Welcome to my muse webpage. Here you'll find miscellaneous bits of writing by myself, Clover. To navigate, simply use the link above to find my archive, or you can find my most recent entry below.

I like to write fiction primarily but here I think I might focus on writing with a rambling-ish approach, particularly the pieces that respond to prompts from the digital writing club muse ariadne.

Feel free to watch this space. If you have any queries, you can leave a message on my guestbook or email me.

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Week of 17th June, 2024

prompt: jellyfish and what they mean to you

When I think of jellyfish, I’m sent back to my primary school days. Every year we had to do a couple of weeks of swimming lessons as part of the curriculum. Many schools did them at the swimming pools, but mine did not—we did them at the beach instead because we were within walking distance and it didn’t cost parents a cent.

Anyway, the swimming lessons themselves were fun enough—sometimes dolphins even swam nearby. But when I think of jellyfish I think of the rare days where the beach was absolutely swarmed by them, so we had to do our lesson on the sand instead. How did we do that? Well, we would go over theory stuff (like what to do in specific situations) and the instructor would also have us demonstrate certain swimming strokes. These days didn’t happen often at all. On most days the risk factor wasn’t overwhelmingly high; yes, people sometimes got stung but they were taken care of properly.

Despite all the swimming I did at the beach when I was younger, I can only recall one time where I actually got stung. It was at the dog beach, and the marks the stings left were across my chest and stomach. But as expected, I healed up just fine.

What do jellyfish mean to me? Well, now they’re a reminder of a different time—a childhood memory. Beautiful and sometimes deadly (Box jellyfish, Irukandji jellyfish) but they will remain forever fascinating to observe.