Issue 391 12th June 2015

2

FLASH FICTION: Random Words: trade, piece/peace, by-way, promptly, paddle, banger, sedative, fortune, carefully, sausages, right Assignment : Less is more

A warm welcome awaits. COME to WORKSHOP ... Every Monday 1.30 start Rising Brook Library

Street Art: Artist unknown Did anyone notice there’s a

bloke dressed

in a stag costume in this

A&E queue? ...

That’s one stag night that’s

going to be remembered ...

www.issuu.com/risingbrookwriters

A Union Workhouse was built on Marston Road in 1837-8 designed by a Mr Thomas

Trubshaw of Stafford.

In 1948 the Union Workhouse buildings became Fernleigh. This consisted

of an old people's nursing home, a hospital for the chronically ill, a maternity unit and

ward for those suffering from skin diseases.

1971 Fernleigh was demolished and Foxwalls a care-home for the elderly was

opened on the site. The site is now being redeveloped for

social housing.

Staffs Past Track

Staffs Past Track

William Salt

Library

Map of 19th Century Stafford

(Towards Hopton)

Union Workhouse

Marston Road

Shown are House/grounds &

Smallpox Hospital

5

Gardening Tips for June ... Frances Hartley

Tomatoes should be growing well in the greenhouse now and starting to flower. If

like me, you haven’t seen many insects about to pollinate them, you can gently tap

the canes each day to help to distribute the pollen. I may have mentioned before

about what to do if the bottom leaves start to go yellow. Yellowing of the leaves on

Tomato plants and many other plants is usually a sign that they are getting short of

Magnesium Sulphate. To cure this I water round the roots of the tomato plants with

some water containing a solution of Epsom Salts at about 1 teaspoonful to 1 pint of

water.

There was an article in a daily paper saying that plant nurseries generally and espe-

cially growers of large quantities of salad crops are importing Lady Birds to keep

crops clear of Aphids. Using natures own natural little predators to keep pests at

bay is very “Green” and environmentally friendly. You can buy little packs of eggs

or larvae from specialist dealers to put in your own greenhouse, but they are quite

expensive. Myself, I never use insecticides in the garden and certainly not in the

greenhouse, but I do hang up the sticky yellow cards that you can buy. The cards

are specially made for greenhouses and are not toxic. Aphids go for yellow and will

get stuck on the cards as will many other insects such as flies, but Ladybirds, are

not attracted by them so are perfectly safe. You can also get Red Spider mite in the

greenhouse when it is dry and very hot, but the simple cure for this is to throw a

bucket of water over the floor to damp down occasionally. Plants like Cucumbers

will love the increased humidity.

It should be safe to put all bedding plants out now as well as vegetable plants such

as Runner Beans, Courgettes, etc. Aubergines need a little protection as they don’t

seem to like the wind on them, but are quite easy to grow in either a glass or poly-

thene greenhouse.

We are trying Sugar Snap Peas, Okra and Radish Mooli in pots, so I will tell you

how they do later on. Let’s hope the Runner Beans do better this time as nobody I

have spoken to seemed to do very well last year.

The Rhubarb has done really well this year with good stems and the leaves could

almost be used as umbrellas. If you leave the stems too long before you pick them

they can get very tough, so make sure you only pick the young ones to eat unless

you cover the plant with something like a very large upturned plant pot to draw

them up.

You might want to try growing a few vegetables in large pots as there are plenty of

young plants for sale in the garden centres. It is easy to transplant young vegetable

plants, but remember that root vegetables are best not disturbed after sowing as it

can cause the roots to fork or divide. Sow things like Beetroot and Carrots directly

where you want them and thin them out afterwards. If your vegetable plot is full

you can easily grow Beetroot and Carrots in borders among bedding plants as they

have attractive leaves.

Well that’s all for now.

Frances Hartley

SURPLUS FOOD SHOULD GO TO THE STARVING AND WHAT ABOUT THE LEFT OVER COFFEE GROUNDS? ACW

The WRAP association says over 4.3 million tonnes of food is wasted every year, a lot of which is still edi-ble, when starvation will only increase over the next 5 years from its already great increase over the last 5

years. http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/foodredistribution There are nearly 6 million people living in food poverty in the UK, in or out of work.

