BRAMBLE JELLY - a story in 100 words

Prompted by the photograph on Rochelle's blog  https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/ , this story is written for Friday Fictioneers. To read how other writers from around the world interpreted the picture, follow the Blue Frog trail from Rochelle's page.

I missed last week through illness but now I'm back and this week's photo is exactly like a flight of steps in my village! So here is my story - please leave a comment to let me know I'm not talking to myself!

BRAMBLE JELLY

The steps opposite the bakery led to the very best blackberries, but everyone knew they were reserved for Old Betty - her bramble jelly was reputed to cure everything from coughs to cancer.

Trudi, recently arrived in the village, scoffed, “Peasant nonsense!” and set out with visions of blackberry-and-apple crumble for dinner. She picked fast, the brambles parted easily to let her reach the plumpest berries, and her basket was soon full. Wearing a self-satisfied smirk she turned to leave, but there was no way out of the thicket.

The villagers agreed that Old Betty’s bramble jelly was even more effective that year.

FRIDAY 13th

Were you among the superstitious who stayed in bed all day today? Or do you subscribe to the view that superstition is silly?

Either way, it is difficult to avoid knowing when Friday 13th comes round, because someone is bound to mention it.

Like the OH did this morning when we were told the cam-belt needed changing - an expensive job that we can ill afford after paying our property tax a week ago.



A cam-belt should apparently be changed every 75,000 kilometers or 4 years, whichever comes first, or dire and terminal things happen to your car's insides.

Our little Hyundai Atos has 110,000 on the clock and is 9 years old. I asked the garage about a squeak and a low thrum-thrum sound and they said they need to look inside.

On the other hand, it did pass the ITV today - that's the Spanish equivalent of the MOT, so maybe we were lucky.

So we awarded it its brand new ITV sticker and then booked it in for Thursday. Fingers crossed.

To put things into perspective, one of my good friends has been allowed out of hospital for the weekend. She's just heard she has a tumour on her liver, she's bright yellow, and next week they're going to go in and grab a bit so they can decide what chemo to give her.

What's a dodgy car compared with that?