This piece is in response to the weekly Min Min prompt at https://sixcrookedhighways.com/min-min-weekly-prompt/ . Jump in, the water's fine. The world thought it had seen everything until all the guns went limp, like Dali watches. Monty Python-like, armies were reduced to yelling insults at each other. When they tried to throw hand grenades they found … Continue reading The Dali Planet

This piece was written for the Min Min weekly prompt challenge for 27 January 2023. Adam lived in a weatherboard cottage in Tasmania, surrounded by his apple orchard. Sales of his annual apple crop were declining due to the perfect storm of the Australian market’s demand for certified organic versus the demands of their Japanese … Continue reading Adam and Eve in the Garden of Tasmania

This piece was written for the Min Min Weekly Prompt Challenge for 20 Jan 2023. It was inspired by 'The Pict Song' by Billy Bragg, with lyrics by Rudyard Kipling. It began with tea and tears. Sophie had been sacked by the local supermarket.   ‘I’ve been replaced by a self-serve scanner. What am I … Continue reading We are the little folk, we.

As my modest but loyal list of people who read my blog know, for some time now I have regularly taken part in the weekly ‘Six Sentence Challenge’ run by the wonderfully generous and very talented Denise Farley. I used to enjoy being part of a group of writers of talent, wit, and skill. However … Continue reading Untying the knot

This piece as written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt of 'vault'. Trigger warning: Silliness lurks here. Vault     1. German pronunciation of Walt                 2. Cryptic definition of catacomb (or the smaller version, the kittycomb) (see also megavault – humungous vault and microvault – mother’s handbag)                 3. Be promoted beyond your level … Continue reading Vault – Disambiguation from Wackypedia (Note: Alternative spelling for ‘volt’)

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'range'. Home, home on the range (if you can call a block in a rural village a ‘range’), where the rabbits try to play merry hell with my attempts to grow vegetables (for us) and my wife’s planting of trees and … Continue reading There’s a lot to a range

This piece of nonsense was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'meter', which recalcitrant Americans persist in believing is a measure of distance, proving that if you give them an inch they'll take 1.6 kilometres. Cassandra, the Greek patron saint of meterology, was blessed with the ability to take the … Continue reading Cassandra? Never met ‘er.

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'verge'. Explanatory note: In Australia, a suburban garden verge is the strip of land between the footpath (sidewalk, pavement) and the street. Technically this land is owned by the relevant local government authority and some maintain them (e.g. mow the grass) … Continue reading The Sun shines out of Geoffrey’s artichokes

And now for something completely different this week; an historical anecdote. This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'eternal'. Arthur Malcolm Stace was born in 1885, brought up by alcoholic parents in poverty that led to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins, … Continue reading The Eternality of Eternity

This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of 'play'. It's basically true, allowing for some poetic license and what time does to memories, and I only publish it as a very poor confession for a thoughtless act. In my callow and thoughtless youth, I was a budding and ambitious … Continue reading A Colonel of truth