COFFEE SHOPS … SURPLUS FOOD AND WASTE COFFEE GROUNDS

According to the Allegra 2015 Project Café report, in the UK there are some 18,832 coffee-selling outlets that shift about two billion cups of coffee a year and by the end of the decade there could be 8,000 more outlets and that means even more bean waste.

Pret a Manger and Greggs Bakers donate surplus food.

Pret Manger alone donates around 3,000,000 food items to homeless charities a year. All told the food manufacturing, distribution and retail generate 4.3 million tonnes of surplus food a year.

Belgium has law that requires the food industry to give all surplus food to food charities. France passed a similar law on 21 May this year.

http://www.fareshare.org.uk/french-legislation-on-food-redistribution-raises-the-question-what-is-happening-in-the-uk/

No such law exists in the UK.

Here is the petition for that, which has already passed the 100,000 signatures mark:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/make-supermarkets-hand-over-all-unsold-food-to-charities#

There is a national event to collect food via Tesco stores in July that will help kids‟ school breakfast clubs,

old people‟s lunch clubs and refuges, that you could help by volunteering. http://www.fareshare.org.uk/food-collection-2015/

Here is a list from back in 2013 by Tesco showing its breakdown of the surplus food waste a supermarket

could grant charities: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25330996

NEIGHBOURLY

A new charitable venture beginning down in Bristol and Bath in July, but hopefully spread nationwide even-

tually, is called Neighbourly. Neighbourly connects community projects with businesses, councils or grant givers who want to help. Two backers already are Marks and Spencers and Starbucks.

These companies are the beginnings: https://www.neighbourly.com/companies

And an example of donated surplus food on the website taken up by charities coming to collect them:

https://www.neighbourly.com/foodroute/finished

ABERDEEN SCOTLAND – INSTANT NEIGHBOUR

Helping the poor in Aberdeen and around north east of Scotland for 30 years, foodbanks and charity shop. How you could help at: http://www.instantneighbour.co.uk/

UGLY FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

One loss of food for the starving is the fact that supermarkets will not buy from farms the 20 to 40% of fruit and vegetables produced by UK farmers that are wonky in shape or some cosmetic blemish on them. This cruel waste of food is just chucked into landfill.

One Norfolk farm wasted up to 10 tonnes of mis-shapen vegetables which had been rejected on a weekly

basis. These could easily be turned into warming soups or comforting stews. One idea is making up a large pot of stew from wonky vegetables and donate your surplus to the Casserole Club, to help the poor of a great age. The Staffordshire branch of the Casserole Club – link:

http://www.vast.org.uk/new-project-helps-cook-up-community-spirit-in-staffordshire/

Asda is trialling this year its range of wonky fruit and veg called „Beautiful on the Inside‟, sold at discount prices. Beginning in Asdas in Grantham, Coventry, Dagenham, Bedminster in Bristol and Wallington in Croy-

don, South London. But the smaller grocers might be your best bet in finding locally produced wonky fruit and vegetables already. Jamie Oliver has been spearheading a campaign to get ugly fruit and veg on our supermarket shelves. You have to remember that over a quarter of the families going to foodbanks are

with both parents in work, on so low wages that the cuts in housing benefit yet sky-rocketing rents and the

agony of the Bedroom Tax, makes food money squeezed out of budgets. Then, of course, are the over a million on zero

hour contracts who can go many days without work, and yet cannot access benefit for food money.

NON-FOOD SURPLUS WASTE

Small firms turn spent coffee grounds into biofuel pellets to sell on, so saving council funding and land from landfill tips. http://www.recyclingwasteworld.co.uk/in-depth-article/spent-coffee-grounds/74144/ and

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/09/bio-bean-wants-to-fuel-londons-buses-with-leftover-coffee-grounds/

GREEN CUP IDEA FOR COMPOST

Fairweather helped to develop the Greencup scheme, which provides offices around the UK with Fairtrade coffee and then

collects their waste coffee to turn it into fertiliser. http://www.greencup.co.uk/coffee-recycling/introduction---turning-one-into-other Fairweather now works with Greencup for a new venture, called Re-Worked that makes furniture out of recy-cled coffee grounds: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/05/the-uk-company-turning-coffee-

waste-into-furniture

TURNING WASTE COFFEE GROUNDS INTO FOOD FOR COWS

In Japan, this is what Starbucks does with waste coffee grounds: To tackle the problem, Starbucks is developing a space-

age coffee grounds recycling method in Japan. The Seattle-based company has teamed up with a contact lens manufac-turer to reuse coffee grounds from 136 of its Japanese coffee shops.

