It’s the middle of August and we’re slowing down after a crazy but successful 4 months or so. I’ve even been out on my bike – twice in a week. We’re getting the hang of this wedding business. We have learned that we accumulate fatigue and now build in recovery breaks. We’re beginning to get the balance right. I suppose we’ve reached the point that all new businesses reach which is being able to say “No”. We no longer worry about enquiries drying up – which is nice for both of us.
Drought No.1
The UK is officially in a drought situation. We have experienced weeks of several days of temperatures in the mid to high 30 degrees and nobody can remember when it last rained on this once soggy isle. The emerald lawns of suburbia are a shortbread biscuit beige and just as crispy. Climate deniers are suspiciously quiet. Crops are withering where they stand. We have been warned to expect flash flooding- sometime.
Drought No.2
The ruling party in the UK have been successful in giving us the worst Prime Minister we have ever known and they are expected to out do themselves in electing his replacement. That will be our fourth PM in 7 years. The ruling party, often referred to as “the Nasty Party”, continues to target the poor, less able-bodied, and less well off in society in our Cost of Living crisis. Displaying a staggering drought of any moral empathy with the most needy amongst us they are content to see the poor suffer in the name of ideology. I can put it no more plainly than that. I am happy to be challenged.
It’s 3 years since I had anything published ( a piece of flash fiction by Fish Publishing) but I do try to keep my creative muscles flexed. I’m just rubbish at searching and time starved to find publications to submit to. Having said that, I have recently been inspired to try my hand at prose poetry and to try to get under the skin of this form. It’s a little like pinning the tail on the donkey. I love the challenge of trying to achieve the sweet spot between prose that reads like poetry but is a poem that reads like prose. I know 🤷🏼… I see an imaginary line, poetry this side, prose the other, and with a petanque boule I am trying to lob the perfect pitch to sit on the line or smack the donkey on the arse. ( Beat that for mixing your metaphors!)
So, 9.00 pm, the air is still and another day of unusual heat is coming to an end. Tux has managed to keep himself cool and will slowly come to life as the evening turns to night and cats go off and do what they do. Bats are beginning to circulate and it is serenely quiet. I love these moments at the end of a hot day. But I know I shouldn’t. This is England, after all. Lord help us if we start hearing crickets.
singlemaltmonkey 
All your rain has come to us! Prolonged rains here, the whole province is flooded.
And gosh, your lawn does look pretty crispy, Tux looks like he’s loving it 🙈
Sorry to hear that you’re having to deal with flooding. It’s pretty miserable. Some crops have fried in the fields and even though it has cooled a little still no rain to speak of. But this is England- it’ll rain soon enough.😅
Great to hear you are both well and thriving, albeit warmer than usual.
Leaving to say No in business when you are the business creator is a very hard thing
Well done to both of you.
We have removed our own “Messiah riddled” PM from office
Your wordsmithing skills have always been evident, so poetry seems a natural extension.
My skills, limited as they are, are more numbersmithing.
To get more contemplative writing in my past life, I would write reports with a still treasured Parker fountain pen.
I have recently starting collecting Vintage Flexible Fountain Pens from the 1920s to late 1930’s.
The bonus for me is I can use them for urban sketching.
If the added sensual fountain pen writing added to your creative thought process, it might be worth considering.
When time permits, in my time honoured closing…
More Please, Sir
Might be worth
Hi Mal, I hope you and Sandra are both well. Thanks for the kind words. I do use a cartridge pen sometimes which I love but not a good’ol fountain pen with squeezy lever. That sounds great. What is a “flexible” fountain pen? Your collection sounds intriguing and I bet the pens are beautiful.
Yes, I noticed that Messiah “6 jobs” Morrison had gone. Some relief, maybe. We are in a helluva mess here. God knows where it will end. We have been trying to book a long holiday in Jan/Feb but every time we open a paper the price of something has skyrocketed. Watch your news casts for news of a winter revolution. Stay well. I’ll try to step up the missives.
Hi Alan
Flexible fountain pens are an older style of nib design, dubbed semi-flex or flex, which means the nib opens at the paper contact point (which I think they call tynes?) this opening under pressure widens the width of the stroke. So with careful pressure control you can get lettering that is skinny in one part of the letter and wide in another part of the same letter.
Hence the clever/beautiful writing some people can achieve without a calligraphy or speedball nib.
Very therapeutic if you like that sort of regime. I write out my business emails, then refine them when I type them in. Our/my email is malgay@gmail.com.
I seek to buy in the 1920’s to 1930’s from what I believe to be a reputable dealer in the UK, when he isn’t in the south of France. His name is Barry and his business is Heritage Collectables which is online
Great to know you are both well.
Ciao
Malcolm & Sandra