January snow blows in. Rivers freeze. The town is cut off from the outside world. Supplies dwindle, diminish. Soon will come starvation. Soon there will be death.
And still the mince pies sit on the supermarket shelves, prices reduced to 23p for a box of six, unbought, unneeded, unwanted, uneaten.
We would rather eat Easter than finish off Christmas.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on January 6th, 2026
__________The kite in the tree yearns always to be free.
The kite in the tree cannot be retrieved. The kite in the tree cannot be dislodged. The kite in the tree is impervious to decay.
The kite in the tree yearns always to be free.
The kite in the tree watches birds fly above. The kite in the tree watches balloons float away. The kite in the tree sees the clouds, the sun, the stars, the moon.
The kite in the tree yearns always to be free.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on January 6th, 2026
__________Everything is perfectly preserved in the glass of the lake. Shoals of fish, fronds of weed and fern, frogs, frogspawn. Sunken boats, lost footballs, fishing nets, shopping trolleys, a small fortune of coins.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on January 3rd, 2026
__________Frost and fog
transform the town
into something
else
Better than summer
better than snow
We could be anywhere
now
And we won’t know where
until it’s gone
__________
Notes:
1. Written on December 6th, 2025
__________“Did you know….” Claire suddenly announced after a brief period of intense silence, her face almost bursting with excitement. “That Claire is an anagram of eclair!”
“Yes,” said Tina, not even looking up from her phone.
“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious,” said Ethel, actually pointedly looking up for a second so she could look back down at her phone simply to show how unimpressed she was. “You just moved the e from the back of your name to the front.”
“I did not!” said Claire.
“Yes you did,” said Tina and Ethel simultaneously together in perfect unison.
“Well okay I did,” Claire admitted. “How else would I have done it? And you’re both just jealous because my name is an anagram and your names aren’t.”
“They are,” said Tina.
“Not any words I’ve ever heard of,” said Claire. “So they don’t count. Especially not Lethe. Or anti.”
“Wait, did you just look all these up on your phone?” asked Tina.
“Well, yeah,” Claire said. “How else would I have known?”
“Do you even know what an eclair is?” Ethel asked.
“Of course I know what an eclair is!” Claire said, without elaborating, verifying, or confirming her claim.
“It’s like an email, but for Claires!” said Daniel, emerging just in time for the punchline.
“Shut up, Daniel,” Claire said, with a finality that sent everyone went back to their phones, until several minutes of intense silence later, Claire looked up, her face almost bursting with excitement, and suddenly said “Did you know…?”
(They did know.)
__________
Notes:
1. Written in October 2025
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