Keith's Ramblings

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Thanks to Sammi Cox for hosting the Weekend Writing Prompt

I was at a loose end today, so I thought I’d get Suno to set an old poem of mine to music! Here’s what happened.

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She sits and stares
unfocused eyes swimming to the horizon
Gazing into infinity

No sign of tears
Her expressionless face an empty canvas
A sea of pallor

I look into her eyes
I see nothing but a swirling mist of grey
That sparkle gone

I try to ask her why
a cloud of despair envelopes her
She hears me not

But I will wait
I’ll stay by her side for as long as it takes
for her to return

But for now
She inhabits a sorrowful place of her own
Somewhere

I know not where

 

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The bluebells, primroses and tulips signalled that Spring had well and truly sprung in The Baaamy Inn’s garden and Gary had finished getting it looking neat and tidy, all Len needed now were some new benches, the ones with a long table tops and plank-like seats either side, the old ones were well past their best; they still talk about the time Big Bob plonked himself down quite heavily on one sending himself crashing to the ground whilst see-sawing little Lucy up into the air and spilling red wine all down her lovely lace dress!

One of Landlord Len’s pet hates, and he has several, is people sitting staring at their mobile phones, he wished he could block their signal; today the main culprit was Arthur; “I just got a message from my granddaughter, it says, ahem, ‘‘hi how u doin. c-in b tomoz. 4t u mite cum 2. gd. luv Mol’ , well, I hadn’t a clue what it meant so I just tried messaging  her back and cos I have difficulty typing I used predictive text – this is what I sent – ‘Hell mule. Watch was yolk massage a boot. I did nut undertake it. Plaice cool me. Are there.’

“My grandson’s learning to drive”, said Ted, “I was telling him how we used to use hand signals before cars had indicators, arm straight out for turning right, round and round when turning left, up’n down when slowing down – which reminds me, the other day Henpecked Harold was driving along when a police car behind him turned on its blues and two’s which he realised was their signal for him to stop; he wound down his window and the cop asked if he knew the passenger door had opened and his wife had fallen out, Harold said ‘thank goodness for that, I though I’d gone deaf!’ “

Over at the knitting circle, Phyllis had overheard the conversation and started telling her fellow knitwits about her mother who’s recently moved into a care home; “she’s having difficulty hearing, so being nimble fingered I though I’d learn a few common phrases in sign language, well, yesterday I signed ‘hello mum, hope you are well’, Deaf Daphne on the other side of the lounge gave me a thumbs up so I knew I’d done okay, however mum gave me a funny look and said it looked like I was having a fit and asked if I needed a nurse – then it dawned on me, just because you have no hearing doesn’t mean you atomatically understand sign language! 

She wasn’t the only one listening in to the conversations, so was Colin, “I tried calling my fiance, I got the engaged signal –  my friend asked his phone why he was still single and it activated the selfie mode – I don’t get a good signal in the cemetery, it’s a dead spot – the phone went to jail charged with battery, it’s now a cell phone – I dropped my phone in the bath, it’s now synching – German girls all have the same number, whenever I ask them what it is they say 999-9999 – my friend got married under a phone mast, the wedding was odd but the reception was excellent – I took a test waving signal flags and passed with flying colours – the lawyer got pulled over because he didn’t use an attorney signal – sign language is very handy – I know several jokes in sign language that nobody’s ever heard…..”

Len rang the bell, called time and everybody headed homeward; as he closed the door and turned the key in the lock he heard a tapping sound then felt his dearly departed Maggie’s presence in the bar, “they’re not a bad lot, are they Maggie?” he muttered, “they are the closest thing I have to a family now” – ‘except for me’, she whispered in his ear, ‘I’m still your significant other!’

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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting Six Sentence Stories where this week’s given word is Signal.

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Transparent Trevor I called him. I could look into his pale blue eyes and have a good idea what he was thinking. To me, they were the  windows of his mind.

