Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing challenge, Changing Leaves & CFFC #poetry #photography

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Esther’s challenge is money. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/10/15/writing-prompts-87/

Funny Money (tanka prose)

When my family moved to Cape Town from George, we lived in rented homes for the first year. The first rented house was in a suburb called Kirstenhof and that was a bad experience as the carpets were full of fleas when we first moved in. Laura, a small baby at the time, and I were bitten repeatedly. I can still remember those horrible itchy bites that swelled to three times their size. I was the only one of the four of us girls whose bites swelled up. Cape Town is notorious for fleas. The bites stopped when my parents were forced to have the house fumigated.

The second cottage was in Fishhoek and was a great place to live. I have written other memories about our three months in that seaside village. Our third move was into a house my parents bought in a cul-de-sac called Seven Sleepers. The cul-de-sac ended just before a main road and had empty land on either side of the row of seven houses. Across the main road was a big shopping mall which had the attraction to me and Cath of a pot of honey to bees. All around our area, new houses were being build and Cath and I, together with a few friends of mixed ages, used to explore these half build houses over weekends when the workmen were away.

One day when we were mooching around a nearly completed house, we discovered several silver discs lying on the floor. They were the exact size of a twenty-cent piece. They had been punched out of the newly wired electricity board in the kitchen. My friend, Neil, had the inspired idea of trying out the ‘coins’ on the claw machine in the nearby mall. We all loved the machine. You dropped in a twenty-cent piece and could manipulate the claw and try to pick up a small stuffed toy. We were delighted when the machine took the fake money and we all had a few turns on the machine. We never managed to hook a toy, but it was still great fun.

The next weekend, we went back to the houses and foraged for more discs. We didn’t find a single one. The workmen had clearly taken the time to pick them up. It was most disappointing and our time on the claw machine reverted back to when one of us had a bit of pocket money to spend. In retrospect, it was a naughty thing to do and it’s just as well we didn’t win any toys, or I would have had that guilt to add to my memories.

shiny silver coins

could have led to bad trouble

luck was on our side

although we weren’t grateful then

workmen’s diligence saved us

Rebecca Budd shares a beautiful poem this week called Leaves by Sara Teasdale. You can read it here: https://rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2025/10/18/leaves-by-sarah-teasdale/

I loved it so much I decided to write my own version of this poem.

Leaves by Robbie Cheadle

an odd orange leaf

decorates my foliage

summer is ending

I feel autumn’s cooler winds

my branches creak in protest

***

across the pathway

my life partner is bedecked

in colours of red

as we grew our limbs reached out

entwining in the middle

***

seeds germinated

grew into strong, young saplings

thriving in rich soil

their tender leaves darkening

into vivid apple green

***

our givers of life

have passed through vibrant autumn

entering winter

reduced life force withers leaves

one by one they gently fall

CFFC

Dan’s CFFC prompt is retailers selling food. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/10/20/retail-food-cffc/

Picture caption: Vendors of fish soup at the Tokyo Fish Market
Picture caption: Fish vendor at the Tokyo Fish Market
Picture caption: interesting fish dishes at the Tokyo Fish Market
Picture caption: Street food vendor in Tokyo
Picture caption: Vendor of homemade cider and other alcoholic beverages in Brighton
Picture caption: Fruit vendors at Borough Market in London
Picture caption: Selling cheese at Borough Market in London
Picture caption: Paul’s cafe in Brussels
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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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66 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing challenge, Changing Leaves & CFFC #poetry #photography”

  1. The photos brought back a memory of a potato (I think that’s what it was) seller who at night would go around trying to sell his wares. I could hear him calling in Japanese when I was asleep.

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  3. Hi Robbie
    I really enjoyed your poems 🤗
    I loved the childhood recollections in Funny Money (I had no idea Cape Town was notorious for fleas).
    Leaves is so poignant.
    As always, your photographs are amazing.
    Thank you.

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  4. I can imagine the fun as when I was six Mum and Dad bought their first house with new ones being built around us. Exploring and walking the plank on builders’ planks. My father made a little front wall artistically layering broken pieces of paving slabs. We googled that house the other day and the wall is still there!

