Perth Words... exploring possibilities.

Wordless Wednesday: Sweater Shop

April 23, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

The Sweater Shop, Doolin, Co Clare, 2003.

Posted in Ireland, Other blogs, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare, Doolin, Frances Macaulay Forde, Ireland, The Sweater Shop | 4 Comments »

Easter Bilby

April 21, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Easter at our house.

Last day of the Easter weekend and all eggs (except the two above) distributed.

I always buy Cadbury’s Easter Bilby for my son the Environmentalist and the Lindt Gold Bunny for my daughter the Chocolate Connoisseur.

The Bilby is an Australian marsupial under threat of extinction and environmentalists suggested a couple of years ago, the way to help would be to use the commercialization of Easter.

Meet Australia’s Easter Bunny: the Long-Eared Greater Bilby: “And there’s arguably no better way of getting our kids interested in our native wildlife than covering them in chocolate.”

Apart from having my gorgeous grandies round for tea after a family picnic in the park yesterday, I’m busy re-writing a story I wrote a few Easters ago.

Originally called ‘An Easter Tale’ or ‘How the Bilby got Easter’s job with the wrong tail’, it’s now called ‘Bringarious Bilby’ with grand ambitions to be published sometime in the not too distant future as a children’s picture book.

Hope your long weekend was all you wanted it to be – and you and yours are safe.

Posted in Animals, Children's stories, nature | Tagged An Easter Tale, Bilby, Bringarious Bilby, Easter eggs, Frances Macaulay Forde, Long-Eared Greater Bilby, Our Australian Easter Bunny | Leave a Comment »

‘Write to Romance’

April 18, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

‘Urban Scrawl’ an anthology of member’s stories published in 2000 by Peter Cowan Writer’s Centre.

The illustration for my story ‘Write to Romance’.

“Write to Romance” appeared in ‘Urban Scrawl’, a collection of member’s writing put together by Peter Cowan Writers Centre in 2000 and was the first of my short stories published in Australia.

As I have quite a few snippets of story on my computer ‘shelves’ I’m very interested in putting together a collection for an eBook to publish online as soon as possible.

Watch this space.

Posted in Romance, Short Stories, Writers, Writing | Tagged anthology, Frances Macaulay Forde, Peter Cowan Writer's Centre, short stories, Urban Scrawl, Western Australia, Write to Romance, writer, writing, writing in WA | 1 Comment »

Roadside Rubbish

April 17, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

It’s that time of year again (photo taken today). Wish I’d taken photos last year, when I wrote this though…

Two Fans

Two fans enthusiastically spin amongst

a pile of rubbish waiting for pick up,

roadside.

Through wind and rain, even thunder

“Look at me!” but nothing moved.

Clever stack.

Unlike No 2’s plant pots. Scattered

colorful rattles voicing the gusts.

Messy!

Drive-bys; inspection opportunists.

Recycling on a budget or business,

who knows?

Roadside shopping has rules. Don’t

muddle. Re-stack after inspection.

Carefully.

It’s bad manners to sort, scrounge,

accept or reject – pull apart, untidy,

then go.

Posted in Perth City, Poetry, WA Writers, Writers, Writing | Tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, poems, rubbish pick-ups, rubbish roadside, WA Writers | 2 Comments »

Wordless Wednesday: Time Out

April 16, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Inspired by Retirement & Beyond.

Posted in Other blogs, Poetry, Wordless Wednesday, Writing | Tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, P>Coughlan, Retirement & Beyond, Time Out, visual poem, Wordless Wednesday | 5 Comments »

‘The Heart’s Journey’

April 13, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Do you believe in Karma?

Standing in front of all those Alexander McCall Smith books, I was overawed – found it difficult to settle on just one (or two) to get signed, but “Trains and Lovers” called to me.

How could I resist when I had also written ‘Rail Tales – notes from the Currumbine line.’ like many who had found the enclosed capsule of a train carriage inspiring.

I’ve been waiting weeks since listening to him talk at UWA , to find the time to read the book. Not wanting to pick it up for a quick look, but time to read the whole thing because I know once I open those magical pages, I won’t be able to put it down.

Within the very first chapters Alexander had mentioned my home town Perth, Western Australia; introduced us to an Australian lady called ‘Kay’ in her 50’s; mid-twenties ‘Andrew’ with eyes the same color as my Mum’s; asked another if he was Canadian (my niece lives there) before letting ‘Andrew’ tell us about himself.

‘Andrew’ comes from the same place as my mother’s family, Oban, Mull, South Uist and Lewis. Mum also spoke Gaelic when she was young and came from a long line of doctors. In fact, my maternal grandfather was named after a famous doctor who helped found the Physiology school in Glasgow University, John Grey McKendrick. ( I’ve tried, but cannot find any other family connection to the famous physiologist except the name.)

