Black with Secrets, Adorned with Silver

Another short by Roland….he is full of ideas!!!!

Roland Clarke's avatarWriting Wings

Smoke On The Water ~ Image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Smoke On The Water ~ Image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

They are gathering. I can hear them in the darkness and wonder why they are here so early. At first their cries slipped into my dreams, weaving their way into the gradual awakening. Eyes open, my conscience knows that it’s time. Time to face the day and my obligations.

The heavy drapes pulled wide as my eyes, I see the dawn, soft and orange, streaked with indigo and tendrils of mist from the lake. Shadow trees are reflected in the shimmering water.

My visitors are waiting.

Raiment as black as coal, they glisten in the light like black diamonds. As they stalk around on the grass, their eyes watch me, knowing what I will do. But I am waiting for their cousins. They arrive acrobatically displaying their talent. Hopping across the ground as they land, the sun shines…

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Sam Griffiths: Interview with the 2014 Badminton Winner

Beautifully done……

Roland Clarke's avatarWriting Wings

Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials 2014 Sam Griffiths & Paulank Brockagh winning Badminton ~ Photo by Kit Houghton

I am very pleased and immensely honoured to be interviewing Australian Sam Griffiths who on May 11th 2014 won the prestigious Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials on Dinah Posford & Juliet Carter’s 11-year-old mare Paulank Brockagh (Brocks). This was Sam’s first four-star eventing title, landing £80,000 pounds (US $134,000), and the Mitsubishi Motors Trophy.

Watching one of the most demanding Badmintons, I was elated when Sam and Brocks jumped from twenty-fifth after the dressage phase, to first after surviving the attrition of a tough cross-country and having just one fence down in the final show jumping phase. This was not only because Sam’s such a great guy but also because he was riding a mare. As readers of my novel “Spiral of Hooves” will know, mares hold a special place in my eventing world.

When Sam became…

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I’m Fine… but the MS is not

You are important to me……I don’t have to ask “how are you”…..I can see it…….

Roland Clarke's avatarWriting Wings

InsecureWritersSupportGroup2

What should I say? Do I remain polite? Or complain?

But it’s good manners to say “Good morning” and ask how someone is, then remark on the weather. People don’t really want to know how I am, any more than they want to learn about my writing.

My wheelchair is invisible and all they see is the smile on my face… the smile that keeps me going, along with my writing. Depression, openly demonstrated, doesn’t sit well with MS, even if it lurks behind me most of the day.

I have real friends that understand, many writers that I met online, some even suffer with invisible illnesses and know the secret of hiding the pain. Yet there are days when the pain gets too much and I scream aloud, my body jerking with uncontrollable spasms. On those days both writing and thinking are jumbled. But I’m not the only sufferer…

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Welcome to the Gossamer World

Roland Clarke's avatarWriting Wings

Photo of a cloud illuminated by sunlight. ~ by Ibrahim Iujaz from Rep. Of Maldives Photo of a cloud illuminated by sunlight. ~ by Ibrahim Iujaz from Rep. Of Maldives

For some months I have been posting about my “Gossamer Steel” world, but now that world has evolved. Welcome to its new incarnation.

Gossamer Flames” is a series of short stories and novellas set in the post-apocalyptic world that arises after a catastrophic event leaves the planet ravaged and divided. Society is forced to adapt to a changed world where the surviving enclaves need to make use of their remaining resources. Only two regions are known to survive, Bhārata, formerly the Indian sub-continent, and The Country, comprising parts of Scandinavia. However, there are pockets of survivors in other areas, including within the desert areas of North America, in some remote mountainous regions of the Andes, and on some islands. Most of these are totally isolated from each other post the apocalypse.

The…

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Welsh Musings

Roland Clarke's avatarWriting Wings

Whitedragontwolegs White dragon (wyvern). Adapted from wikipedia image of the wyvern flag of wessex. This two legged dragon (or wyvern) follows the style of the two dragons in Harold Godwinson’s death scene in the original 1066 Bayeux tapestry.

I’m not Welsh, either by heritage or because of where I was born. I don’t speak Welsh – I don’t think knowing “bore da” and “nos da” heralds more than the day or the night… and my struggle to pronounce other simple phrases.