This is how it works: the chain's refrigerated lorries collect the grounds from Starbucks stores during their daily de-livery routes and brings them to a distribution centre. From there, other lorries bring them to a recycling centre, where they're converted into feed for dairy cows using a new lactic acid fermentation technique developed by Japanese contact

lens manufacturer Menicon within its research into new contact lens materials, making the coffee grounds more nutritious than if they were simply used as compost. Starbucks then feeds the fermented coffee grounds to its dairy cows. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/starbucks-coffee-grounds-milk-japan-mushrooms

Let us hope this happens in the UK sometime soon.

ENERGY FROM WASTE FIRMS BURN STILL EDIBLE FOOD

There is no reason for companies to get a government subsidy to burn for fuel the surplus food that could have gone to a

food charities. Far better would be for the government subsidy to be used to collect the 4.2 million rotten food from households direct, with their own vermin-proof bins. So saving funding for cash-strapped councils to throw such into land-fill. Funding that councils could then use to support local foodbanks.

Apparently this might be beneficial to some plants: Composting Coffee Grounds

It has been claimed coffee grounds when mixed with soil release a compound that helps balance the

nitrogen in composts. Camelias, Rosebushes, Azaleas and Evergreens are acidic. These plants benefit from coffee enhanced compost because it is rich in Nitrogen.

Teabags are similarly useful on the compost heap.

Teabags break down easily when mixed with com-post. These are natural fertilizers and can even repel some pests to plants it is thought by some.

The caffeine contained helps plants‟ roots become healthier and the acid it contains is water-soluble.

Once mixed with water, it will be separated out so most of the acid goes with the brewed coffee and so there‟s a lot less acid in the remaining grounds. The

activity of the bacteria in compost heaps also moder-ates the acid it possesses.

Some coffee shop chains have bags of used grounds to be given away free for use in composting.

Hedge annihilation

Watched annihilation

Underneath the hedge

Full of crustacean

In spider’s web fully wedge

Choking half dead fly

Remnants of millipede

Bones looked very dry

Those ants did stampede

It was pure murder

Entwined in spider’s web

Was it the lone birder?

Muddy puddles carcases ebb

Whether murder or drowned

In this coven, undergrowth

Right next to ant mound

In the canopy there’s a sloth

Short Story.

Funny letter

I’ll never forget that funny letter,

it was hysterical, made me

laugh, I can’t remember it

Shelia, but it was funny.

Images of Stafford Park:

Tenterbanks Playground.

Stafford

Heritage Group

Facebook

CELEBRATION: A short story by SHOSHA CLARE

I will never forget that Christmas that first Christmas to be thoroughly corny, of the rest of my life! The months

before had been a struggle. Oh yes, a struggle indeed. Walking out on a twenty year marriage even if that mar-

riage was toxic to the nth degree, the dream home I had longed for over many years, never mind leaving behind a

good career with potent prospects of promotion in view, choosing life in a grotty, ill-kempt dump of a cottage the

other side of Britain, away from all family and friends and living on pittance pay, would be seen by the majority

as lunacy of the highest order, but as someone said, if you can’t walk through the door, you walk through the wall,

and walk through the wall I did!

Yes, on half a wing and half a prayer, not knowing how or even if I might survive, I’d packed up the worst

bits of furniture, so beaten down I felt unworthy to take the best, my clothes, my books and most important, my

four beloved dogs and elderly cat, leaving behind the car and good stuff I’d worked as long and hard as my hus-

band to pay for, and went AWOL forever.

Of course it was tough but somehow, though the walk off the cliff had been terrifying in its way, despera-

tion forced the leap of faith and always, always, a parachute of some kind appeared, wafting me to some sort of

safety, however slight or temporary and life without Ron was reward in itself. I began to live, to grow, to mend.

Christmas came and in my bleak kitchen, we gathered together, my mother, my two daughters and myself.

Never mind, we were made warm by our good cheer and the paraffin stove I’d acquired, like most of my recent

possessions, from Shaftesbury’s marvellous Junk Shop, a saviour of a place for one as poverty stricken as myself

and we feasted!

