Keith's Ramblings

 

Let me read it to you!

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It is said that trees have feelings too. Tree huggers believe they feel a heatbeat whilst caressing them, so it could well be true.

In the wood there’s an old oak with two trunks. Legend claims it started out as two trees. It is said they fell in love and over the years they wrapped their branches around each other in a loving embrace. 

Eventually, their devotion for each other was such that it led them to be joined together in holy matreemony!

The mystery surrounding Miss Tree and Mister Tree’s merging continues to divide believers and non believers to this day… well, yesterday actually. We were discussing it in the pub. We always talk such nonsense after a few beers!

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Thank you Sadje for hosting What Do You See?

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Image credit; Dan Meyers @ Unsplash

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Let me whisper it to you!

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It’s quiet outside. That doesn’t mean they’ve left, one or two of them could still be skunking around. The sound of them shouting and yelling earlier is still ringing in my ears. 

I managed to sneak away when they weren’t looking. I’m in a safe room now, I’ve secured the door and I’ll stay here until I’m certain that I’m free from danger.

She was expecting me carry out a deed for her. She said if I refused, the consequences would be dire. I can’t do it, I can’t. Why me? She said it was urgent, so hopefully, in my absence, someone else will have been given the mission.

I’ve been treated like a slave for too long. It’s time I started standing up for myself, time I began…

No. Oh no. I can hear footsteps. They’re getting louder. They’re coming my way. Control yourself. Don’t be afraid. Remember you’re in the safe room. No harm can … NO!

‘Yes dear, I can hear you. 

Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ve put the seat down. 

Of course I’ve sprayed the air freshener, my love.

The supermarket? You still want me to go there, precious? 

Can’t you send one of the kids, angel?

What do you mean you’ll deny me my …… okay honeybunch, I’ll go.

Yes, pet. 

Now’.

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I hate shopping.

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© Ayr/Gray

Thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E.Ayr for hosting The Unicorn Challenge

…for Six Sentence Stories where the given word is Detail..

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Let me read it to you!

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I  planned everything to the minutist detail, fillets of finest locally bred beef bathed in vintage Bordeaux, laid in a dish on a bed of rosemary, pungent herbs and crushed spices then  left to marinate for three hours and thirty minutes.

Fresh vegetables plucked that very morning from organic beds, wild mushrooms picked at dawn, truflles sniffed out by pigs in France just hours earlier, appetizers artistically arranged on gleaming porcelain plates, and a selection of dessert dishes chilled to precisely nine degrees in the refrigerator.

My table was set with antique silver cutlery and sparkling lead crystal glasses, and a seating plan worked out to ensure that conversation would flow effortlessly.

As the guests arrived, a couple at a time, the clink of Martini glasses punctuatedthe merry chatter whist in the kitchen various parts of the meal are starting to cook in accordance with my carefully calculated timetable; the steak dish placed into the oven precisely twenty seven minutes before service, therefore allowing exactly eleven minutes resting time.

The meal commences and the first course a triumph, empty plates are cleared away and platters of steaming vegetables appear in the centre of the table, Chablis bottles make way for carafes of Chateau le Frencauce ’94 which has been breathing for exactly thirty five minutes –  and now for the beef!

I fling open the oven door, but instead of a rush of aromatic hot air there is nothing, for one essential step in the operation was missed – the oven was cold for I’d forgotten to switch it on; anyone for steak tartare?

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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting.

…for Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt.

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Someone once said ‘if they leave that car there much longer, it’ll take root!’. 

How right he was! When I popped back to visit some mates recently the old rust-bucket was sitting there as before, but with foliage and flowers sprouting from it – and before you ask, there weren’t any car-nations! 

It’s a shame it doesn’t work, because running on flower-power instead of petrol would make it the greenest machine on the road! What fumes there were, would be beautifully fragrant!

However I wouldn’t want to travel behind it, just thinking about it is bringing on my hay fever! 

Aaaachooo!

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Click a car to view others’ stories!

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For Wordless Wednesday and bloghops various.

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Today we follow in the footsteps of Michael Corleone, played in The Godfather movies by Al Pacino. Many of the scenes were filmed in the hilltop villages of Savoka and Forza d’Agro.

Click pics to enlarge and improve.

Up we go!

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To get you in the mood, here’s the theme tune!

The monument dedicated to Francis Ford Coppola

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i was surprised to find the movie playing on a TV in the church where the marriage was filmed!

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Next week, which will see my final set of pictures, we’ll visit Taormina and climb Mount Etna!

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Fellow WW folk, add your link here!

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PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

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His favourite nursery rhyme was ring a ring a roses. I can still see him holding hands with his friends and skipping round and around.