He was never the same after his beloved Jane passed away. He hardly spoke and rarely left the house. His eyes became hazy, I could no longer see through them. 

Each day he would wake at sunrise, stare from his window and watch the world go by. Then the sun would set. The next day it would set sooner, the next day sooner still. 

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset……sunset.

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Prod Froggie to visit the squares.

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Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers‘

 

For Wordless Wednesday and bloghops various

Last week we walked along the cliffs in Bexhill-on-Sea. Eleven miles to the west, the cliffs are very different for instead of sandstone they are chalk!.

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They stretch twelve miles along the coast from Eastbourne to Seaford. I walk there often, and these are just some of the pictures I’ve taken over the years. You may have seen a few of them before.

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Up we go!

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This is one of the most photographed views in the UK. The cottages have featured in many a TV series and quite a few movies!

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I think this one speaks for itself.

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By the way, you were in good company, the King was pictured here six week’s ago!

 

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Tyler was looking out of his bedroom window. The sky was clear and the moon was huge.

He leaned his head on one side and then the other. He squinted. 

His little sister Kate crept up behind him. ‘Boo’, she shouted and Tyler almost jumped out of his skin!

‘What are you looking at Tyler?’ she asked.

‘The moon’, said Tyler, ‘I’m trying to see the man in the moon’.

Kate giggled. ‘Don’t be silly Tyler, there’s no man in the moon. There can’t be because the moon is made of cheese’.

‘Perhaps he likes cheese’, said Tyler.

Mum walked into the room. ‘Hi you two, what are you looking at?’

‘We are looking at the moon’, said Kate.

‘The moon’s a balloon’, said Mum with a silly grin on her face, ‘a big yellow balloon!’.

They all looked at each other and laughed.

‘Tyler believes there’s a man in the moon’, chuckled Kate.

‘Kate believes the moon is made of cheese’, laughed Tyler, ‘and it’s not a balloon Mum!’

‘I’ll tell you what I believe’, said Mum, ‘I believe its way past your bedtime!’

Kate went back to her room and opened the curtains just a little so she could see the moon from her bed. She saw a little mouse nibbling away at the surface.

Tyler took one last look before he jumped into bed.  He waved to the man in the moon, and the man in the moon winked back!..

 

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Image credit; NASA @ Unsplash

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Thanks to Sadje for hosting What Do You See?

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I thought I’d have another shot at The Sunday Whirl but the words were a bit challenging.

crush crisp creamy script brisk dreams dust seeds dim night whisper shimmer

So, here we go!

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I live a humdrum life. One dull, dim, dreary day after another. 

But at night things are very different, whilst sleeping I have a wonderful time! Dreams are far more fun than reality. I sometimes wish I could sleep for a week!

I  had a great one the other night, it was like being in a movie; whoever wrote the script was a genius. There I was walking along a path when the dust beneath my feet changed into sand, a tree became a cactus, then a distant scarecrow began to shimmer. It was then I see’d her, (sorry about that, but it was a difficult word to incorporate so I made the best use of it I could) for it morphed into the most beautiful girl I’d seen since the previous night’s dream. (nice bit of rhyme there!)  She walked towards me slowly at first then briskly. Straight away I had a crush on her. She whispered something in my ear, something I could hardly hear, (there I go again!) but it mattered not.

A cow became a camel, a two seater with three humps. We climbed aboard Humphrey (an appropriate name, I thought!) and headed towards a distant town. A bell around its neck went ding-a-ling. It got louder and louder until my bloody alarm clock woke me up.

If only dreams were like continuing dramas or soap operas, ones that end with a cliff hanger and carry on the next night.

It was time for breakfast, crispy toast with creamy butter (I knew I’d find a way of using those two remaining words!) and there it was, another dull, dim, dreary day.

 

*I deserve a bonus point for using two of the words not once, but twice!

ispy toast with creamy butter (I knew I’d find a way of using those two remaining words!) and there it was, another dull, dim, dreary day.

