A Walk On The Beach

I don’t like the beach, but I DO love this story!

Aoibha Walsh

Hello everyone! It’s Bailey. You should all know who I am right now but I’ll say it again just to be sure. I’m Aoibha’s sweet little Cava Tzu puppy. I get up to all sorts of mischief. I’m going to tell you about the day Aoibha bought me to the strand. She regretted it long afterwards. I think she still does to this day because she hasn’t bought me there since. You’ll see why later. Now, get comfy, lie down on your doggy bed or sit on a chair like my human does and I’ll tell you what happened when Aoibha and I went to the strand.

It was half past ten and, Aoibha woke up. It was Saturday morning. My favourite. I sat up at the bottom of her bed wagging my tail wildly. I gave a little yawn to make her think I was a cutie and fuss…

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Guest author: Barb Taub – That time we were kidnapped in #India…#travel #humor

Nobody does funny like Barb Taub, who manages to educate as she entertains!

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

There are writers whose work has a certain predictability about it. My guest today is one of them. I have learned to put down the coffee and place breakable objects at a safe distance when a post from Barb Taub comes up. It is very hard to drink coffee and laugh at the same time without redecorating the desk… Here Barb shares part of her latest adventure in India, with Jaya and Janine, who were her roommates at the University of Chicago forty years ago and who have remained close friends ever since…

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Cauvery Handicrafts store, Bangalore [image credit: unless otherwise noted, all images (c) Jayalakshmi Ayyer & Janine Smith 2017, all rights reserved]

Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. —John Lennon

My family relies on a few basic sources for spiritual guidance—God, NewsHour on PBS, and the Beatles. So…

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Bailey and Me!

Meet Bailey….sounds like a bit of a scamp!

Aoibha Walsh

Tis’ me, Bailey!for those who haven’t heard of me before, I’m Aoibha’s sweet little cavatzue puppy. I drive her insane sometimes! But, she doesn’t know, I sometimes do it to crack her up sometimes, dogs do get a bit of humour out of it you know. I’m going to tell you about what I did one time.
I woke up at half past six as per usual and barked very loud indeed for my owner to come downstairs. She still tells me my bark sounds like a fire alarm gone out of battery. I kind of have to agree. Anyway, she let me outside to do my business. I took a nice walk around the garden to find a nice spot. After I finished, I went up to the door and excitedly barked to go back in.
Aoibha was in her uniform, ready to go to school. She was…

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My Anti-Bucket List

A new writer on the blog scene…enjoy!

Aoibha Walsh

For today’s post, I was going to talk about my bucket list but decided to do something other than that and post things I would not like to do before I die (which should be in another 200 years if I’m lucky -wink wink-) So without further a-do, lets get straight into it.

1: Get bitten by a mosquito.    This has always been one of my biggest fears. If I go abroad on holidays, the first thing I would delightfully do would be to purchase a mosquito band. You know the ones, they stink but they keep mosquitoes away from you. I’d have about two of them on at a time. You can never be too sure with those pesky bugs.

2: Get stuck in an elevator.      I’ve done this once in a shopping mall. I wanted to see what happened when I jumped in a lift and unfortunately I…

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Danny Introduces a Friend…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Good morning, everybody.

It is I, your favorite dog, Danny the Dog.

I thought I’d do something a little different this month and not complain about my human, Andrew.

He was very pleased to hear that news and even gave me an extra turkey slice this morning.

Right now he’s out celebrating his good fortune, which means I’ll have to bail him out of the drunk tank later this evening.

But enough about him.

Today, I want to talk about my new friend.

Her name is Aoibha Walsh. Aoibha is an Irish name and it’s pronounced Ava.

I’m told “BH” is pronounced like a “V” in Irish Gaelic.

Anyway, she is a pretty little Irish lass who is eleven years old.

She has a dog by the name of Bailey—here’s a picture of him.

I guess he’s okay if you like dogs.