I have to admit that I am a white dragon in red territory. I’m English with a touch of Scottish and a quarter Chilean blood to add some spice. An Englishman living in another country. Our puppy, Quetzal has more claim to being Welsh by birthplace – Garndolbenmaen.

However, my American wife, Juanita and I live in Wales. Our home on Pant Mawr Residential Park in Harlech has views that…

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Fair deals for the long-term sick

This is from a friend’s blog….it is really nice to have friends and people who share the same thoughts and get angry about how people are treated……Thank you Ailsa Abraham

ailsaabrahamwp's avatarThe Bingergread Cottage

This ls long but I make no apologies, it covers a vital subject and we need you to read it, please. As you all know I am classified as an invalid for various reasons. You also know that I am extremely fortunate to be in France and under the care of our brilliant Health Service

I was very shocked therefore to find that my good friend Roland Clarke, who is in a similar position in the UK, is experiencing some appalling treatment at the hands of BT.

Tell us about the story, Roland.

Awww - Roland and Juanita. Roland and Juanita.

At the beginning of January we knew that we were moving house at the end of February, so we contacted BT [British Telecom – who provided our phone & internet] – to arrange the new service. On January 9th BT gave us an engineer appointment for February 17th, and for the…

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Ddraig Wen

 outside

 

In 2 days time Roland and I will begin our journey to a new house and life. I am filled with excitement and apprehension right now. So many feelings but no regrets.

I started this journey back in 2010 when I came to the UK to be with and marry the man who would become my best friend and soul mate. So much has happened since I started this journey, but my love for Roland has never faltered nor will it ever.

It is a little bit sad to be leaving the first home we bought together but I realize that this next journey will make our lives so much better and will be another learning experience for both of us. I will miss the “fairy tree” behind our garden. Where we are now there are to many obstacles and roadblocks in the way. I think I am tired of moving around them. Then there is the politics and the back-stabbing that goes along with living in a neighbourhood where your neighbours are not who you think they are. Talking behind backs, causing problems and generally just not getting things done the way they are supposed to be done.

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The new home is going to be a new adventure and a far better place. I can finally build my fairy garden and we know that the neighbours there are much more helpful and there is more camaraderie amongst people who are not only neighbours but good friends. We will be able to see the sea, smell the sea air instead of pollution from the motorways, eat good Welsh food and the list goes on. We have our own castle and a beautiful view of the Snowdonia mountains. The best thing of all will be that Roland will be able to get out more and maybe have some adventures of his own with many wonderful, caring friends. This may well inspire some new writings for him and I hope that it does.

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It will be hard at first, making new friends and making some life changes for the better for both of us. I think gone are the days of sitting in front of a computer all day and half the night either checking emails or slaying beasts from another world.

We have only had one bump to go over that has made this move anything but smooth. British Telecommunications or BT as they are known!!!! I have never in my life seen such incompetence, I mean how does one muck up transferring a service from one house to another? Roland called them on 9 January to set up the service at the new home. Sounds simple enough right? “Oh but Mr Clarke I can save you money by just making a whole new account for your move and you don’t have to worry about a contract as there is not one in place at this time.” So we got a confirmation of the appointment for 17 February. Looks like it will be okay! Right up to the day we got several emails and text messages letting us know that the engineer would be at the house between 8am and 1pm. The 17th came and went, was expecting a call from the property owner of the park to let us know everything was in place…..but nothing. I finally called him and the guy didn’t even show up!!! Next day, the 18th, Roland again called BT and was told that whomever had set this in motion did not do it correctly, should not have “sold” us a new account and that we indeed were still under a contract and it would cost ££ to buy it out. So BT in all their great wisdom cancelled that appointment and account. Now for the fun part. They told us that the next available appointment is the 10th of April. WHAT???? 40 days with no phone or internet? The BT gods must be crazy!!! We got the excuses that they had to go run the line etc etc. It is a park home you idiots, the utilities are already there, all you have to do is send someone out to hook the wire to the home, then take a 10 minute drive to the exchange!!!!!! Well after going through this since the 18th they finally said yesterday the 24th that the phone would be on at the end of this week, should I believe this story from them now?, and that they had no idea when they could get the broadband going….HELLO!!!! Does the broadband not run through the telephone wire? OH WELL!!! I give up. So if Roland and I disappear for 40 days without a trace, just remember that we may be on an ark, floating around in all the bull that BT has sent down on us!!!!! HAHA

Noah

Despite all this I am still very excited to start anew, and I will be celebrating my birthday on the 1st of March in our new home!!!! What a great birthday present!!! So before I go I want to send out a little toast to all of our friends who have our back, and to our wonderful new life in our beautiful new home.

