Issue 437 13th May 2016

Rising Brook Library Closure

Rising Brook Writers’ Monday Workshop is

still taking place in the RBBC Community Cafe.

Remedial building works are delaying the library take over by

Rising Brook Baptist Church voluntary team.

FLASH FICTION: oats, bran-flakes, tray, television, frame, cup, con-

templation, photosynthesis, safe, mantle, right/rite, gin, religious,

development

Assignment: Ranting

A warm welcome awaits. COME to WORKSHOP ... Temp. home: Rising Brook Baptist Church Cafe

Workshops same time 1.30 Monday.

www.issuu.com/risingbrookwriters

All That Jazz! The RBW workshop comedy for 2016 is now online as a free e-book. www.issuu.com/risingbrookwriters www.risingbrookwriters.org.uk/DynamicPage.aspx?PageID=15 and on RBW Facebook page where it is free to like and share

Voting is taking place at the next workshop on the theme for the next comedy: options were ...

Pirates/1065/French Revolution/Roman Britain

The themes which gained the most votes in round one were, Romans (the Bluddschotts building the Watling Street), or Pirates, (Yo ho ho, me hearties)

We have decided to make some submission changes, to make it easier and fairer: There will be a pool of stock characters as usual. Contributors will be restricted to three exclusive characters of their own making per plot strand. Contributors must not use any other contributor’s exclusive characters. Contributors must have a plotline approved before starting. Contributors may only submit 500 words per week. Block submissions will not be accepted. It is important to other writers to be able to hear storylines unfolding week by week. The page limit of the book aims to be 150 pages. The house font is Tahoma 12pt - no bold, no italics, no coloured inks, no centred headings, ‘ for speech not “ , no underlining, no attachments, all submissions in ragged-right-edge embedded email, all submissions to be spelled checked and grammar checked prior to submission. One space only after a full stop. All contributors should acquaint themselves how to punctu-ate dialogue. A Buddy system, where a beginner may be asking the advice of a more experienced contributor prior to submission, is to be encouraged. NB: Steep learning curve: taking part is a challenge, many published authors would run a mile before attempting something this difficult.

Success With Fig Trees

The Winter before last we had lots of die back on the big Fig at home and the fol-

lowing season we had no figs at all, but there seems to be plenty of young figs de-

veloping this year. According to the record kept in an old diary, we normally pick

our first ripe figs in the middle of August, but one or two are starting to turn already

and we are still only in July. They do say that Figs need lots of water while the fruit

are growing, so we are hopeful that it will do well this year after all the rain! It is

certainly replacing many of the frost damaged branches from the other year, so re-

cently I thought about pruning out the dead and perhaps shaping it up a little. The

worst of the dead had been pruned out last year, but I had been afraid to cut the

branches back too far until they had had a chance to re-sprout.

Experts say that you should normally prune Apples and Pears in the Winter months

while the trees are dormant, but some fruit such as Plums, Peaches and Cherries

should be done now, in mid Summer, to prevent Silver Leaf. So, after cutting back

some of the excessive growth on my Plum tree I decided to attack the big Fig tree

as well, expecting the cut branches to bleed, but found that although the thin, young

growth bled profusely, the thicker branches didn‟t. Hopefully, the cuts will heal

over before the Winter as it is still growing vigorously. Interestingly, the “Die-

back,” seemed to go back to a “Joint” as the branches are almost segmented like a

Bamboo.

Figs have a sloppy growing habit with branches appearing anywhere and every-

where on the trunk, so some time ago I had piled rough compost around the base to

encourage the lowest branches to root and I had pegged others down into the

ground. When I scraped the compost away, I could see that some of the stems had

started to root, but being a bit over enthusiastic, whilst trimming the rest of the tree,

I cut the lot off and potted some of the better ones. Then I spread the soil over the

ground to act as a mulch even though you are not supposed to feed figs because it

causes the tree to produce lots of leaf growth and little, or no fruit. However, I

needed too raise the surrounding soil level to fill the gap under the fence where the

ground had sunk over the years because it is a relatively new house with made up

garden around it.

After pruning I trimmed 15 cuttings to a couple of feet in length and pushed them

deeply into a patch in my allotment that is in partial shade where the soil is well

drained and almost sandy. As is advisable with many types of cuttings, I cut much

of the soft growth off and all the leaves, to reduce the stress on the cuttings. Years

ago, when I first tried rooting Fig cuttings, I got over a 50% success rate simply by

pushing them in a dry spot in the garden and leaving them over winter.

It is always a good idea to give young Figs a bit of Winter protection for the first

couple of years until their stems thicken out and normally at home, I either wrap

my young exotic fruit trees up in fleece, or take their pots into the greenhouse. This

year, however, I have decided to use my giant cloche to cover the cuttings on the

Allotment as it will not be used for anything else during the Winter. And after the

apparent success of plunging the pots of many of my very young fruit trees, into the ground on

my allotment, I have decided I am going to “plunge,” one or two more Figs from home, along

with a couple of small Olive trees, in the extra space in my cloche, over the coming Winter.

It won‟t give them as much warmth as a cold greenhouse, but should give them a more stable

temperature and not encourage them into growth too early in the spring. Plunging the trees into

the soil will mean that the 3 foot height of the cloche will not include the 12 inches or more of

the large pots that they are in, so I should be able to put plants in that would otherwise seem to

big.

A few years ago we would only ever see the “Brown Turkey,” Fig variety and then one day we

chanced upon “Ice Crystal.” Now we have 8 different varieties at home that are all supposed to

be hardy, although being small they will benefit from the Winter protection of the cloche.

