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On the Patch Where the Strawberries Grew
Remembering my own Angel of the North, my Sunderland grandmother Grace Erskine, on her special night of the year.
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Fête de Noël de Madame Priyatelkata
I’ve never been one for organising social gatherings so I tend to just run round the house with the hoover and leave the rest to Priyatelkata. I told her a five litre bottle of homemade distillate from Rakia Maria up the road and some cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks would suffice, but she went overboard as usual.
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Driving Home for Chris
Fish and ducks and rock and roll.
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A Kiss in the Solstice Abyss
A day to rejoice the year’s rebirth.
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A Hare's Breath 5 - The Dark Hedges
The thoughts of an old fella on his return to a wee town in the North of Ireland in the 2020s and his love for hares and nostalgia.
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Now, now Johnny!
Posted on Sat, 20 Dec 2025
I don’t want to go to the dark place. The sheep are looking at me with hatred in their eyes. They wait for me in the cave. Sightless things with wings. What are we going to do with Father? Roll him up like a ticket and poke him in a hole?
...
Read full commentPosted in Winter Solstice
The ABC Beech Nut Germination Challenge 2026
Posted on Wed, 17 Dec 2025
Blessed are the chainsaw enthusiasts.
I knew about the float test which I’ve used before when planting other nuts and fruit stones but we didn’t have many beechnuts to go at from our Irish expedition so we planted the whole lot in compost...
Read full commentPosted in A Hare's Breath 5 - The Dark Hedges
Alfred N Muggins and Michael D Higgins
Posted on Tue, 25 Nov 2025
As Brian's mum, Mandy once said unto the crowd, 'Now, you listen here! He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!'
I can't get my head round all the supernatural stuff in the Bible but it's quite likely that there was a Jesus and he...
Read full commentPosted in The Quiet Revolutionary! By Alfred N.Muggins
Glasgow
Posted on Fri, 14 Nov 2025
You're exactly right Di. In terms of personal memories it's often better that a place has disappeared than to have stayed and become sadly unrecognisable. It's a bit like a rock star dying young; not so good for the rock star or the people who...
Read full commentPosted in Saturday Night's Alright for Peaches
Bucharest
Posted on Fri, 14 Nov 2025
Three or four years ago, with my partner, I walked through the Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse and left the place with a feeling of gloom having discovered that the fabulously ornate nineteenth century arcaded passageways had deteriorated into a fork-...
Read full commentPosted in Bucharest and all that.
Poor Danny!
Posted on Mon, 10 Nov 2025
Poor Danny!
And I don't think the hijacking really matters when the subject matter's interesting.
Read full commentPosted in Turlough Ó Carolan's Farewell to Turlough Ó Maoláin
Martha Wainwright
Posted on Wed, 05 Nov 2025
I went to a Martha Wainwright gig at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London about twenty years ago. I was a bit unsure about her but my friend who was a fan bought me my ticket so I felt I had to go along. I didn't particularly enjoy any of the concert...
Read full commentPosted in Calling All Angels
Desperation
Posted on Wed, 15 Oct 2025
Many thanks to you Di for your comment.
Ah those flags. They shouldn't be up there at all. They're not just racist but supporting a terrorist organisation that was very active during the Troubles. And to have them up there in a place so...
Read full commentPosted in Finding Fionnuala
Manchester... lah lah lah
Posted on Tue, 19 Aug 2025
I try to spend my mornings, at least, with my mind free of the world's horrors and atrocities. ABCtales is usually a grand place to make this escape as I drink my coffee. This Bulgarian style coffee that Priyatelkata describes as 'the coffee of...
Read full commentPosted in Mrs Muggins Goes On a Mini Tour of Italy, While the Butcher and the Clown Meet in Alaska! by Alfred N.Muggins
Groovy!
Posted on Sun, 17 Aug 2025
Did you ever watch The Fast Show with John Thomson's 'Jazz Club' parody sketches? They were hilarious in that they were such a close likeness of the reality.
There are only small snippets of jazz that I like, and Django is a lot different...
Read full commentPosted in Django, Gitáno Gitaristo (Django, Gypsy Guitarist)
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