January 2023 Meeting

 HIGH TOWN WRITERS

24^th JANUARY 2023 at Peepos

Present: Jennie, Liz, Adam, Sue Irena, Kath, Andy, Marie (Chair)

Apologies: Alex, Martyn, Jayne, Stuart, John A-S, Tony Treble, Tony Haynes (a potential member who hopes to join us soon).

The warming up the creative juices’ activity was to choose from some sentences to start a story. Five minutes was the timeframe and members were given six minutes in total. The timing was short to allow for everyone to read their homework and some other pieces of writing.

Sue: ‘Mary inserted the old video cassette tape into the player and couldn’t believe what she saw on the screen………..’ Sue’s memory was about her father, sorting his belongings after he died. She found an old reel-to-reel tape of her father and remembered him on a walk and in a farmyard. He was proficient at mimicking the sounds of birds and animals.

Jennie: ‘Mary inserted the old video cassette tape into the player and couldn’t believe what she saw on the screen………..’ Jennie described Mary looking back at the video of her wedding day and being part horrified and part fascinated by the clothes they were all wearing, including her wedding dress, her mother’s hat and her father’s suit. The piece was based on memories of Jennie’s father’s taste in clothes.

Kath: ‘Paul looked into the hole where the archaeological dig was taking place………’  Kath had been reading a factually based book on the stone age and used that to write a piece about a dig where beads and bracelets were found at a dig and were made from teeth. Also a skull.

Andy: ‘Paul looked into the hole where the archaeological dig was taking place………’  Andy read an exciting piece about a strange disc shaped object which he had actually identified in an Oxford dig some years ago. Andy was unable to finish the story however he told us that he identified it as the vertebrae of a marine creature and is about 180 million years old. He was there for his geological expertise.

Irena: ‘Daniel awoke with a start, someone was downstairs…………’ Daniel went downstairs with a walking stick to use on the intruder, to find his mum there who had left his father in the middle of the night.

Adam: ‘Paul looked into the hole where the archaeological dig was taking place……..’ Adam wrote about a long step back in time with Paul having found a footprint which was from an early primate four million years ago. Adam based his writing on an episode of Coast where footprints were found in the Dovey estuary.

Liz: ‘She drew back the curtains and gasped………….’ Liz wrote about the expected view of terraced houses opposite having been replaced by wispy shades of blue and floating, coloured boulders. The viewer thought she may be dreaming, then she opened her front door……… Liz left the story hanging there  so we don’t know what happened next.

Marie: ‘Jasper jumped onto the dining table just as the Vicar was going to take a bite of his omelette. Jasper’s owner hoped to get to him before havoc ensured. She was too late……….’  Marie wrote about a parrot nearly drowning in the trifle and being washed under a tap. Unfortunately the vicar’s wife was splattered with trifle.

The homework was ‘Winter’

Sue wrote a Haiku: A flicker of red / A robin at my feeder / Brightens winter gloom.   

Kath wrote about winter portraying images of frost. 2022 was the warmest year on record. The river is up, there are mild temperatures at present. IUT’s chilly not cold and there are buds on trees and shrubs.

Andy wrote about winter skies which put on celestial displays and the location of stars and constellations. Andy described some constellations, the Polaris pole star. Their positions change during the year.   Sirius is the brightest star.

Irena read a poem she had written about her memory of growing up in the Yorkshire Dales called, ‘A Moment on Frostrow Fell.’ It was full of descriptions that we were easily able to imagine.

Jennie read, ‘Those bitter Winters’ which were the ramblings of Olive, an elderly lady who felt that youth is wasted on the young. She spoke about Chakras and revealed that today was the anniversary of a tragedy. Some of Olive’s memories were taken from Jennie’s own life.

Adam wrote about two strangers on a train during a snowstorm in winter. The train zig-zagged below snow-capped peaks and a cutting blocked with snow. The female remembered winters in her home in Quebec. She and the boy started arguing. Eventually they make up and kiss.

Liz read ‘A Broken Silence’ which was a mixture of her experiences during the past two weeks in Norway, and her knowledge of Nordic mythology. She set her piece in Midgard when an ancient Nordic god, Thor, awakens to tackle the challenges humans have brought upon themselves in January 2023 and his concern that modern humans have lost their faith and will not know how to face the coming storms they have let loose which could end the world, Ragnarok, (Armageddon).

Sue read Jane’s poem about fingers and toes tingling in winter.

Liz Read Alex’s Haiku: Hungry, empty trees / Submit to icy breezes, / Bobbing in ivory.

Kath read a piece ‘I Came, I Thaw, I Conquered.’ This was based in Iceland, the land of fire and ice with thirty active volcano systems. One glacier is one kilometre thick in some places.

Kath told us that on February 2nd there will be a comet currently behind the Plough. It was last closest to the earth 50,000 years ago. The atmosphere around it glows green. Before dawn is the best time to see it using binoculars.

Martyn sent a sound file however unfortunately Liz was unable to open it at Peepos, probably due to the poor WiFi signal.

The next two meetings are:

Tuesday 7^th February, 7pm at Peepos. Alex to chair. This is an extra meeting to the schedule. Please let Alex know if you can attend through hightownwriters@gmail.com Also, a reminder that GDPR legislation states that email addresses are not to be shared without the owner’s permission.

Tuesday 28^th February 7pm Peepos. Chair to be decided. Volunteers welcome for the position of Chairman and to set writing topics.

Marie Sever