juliachalkley

Self-Defence for Gardeners

There’s been some long gaps between postings this autumn and winter. So what have I been up? In brief – a lot of writing, a most enormous amount of wall-building and not enough gardening to save us from a Zucchini Tsunami and the Giant Monster Squash. The wall in question is the second wall forContinue reading “Self-Defence for Gardeners”

Gone

This isn’t the post I intended to write tonight. I’ve just heard that the famous sycamore tree at Sycamore Gap has been cut down. Deliberately, and not for safety reasons; as an act of vandalism. A sixteen year old boy has been detained for questioning tonight. Not making any guesses as to whether he wasContinue reading “Gone”

This Is Danny

I haven’t been allowed to say anything about this up to now. I was shortlisted for the 2023 Jane Austen Literary Foundation’s short story competition. Didn’t win – the story that did was very clever and a touch spooky, whereas mine was pretty clunky (it was a last-minute substitute for a much darker story thatContinue reading “This Is Danny”

Just Another Day in Paradise

We had a few days in Ironbridge recently, visiting all the places we didn’t get around to last time. Including places we didn’t realise existed (like the street named Paradise – we visited Hell in Norway some years ago, so this was the logical destination). This time, we headed for the Jackfield Tile Museum andContinue reading “Just Another Day in Paradise”

The Joys of Mowing

It seems to be the majority of my time in late March and early April – on the rota for mowing the grass in the community green space and spending my time finding where the key was hidden by the previous mower, lugging fuel down to refill the empty can, working out why the mowerContinue reading “The Joys of Mowing”

Sycamore Gap

The previous post was completely full up with all the goings on in Scotland – hard to believe that we were there for just two days. Northumberland took up just one full day, but I think this post will be just as long. We were watching the weather forecasts with a bit of concern asContinue reading “Sycamore Gap”

Coming Up Blank

Can my close friends look away now, please. I don’t want to bore them. But this was an absolute high point of the year, and we’re just eleven weeks in. I entered five competitions at the Scottish Association of Writers, some more as an exercise in hope than with any real hope of getting somewhere.Continue reading “Coming Up Blank”

28 Plays – Encore!

That feeling when you wake up and another month has gone, and somehow you can’t remember what you did? That’s February, in this house. I spent a large part of the month head-down at the laptop, writing plays. Not as impressive as it sounds, as they will accept even one page wonders and utterly dudContinue reading “28 Plays – Encore!”

Please, Don’t Die

Yup, slightly alarming title. I admit it was a bit scary for me, too. We went to a talk on foraging wild food on Thursday evening, and the speaker laid out a load of plants on his table and began to talk to us all about foraging. He was a little nervous, as he usuallyContinue reading “Please, Don’t Die”

No more, please, no more

I was sorry that The Literal Challenge didn’t run their Scriptly Challenge last October. I got some really good ideas from their 2021 Scriptly, and I would love to have put together the music video I wrote for Hugh Laurie’s ‘Didn’t It Rain’. When TLC announced that they would return with 28 Plays Later thisContinue reading “No more, please, no more”