And I’d only read to page 17.

So I’ll be ‘gone’ for a while readers… this book is obviously my Karma.

Posted in Books, Perth City, Writers, Writing | Tagged Alexander McCall Smith, Frances Macaulay Forde, John Grey McKendrick, Notes from the Currumbine Line, Perth, Rail Tales, Trains and Lovers, Western Australia | Leave a Comment »

Grand-ies…

April 10, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Sonja’s artwork. (4 1/2 years old)

My brother is meeting his 1st grandchild in Sydney today, but isn’t allowed to go too close because he sneezed before getting on the flight!

Birth

I held you to my

breast – now calm

and gently, with my

forefinger, caress

-ed your tiny arm.

And today, I got a call from my son to say that his littlest is in the Children’s Hospital with a lung infection! I wanted so much to go straight to her bedside and give lots of cuddles, to make sure she gets better. But that’s my son and her mum’s job – not mine!

Sometimes it’s really hard to stand back. They are wonderfully capable, hands-on parents to their two beautiful little girls, so as requested I will go and spend tomorrow with my older granddaughter until they come home. After Sonja’s Swimming Lesson, we’ll do some painting – always the first question after “Hello, Nanna!”

Posted in Children's stories, Love, Poetry | Tagged Birth, Frances Macaulay Forde, grand kids, granddaughter, poetry, Western Australia | 3 Comments »

Beautiful!

April 9, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Jean of ‘Social Bridge’ mentioned she’d like to see more stories… so here’s something written a while ago but which still makes me smile – I hope it does you too!

BEAUTIFUL!

“Because I don’t want to go on my own.”

I shamelessly begged my sister-in-law to come with me on my assignment to write about something beautiful: Take a bunch of flowers and walk down a street full of massage parlors.

“Even if you’re supposed to – I’m definitely NOT going in – OK?”

“All right – just come with me, Grace. We’ll walk down the street… make a few observations… then go – I promise!”

“Unless we get propositioned!” Giggling, we both felt more relaxed about the whole adventure.

“Turn right here – William Street. 530-something. 415… There’s a parking. Quick! Mind the police car.”

“You sure you want to do this?”

“Where’s 395?”

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we wandered up and down the street. Noted the scruffy and garish buildings, the smells, the people rushing about and wondered what they were up to – especially the police car, which was still parked outside a place, called ‘The Site – Girls – Girls – Girls’.

One building stood out amongst the colorful, boxy, chaos. Cream walls, dark brown trim and roof and neat gardens with two stately palms waving gently in the breeze, which breathed ‘class’. Aphrodite’s. A brass nameplate and large numbers on the wall ‘395’ for those ‘in the know’. The door discreetly open and inviting custom.

Of course, curiosity got the better of us – we couldn’t resist and after passing the entry twice, walked in. The little old lady behind the counter gave a non-committal nod and pressed a button.

A door to our left opened and another (very elegant) little old lady also smiled a greeting.

My companion’s mouth had dropped three inches so I smiled, “Is this a restaurant?”

With a pitying look Madam replied. “No – it’s a brothel!”

Well, I shot out of there, leaving my compatriot chatting about how lovely the room was.

And that was just BEAUTIFUL!

Posted in Short Stories, WA Writers, Writing | Tagged Frances Macaulay Forde, very short story, Western Australia, writing | 3 Comments »

Dieback

April 8, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Here’s an experiment: I’ve been playing around with You Tube and have made a short video of my poem ‘Dieback’.

Every time we travel down South of Perth, I’m reminded of the poem I wrote in 2006 and was published in the Poets Union Anthology.

This terrible disease affects our native Jarrah and Tuart trees, spread by spores which infect the tree, eventually leaving it stripped and exposed.

Posted in nature, Poetry | Tagged dieback, Frances Macaulay Forde, jarrahs, pinjarra, poetry, poetry in Western Australia, tuarts, waroona, Western Australia, writing | Leave a Comment »

March madness!

April 7, 2014 by Frances Macaulay Forde

First there were two…

Then there was one..

And finally none.

Well, am I glad that’s over! March is MAD for us and our ‘day’ job.

So many festivals and working 7 days a week for the last 6 weeks has done me in – we both needed to just veg totally today, and I did!

So I apologize for not posting much lately but thank you so much for reading.

This week, I’ll catch up on your blogs and find something (hopefully) of interest to share with you.

Yesterday we were at a Food & Wine Festival in Mindarie Keys, 10 minutes up the coast from us.

Turning around to face the sea breeze, I spied two little birds sitting on a wire, behind. A bit like us this month, barely hanging on but doing what we must.

(I wrongly presumed they were winging their way back to Northern Climes but have now identified them as native Hooded Robins, who also live in Australia.)

two

little

birds paused

full-fronting the sea breeze

two wanderers grip fine wire

then gone