Aoibha also has a cat and some kind…

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My Beloved Paper Agenda

A delightfully honest post about….well, tradition vs progress. I say, whatever works for you, works. That’s my philosophy. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Writer's Treasure Chest

Starting this post with a confession is quite hard to do, to be honest. But I decided to do it anyway:

I AM SCARED TO BE HOPELESSLY OLD-FASHIONED

I know you might laugh, but I’m terrified that I’m getting too old to be able to change my ways and finally give up my affinity to my paper agenda.

It is a beautiful agenda, teal colored with turquoise surroundings. It not only includes my annual agenda, but also a little paper notepad and an address book. It’s a COACH agenda and I’m very proud to have it. That thing is about 13 years old and I remember exactly where I bought it and why. And it’s about as heavy a gallon of milk.

I love it deeply and not only use it to write down appointments but also birthdays, addresses, things to do and things not to forget…

It is however really…

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Hot Love

A departure from the usual…good story!

Andrew Joyce

She passed him every day. He was young, well built … and he was handsome. Just her type. She had tried everything to attract his attention. She had dressed provocatively, she had loitered, she had even taken a pratfall hoping he would come to her rescue, but some busybody stuck his big nose into her business by helping her up from the sidewalk where she lay waiting for Mr. Right to come to her aid.

In desperation, she came up with a plan. It centered on his profession. She would make some work for him and be there when he arrived. Then let him ignore her!

The plan was daring. A few blocks from where she saw him every day was an abandoned building; she would simply set fire to it and wait for her dream man to come to her.

You see, he was a firefighter. She walked past…

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I Once Had a Girl

I never tire of sharing a story by Mr. Joyce. Heartwarming and breaking at the same time.

Andrew Joyce

I once had a girl. She was from Norway, but we met in New York City at a jazz club on the West Side. My friend Lane had dragged me there; he told me that the sax player would really send me. (I know, that is 60s lingo). I didn’t want to go because I was broke and I was embarrassed that Lane always picked up the check when we were out. But he persisted in asking, so I went with him that warm August night. It was a night that changed my life forever.

Lane and I were from upstate New York, we had been friends in high school. We were both going to be writers and write the Great American Novel. And here we were, Lane wrote copy for an ad agency and I wrote short stories that no one would buy.

I was twenty years old, and…

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When God Made You

Sounds lovely! And agree, wonderful book cover. Mosey on over to Marie’s site for more wonderful reviews of children’s books

Story Book Reviews

Matthew Paul Turner (Author) | David Catrow (Illustrator)

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YOU, you… God thinks about you.
God was thinking of you long before your debut.

From early on, children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. Knowing that they are deeply loved and a unique creation in our big universe is certain to help them spread their wings and fly. 

*****

Cover

Beautiful, bright, and fun. This book is just bursting with life–from the front cover to the back. The paint splash background is gorgeous, and the leaping girl has a tangible energy. Really wonderfully illustrated and designed.

Illustrations

Wow. This book has so much LIFE! The illustrations are stunning, energetic, and gorgeous. I keep going back to look through this book because it’s just so beautifully illustrated.

Story

What a wonderful way to build a child’s confidence…

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Love, Fear, and Gratitude – Guest Post by Tina Frisco…

Thought-provoking, well-written guest post on the Ape’s blog. Find your way there to take in all the wisdom in Tina Frisco’s full post.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Image courtesy of Lucie Stastkova

What is love? Not romantic love, but the essence of love, pure and unadulterated. Pure love lightens and enlightens. But what is it? In truth, love can’t be defined; we can only talk around it. In attempting to de-fine it, we con-fine it and thus lose it. Love simply is. And love is our true nature.

What is the opposite of love? Many would say hate. Seems logical, right? When we’re not sitting in love, expanded and with an open heart, we’re struggling to keep our heads above the quicksand of raw emotion. Truth is: the opposite of love is fear. All that isn’t love stems from fear. Love and fear are our primeval baseline emotions.

So what is this seemingly ubiquitous, all-consuming emotion we call fear? When we constrict – when our hearts close, our muscles tighten, our thoughts ricochet, our spirits dim – we sit in…

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