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Oh yeah just so you all know the “name” of our new home….it is Ddraig Wen which means White Dragon!!!!! I will be off now so I can finish up the last minute packing and such so till next time from the Duskweald…..Dduw Bendithia!!!!!

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Symud i Cymru!!!!!

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Well here we are another new year and I have been very lazy, or maybe I just haven’t been able to fine the motivation to write. Very bad for someone who wants to write a blog…….Maybe when things in my life settle down I can get back into writing but for now you will all have to suffice with what is here for the time being. A lot has been going on since I last traipsed these halls which I call The Duskweald.

Roland and I started to talk about what we wanted to do with our lives and where we wanted to live and we ended up doing some serious soul searching. We realized that living in the park home we currently have was not going to work for either of us. We did have the en suite redone so it would be easier for him to shower a bit more independently that he had been doing. Then he finally got an electric wheelchair and he was finding it difficult to navigate in the rooms here. Either to narrow of doorways or not enough room to even try to turn around.

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We started looking at our options and considered maybe extending the present home out a few feet and just having it gutted and start over……but it soon became apparent that that was not a feasible option as we would have to move out and put our belongings in storage in order to have that done. Could we even find a place to live for a few weeks that was wheelchair friendly? As we looked around for places like that we found them to be far and few between, so that would not be an option for us. So what do we do? We started looking at other options and we had a couple of those…..1. Find a suitable park home already sited for a wheelchair or….2. Maybe a park with some plots on it to site a new home. We contacted several places and some we got answers back…some didn’t even bother to answer our query.

We looked in the South East, South West, around Norfolk and in fact we thought we had found the ideal park to live in……but it was to good to be true when we found out they did not have the license to sell park homes that you could live in 12 months a year……they only had the license for holiday homes which means you can only stay 11 months in a year…..so it was back to the drawing board.

Did we really want to stay here in the South East or did we want to let our adventurous personalities come out and move further afield? So many decisions and just not enough time it seemed like. One day while just sitting here thinking about what we needed, wanted, and could afford I found one magazine that didn’t get thrown out when I did a big throw away a few weeks earlier. In this magazine was a park home site which took our breath away…….it had the sea view, is surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains and has its own castle. So we contacted the site owner and he suggested we come to visit. So in September we loaded up the car and I drove us to North Wales. Yes we were on an adventure, an adventure that would change our lives forever. Making a long story short we fell in love with Pant Mawr, who wouldn’t if they saw it. It felt like home and I had been away for a very long time. I cried, not sad tears but happy tears knowing that one day we would be living our dreams. We met with the representative from Omar homes and we got to do all the planning and how we wanted our new home to be………….

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As of this date, January 19, 2014 our day to move is slowly creeping closer….some days it feels like time passes fast and other days it feels like we are in a vortex and time is standing still. Our new home, which will make Roland’s life so much easier in his wheelchair will be picked up from the manufacturer tomorrow, January 20 and taken to Wales. We were told we could move in by the end of February depending on the weather but I have a feeling it will be much sooner than that. The mild winter and no snow has helped in that respect. I have been very busy packing boxes and getting ready for the big move and our wonderful new home in the beautiful town of Harlech in Snowdonia National Park.

Harlech Aerial Mid Castles Historic sites
Harlech Castle © Crown copyright (2013) Visit Wales

We were not going to put our current home on the market until we got moved but decided it would be better to get it sold. So glad we made that decision as it went on the market on the 15th and it looks like we have a buyer already……..fingers and toes crossed!!!! I am so happy but can’t wait until we are there…..I have to keep going and looking at the pictures to remind myself that it won’t be long now.

Anyway, I think that is all I can write for now, will try to be more current with things that happen…..maybe try to write something at least once a month if I can think of something to babble on about. So thank you for taking the time to read about our adventures …….till next time from The Duskweald!!!!!!!