How satisfying it felt to prepare meals that I thoroughly enjoyed cooking, free from Ron’s endless carping

criticism and see my daughters, till recently being the most unbelievably picky eaters, thoroughly enjoying the

vegetarian fare. I can’t remember on what we dined, only that it was cheap, wholesome, healthy and delicious,

with clean plates at the end. Whether I managed a bottle of wine as an accompaniment, I doubt and certainly there

would be no other booze on offer but we were inebriated by the highest of spirits and didn’t need alcohol to make

them soar! Freedom is a heady commodity!

Rachel had brought crackers and we sat wearing paper hats, the table set festively with holly and ivy picked

from the hedgerows, candles casting a subtle glow, the dogs sitting around us, the cat curled up by the crackling

fire awaiting us in the living room, peace, and joy filling us all after years and years of neither. Maybe the comfort

element was a little on the thin side but none of us minded that in the general good cheer and good will.

Even the potentially lethal occurrence of Laura’s paper hat catching fire on dangerously brushing a candle

flame as she leaned forward, made us laugh for the flames were quickly extinguished. I can’t remember how we

entertained ourselves for we had no television, stereo or board games to amuse or pass the time but I know we

must have danced, sang and laughed, laughed a lot, as always and reviving the art of conversation served us very

well. For once in a Christmas we could relax instead of living in a state of unbearable tension awaiting the next

tirade, the next instantaneous change of mood, the next barrage of unjustified criticism, the next attack.

Strolling out that morning in the sharp December air, walking the dogs in our almost traffic free slip of a

lane, breathing in the pure air of a truly rural and beautiful area, no wonder we had acquired an appetite and as we

settled down to Christmas evening together round the open fire, piling on the logs I had garnered from dragging

fallen branches home plus hard work with a saw, I think I could claim to be not only surviving, but forced to live

the simple life, I was managing very well in pretty nigh on impossible circumstances. Though hard and perhaps I

wouldn’t voluntarily go through it all again, somehow, I was none the worse for it and looking back, I am thor-

oughly proud of myself for all I achieved and how, against all odds, I rebuilt myself and my life.

No, I will never forget that Christmas, and though subsequently things have rather taken a nosedive with

that glorious family togetherness suffering some body blows for many, varied and mainly inexplicable reasons, on

that day of celebration, to paraphrase the song,

Love walked right in and changed the gloom of the past,

Love walked right in and I found my future at last

Love walked right in and brought a world completely new

When I walked out on you!

Other people can be hell, but when they are heaven, it can change the world. They certainly helped to change

mine! Then, who would not celebrate and we did, with all our hearts!

REFUGEES continues ... Clive Hewitt

Trouble Brewing. “Soldiers! Pay heed to the news from Memphis.” Moshe said at the morning issue of food. “The Pharaoh has

decreed that there is too much straw used in buildings. We are to immediately reduce the amount we use by a half.”

There was a murmur as the news percolated. “This does not concern us directly,” he carried on, “however, it does mean that we need to use the straw we do have with more care. I have instructed the Greatest of Fifty Moab, and some others, to see to it that

we don't waste any. No more throwing straw down on the floor of your living quarters, get someone to weave large sleeping mats from it. Don't use it for your cooking fires, things like that run away with lots and

lots of straw.” Yochaveh, one of the unmarried local women, shouted from the line. “What happens when a fire goes out then? It's Tevlet and that's the coldest month, do we freeze to death?”

“Of course not you silly.” Tao, who was beside her, told her. “Gather rushes during the late part of the Ak-het growing season and use those to make small mats. Then, if your fire does go out, you can use one of

those instead of straw.” “Mats! You want MATS! You know what mats are used for!” Tao threw her hands up in disbelief. “Just because we use mats to bury the dead in it doesn't mean that

mats are unclean or something, you silly girl! NEW mats, new RUSH mats, the ones we sleep on, are as clean as anything we can weave on a loom. Anyway, we're in the Upper Kingdom, nearly into Nubia, and even the month you call Tevlet, our Kahrka, doesn't get that cold. There's no way you'd freeze to death, even if it was

during Shabbat when you, carelessly, let your fire go out. Be sensible!” Tao had garnered some kind of leadership amongst the women in the fort. When she said something was

to be so, it usually became so. Publically putting down Yochaveh ended the reaction, but didn't make either of them any happier.

