Skeleton Architecture

My youngest's homework this week included a_e word spellings. We spent a lot of time with those words and so I did a homework tanka to try to use some of her spelling words too. This may be the meaning of life . Or not.

Most of the time I do my writing in the living room. Sometimes, before I'm done, it will be invaded by small people. When I wrote this it was invaded by small people who were watching Avatar, an episode where they were in caves and had to find their way out in the darkness, letting love lead the way.

My Dad challenged me to write a tanka about a Tonka truck. I was going to ignore this challenge, but then he got his friend to publicly shame me into it on Facebook. So here you go father and friend. 😝 My brother had a Tonka truck when we were little. I thought it was yellow, my Dad thought it was red. My brother says it was red and  yellow. Nobody has it anymore, and it's not in any photos I can find (I have looked for the amount of time you spend on these projects when you should really be doing something more useful), but that was a really good, sturdy, truck. I've definitely attempted to use it as a skateboard when my feet would fit in it, I've also loaded it with animals, Sindy's, and of course, lots of stones. It was the kind of toy you look at and declare that they don't make them like that anymore. My brother is pretty awesome too. He started off as my little brother. Now he towers above me. He's had plenty of health issues, including collecting a...

Last summer we gave our neighbours a gift and swapped homes for a little while with a lovely family who lived in Barcelona. They had a great time exploring Scotland and getting to know our neighbours while we enjoyed being hot in Barcelona. It was incredibly hot, there was a reason the Barcelonians wanted to escape to Scotland, but we enjoyed making friends with their kitten and chilling out in their gorgeous home in the day time, going out in the evening when the heat was more tolerable to explore gorgeous Barcelona. Things we loved most were:  Seeing La Sagrada Familia - we didn't go inside because the kids didn't want to, but there's a great play park behind it where we watched parrots fly and admired the building. Shopping around Las Ramblas - so much fun and lots of silly little shops. The area has a reputation for pickpockets but we were fine with our purses tucked away. The CosmoCaixa museum - this was a fantastic visit, we adored the museum which had so...

Today, for Prose for Thought (which I've just realised, I never share prose on - sorry!), I'm sharing my poem about Chocolate. There's a bit of a chocolate theme to the blog lately isn't there? The last post was all about chocolate too . I'm blaming the Easter eggs which are still sitting on top of the kitchen cupboards. I'd say we're all bored of chocolate, but it's really just the kids. I'm desperate to make it into cakes and sauces, cookies and truffles, but I'm not allowed. 😢 Anyhow, I wrote this poem for the Scottish Book Trust last year, and you'll find it on their website here , but I'm now able to share it right here, so here it is - a bit of chocolatey goodness for all you lovelies. Chocolate All my life I've loved chocolate. The love is in my genes, and some would say (the cheeky ones) it's also in my jeans.  I passed my love of chocolate to my babes in the womb. They drank it in their breastmilk and dan...

I seem to be thinking in iambic pentameter at the moment. I have a poem to write, which must be in well-formed iambic pentameter, and I want it to be perfect, so I'm practicing, although I'm not sure if that's making me better, or just giving me more reason to think I'm rubbish! Anyway, the metre in this one is not right - not enough stresses despite the right number of syllables, but I like it anyway, so I'm sharing it with you lovely people. I wrote it about one of our favourite little acts of kindness, although you might call it littering! The Pennies You know when something is 99p and that pointless penny enters your purse? That penny that must cost more to just be! That penny that makes holes in pockets worse? I save all those pennies up in a box: the ones from coffee, the ones from our tea, the ones from buying emergency socks; all of the pennies that find ways to me. I save them up, then take out a handful to pop in pockets and give to the k...

Hello all I'm loving October so far, pleasant weather, and I'm getting lots of ideas, and getting the hang of the wobbly days (talking about the good stuff really does help to remember it's there, and there's been lots of good stuff of late. This month I will be going away by myself for the first time since I had Mr 11, and I cannot wait! I'll be going to Ilkley Literature Festival, and taking part in the Open Mic (come and support me, buy your tickets here ), which I'm choosing to see as exciting...  Anyway, I've not taken part in The Prompt in what feels like ages, so I'm putting that to rights today with a poem about playing games in the mirror. It starts off with the statement that I can see myself in the mirror now my hair is brown, and I can! It's great! While my hair was green I seemed to be forever checking if my hair was alright, when I looked at my face it was only to make sure it went with my hair, which sounds ridiculous, but I...

I've been having a clear out, getting rid of stuff we no longer need now the little girl is nearly four. One of the things that has gone is lots of board books.  You know, all the 'That's not my...' books, the cute animal books with fluffy bits and so on.  We're left with only five, and they've survived the cull because they're pure dead brilliant. I thought I'd tell you about them in case you were looking for a present for a baby or toddler that will be appreciated by the whole family. The books are in no particular order, and most of them can be bought in several formats.  You may well have come across them already, but if not do check them out. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle A fantastically simple and colourful book which is so old that I remember it from my own childhood.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar has different sizes of pages, which help children to understand about numbers, and it also teaches days of the week and healthy ...