Stories in a tiled floor.

I can't resist tiled floors. The jazzier the better. My favourite tiled floor was black orange and cream coloured shapes that looked like many variations on a church building. It was so jolly I would liked to have rolled it up and taken it home. The junk shop where those tiles were laid was never open when I passed so I never got a good photo.

The tiles in the above picture are laid in a long room; a granny flat at the side of a house. The room has whitewashed walls, dark beams and an elaborate fireplace made of rose granite. An older lady lived in this room, alone but next to her family, for the last years of her life. The room was furnished and adorned with family photos and ornaments.

This floor looks different depending on the weather and where you stand on it. Sometimes it's a mosaic and other times a woven cloth.

Write a list of factual words that describe the floor.

Write what the floor makes you think of, or reminds you of.

Write a few phrases about the woman who lived there - it's entirely up to you who you imagine.

Once you've gathered your ideas see if you can write a poem made up of couplets with the first word of each couplet being because.

for example

Because the yellow squares

remind her of his youthful hair

Because the grey squares

remind her of her own.....

You could try to tell a story in the poem, or be descriptive, or go where the subject matter takes you.    

Let me know how you go on?

What floor coverings are interesting to you....floor coverings...interesting? You know the sort of thing...home made rugs, plush hotel carpets with fabulous patterns running along them...floorboards...