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Creative Writing

Page updated  27-02-2025-RP                                                                                                                                                                        Group Risk Assessment - 7 August 2024
 
We all have a story to tell, or there’s a poignant letter to a friend, a humorous poem or nostalgic script lurking somewhere in the back of our minds.  Now is the time to settle down and put ‘pen to paper’; it is so therapeutic to offload jostling thoughts into a coherent readable whole.
 
Can you create a short story, make a parody from a well-known poem, or even write a play? Perhaps rewrite your life experiences onto that computer screen in an entertaining or informative way? This can encourage others to have a go too. We are all about support and encouragement. No  experience is necessary, only the desire to have a go.

It is said that we all have a book in us, and with a little gentle nurturing, everyone can write poetry. Even a few jottings can start the ball rolling…

 
The Group Leaders Mike & Sheila started the Group in 2022, meeting alternate Wednesday mornings in member's homes. Such has been the success of the group that it has now grown as large as sitting rooms can accommodate, so there is now a waiting list pending the time when the group can move to a larger venue:  Please contact Mike if you would like to join the waiting list​, 

The Group now contributes a piece of creative writing each month towards our u3a "Newsline" magazine
Here is the latest contribution:


On the Making of the Scone
Foreword:
It is manifestly important to procure from one’s provender the finest and freshest of culinary ingredients. Ensure your flour is derived from organically grown wheat (Triticum aestivum), nurtured as in the fields of Elysian. Check the variety used! ‘Olympus’ is the consistently top-yielding variety. It offers a good stiff straw and an excellent overall disease-resistant package with superior grain quality. Spurn any chemical additive to the flour; such alchemy is to be despised in home cooking if you really wish to communicate your love to the recipients.
Like the flour, the sugar must be fine, organic and unprocessed. Saccharum officinarum, if you can find it, is so much better than Beta vulgaris (the clue, dear Reader, is in the name!)
The butter will be the product of hours of hand-churning the best of Jersey milk, using a traditional sycamore-wood paddle, its blade bleached by use alone and bearing the shiny patina only a woman’s hands may impart to a pole. Sultanas are the only fruit to use in a scone, cultivated as they are in the remoter regions of Asia Minor for their sweetness and seedlessness.
Brook no substitute for the best dark brown eggs, gathered with your own warmed, bare hands from beneath the brood pouch of your two-year-old Maran. Black Copper Marans are a stunning breed. Their feathers have an iridescent green sheen and copper flecks setting them apart in your flock. They are medium-sized and weigh about 7-8 lbs. Their plumage is incredibly soft making them great to snuggle with! And, as a bonus, they’re super easy to handle and socialize well with humans and other chickens.
Method:
The flour must be sifted, into a Mason Cash bowl, from a height of no less than 7 inches to the point of angel-breath fineness, before adding the sunshine yellow butyric shortening, this having been creatively crafted into cuboids of exactly quarter-inch sides. Take your time on this task of mindfulness, carefully cloning the cubes! The butter may then, and only then, be added in one glorious golden tumble. Knead as if fondling the nipples of a young maiden until they melt into the floury depths. The sugar – ah, the sucrose stars – should be added now; the frosty crystals have waited their turn long enough. The golden sultanas are next in the patient queue, joyously trundled in like pea gravel from a builder’s barrow. The egg and milk bring a happy harmony of bedfellows to your dry, downy, duvet of deliciousness. Perform a gentle admixture. It will be moist but, remember Mother’s words: moisture makes for a tumescent rise.
Baked at the usual temperature for scones and removed from the oven at climax, you cannot go wrong.
​Serve warm, to those you love, on a doily-shrouded plate.

Jill Hickling 22.3.25




Here are some previous contributions for Newsline:
All I want for Christmas (Dec 2024)
​The Shawl (Jan 2025)

Pub Fever (Feb 2025)
Old Person's Rant (Mar 2025)
Winter (Apr 2025)
The Longest Day


Think you might be interested in joining this group?

1. If you are not already a member of Southwell U3A but are interested in finding out more about this group and/or would like to attend one of their group meetings please click on the Contact Us link and let us know. We will arrange for the Group Leader to get in touch with you as soon as possible.

2. If you are already a member of Southwell U3A and are interested in joining this group you can contact the Group Leader directly. Their details are in the Group Leaders page in our Membership Area of the website. As a Southwell U3A member you will have received the password for the Members Area pages in Newsline.  If you have forgotten the password please use our Contact Us link to request the password.
  © Southwell u3a                                                                 Reg'd Charity No. 1132337                
​                                      
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  • Home
  • Admin
    • Model Role Descriptions
    • Our Policies
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    • Insurance
    • AGM 2024
  • About Us
    • Monthly Report from the Chair
    • Southwell u3a >
      • The u3a in Nottinghamshire
      • The u3a in Britain
    • Committee
    • Contact us
    • FAQs
    • News & Events
  • Membership
    • Monthly Meetings >
      • Monthly Meetings Information
      • Speakers Programme
    • Contact us
    • Members' Area >
      • Contacts: Committee and other postholders
      • Newsline for Members
      • Interest Groups, Group Leaders and Monthly Calendar
      • Group Activities Timetables
      • Group Leaders' Handbook (Web version)
      • Group Leaders Checklist
      • Trips and Social Committee
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    • Members' Portal
    • How to join us
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    • Joining via an Application Form
    • Information for New Members
    • How to Renew Membership
  • Activities
    • List of Interest Groups
    • Interest Groups
    • Starting a New Group
    • How to join a Group
    • Concert Trips
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    • Guidance for trip organisers
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