Just because you can barely see them doesn’t mean the benches aren’t there. Morris dancers at Ripon Theatre Festival needed to take the weight off their feet from time to time, and their dresses and general Festival clutter seem to cover from view the benches they used pretty effectively.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
Benches found in Canet de Mar, with an image behind celebrating Empowerment, Sisterhood and Feminism.
Incidentally, how many benches can you spot? There are more than you might at first think.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
Last Saturday, I threw down a challenge, because Jude, featured below, was one of those who suggested it: to write a story, up to 100 words long, that addressed the question posed here:
Unsurprisingly, there haven’t been many entries. But what I have read have been class acts. There’s Jude’s clever, and very different story: https://traveltalk.me.uk/2025/07/24/but-what-if-she-says-yes/
And Dawn addresses the age old problem of when, or even if to pop the question: https://lingeringvisions.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/what-if-she-says-yes/.
Here’s mine: But hang on. Before you read Jude’s, or Dawn’s, or mine, make yourself comfortable on this bench. It is after all Sunday, and the day for Jude’s Bench Challenge.
What if she said ‘yes’?
Nell sat slumped against the stairs, leaning into the comfort of her neighbour. ‘He always drank too much, your dad.’ Her father lay twisted at the bottom—eyes open, unmoving. The investigators stepped gently round the body and its ooze of blood. ‘He fell’, Nell said. Only she knew about the bruises beneath her sweater, her sore and aching thighs. Only she knew whether what had happened just an hour ago was an accident or an escape. Only she knew what she’d say when at last they ask her: ‘Or …did you push him?’ What if she says ‘yes’?
I wrote two others too, but the judge and jury (‘im indoors and me) chose this one. You can judge the other two if you want to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PS8t-YsNfiLTwE27WqY9UxVotxIbO1LO6CtHf3OaU40/edit?usp=sharing
PS. A late, great addition to the clutch of flash fiction, from Rebecca of Fake Flamenco:
What if She Says Yes?
When the wallpaper in the downstairs hall began to peel in the heat, I didn’t think it odd. Our house needs repair often after a century of Tiverstons. I bought a bottle of papering adhesive. As I sanded the wall before re-glueing, newsprint appeared in the lower corner. Using an exacto knife, I liberated the sheet. The headline about an Edna Swargle chilled my blood and I stopped breathing a moment. The woman in the photo looked just like mom as a teenager, but her name is Nancy. I walked upstairs where she was reading. “Mom, were you ever, Edna?”
The featured photo is not my own, but squared from an unattributed image found in Pexels, a great source of Royalty free images.
For Becky’s #SimplyRed.
Spotted at a park homes site in Ripon, and snapped especially for Jude’s Bench Challenge.
The gnomes can have their five minutes of fame in Becky’s #SimplyRed challenge. Five minutes is more than enough.
Spotted on a roundabout in Brittany. It can’t qualify on its own for Jude’s Bench Challenge, though it’s perfect for Becky’s #SimplyRed. But would three together cut the mustard?
This rusting wreck is multi-tasking today. It’s lived a blameless and long life in the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, offering views of the Dales and what’s left of the Abbey in the long years since Henry VIII had it made unfit for purpose during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Today though, it’s doing a tour of duty for Becky’s #Simply Red; for Jude’s Bench Challenge; and for Debbie’s One Word Sunday. It’s a little dishonest, as I’ve had to tinker a bit to make it Simply Red. Don’t tell the ghosts of those monks who once called this place home.
I’ve even managed a tweaked shot of part of the Abbey looking a little red too.
All over Europe, people are hot and bothered – not so much here up north, where it will only reach 25 degrees today. So my contribution to keeping you cool, if you’re affected by the heatwave, is to offer this refreshing sit down in our local wood.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
Near Fountains Hall, the early Jacobean house in the grounds of Fountains Abbey, a new garden has recently been opened. The Quiet Garden. It is indeed a peaceful haven. My favourite feature is this bench, made from the wood of now-fallen trees in Studley Royal’s deer park.
And in case you’ve not seen it before, here is Fountains Hall.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
I have chosen to stay in Premià this morning, perhaps because here it is grey and gloomy, even though warm enough. A beachside path leads all the way from Barcelona, through Badalona, Montgat, El Masnou, Premià and beyond – all the way to Mataró. Between the beach and the path is scattered a series of benches- wherever there’s a tree or two to offer welcome shade. Here are a few.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
Passing Premià de Mar’s Museum of Textile Printing the other day, this is what I saw. Two benches: three people. Three readers: two on their phones, one with a good old fashioned book. Only the young woman, I think, was waiting for the museum to open.
Maybe you’d prefer it in colour?
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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