Free Write - Fettle

  

Julia gave us a single word "Fettle" as the prompt for our weekly Free Write. Note: we don't look that much as the drawing and Rick has a nice head of hair. However, the process of our Free Writing is the same. A prompt and write for ten minutes.

Julia's Free Write

OK she said to herself – let’s get started.

But what first on that interminable list of tasks?

Change the beds and get a load of wash in so that the next house guests would not feel like they were coming to a sloppily run boarding house. No, she had a week so down to the bottom of the list.

Tidy up the outside so that all would be nice for the winter? No, again down to the bottom: after all the sun comes up late and goes down early – ignore.

Or decorate the house for Christmas? Hey, tree’s up, the odd fake poinsettia out. Even a small real one, that she will probably kill before Christmas.

Oh, but the baking. A lot of people have become used to her baking… OK top of the list.

After all she had mettle.

Telephone’s ringing – what or who is more important?

10 minutes later it was back to the tasks at hand but first let’s put on the kettle. Well, quickly answer some e-mails too.

An hour later she was back to her list.

Right time to bake: she was in fine fettle!h

D-L's Free Write

Angela adored her grandmother, her very unconventional grandmother, Maudie.

From the time she was little, she loved going to her studio. "I'm in fine fettle today, fine kettle, fettle, metal." Grandma Maudie loved playing with words. "She would say "look at the book in the nook" or "Happy Lappy Birthday."

She showed Angela how to make things. The typical grandmothery things like cookies, but also things out of paper, paper clips, wood, wallpaper.

They designed clothes for paper dolls.

Although Angela loved being with her grandmother, her mother felt Maudie was a bad influence. Afterall, she wore paint-spattered jeans and a sweatshirt. Sometimes she used bad language. "Shit, pit, sit, mitt."

Angela's sister, Emma didn't like to go to her grandmother's. No Barbies to play with when she was young and boring music when she was older. Who would want to listen to Bach? Worse bagpipes.

When Angela got the call her grandma was really sick, she took leave from the Rhode Island School of Design where she was studying fashion design to go to Boston to take care of her. 

Grandma said, "go back, smack, lack," but Angela stayed with her grandma until the end.

At the funeral everyone cried, except Angela. She'd done her crying without witnesses. 

Grandma had left her studio and tiny house to Angela whose family moaned they hadn't been mentioned in the will, not that there was much to leave.

Angela knew her grandma had left her a huge gift. How to be true to yourself and how to enjoy each day of your life. 

Rick's Free Write

There once was a man named Fettle. Fred Fettle. Freddie to his two friends.

Mr. Fettle liked to walk. Long distances. To the grocery store. To the café. To the library. To the church. And especially in the countryside, along farm roads, up and down hills.

He didn’t own a car, and there were no bus services in his little hamlet in central England. So he walked. Sometimes all day.

Whenever Fettle encountered someone along the way, who asked him how he was doing, he’d tip his flat cap and respond, “Fine.” This caused some people to giggle.

One day, Fred Fettle decided to enter the Olympic Trials in the walking competition. He had no formal training, but he was sure that his years of walking everywhere were sufficient preparation. His friends, Ollie and Oscar, agreed and encouraged him. They helped time his walks between Derbyroon and Hallingate, which was about the same distance as the trial.

On the day of the competition, the other walkers all asked each other how they were feeling. “Fine,” said Fred. “Fine. Fine. And you?”

Alas, once the starting gun sounded, the ‘professional’ walkers left Fettle in the dust. He finished dead last. Nonetheless, he finished.

“Sorry, old chum,” said Oscar. “Yeah, sorry,” added Ollie.

“It’s okay,” said Freddie. “I’m fine.

About the three Free Writers:

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the top stories about the airline industry. He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.  

Visit D-L.'s website  https://dlnelsonwriter.com, She is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased  at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504 

Visit Julia's blog. She has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/