By Lillian Bradbury I remember the first time I saw you. A small gnome-like figure, squatting on your haunches inspecting a laurel bush. The leaves were mottled with earthy brown patches, and you brought the young tender branches nearer, almost…
By Pat Barnett The beginning of this heirloom started with little caterpillars munching the leaves of a mulberry tree – then to the thread they spun; which was gathered and woven into lengths of fine silk. This story follows a…
Black Friday. He kicks the ground with characteristic impatience sending dust clouds across the floor and snorts before it can settle. Head bowed and horns steady he charges as the clamour of metal against brass rings around the world; thus…
Feline The path stretched out before her, twisting and turning as it neared the summit of the mountain. Snowflakes whirled all around, some finding rest in the drifts which filled the hollows between the steep banks and low dry-stone walls.…
Three Wishes for Jet It’s Tuesday, dawn, and we’re beachcombing, and when I run along the water’s edge, my feet slap the ripples, making a noise like sea lions do when they clap their flippers together. Jet can bark like…
She was given the name Violet because of the colour of her eyes and placed on the top of the family’s Christmas tree, where she sparkled and practised her secret art of dazzling – After the Christmas holiday was over,…
‘I’m having second thoughts.’ ‘Look Angie, we’re nearly there now,’ Josie snapped as she used the cuff of her designer cardigan to wipe away the mist from the driver’s side of the windscreen. I did the same on my side…
I’m going to be a star. My Nana said not to fidget on stage. I know I fidget because Miss Johnson says I do. Miss Johnson says if I learn not to fidget, then I can practise Megan Clutterbuck’s lines…
He was given the name of Gizmo because of his fascination with remote controls: not that he wanted to use them in the way they were designed, rather he would take them apart and pocket only the minute items that…
My shopping trolley is humming its merry tune as its wheels roll over the paving slabs. Wednesday is when I do my big shop, few cars hurtling goodness knows where, so crossing by the roundabout is made easy. The Forest…