Aghast

The beaches were awash and reeling with sunburnt flesh, already peeling, and tempers flared up in the sun at polite requests to please move on, oblivious to the growing shadow of the Covid reaper. Do they not know the way to measure social distance? After several months of abstinence, entitlement had taken the place of […]

The Wrong Daisies

Will’s mouth gaped. What had just happened? Willa used her wand to stir the drops of potion that remained in the cauldron. Everything was as it should be: she could see tiny pieces of daisy petals, willow bark, nettle leaf and yellow buttercup pollen. She ran to the door to look at the forest of […]

Sprung from Richest Rain

Early spring ice melts channels in mountains, fields and hills, loosens hardened sods under the metal plough’s thunder. Grey crusts and clods break in the furrows’ crumbling wake, surfed by flocks of gulls and crows pillaging carefully crafted rows. Later in the ripening year, earth fulfils the farmer’s prayer; tender growth greens the plain, rapeseed […]

Daisies Everywhere

The villagers were not surprised when the stone goblin disappeared from beneath the willow tree, or when Will moved in with Willa. What might have bothered them was that he was less than half her size, although his face looked older. Willa was quick to point it out when she released him from the weather […]