At the funfair he always headed for the roundabout then the helter skelter.  He loved playing hoop-a-duck, he was forever winning goldfishes! 

In his teens he was captain of the Rounders team and to earn some extra pocket money he got up early every morning and did a paper round. 

He was a great hula hooper too. One of his party tricks was to spin around for ages then stand still without a sign of dizziness! Someone once said he should train as  a ballet dancer, but he never did. Instead he became a lighthouse keeper.

Every evening he’d climb the circular staircase, switch on the beam of light and spend the night gazing from the revolving platform.

One night, he and his girlfriend joined us for a drink in the pub. As usual he bought the first round. He surprised us all by suddenly dropping to one knee, producing a ring from his pocket and proposing to her! She said she thought he’d never get round to it!

After they married he became a changed man. They live in a block of flats overlooking the Town Square. He  spends his days packing boxes and his evenings fiddling with a rubik cube and doing crosswords.

During the pub quiz the other night there was a question about the formula ‘pi r squared’. Needless to say, he knew it was to do with the area of a circle!

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Thanks to Sadje for hosting another week of What Do You See?

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Image credit; 12019 @ Pixabay

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I admit it, I’d had too much to drink. On the way home, I sat on a bench. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the middle of the night. My cap was on the ground, and inside were some coins! I did the decent thing and popped them into the first charity tin I found.

Speaking of incorrect assumptions, my friend Rosey bought a white broom handle from a hardware shop and couldn’t understand why people kept moving out of her way; someone even helped her across the road!

Years ago, Derek, a homeless chap, would spend the night sleeping in the doorway of that hardware shop. Often, the owner had to ask him to move when he arrived to open up.

One day, he gave Derek a job. He even let him use the upstairs flat. Years later, when he retired, he asked Derek to manage the shop. When he passed on, Derek inherited it.

Over the years, Derek’s eyesight deteriorated and eventually failed. He still runs the shop, albeit with an assistant. Ask him for the smallest thing, a bolt or a hook, and he knows exactly where to find it!

He loves singing. He’s no Andrea Bocelli but regularly entertains us at the Red Lion on karaoke night. In his younger days, he’d worked there, behind the bar. Sadly, alcohol got the better of him. He lost his job and his home.

That’s when he began sleeping in the doorway of the hardware shop.

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Photo : © Ayr/Gray

Word count 250

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Thanks to  her, Jenne Gray, and to him, C.E.Ayr for graciously hosting The Unicorn Challenge

for Six Sentence Stories where the given word is Link

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As acting jobs go, this has to be the oddest I’ve ever undertaken, I can see you looking for me, hello, I’m up here on the wall, that weird stone face!

It’s an odd role, I stand very still on a stepladder behind the set and poke my head through this hole, I remain motionless only speaking when the stage empties between scenes when I become The Narrator – that’s me on page five of your programme, see?

My makeup takes ages and it itches like crazy, I can’t have a scratch though, so I have to suffer in silent stillness; one day, I sneezed and an ear fell off, you should have heard the laughter!

I watch the audience as they smile, as they frown, when they weep, when they eat sweets, there was someone in the front row eating chocolate cake the other and it made my mouth water – I dribbled like a gargoyle!

At the end of the play, the actors link hands and bow but I can’t, so I continue to stand there stony faced until they turn, and point at me and then I smile – I even stick my tongue out sometimes!

So, another performance is over, I’ll get this muck off my face and meet you in the pub in twenty minutes – mine’s a Stones on ice by the way!

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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting.

…for Friday Fictioneers.

Seeing the steps in Rochelle’s picture took me back to piece I wrote, partly in French, many years ago. The following is a piece along similar lines, but far shorter and in English!

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I heard a voice, a soft voice.

Help me it said.

From a doorway, a girl appeared.

What do you want? I asked.

Come and you’ll see, she said.

I said, I don’t want to.

She said, you must.

She ran down the steps,

then turned and looked up at me.

Tears ran down her cheeks.

Hurry, please, she said.

I can’t keep up, I said.

Please she begged.

I’m losing you, I said.

Then she disappeared.

Where are you? I called.

Never mind she cried.

What did you want? I asked.

It’s too late she sobbed.

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I’ll never know.

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                                                  PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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                             Tickle Froggie under her chin to see what others have written.

For Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday and bloghops various.

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Today, we are in Syracuse. We start in the Archaeological Park where there are the remains of temples, tombs, caves, a Roman amphitheatre and one of the largest Greek theatres in existence.

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Click pics to enlarge and improve.

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Now we’ll head into town!

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Hungry?

It’s time to head back to the hotel!

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Next week we’ll visit the villages that featured in The Godfather!

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Fellow WWs, add your link here!

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FIVE