    My older son is the only person I know who has managed to grab a toy.

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  8. Both of your fantastic writings captivated me, Robbie, and the photos of Tokyo are marvelous. I’ve always respected Japan, but have only spent a couple of hours there. Our flight to the U.S. from Vietnam stopped there, I think it was at Yokohama to pick up patients from the Army hospital there who were ready to go back home.

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  13. I love the story of the silver coin and the claw machine. My daughters love claw machines too and would spend money just to have one cute stuff toy.🤭 I think its the experience that makes it more interesting.

    Thank you for sharing Robbie

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  15. Fascinating memories. It’s amazing how we do certain things as children without thinking about the consequences or the wrongs until later. I really enjoyed your leaves poem and your wonderful photos.

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  20. I enjoyed every bit of this post, Robbie. My childhood friend and I used to explore houses under construction. I remember one Saturday exploring a new elementary school that was being built. We climbed over the perimeter fence. We were just walking through the building, but we were discovered by a policeman. We ran out the back of the school and into some nearby woods.

    I love you poem about autumn leaves and the season. You capture the feeling well.

    I really like the food vendors you shared. I don’t have many pictures of outdoor markets, and I couldn’t find the few I do have (somewhere) so it’s been good to see others sharing those.

    I hope you’re having a great week.

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    1. HI Dan, thank you for your appreciative comment. I’m pleased you enjoyed my memory and shared your own. Building sites are guarded here now so no adventures like this for my children. I always find food markets great places to take pictures. So much colour and activitiy.

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  21. Dear Robbie
    We had to smile that one vendor offers slow gin, we just made four litres to drink at Xmas and afterwards. Very British, indeed!
    We very much appreciate your market pictures, especially those of London and Brussels. And we liked your memories.
    Thanks for sharing
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  22. I think I recognise the Cider Barn. It’s at Middle Farm, at a place called Firle. It’s the National Collection of Cider and Perry and has over 300 ciders and perry’s (like cider, but made from pears.) It’s actually nearer to Eastbourne than Brighton, but I suppose Brighton is better known by people from abroad.

    Interestingly, almost opposite is Charleston Farmhouse, the home of Vanessa Bell and her lover, Duncan Grant. She was sister to Virginia Wolf. She and her lover painted murals on the walls of the nearby Berwick church during WW2 depicting forces personel.

    I love the story of the ‘coins’ and your pics and poems.

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    1. Hi Viv, you are exactly right about where this was. Now that you mention the name, I remember it, but I couldn’t recall it when I wrote this post. We went on a tour to Brighton and so that is the name I remember. Everything else we saw was near to Brighton – smile. I would love to spend more time in this area. If TC goes to London again next year and I am able to go (it depends on timing), then I plan to visit this area again and spend a night so I can see more. I believe we had lunch at this Farmhouse because I recall something being said by other visitors about Virginia Wolf. Our guide didn’t mention anything though, he may not have known. I’m pleased you liked this post. I will share more pictures from our Brighton and surrounds tour soon. I’ve just been quite busy, so I haven’t done a Thursday Doors post for a few weeks.

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    2. BTW, I left a comment on your Molly post and its not there. I can’t repost it as I get a message saying I can’t post. I think it might be in spam. Anyhow, this was sort of what I’d written: I left a comment on this post and it isn’t here so now I’m wondering what happened to it. I had suggested that there could be a few reasons why Molly didn’t go straight to the police. She might be anxious about the situation and not want to be returned home into a dangerous situation. She might like one of the young men and decide to stay on and get to know him better. She might not understand why Sean behaved as he did and want to spend some time finding out what was going on. She might not phone her father until she understood more. Young people don’t always do the right thing if they are upset. Sometimes they react in irresponsible and inconsiderate ways. Perhaps she just decided to have an adventure away from it all and think a bit.

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      1. I’ve seen your comment, Robbie. I’ve not got round to replying to those who kindly made suggestions.

        I hope you do manage to get back here. Walking on the Downs is a pleasure, although there always seem to be more Ups than Downs. 😆

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