Later in the day Tao sought out Yochaveh for a private talk. To make things easier she took Daniel, her

and Aneps' baby son, with her. “ Yochaveh, what's the matter with you?” Tao asked her, “You flew up over that straw thing and I've no-ticed that you've done much the same with some other small things over the last half moon or so.”

Yochaveh looked as if she were about to bite Tao, but when Tao reached out and took her hand she crum-pled and sobbed into her hands. “Oh, Tao, it's Musa! I'm carrying his child and he won't marry me. He won't even look at me, he says that its somebody else‟s. But it isn't. I've never been with any other man.”

“Is that all,” Tao almost laughed aloud as she cuddled the distraught girl. “That's easily fixed. Get ready for your wedding, girl. Get ready for your wedding!”

“But … but … how!” Yochaveh was totally bemused by the change in subject. “Easy! I'll have a word with Meshab. She'll have a great many word with Moab,” there was a chuckle from both women as the funny side struck them. They could almost hear the words that Meshab would say to her

husband. Although she wasn't the same nagging wife she had been at the tomb diggers village, she still had a way with words.

“I'll also have a word, or three, with Ruth who will; in her role as the unofficial mother to the fort, and as his wife, put it to Moshe that a wedding would be a good thing for troop morale.” Tao smiled a little, almost predatory, smile before continuing.

“Moshe, and probably Moab, will have a few - delicate I'm almost sure - words with Musa.” They both chuckled at the idea of Moab being delicate, even if Yochaveh had to force it. “Musa ben Hiliel will arrive here all clean, tidy and shiny and have a few words with you! Don't be too quick

to say yes, Yochaveh. Make him beg a little. After that, you and Musa will go and see your father, he'll see the priests, and the wedding will be fixed to

take place in the next few days.” “You mean Musa will be ordered to marry me?” Yochaveh was outraged at the idea. Such was the power of her love for him that, even if she was upset by his actions, she stuck by him. “He won't like that at all!”

“Ordered? Ordered! What's all this ordering you're on about, Yochaveh? Of course he won't be ordered!” Tao put on a very realistic look of outraged womanhood. “But it will, I have no doubt, be put to him that his

life will be a lot easier if he has a wife. It will also be strongly suggested, very strongly actually, that; out of a total number of choices of one, a certain … ahh, now what is her name? Something like ... Yocha something I think? Got it! Yochaveh binti Samuel would be an extremely good choice.”

The sniffles had dried up and a radiant smile peeked through the cloud of gloom that had surrounded

her. When not feeling sorry for herself, Yochaveh was a very pretty girl.

As Tao had – almost – predicted Yochaveh binti Samuel and Musa ben Hiliel were married with the rites of their religion. Apart from the sentries on the wall all the people in the fort who could attended. There was a problem

with the place. “Only 'The People of the Book' can enter the Temple of El,” the Fifty of Builders where told, “all others must stay in the outer court.”

As many of the Fifty were of 'The People of the Book' this wasn't that much of a problem, however, Moshe couldn't record the marriage unless he officiated. The local priests wouldn't allow that.

“It's not that WE object, you understand”. The chief priest told Moshe when the subject came up. “It's that the laws of our religion say that they must be married by us, by the priests of El, the true god, and not by some other rites. We know that the Pharaoh says that you must make the marriage, but it would profane our

temple if you did it there and we can't allow that to happen. Our god, El, would call down retribution on you and us.”

Moshe nodded then turned to Anep and said, “Record it that Yochaveh binti Samuel and Musa ben Hiliel have been married by myself and, in accordance with the religion of the 'The People of the Book', give the date as tomorrow.”

The priests objected to that as well, “We must prepare the temple and both must go through a cleansing ceremony before being married!”

Moshe, himself of 'The People of the Book', knew that this was a delaying tactic. The priest wanted some-thing, something that was difficult to get. Something that he thought that Moshe could get, or something that he had reason to believe that Moshe could get around.