Unlike fruit such as Apples, many Figs have different shaped and sized leaves and are sup-

posed to have different coloured and sized fruits as well, but I have yet to find out as most

were only bought in the last 12 months and they are still too small to fruit.

My Fig collection is growing and I already have a number of small rooted cuttings

growing on. The trouble is I keep giving them away when people ask if have any

young plants to spare, but I still dream of building up the numbers and starting the

first U.K. Fig Orchard!

Random words: drone, door, pot, sorry, doorway, saucepan, difficult, chisel

Chas‟s marriage was very difficult; in fact he was sorry he had ever asked Jules to marry him.

She‟d turned into a real nag. She‟d drone on for hours about how much time he spent with his

mates, and how little he spent with his family. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! What

about the hours she spent with that old battle-axe of a mother of hers, or all those night classes

she went to, studying for her exams? That didn‟t seem to count. Well, he‟s had enough!

He‟d been in the shed, rummaging in his toolbox, because she wanted a job done in the

house. The kitchen door was open. He looked at her, stirring a saucepan on the stove and hot an-

ger rose in his chest. She looked up and saw him in the doorway… and felt the chisel plunge into

her ribs.

“I‟ve finished your job!” Chas told her, in a voice as cold as ice. (PMW)

I need to get going, Lift these bones out of this chair. Instead of just sitting Pretending I don't care. I must find that old duster Give those shelves a wipe To tackle those huge cobwebs Will need a mighty swipe Everywhere I look, Shouts! 'Tidy me please!' I wasn't built for cleaning, Dusting makes me sneeze. I'd rather sit and read a book or write a line or two. Flicking yellow duster, Is something I don't do!

Before breakfast: Sandown IoW 2012

Watery dawn, nacre on the roof ridges,

sneaks with shards of mandarin, across dark sand.

White cliffs, wearing streaks of magenta, waiting, silent, rebuffing all comers.

Find damp seat, cover with newspaper. Spindrift pillows, floats across salt-blackened groynes,

No gulls cry. A lonely black-headed bird circles.

Wait by reeds. Any time now.

Caged, alpha male, Snoopy, stirs. Bellows his lungs to announce the day.

Sniffs the air for prey. Lion king, despite circumstances.

Window panes tremble. Dew glisters on mown grass.

Sands sigh their secrets, and porridge boils and

bacon sizzles in all the B&Bs along the front.

Welcome to Thursday. Going home tomorrow.

Meadow Pipit

Beautiful bird is perched

Perched upon the post This bird I researched

So now I need too boast

Called the meadow pipit

It’s a small passerine bird Not related to any tit

Tweets are cute if heard

Breeds in north of Europe Asia, Russia and France Not necessarily tour up

And uses its beak as lance

Located in open habitats Such as pasture and bogs

It avoids ferocious cats Frequently seen on logs

Similar to red-throated pipit Design more heavily streaked

But I must have to admit Poem it’s now peaked

Photo courtesy of Keith O'Brien

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out across lovely meadow lit by sunlight shady shadow wind blows meadow grass as alas fair maiden lass dances among buttercup that are all bounded up into meadow maiden went wrote by meadow near Gwent across the meadow we go to the style within grass flow grass is up to our knees as pollen makes me sneeze achoo, achoo, god bless you now the meadow full of dew we then climbed the stile where we sat for a while with picnic hamper basket plus grandma’s wicker casket we talked about our past and how life moves so fast

Facebook Gem

Memories of School Days

Blog Opportunity

Did your school have a Summer Fair,

or a Christmas Fair?

What stalls did they have?

Who ran it? Did you take part?

What was the best ride, or stall, or game?

Did they have fancy dress, or train rides?

Was there a bouncy castle, or five-a-side footie?

Why this topic? Because, sadly, so many

schools are no longer running this type of

community event which means whole genera-

tions of children will be missing out on part of

what was our cultural heritage.

Talking about Ranting ... Assignment CMH

A CHEER or sixty for Stafford Hospital

It‟s FAR, FAR too easy to moan about anything, and we‟ve had more than enough moaning about our local hospital.

Letters saying “Oh they don‟t…whatever” abound.

This isn‟t one of them.

It‟s about time we stopped dragging down the staff morale up at Coton Hill and started doing something positive

about it.

I have been there on numerous occasions lately and never received anything other than cheerful, good-natured, wholly

professional, attention. I have seen staff abused, by patients in pain, who ignored the aggravation and continued to do

their best for the person concerned. I‟m not sure that I should have prevented myself saying „Stop whining‟; but there-

again one person‟s pain is another‟s discomfort.

As always there are Plus‟s and Minus‟s in any medical procedure, the outcome should be +++ but there can be a few

minus points along the way, and it is NOT helpful to have folks with the attitude of „I‟m going to find fault‟.

If you do have to enter hospital go in with a positive attitude, smile, be cheerful, crack jokes (that‟s not difficult), be

polite, be helpful where you can and above all remember that the staff are human, they are not robots. They laugh, cry

and have feelings and families just as you do.

Ranting Eccentrics like a good rant, On social media one can’t Avoid the Ranters. Bonkers and dangerous Slanderous moaning, even libellous, Of these there are many. Mostly though, Ranters are harmless, Ignorant and joyless, Frustrated losers. Wallowing in distress spilling their burdened mindscape trilling onto ‘friends’ screen feed. Crying for help that will never be coming, Their abject misery exposing For the amusement of others.

anonymous

Online petition

Blog Opportunities:

Travel

Adventures

Day Out: Would you

like to share your Day Out adventures

with our readers?

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