We cannot get out

There are two roads that can be used to get to our house from the Outside.  One of them is blocked by some gentlemen who are felling a very large tree.   The other currently has a very large trailer / static caravan wedged very firmly into a narrow bend that was clearly designed for nothing wider than a horse-cart.  I got back here by dodging past the tree-felling gentlemen before they had really got stuck in.

So far, there are no drums in the deep. (Obviously, we are well endowed with Deeps here, being a mining area). Though if there are Drums, as a resident of the area, I am not sure if I am supposed to flee in terror from flame and shadow, or pile out to skitter menacingly up and down, waving something pointy at  The Party as it comes through.

A Singing Magic

Words : 7974
Taking off point: Rosemary Sutcliff's The Lantern Bearers
Written for sutcliff_swap 2012 

Flavia, brought up in the last lingering light of Roman Britain, was carried off from her burning home by a 'laughing giant' of a Saxon, in a raid during which her father and friends were brutally killed. Three years later, her brother found her again - married, and with a child by that same 'laughing giant'. Given the chance to escape back to the remnant of Roman Britain with her brother and her child, she chose to stay with her husband rather than go with her brother. This story explores what those years were like for Flavia, and how she came to make that choice.

Although there is a threat of rape in this story, it's not graphically violent. Contains suicidal thoughts, Christianity, culture clash, Anglian pagan religion, magic.

Many thanks to carmarthen, inzilbeth_liz and particularly seascribe for beta reading and brainstorming help. 

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Flavia had been waiting for the end of the world all her life. They all knew it was coming. This year, next year, in three years time perhaps - the Saxon tide would sweep in and carry away the beloved little farm on the Downs, like a sandcastle in a wave.

( Read more... )

( Historical notes & Witterings )

Totnes

A little while ago, we went to Totnes for a random day out.  I liked it.  Here is a photo that I feel sums the place up. 
( And some other photos for good measure.  )