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Percival enjoys a perfect life. He amassed his millions not by hard work, but thanks to devious means and his punctilious powers of persuasion.

He remained single until he reached his fifties. It was then he met and wed an attractive young lady who was twenty five years his junior.

When asked what he did to induce her, he admitted to lying about his age. 

Everyone assumed he’d pretended to be considerably younger, but not so, it seems he convinced her that he was almost eighty and had but six months to live!

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Thanks to Sammi Cox for hosting the Weekend Writing Prompt

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The Baaamy farmers were chatting away, except for Arthur who had his head in a newspaper puzzle, “I’m stuck”, he said, “I could do with some help, my grandson’s never here when I need  him – he’s at uni and there’s a crossword club in his lodgings, two floors down and three doors across he told me; the other day he asked if I fancied a go at sudoku, I said I never liked the idea of martial arts then he laughed and said it was numbers game, so I said count me in!”

“I used to love quizzes”, said Ted, “but the ole memory aint what it used to be, I thought it would be a good idea to write down my daily chores in a book so I wouldn’t forget to do them, Monday washing machine, Tuesday pop to the shops, Wednesday, something or other, Thursday, erm, well, never mind, you get the drift” ; “is it helping?” asked Barb, “it probably would if I could remember where I left it” Ted replied.

Over at the knitting circle Polly was talking about her piano, “I’m thinking of getting rid of it”, she said, “it’s taking up too much room and I’m no good at getting a tune out of it, I can’t even eat with chopsticks let alone play it, anyway, someone appeared at my door yesterday, she said ‘hello, my name’s Dee Sharp and I’m a piano teacher’, I said I didn’t ask for her to come round and she said, ‘I know, your neighbour did’ “.

You may remember I told you that Bert was getting a new bull, well, he went to liveskock market the other day and got himself one, “he’s a big beast” said Bert, “I watched him lick his lips whenener he saw an attractive cow and I thought, yes he’s the one, I’ve called him Big Boy because he’s not just huge, he’s big his busineess department too if you get my meaning – tomorrow I’ve set him and one of my cows up on a blind date, I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on”, “if he’s that big he’ll probably flatten her when he does” quipped Colin – “OY”, shouted Landlord Len, “I’ll have none of that bulloney in my pub”!

That was all Colin needed to get him going, “crosswords upset me, I try not to get too down – the clue was 7 letters starting O  and meaning easly understood, it should have been obvious  – ‘assist’ has 3 letter S’s, the others are just there to help – I asked the shop worker if she could recommend something that gets rid of germs and she said ‘ammonia cleaner’, and I said I know you are‘ – I asked the book shop assistant ‘do you keep stationary here?’ and she said ‘no, I walk about’ – I asked the toy shop assistant where the Schwarzenegger dolls were and he pointed and said ‘Aisle B, back’ – when I need help adding up I ask Tommy, Hilfiger it out – accupuncturists have lots of assistants, they needle all the help they can get – pianist have knives because they like Chopin – when they to the mall they take a  Chopin Liszt……” 

All that talk about crosswords reminded Len of how his dearly departed Maggie used to start each day by turning to the back of the newpaper where the puzzles were, she often got angry with herself when she was stuck for an answer to an easy clue, “I used to help you”, muttered Len – ‘and there was never a cross word between us’ , she whispered.

 

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Thanks to Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge for hosting Six Sentence Stories where this week’s given word is Help.

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I may as well not be have been there. The only person I spoke with was the waiter.

Fork in one hand, his phone in the other. I moved his plate of food aside, he didn’t notice. You should have seen him prodding the table! I put it back then drank his wine. He said nothing, just scowled at me.

I messaged him, said we had to leave. The babysitter needed to go.

He actually spoke, ‘another blasted text’, he said. Didn’t read it though, he was otherwise engaged. 

I’m on my way home now. Wonder if he’s noticed yet?

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Prod a frog to visit the squares!.

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Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart