifice protects them and he rises from the dead!

Story wise Jean didn't react to the scene where Diggory dies but this turned out to be because the discription ment she missed the fact he was killed and it was only when they go back to Hogwarts and Harry is cuddling the dead body that Jean went wide eyed and sad.

She still wants the rest of the story :/

Bee Guardians (by sarah)

My friends are looking for Bee Guardians to help with the disappearing honey bees - here is their website.

May’s Challenges (by sarah)

Well for April I managed the poem challenge NaPoWriMo but failed at Scriptfrenzy as basically I didn't know what I was doing - sigh. But though I was a bit sad about my Comic book script I have learnt alot and have the beginnings of something. Next year I would have my storyboard ready and waiting rather than spending the month working on that before starting the script (apparently I'm doing this bit the wrong way round anyway but I can't write the script without the storyboard - I know I tried!).

Anyway May starts off with NaPiBoWriWee which for those of you who hate the acronymes is National Picture Book Writing Week - the challenge is to write seven picture books in seven days. This sounds scarier than writing a novel in a month to me personally but there you go!

I'm going to use the story ideas from PiBoIdMo and write the stories to go with them. I will be keeping track of this project on Orange Monster.

Of course this is only going to take up the first week of May so what else am I going to do? Well I have designated May my FiPoMo (and yes I have just made this up!) which stands for Finish Project Month. It's all very well me doing these writing challenges but if I never polish them afterwards and do something with them they are so much dross.

I have a big extensive list - most of which I wont get round to but the top priority is the Monster game followed by some book editing and publishing!