7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 7

Already at the end? The week's gone toooo quick : )

1. tree roots push up the tarmac on Chemin de Sable we have things to say

2. I buy strawberries, but not any strawberries. I buy Gariguette strawberries whose scent can be detected through the cellophane wrapper. A barquette of red hearts, small, soft, aromatic. And the lady at the greengrocer's gives me a rose - Bonne fete, she says. It is Mothers' Day this weekend, and even though I am no-one's mother I still get a long stemmed, peach rose. Strawberries and roses. Kindness and sunshine.

2. We go to Juan les Pins tonight and drink rose wine at the bar and eat the little plates of amuse-guele that the Bar Crystal serves with drinks between 6 and 8pm: green olive tapenade, pizza squares, plates that keep coming, and coming, because Lionel, the barman, likes us. So many plates we need no dinner.

7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 6

1. When Magda speaks she tosses her long, blonde hair, primps her lips, tightens her eyes. Today she wears a fuscia pink shirt. Yesterday, a black Calvin Klein t-shirt. Her eyelids are perfectly outlined, an exquisite tick upwards at the corners. I can't help staring when she runs one hand through her hair, when she brings both of them together in front of her on the table. Still. When she looks at me I feel she is really listening to what I have to say.

2. grass cuttings and puddles over the paving stones the cat flicks its tail

3. On her 6th day in hospital my mother sounds tired but positive. 'No more sentiment,' she says, 'I'm getting rid of the walnut headboard and footboard and buying an electric bed.' The boards match the his and her wardrobes and dressing table, the bedroom suite she's had since she was married in 1952. The suite that I have always known in this house where I was born. The wood is smooth, rich and dark, the grain patterned with knots and whorls. My parents' bedroom is at the back of the house and in my memory it is always in shade. Walking in there made me feel like whispering.

7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 5

Sorry, I'm a bit late today...

5th Day. Nearly there. Don't give up : )

1. A few red poppies between the leylandai at the edge of the garden, and one, completely on its own, in the centre of the lawn, though by the time I walk out to look at it close up the petals have been blown from the stem, or brushed off by the cat, and scattered in the grass. Such things that are beautiful but so quickly disappear.

2. Trim the fat from a magret de canard, score the skin in a diamond pattern, press crushed green and black peppercorns, crushed coriander and cardamom seeds into the flesh. Cook in a hot skillet, skin side down to burn off the fat, for 6 minutes, then turn and cook for 6, 7 or 8 minutes depending on whether you like it rare, medium, or well done. Let it rest on a wooden board for 5 minutes. Fry thin slices of apple in a small amount of butter for 1 or 2 minutes on each side. By now the juices will have started to ooze from the duck. Slice the duck thinly and fan out on the cooked apple. It was delicieux.

3. an armful of fresh laundry these days I feel I am waiting for things to happen

7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 4

About the challenge.

1. Our first two, tiny, green, plum tomatoes on the plant in the pot where a line of ants tracks to, twice a day, from the rosemary bush at the edge of the terrace, across the paving stones, under the wooden slatted sunbed, and over the cat, if she happens to be sitting there, in the shade.

2. On my desk: a pension letter from HSBC, a black and white photograph of me at 22, an open diary with my brother's birthday marked on 31 May, a calculator, a mobile phone and charger, my glasses, the latest copy of the Frogpond journal, two retractable pencils whose rubber ends have gone hard, a cup of coffee, lukewarm, a list of french and english vocabulary for my hairdresser, a note of the hospital phone number and address where my mam is recovering after a fall and hip replacement, magnetic letters from which I've made the word 'MUCH'.

3. Lots of people keep their shutters closed here, not just at night, or when they're out, or away from home, but during the day when they're there. I think of secrets, of drawers with keys. Of looking over shoulders. Once, at a neighbour's drinks party, a woman got up and left when favourable talk of Marechal Petain began.

7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 3

Read about the challenge here.

1. The cat refuses to walk in her new red harness that straps around her neck and also around her body so she can't slip the lead when she travels back to the UK in the car. But the red is such a good colour against her black coat, or 'robe' as her french passport says - 'robe noir'. It makes me think of Coco Chanel and her little black dress.

2. A salad of rocket and fresh pear and soft blue cheese on a white china plate with two slices of crusty pain de campagne.

3. Wind rushes through the house today, doors slam from the pantry to the attic, windows, left ajar, shake and rattle. Outside, the palm tree fronds bounce and thrash, the sun umbrella flaps like a prehistoric green bird.

7 Day Writing Challenge - Day 1

If you haven't already, you can read about the challenge here.

1. The tiny asian boy, who can't be more than two, standing in my line at the Intermarche supermarket, is chewing on the crusty end of a baguette broken off by his older brother whose arms are filled with bread.

2. Outside the cafe/boulangerie at L'Ilette a woman quickly slides the skinny strap of her red t-shirt back up onto her pale shoulder.

3. The fresh, emerald green growth at the tips of the young leylandai curl over, too slight to bear their own weight yet.

Another 7 Day Writing Challenge. Are you up for it?

Those of you relatively new to AppleHouse might not know of two previous 7 Day Writing Challenges, here and here. They weren't as arduous as they might sound! And I'd like to try something similar for the next 7 days. I hope you'll join in and post something for as many of the 7 days as you can.

I've been reading Kim Addonizio's Ordinary-Genius and one of her chapters is called 'three observations'. She says, 'Training our awareness is important, not only for writing, but for experiencing life moment to moment.' She talks about how easily her thoughts can turn on themselves, 'like a cat licking and licking its fur, obsessively grooming', and how making herself really 'see' three things, in detail, helps her tune into the world.

So, each day for the next 7 days, until the end of May, I'm going to post 3 things I have observed, and I invite you to post yours. We may not write a poem in response to our observations, but an image may stick and turn up in one at some point. But even if we end up using nothing we've written, there is no waste in writing because we have been engaged in the act that connects us to the world. There is nothing wasteful about that.

If you do decide to join in and you don't already follow the blog, then it might help if you do become a follower, as then you'll receive an email notification of my daily post.

I'm going to remove the spam protector (Comment Moderation) for the next week too. It seems that the mysterious japanese spammer has left the building, and I much prefer the spontaneity of being able to see your posts immediately on the blog.

Look out for the first of 7 posts tomorrow, Monday 24th May.

Write well.
L x