http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk I WILL become a writer this year, dammit Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:48:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ‘Here, let me help you with that.’ Olivia recognised the voice and turned, uneasy, to see Jonathan. It took her a moment to work out the source of her discomfort – he had addressed her in English rather than German. His voice had an American twang she had not noticed before. ‘Oh, ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/03/13/caritas-vi-the-missing-chapter/ The flagstones were unforgiving beneath Olivia’s knees. Her hands were raw and her nails had cracked and flaked. The bristles on the brush, already worn when she had arrived at the convent the year before, were threadbare and ineffectual, and her cold fingers caught painfully under the wooden handle. The ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/03/04/caritas-x/ Olivia’s feet were like ice. Dressed only in her nightgown she tried desperately to think of a reason why she would be standing in the unlit kitchen at 3.00 in the morning holding a packet of cotton dressings. In the shadows, the nuns were silent and alert to the prospect ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/03/01/caritas-ix/ When I was growing up, we lived in a red brick 1950s council house, built to house the London overspill following the Blitz. It was on the edge of the town and the garden backed onto a playing field, which was itself surrounded by fields and ditches and hedgerows – ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/27/decorating/ It was raining so hard that at first Olivia did not hear the knocking at her window. She had gone to bed, exhausted, before Compline, earning herself glances of envy from the novices, who had sent spent much of the day working in the kitchen garden. Olivia had helped them ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/26/caritas-viii/ The stairs to Herr Jonathan’s room were narrow and they had to go in single file. He led the way up three flights, passing several dusty, drab doors before they reached his, tucked under a roof slope. He held open the door for Olivia in mock ceremony, pulling off his ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/20/caritas-vi/ Remember my blogs about the Ness Battery? Well, there have been lots of developments since I last wrote about it, so I thought that I would give you an update! I’ll start off with a bit about the site in wartime, what’s there now, and what life might have been ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/14/ness-battery-news/ Olivia cooked the books. She wrote in the domestic stores book that the dried fruit, the jars of preserved fish and the cans of vegetables that Sara and the other novices had stolen, were rotten, cracked, or otherwise spoilt. It was not a deception that was difficult to carry off ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/12/caritas-v/ Olivia shivered and watched her breath plume from her mouth. The candles glinting off the damp stone gave a yellow glow but did nothing to raise the temperature, which she estimated to be just above freezing – there had been a thin skim of ice on the well this morning. ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/08/caritas-iv/ In 1893 a young girl, only 16 years old, fell in love with an unsuitable man. Her name was Frances, and she lived in the industrial heartlands of south-west Wales, in the area around Pembroke Dock. I don’t know who the man was – I have heard it suggested that he was ... http://stromnessdragon.islandblogging.co.uk/2010/02/05/a-love-story/