This could be important. “What can I, a mere Commander of 250 under our Pharaoh,” he asked, “do for you Samuel ben Benjamin?” The priest seemed out of sorts as he answered, “It's this straw commandment that the Overseer of the South

has issued. You see; we need straw, lots of straw, for our assigned work, without it we can't make the bricks and tiles required of us.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts. “Well, we can, BUT, they won't be good bricks

and tiles. For some reason they won't take the fire properly. Whatever it is in the straw that turns mud into stone when burned just isn't there, which means that they won't last as long as they should. Without straw they'll last four or five harvests before they start to crumble, but, with straw, the right amount of straw, the

mud turns to stone and they'll last as long as the pyramids stand.” Moshe realised that this was going to be a problem that he couldn't solve. “What happens to the straw that is

used in houses that doesn't get burned in cooking for the family, Samuel ben Benjamin?” The priest didn't know, and was sent to find out with the words of Moshe ringing in his ears. “Firstly: Find out how many bricks you can make with how much straw.

Secondly: Find out what happens to dirty straw and if it needs to be cleaned to be used in bricks. Thirdly: Find out if you can use something else in place of it. Fourthly: Report the facts to Scribe Anep here!

Then Samuel ben Benjamin, and only then, can I see what I can do.” Moshe had continued, “You have until midday tomorrow to perform the marriage rites of your deity, after that I

shall perform a military marriage. Now go away and prepare for the wedding!” There was no doubt that this dismissal was an order.

To be continued ...

Picture Credit: P Shilston

Down, Down

Eleanor Farjeon

Down, down

Yellow and brown

The leaves are falling

Over the town.

Photo

credit: G

Sim

mons

Poppies In July Sylvia Plath

Little poppies, little hell flames, Do you do no harm?

You flicker. I cannot touch you.

I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns

And it exhausts me to watch you

Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth.

A mouth just bloodied. Little bloody skirts!

There are fumes I cannot touch. Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules?

If I could bleed, or sleep! If my mouth could marry a hurt like that!

Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule,

Dulling and stilling.

But colorless. Colorless.

Photo credit: G Simmons Poem: Reproduced nfp educational usage

The theme for the RBW

2016 Poetry

Collection will be

LINKS

Submissions Will Be

Opening Shortly

Time and Tide

The 2015

Short Story

Collection

Huge thanks go to

Anne Picken

for editing the collection.

Click picture for

webpage link.

Find all

RBW FREE e-publications Online at

www.issuu.com/risingbrookwriters

http://

www.risingbrookwriters

.org.uk/

DynamicPage.aspx?

PageID=15

www.issuu.com/

risingbrookwriters

www.facebook.com/

risingbrookwriters

If you are a subscribing email recipient to leave RBW Online is easy just email and say ‘unsubscribe’ and you will be immediately removed from the list. If you have any suggestions for improvement to this service please let us know. You don't have to take an active part to receive this workshop bulletin you can just sit back and enjoy the ride, but if you could send feedback, it is greatly appreciated. RBW Privacy Promise: A few simple contact details are all that are required and they will only be used for this bulletin service. RBW promise to:

Only send you details via the newsletter.

To never pass on your details to anyone else.

To always allow recipients to opt-out and unsubscribe at any time.

www.risingbrookwriters.org.uk

To contact RBW please use the website contact box.

PATRON Ian McMillan www.ian-mcmillan.co.uk

Present and Previous Memberships and Funders.

Rising Brook Writers strives to be compliant with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. RBW strives for accu-

racy and fairness, however, can take no responsibility for any error, misinterpretation or inaccuracy in any message

sent by this mode of publishing. The opinions expressed are not necessarily in accordance with the policy of the char-

ity. E-mails and attachments sent out by RBW are believed to be free from viruses which might affect computer sys-

tems into which they are received or opened but it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they are virus

free. Rising Brook Writers accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage arising in any way from their receipt, open-

ing or use. Environment/ Recycling: Please consider carefully if you need to print out any part or all of this message.

To the best of our knowledge and belief all the material included in this publication is free to use in the public domain,

or has been reproduced with permission, and/or source acknowledgement. RBW have researched rights where possible,

if anyone’s copyright is accidentally breached please inform us and we will remove the item with apologies. RBW is a

community organisation, whose aims are purely educational, and is entirely non-profit making. If using material from

this collection for educational purposes please be so kind as to acknowledge RBW as the source. Contributors retain the

copyright to their own work. Fiction: names, characters, places and incidents are imaginary. Any resemblance to actual

people living or dead is entirely coincidental.

This bulletin is produced by volunteers. The editor’s decisions are final and not open to discussion.

© Rising Brook Writers 2015 — RCN 1117227 A voluntary charitable trust.