explore | Grilled Cheese

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 16, 2026, 3:27 AM

You gotta take care of yourself.

Thanks for reading❣️

#WrittenReels

Square social-media poster styled like a prescription pad. The white page has faint blue lines, a red margin, a large blue “Rx” at top left, “PRESCRIPTION” across the top, and blank date and “For” fields. A faded dawn cityscape fills the right side, with dark clouds, a blush sky, the sea and twinkling lights below. Tropical leaves frame the lower corners, a stethoscope appears at bottom left, and five colourful book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer line the bottom.

The story opens with Jack, the friend who once described an avocado as tasting like stale water. He sends the writer an early-morning photo of his city, where the sky is shifting from dark to blush and the lights below give the scene a fairytalesque quality.

Their conversation turns to a mutual friend who had suffered a stroke. Because they are all around the same age, it hits differently. The writer reflects that if people do not take care of themselves, reduce stress, exercise, and watch what they eat, the body may eventually force them to pay attention.

Their friend was fortunate and appears not to have lasting neurological damage. After months away from work, he is preparing to return. Jack and the writer keep telling him to slow down, reduce pressure, take on less stress, and care for himself.

He keeps saying, “Yes, yes, yes. I’m good. I’m good. It’s going to be okay.”

Then Jack says: “If he cannot take a hint, he’s going to continue until he gets the message.”

The piece ends by reflecting on Caribbean sayings that hold whole life lessons: “Sometimes life gives us a hint. And if we don’t take the hint, it keeps talking until we get the message.”

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 8:26 PM

Pretty boy Jack.

Thanks for reading❣️

#WrittenReels

You’re right. Here’s one safely under 1,950 characters total:

Alt text: Square social-media poster styled like an aged travel-journal page, with warm cream paper, torn edges, faded maps, postal marks, dried leaves and a vintage island stamp. On the right, a cropped photo shows only part of Jack’s body as he stands on a grassy hillside holding a phone, with the island landscape, harbour and sea behind him. His face is deliberately left out, keeping him mysterious.

The story begins with the writer finding an old picture of Jack while looking through photos on her phone.

“You know Jack? My friend Jack. I talk about Jack a lot.”

She describes a younger Jack standing on a hillside with the island sloping down towards the harbour behind him, and sends the photo to him.

Jack replies:

“Your island is pretty, see?”

She jokes:

“Pretty? You’re pretty too.”

Jack responds:

“Pretty enough to play Mother Mary of Jesus in a skit?”

She answers:

“Huh?”

Jack reminds her that he attended an all-boys primary school.

One Christmas, the school staged a play, and somebody had to play Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus.

She asks:

“Guess who they selected?”

The story ends with one word:

“Jack.”

Five colourful book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer line the bottom: Chronicles of an Awakening Soul, Let the Sun Shine on My Face, Dancing Between Tall Grass, She Sits and Shells Peas, and Woke to Joy. The overall mood is nostalgic, playful and humorous.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 10:57 AM

It's getting to that time of year
When early morning showers
Gently pull you awake,
From that place
Where you were chasing goblins
On your purple unicorn.

The scent of jasmine
From pinwheel jasmines
Adds to the concoction
Of fallen dreams.

Happy #Chooseday, friends 🌱💜💚

#WrittenReels

Delicate white pinwheel jasmine flowers, their five slender petals dotted with fresh raindrops, bloom among glossy green leaves against a softly blurred background of lush foliage.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 4:08 PM

It's not going to ever go away, so our job is to take the good parts and leave the rest.
I was hesitant to make #WrittenReels for I knew that people might not like that I use it helpcreate my posters, but I weighted the pros & cons and saw it was useful form for helping me share my written stories.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 3:16 PM

What can we do with our GenZs but love them!🙄😑😏

Haven't you joined the #WrittenReels experience yet?
If not, what are you waiting for?

Thanks for reading. 📖

Square social-media poster styled like a worn vintage telephone message pad in warm cream and tan tones, with aged edges and a bold “TELEPHONE MESSAGE” heading. Small checkboxes for “Call,” “Return Call,” and “For Your Information,” plus blank date and time lines, complete the old-fashioned message-slip look. The story is printed in a typewriter-style font.

The writer reflects on how quickly times have changed between Gen X and Gen Z, joking that the differences between her and her daughter are sometimes so stark she wonders whether some being from another dimension did the parenting.

The story begins with an ongoing discussion about chicken pox. The writer does not remember ever having it, even though her daughter had it around age ten, a former roommate had it, and she cared for her daughter while she was sick without catching it. One Sunday morning, her daughter researches the subject and concludes that because her mother was born before 1985, she probably should have had chicken pox.

But the real joke comes next. While the writer is in the kitchen preparing breakfast, her phone rings. The caller is her daughter, who is in a bedroom less than ten feet away. The writer walks to her room and asks, “Why you trying to call me?” Her daughter says she wanted to share what Google AI said about chicken pox. The writer replies, “But I am just there.” Her daughter answers, “Well, the phone is right here. Why not call instead of having to get up out of my bed?”

A faded photo of the nearby kitchen and bedroom doorway appears on the upper right, emphasizing the short distance between them. A vintage rotary telephone appears at the lower right, contrasting older communication habits with modern ones. Five colourful book covers line the bottom.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 2:25 PM

This is my childhood beach.
I've spent very many summer vacations, and Sunday afternoon romping in these waves.
I have not been back there since I captured this photo. It's a good representation of yesterday and tomorrow meeting in a mauve sky.

