Author: Cathy Cade

After a career in libraries, I began writing in retirement and have had writing published in Scribble, Best of British, Tales of the Forest, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Poet, Writers Forum, and To Hull and Back Short Story Anthology, placed in four competitions, shortlisted in five and longlisted by the National Literacy Trust. (Always the bridesmaid…) My verse, "The Year Before Christmas", is available from Amazon and Smashwords as are my books, "Witch Way and other ambiguous stories", "The Godmother", and "Pond People." I live in the Cambridgeshire Fens most of the time, surrounded by flat but ever-changing fields. Other times I live across a garden fence from London’s historic Epping Forest.

Ghosts of the Railway

~ Cathy Cade ~ Leave a comment

Our writing group set up Round Robin stories during lockdown; several writers contributed to each. Here is the first part of the story currently being serialised on the Whittlesey Wordsmith’s blog.

Whittlesey Wordsmiths

A war time Farewell

This is the second of the writing group’s excellent Round Robin Stories, this one has been written by Gwen Bunting, Val Chapman, Wendy Fletcher and Jane Pobgee. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

Ada made her way quickly along the platform. The late afternoon sky had turned dark as she travelled here on the bus, fine drizzle had made her hair wet on the short walk from the bus stop to the station.

That wouldn’t have been a problem, she thought to herself, if it wasn’t for its propensity to become a mass of frizz when even slightly damp. Why today? She asked herself in frustration. Today of all days.

She had taken hours to get ready for her journey this afternoon: carefully pulling on the fine nylons so as not to ladder them as she straightened the seams, then choosing a skirt that revealed a flash of knee…

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But is it Poetry? (2)

~ Cathy Cade ~ 10 Comments

This is by way of a reblog from John Spiers, whose posts don't have a 'Reblog' button. Click this link for the post from his blog mylifewithgracie.com which gives links to two websites: one to assess your poems and another to assess your song lyrics. As those who follow my poetic efforts will be aware, … Continue reading But is it Poetry? (2)

ToolRocket: a Free PDF Converter

~ Cathy Cade ~ 5 Comments

I’m currently paying out to Adobe for a lot of things I don’t want or use so that I can convert a PDF to an image (most of the other stuff I need is now available elsewhere). I shall certainly be looking into this before my Adobe subscription runs out. Thanks (again) to Nicholas for the tip.

Nicholas C. Rossis

I can’t remember how many times I’ve had to look for an online free converter to turn a PDF file into a word.doc. Or an image file into a PDF file. Or any other combination of converting one type of file to another.

The thing is, finding a “free online converter” is not as easy as it sounds. Some are not free, despite their claim. Some don’t have a good conversion quality. Some save your file on the cloud, somewhere somehow, and you need to download it from there—which is hardly ideal if your documents are confidential in any way. And with others, you must download any number of miscellaneous apps before you find the right “download” button to get your converted file, on a screen full of “download” buttons.

That’s why I really appreciated ToolRocket, a free file format converter I discovered a few days ago:

  • It allows you…

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WP Classic Editor Discovery!!!

~ Cathy Cade ~ 2 Comments

Another workaround for the Classic editor on WP, in case beetleypete’s doesn’t work for you. It seems that people get updates at different times and even then don’t seem to have the sme interface… so if you’re struggling with the Block Editor, I hope one of these works for you , till you have time to get to know it better (by which time it will probably have ‘updated’ again)

From Cave Walls

Okay, folks i was digging around today. If the ability to signin with WP-Admin has been stripped away thereby losing the classic editor, you will want to check this out.

When logged into WordPress, click on your photo at the top right of the screen. You will then be asked to provide a verification code which WordPress will send to you.

Type in the verification code to get to your WordPress profile.

Now click on Account Settings.

Now click the button that says Dashboard appearance, turning it from gray to blue (in my case).

Now click the box that says ‘Save Interface Settings’.

For me, this has given me access to the WP-Admin dashboard again and the ability to choose the classic editor for new posts.

NOTE: You may need to add /wp-admin to your URL. For me that would be:

fromcavewalls.wordpress.com/wp-admin

Fingers crossed it works for you, too. 🤞🏼…

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This Worked For Me

~ Cathy Cade ~ 4 Comments

I’ve come to terms with the block editor, but since I know many hate it like poison, I’m reblogging this little workaaround from beetleypete

beetleypete

I finally managed to get one of the many tips to work. One issue was that I have ‘Two-Stage Verification’ on my Account Settings. Once I worked out how to get into that, I used this easy tip, and now have access to the Classic Editor every time.

Remember to ‘Save Settings’ though.

If you can’t read that on screen, here’s a link to the original post.
https://weeklyprompts.com/2021/03/22/changes-to-the-wp-admin-navigation-revised-support/

I don’t know how long WP will let that loophole exist, but if you are unhappy with the Block Editor, this will work.

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Timeless Truths

~ Cathy Cade ~ 11 Comments

Things we find funny change as we get older. Small children laugh at clowns. Richard Hearne OBE 1908-1979: As a tweenager, I recall reading a library book my mother had just finished ― one of Leslie Charteris’s “Saint” stories. I was moved to hysteria over a comment made by Simon Templar to his sidekick, Hoppy. … Continue reading Timeless Truths

Embracing Retirement

~ Cathy Cade ~ 21 Comments

More than one former colleague who came back to visit told us it had taken a year or more to get used to retirement. I doubted this would happen to me. Without exception they wondered how they'd found time for a full-time job. I marked my retirement by leaving my wristwatch in the bedroom unless … Continue reading Embracing Retirement