Wires, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.
I love this telegraph pole outside my flat but I’ve never taken a pic of it as there’s been a bit of a problem in my street with crime.
But today I wasn’t going to be put off when I noticed the beautiful blue sky and the moon still out (OK, its tiny, but it’s there).
The photograph was also taken with my backup camera the Nikon Coolpix P5100. For a camera which I describe as broken it doesn’t take a bad picture I reckon.
How you make synthetic rainbow wool, originally uploaded by CyranDorman.
If you can’t find an actual rainbow to source to make your rainbow wool then there’s always this alternative for the synthetic stuff. It still makes lovely scarves for your friends 
Tunnel of tombstones, originally uploaded by Astrogirl72.
This is by far my favourite shot taken on the Liverpool leg of Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk (http://worldwidephotowalk.com/) which I took part in on 18th July 2009. I met up with 30 or so other photographers at the Anglican Catherdral and together we photographed St James’ Park, Duke Street, Bold Street, Liverpool One and The Albert Dock. A few of the photographers I have spoken to on Twitter and Flickr and this gave me the opportunity to meet them face to camera. We all seemed to have a fantastic day and some incredible photographs were taken. You can view them here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/liverpoolphotowalk/pool/ and have a look at the rest of my photographs from the day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrogirl72/sets/72157621756201212/
Anglican Monument, originally uploaded by Astrogirl72.
I really should be getting better results from such an expensive camera. This photograph looks as though it was taken with a Holga, not a Nikon Coolpix P6000. Having said that, it’s this pic that making me warm to my camera after 6 weeks of pretty much hating it. Go figure.
From the history of this poor and naked blog you could almost surmise that I had forgotten the password. This could not be further from the truth. I am happy to report that, I have been busy.
Number 10 on the list was to move into my own flat. I’ve done it. Early in March my very good friend Donna drove myself and my sister down to London and back to pick up my stuff and while she drove I took some pics. See my take on the road trip slideshow . (The silly face pics will be on Facebook soon.)
So, about the flat, the living room is approx 20ft x 12ft, bedroom approx 16ft x 9ft. No heating, no hot water, damp in the bedroom and I’ve already suffered flood damage from the flat upstairs but Elvis is on the Itunes and Tilly poos on my settee. In some ridiculous superstition that has to be ‘lucky’.
In the meantime I’m becoming strangely annoyed by a women on television who had 60 members in her knitting group. That’s just showing off, but my friend assures me its simply Songs of Praise syndrome and none of them turned up the following week. Alls I know is that I want to create a bigger, better knitting club.
In completely unrelated news, April saw me take part in Script frenzy for the second time running. Last year I completed a script entitled Fault 49 easily. This year the plan was to edit the original screenplay and to write an entirely new sequel thereby creating a two hour TV drama. It’s still on the table but it wasn’t speaking to me.
t was a long hard slug but with 4 days to go I decided to start on something completely different and new. Entirely inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk, and doing my research thoroughly (I can’t recommend this box set enough) I endeavoured to write a melodrama set in London in the 50’s. I needed two things, a piercing philosophy and a near fatal accident upon which the injured character is told, “Darling, try not to speak.”
Four days later: FADE OUT, I did it. Another completed screenplay.
Excerpt coming soon. In the meantime, if you want to see what I’m working on now, it’s up at the new Scribblepool.co.uk site
Have fun
Below is the first short story I have written in over 10 years.
It came about from a challenge set by my writers group, Liverpool Wrimos Anonymous, after realising that none of us had any real desire or apparent aptitude to write ‘romance’. The remit was simply to write a Mills & Boon inspired short story. 1000 words fitting into one of the Mills & Boon catergories (listed here).
Mine doesn’t. I tried. I really did, but I got nowhere until I gave in to my darker side which seems to be the way of me. Heck it’s worked for all of these years, who am I to change it now?
Lacey Godwin had known that he’d be trouble from the start. Even before he’d told her to keep out of his life just two hours after they’d met. The threat may have carried more weight had he not whispered it in his velvety deep tones into the crook of her neck as his body pushed hers hard against the wall of her office, in the blind spot of the security camera.
He’d reiterated the point a week later, when he’d laid out in horrific detail all the ways in which he could destroy her life if she stayed around long enough for him to let her. By then her body was pushing back.
She’d known it all then, two years ago and yet she hadn’t let him go. What on Earth made him think that she would abandon him now?
“Lacey and Mike? How the hell did that happen?” It had been the fifth time she’d heard the expression or something similar to it in as many minutes from the gathering crowd outside.
‘Lacey and Mike.’ Until this morning no-one had ever said it out loud. And the first time it had been uttered it had been accompanied by the mother of all question marks.
