The Squirrel and the Pumpkin

My sister Wendy Mitchell is a keen amateur wildlife photographer. As you know, I love to play with words. It is becoming a tradition for us to produce a calendar together every year, if and when we can. Last year's had a few problems but that aside, I hope you enjoy this little seasonal offering.

Wendy took the photo, I wrote the words. Enjoy x

Could there be a scarier scene,

To hail the month of Halloween?

Can there be any dastardly deeds

To match a squirrel, stealing seeds?

Or is it just, perhaps, preparing?

Nothing at all to do with scaring?

Could squirrel merely be stockpiling?

As for Pumpkin; well, it is smiling…

Halloween Display

Just a photo I took years ago on a cruise ship. We went on a mini cruise - they call it a ‘taster’ for four nights. It was great, the food was amazing and plentiful and I was really impressed with the Halloween displays they put on. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween.

Coin Trees or Wish Trees, Portmeirion

Since I had to delete my old account (formerly known as So Lost in Words, now S P Oldham, Author) I am sharing some of the content here that I had on my old blog, simply because I think it is interesting.

We went on holiday earlier this year. While we were away we paid a visit to Portmeirion, where we came across an old tree stump, full of coins that had been buried in it. This intrigued me as I had never seen it before, so I made a point of researching it when we got home. Below is the post I wrote as a result

One of the coin trees we found in the woodland walk area of Portmeirion.

As a friend suggested to me, I might well end up having a go at a short, scary story based on this piece of historical folklore. (Photographs are mine. Feel free to use them but please quote either S P Oldham or solostinwords.com if you do. Thank you.)

Some of the mysterious 'wish trees' in Portmeirion. Apparently there are seven (we found three or four) and there are others like these in other places. I have never seen this before. "...coin-covered trees (date) back to the 1700s, when they were apparently used as wishing trees. People believed that a person suffering from an illness could hammer a coin into a tree trunks and the tree would take the illness away, but if someone removed the coin, they themselves would become ill. Whether some folks still believe this legend, or they do it simply because it’s fun is still a mystery, but the fact is this bizarre habit has spawned some pretty unbelievable sights that apparently unique to the UK" Quote from Oddity-Central, the article is here: https://www.odditycentral.com/.../britains-mysterious...

#folklore#dark dark folklore fairy tales dark fiction myths and legends folklore witches devil ghosts#wish tree#portmeirion#dark fiction#short story ideas

Thank you for your patience.

Please bear with me while I slowly but surely build the site. I have loads of content that I want to share with you, which I hope you will enjoy. I also run frequent competitions (more about that later) and other stuff both horror and non-horror related.

Got a (polite and appropriate) suggestion? A question? A comment? Get in touch, I love to interact with readers.

Back with more soon.

My First Entry Just to Say Hello!

Hi, thanks for dropping in. This is my first ever blog post here on my shiny new SquareSpace Blog. Sorry to say I have had some serious issues with another website which shall remain nameless, so here I am and here I hope to stay!

I am an avid reader as well as an author. I read all kinds of genres, not just horror or dark fiction. I have a particular love for historical fiction and you are just as likely to find me reading Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell, Philippa Gregory or Lyndsey Davis as you are to find me reading Stephen King, James Herbert or Dean Koontz.

It sounds cliched, but I really have been writing all my life. Any one of my family (I am the youngest of five sisters) will tell you that I have been writing stories and poems ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I pursued the orthodox route to publishing for years on and off, with little success. It was only in 2017 that I decided to throw caution to the wind and try this self-publishing thing that everyone was talking about. It’s been onwards and upwards ever since.

My writing partner and constant companion Milo pictured in the thumbnail would also like to say hi!