Last week, we announced the winner of the September flash competition on the theme of ‘dementia and memory’. This week, we’re publishing the runner-up entry as it was such a close vote and we think it’s an excellent piece our readers would like to see. The entry is by 70-year-old Abigail Ottley and we know … Continue reading Dementia and Memory – Runners Up Entry
We’re now just past the halfway mark in our poetry month here at Autumn Voices and you still have almost two weeks to enter our annual competition. This week’s blog will whet the appetite of anyone who’s ever written in Scots, or wanted to write in, and it comes to us courtesy of Sheila Templeton, … Continue reading How do we learn to write in Scots?
We’re delighted to let you know that the winner of the September flash prize on the theme of ‘dementia and memory’ is 79-year-old Donald Adamson. Donald is originally from Scotland and is now based in Finland. His entry, ‘Scratching To Be Let In’, was picked by the staff team as their favourite and he wins … Continue reading Dementia and Memory – Winning Entry
We continue our poetry theme this week with a blog article from Caroline Johnstone about her experience of being a poet in residence. Just in case it’s escaped your attention, the Autumn Voices blogs are poetry-themed this month because of our annual poetry competition, so don’t forget to enter that! About Caroline A fortified ruin … Continue reading A Poet in Residence spills the beans …
It’s poetry competition time here at Autumn Voices, just in case you didn’t notice us shouting loudly about it all over social media. Throughout October we are running our annual autumn poetry competition, which will be judged by the wonderful Des Dillon, and also celebrating National Poetry Day on Thursday 6th October. This means our … Continue reading Then and Now
It’s Oddfellows Friendship Month and at Autumn Voices we wanted to celebrate the role of friendship as a nourishing and sustaining presence in our lives for those of us lucky to have good friends – whether new, or life-long. This week, 65-year-old Sheila Wakefield, Autumn Voices Steering Group member and publisher at Red Squirrel Press, … Continue reading Friendship
Throughout August we asked you to send in your flash entries about cats, Edinburgh, or allotments. The twist being this had to be photo instead of a piece of poetry or prose. We loved looking through all your photos! There could only be one winner though and we’re pleased to announce Sara Baker, aged 72, was … Continue reading Cats/Edinburgh/Allotments – Winning Entry
We’re now almost halfway through September and we find ourselves in Pension Awareness Week, running from the 12th to the 16th of the month. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the public response to the events of the last week dominating the deadlines, it’d be no surprise if this particular theme had completely … Continue reading Money Matters 💰
Our journey through the calendar year brings us anniversaries, events, important milestones and themed monthly celebrations in honour of worthy and vital issues. We find ourselves now in Autumn – a season traditionally associated with advancing years and one which inspired our name, Autumn Voices. It’s also September, a month often connected with growing older. … Continue reading Food For Thought
Cat writer Mollie Hunt is the award-winning author of two cosy series, the Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries, featuring a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip, and the Tenth Life Paranormal Mysteries involving a ghost cat. Her Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy presents extraordinary cats saving the world. She also … Continue reading A Cat Writer’s Journey
When I told my publicist that it was my 70th birthday on 12th August during my run at the Edinburgh Fringe she said two things. Firstly, that it was known in Scotland as the glorious 12th and secondly how on earth had I managed to reach this age with the life that I have led? Well, it appears, in … Continue reading An Edinburgh elder: Mary Goggin, Runaway Princess at 70
Throughout July we asked you to send in your flash entries about water. It turned out to be a very popular topic with lots of entrants to wade through! There could only be one winner though and we’re pleased to announce Eleanor Fordyce, aged 74 from Angus, swept us away with her poem, “Seafarer”. She … Continue reading The Water – Winning Entry
Have you seen Ethel & Ernest, the animation of Raymond Briggs’s book of the same name? Briggs’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel Ethel & Ernest was first published in 1998 and the film based on it is an emotional journey about him and his parents, and the relationships between them until 1971 when his parents both died. … Continue reading What are you plotting?
You may have noticed that we like cats around here. Our resident cat, Orlando, regularly makes an appearance on the blog and last week he was helping a fellow feline get in the back door! Orlando was given the makeover treatmeant in a competition to draw him. That competition was won by Louis Dunn and … Continue reading International Cats Day
*no Nessies were harmed during the making of this film. As our sea and water activities-filled July comes to an end, we have one more thing to share with you before we float into August (see what we did there?) We’ve recently learned of a beautiful film made about a group of swimmers who meet … Continue reading Swimming with the Loch Ness Monster