Lacey stood with her back against the wall in the same spot where the two had made love three, sometimes four times a week and pressed her palms against the cold plaster. She closed her eyes and the immediate thought of him brought the familiar pain which only he could sooth.
“I’m a bad man Lacey,” he’d told her that first time. His hands had held her face next to his, their flushed cheeks pressed together as she tilted her head upwards and his lips had fallen against her neck and instinctively they’d searched out the most delicate flesh upon which to feast. A hand sliding down her face to briefly touch her collarbone and then down and to the side of her breast. Lacey had moaned at the taunt and for this transgression Mike’s lips had shied away from her neck. He pulled her chin down so that the two could see eye to eye.
“This’ll end badly for both of us.” He’d promised.
She’d cared about it then. The career, her social standing, even her family would be affected by what she was about to do. She’d cared enough to look deep into his eyes that next week and consider another moment without him. The moment had lasted too long and she’d reached out for him pulling him into her and when he’d hesitated, her moans of frustration were met only by his closed eyes and confessions.
“I’ve done things, things a man doesn’t come back from Lacey.”
She’d thought that he’d wanted absolution from her but it wasn’t hers to give so she gave him everything else that she had instead. And when their clammy bodies finally came to rest against one another he opened his eyes and with them told her that her chance was gone. There was no escape now for either one of them.
The noise outside of the office door grew to a growl and Lacey opened her eyes knowing that eventually she would be expected to go out there. But not yet. This time everything would be on her terms.
She’d surrendered to Mike so easily that for far too long everything had been on his. But he knew she was nobody’s fool didn’t he? Hadn’t he known that it wouldn’t stay that way forever? Lacey wondered if he’d ever really doubted that that she would do everything it took to keep him. She moved a hand across her thigh and once again closed her eyes against the world. She pushed her head hard against the wall as her hand moved inwards and the memory of his hand took the form of hers.
Mike’s hand were easily twice the size of her own and she had been made well aware of this fact on the number of occasions when he had had to place one across her mouth to stifle the moans for which he was solely responsible. He could have taken her life at any time. It had been a shock the first time she’d realised that she would let him. But those same hands had gently and skilfully probed the flesh deep within her thighs as she was now, reliving the last time and the time before that Lacey pressed her fingertips further still and squeezed her eyes closed against the commotion which was steadily building outside.
She tried again to remember as she had on many occasions over the last twelve hours if there had been a clue. What had tipped her off?
“I don’t know where I’d be without you Lacey.” He’d said it over and over but it was what people said. It was no indication that he would be putting it to the test, so how had she known?
The last time they had been in this office they had made love only once. Mike had been slow and deliberate in his need for her supple flesh. His lips pressing down into her neck as firmly as his fingers had pressed into her and her need had easily matched his. Was that it? Did they know each others touch so well now that she could tell from that brief interlude that Mike was saying goodbye?
There had been some tangible suggestion of panic and it had been enough to lead her first down one road and then another until she had ultimately come to realise that Mike wanted out. And there was no way that that could happen. She’d put everything on the line for him and she was about to do it again just as he must have known she would. He must have known her the way she knew him.
Her hand moved back and forth, the pain of his absence coming fully to bear upon her fingertips now as somewhere in the background she heard the voice that she had been expecting all morning.
Lacey opened her eyes lazily and pushed herself off the wall at the cursory knock at the door. She unlocked it to let the interrogation begin.
“Warden?” The visitor enquired. Lacey moved forward and offered a hand. “I’m Lieutenant Gates, I’m here to question you about your alleged affair with the prisoner Mike Sheen and your part in his escape attempt.”
Lacey smiled.
There’d been no escape attempt and she’d make sure they knew that whatever the cost. She’d put a stop to it before it had even got that far. The last words she’d said to him echoed in her ears and she realised now that they had been directed at herself.
“Parole in five Mike.” She remembered the line as the handcuffs where placed around her wrists.
101 Things to do in 1001 days
Further details to follow, just wanted to get the list up today:
Start date: Today 11th February 2009
End date: 9th November 2011
MISCELLANEOUS
1. Post a secret to postsecret (0/1)
2. Ride on a rollercoaster (0/1)
3. Have a horse riding lesson (0/1)
4. Sleep under the stars (0/1)
5. Get a tattoo (0/1)
6. Learn how to ride a bike (0/1)
7. Get equipment ready for an Axolotl (0/1)
8. Join a choir (0/1)
9. Arrange a fantastic 40th (0/1)
10. Move into my own flat (0/1)
11. Make a cabinet of curiosities (0/1)
12. Get an invitation to Paulo Coelho’s St Joseph’s Day Party (0/1)
13. Get up at 5am every day for a month (0/31)
14. Try a martial art (0/1)
15. Support my local cricket team (0/1)
16. Be seed sufficient, take part in seed swaps rather than buying (no F1!) (0/3)
17. Regularly update my scrapbook/memento book (0/36)
ART
18. Spend 12 non consecutive days photographing street scene in the style of Meyerowitz (0/12)
19. Have a professional photo shoot (0/1)
20. Visit and photograph every park in Liverpool
21. Paint a picture (0/1)
22. Take a photograph to represent each of things on list (0/101)
23. Take a self portrait every day for a month (0/30)
24. Take pictures of lightning (0/1)
25. Make something creative out of rubbish (0/1)
26. Photograph a sunrise and sunset in Dorset (0/2)
27. Take pictures in a Bluebell field (0/1)
28. Post all good photos to flickr (1/36)
29. Set up a family flickr account and post pics (0/1)
30. Learn how to self portrait with camera (0/1)
31. Join photography group (0/1)
32. Make 10 shorts films about anything (can be stop motion, animation or just video) (0/10)
33. Learn to smile in front of the camera so that I can be in a few more photos (0/1)
34. Recreate 10 famous photographs or paintings (0/10)
35. Create a stained glass acetate representing me (0/1)
36. Make Spooky a soundtrack video (0/1)
GOING PLACES
37. Climb 3 of my favourite fells (0/3)
38. See another eclipse (0/1)
39. Go to Chelsea Flower Show (0/1)
40. Go to Wimbledon (0/1)
41. Go to Old Trafford (0/1)
42. Go to Lords (0/1)
43. Go to top of the tower at the Anglican Cathedral (0/1)
44. Visit all major galleries and museums in Merseyside
45. Do bus route tour of London (0/1)
46. Go to Edinburgh (0/1)
47. Find a fossil on the Jurassic coast (0/1)
48. Visit all 19 of Hillman’s English wonders (0/19)
49. Got to Welsh Mountain Zoo (0/1)
50. Visit bath (0/1)
51. Go to a ballet (0/1)
52. Get part sponsorship or save entire amount to volunteer at Orang-Utan rehabilitation centre in Sepilok, Malaysia (0/1)
53. Visit Jodrell Bank (0/1)
ALMOST ALTRUISM
54. Go on a March/Protest (0/1)
55. Get involved in a community project (0/1)
56. Publish Audrey’s poems (0/1)
57. Go and see Nannie at least once every season if not more often (0/12)
58. Try to find Paula Roberts (0/1)
59. Knit an item of clothing for every member of family (0/6)
60. Knit Oxfam jumpers/squares
61. Do an activity to raise money for charity eg. Fun run, abseil (0/1)
WRITING
62. Submit a manuscript (0/1)
63. Find an agent (0/1)
64. Read something at an open mic night (0/1)
65. Spend weekend secluded in a hotel writing (0/1)
66. Complete 2 year novel course (0/1)
67. Enter ABNA 2010 (0/1)
68. Take part in and complete Nanowrimo ’09, ’10 (0/2)
69. Complete Mercy (0/1)
70. Complete first draft of Fault 49 from Scriptfrenzy manuscript (0/1)
71. Redraft Tapping the Thread (0/1)
72. Challenge set out by Kate (0/5)
JUST FOR FUN
73. Re-read entire Sandman
74. Read Don Quixote in the space of a weekend (0/1)
75. Spend week watching all Elvis movies (0/31)
76. Read all Booker Prize winners forever
77. Watch all Academy Award Winning Best Foreign Films
78. Read all of my unread books at the time of going to going to press
79. Watch all unwatched films at time of going to press
80. Read all Bond books
HOBBIES
81. Learn about history of Liverpool (0/1)
82. Learn how to sew and make a garment (0/1)
83. Cook 101 new recipes (0/101)
84. Join a knitting group (0/1)
85. Learn to recognise all major constellations in the Northern Hemisphere
86. Re-stock house plants (0/1)
87. Get an allotment (0/1)
88. Set up blogs and keep them updated (1/72)
89. Design and make a knitted creature (0/1)
90. Finally learn how to crochet (0/1)
HEALTH
91. Switch entirely to decaff (0/1)
92. NMSH (0/36)
93. NMM (0/5)
94. HS (0/1)
95. Go for an hours walk four times a week for six months (0/96)
96. Start running (0/1)
97. Start swimming and go regularly (0/1)
98. Try a yoga class (0/1)
99. Eat regular meals (0/1)
100. CCBT (0/1)
101. Take control of my health instead of letting it control me. (0/36)