#WrittenReels

A deserted Caribbean beach with dark sand curving along the shoreline, where foamy waves roll gently ashore beneath a dramatic mauve and pink sky filled with deep purple clouds.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 2:02 PM

This piece took a lot out of me to write.

It’s about leaving a place you’ve known all your life and moving on into large stretches of the unknown.

If you haven’t read any #WrittenReels yet, start with this one, and then together, we can return to the beginning.

Story & photos, 110% mine 📖

Alt text: Square social-media poster styled like an aged cream diary page with faint horizontal lines, worn edges and small pressed flowers. A village road at dusk fades into the right side, with dark trees, utility poles, glowing streetlights, approaching headlights and a soft pink-purple evening sky. A second rural image blends into the lower right corner, showing banana plants, green vegetation and a simple hillside structure. Five colourful book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer line the bottom.

The story reflects on preparing to move away from the village where the writer was born and raised, started her family and watched her daughter grow into a beautiful, intelligent young woman. She remembers spending the first thirty years of her life trying to escape a place she believed was not for her, only to realize it was exactly where she needed to be.

She writes that many of the experiences she had there became the basis of her books and stories. She reflects that sometimes we do not know what we came into this earth plane to learn until the lessons begin, and when those lessons become difficult, our instinct is to run: “And we run and we run and we run.” Yet somehow we return to where we started until what was meant for us has been received.

Her own lessons taught her patience, that time is on her side, that what she needs to survive and thrive already exists within her, that she has much to give and share, and that she deserves happiness, love and the path laid out for her, even when it feels bigger than her wildest dreams.

She says what the village and its people came to teach her has now been received, alchemized and turned into gold. She is leaving with those golden nuggets and moving into what she calls Phase Three of her life: preparing for the Healing House, a new course of studies and becoming the person she believes she came here to be. The overall mood is reflective and hopeful, presenting the move as a farewell to home and the beginning of a new chapter.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 12:06 PM

Re-introducing my Gen Z...

Thanks for reading.

#WrittenReels 📖

Magazine-style social media poster titled “Raising Gen Zs with Champagne Taste and Mauby Pockets.” The page has a soft cream background with tropical accents and a faded photo on the right of a hand holding a champagne flute.

The story introduces the writer’s Gen Z, previously featured in Chronicles of an Awakening Soul, and described as her badass alter ego: unfiltered, her dark side, mirror and headache. The young woman has been applying to PhD programs and recently received some good news. She messages, “Finally, some good news. We need to pop some champagne.”

The writer jokes that she has “champagne taste and mauby pockets.” She explains that mauby is a traditional Caribbean drink made from mauby bark, sometimes fermented, with a distinctive bitter or sweet taste, and that it used to be inexpensive to make. She remembers Mr. Lawrence in her village, who made and sold mauby when she was growing up.

She tells her Gen Z, “You better go by Mr. Lawrence and buy a bottle of mauby.”

Her Gen Z replies, “I don’t even know who Mr. Lawrence is.”

Five colourful book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer line the bottom of the poster.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 8:43 PM

Jack is back!

Thanks for reading.❣️

#WrittenReels 📖

Poster on lightly coffee-stained paper. On the left is a short humorous story about Jack, the friend who once sent giant iguana pictures despite the writer’s fear of lizards. Jack has moved into a new apartment and says he is shopping for a kettle and toaster oven. Because he is the one who introduced the writer to moka pots, she is surprised he is not buying one. She explains how much she loves moka pots, including one-cup, two-cup, four-cup, gray, silver, and even a black-and-white cow-print one she considered buying. Jack says he has no Keurig and that his new electric glass-top stove and moka pot are “not getting along.” The punchline comes when he admits sheepishly, “I’ve been surviving on instant Bustelo.” On the right are three coffee-related images: a large round-table display of several moka pots filled with coffee grounds, a jar of Supreme Bustelo instant coffee, and a small cow-print moka pot. Along the bottom are five book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 4:53 PM

Back with another Jack story....water, water everywhere.

Thanks for reading❣️

#WrittenReels 📚
#TinyStories

Square social-media poster on a mostly white background designed to look soaked by large clear water droplets and splashes. In the upper right is a faded photo of a broken water main spraying a huge geyser into the air beside roadwork equipment and traffic cones. The story recalls the writer’s friend Jack, previously known for joking that too much salad might make him bleat. Jack sends a photo of the burst main after road workers damage it, leaving most of his city without water. The next morning, with the water still off, he says he has to “head water.” The writer explains that in the Caribbean, “heading water” means carrying water home in buckets or other containers, a phrase rooted in the days when people collected water from village standpipes and often carried it on their heads. She asks, “Really? You have to head water in this day and age?” Jack laughs and replies, “Yes. And imagine, I’m heading water in a Tesla.” Along the bottom are five colourful book covers by Ilis Trudie Palmer: Chronicles of an Awakening Soul, Let the Sun Shine on My Face, Dancing Between Tall Grass, She Sits and Shells Peas, and Woke to Joy.

@ilistrudiepalmer.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 PM

This photo I took some time ago might actually be his great, or great great grand father. 😊
The males have the flaming orange chest while the females are all brown.

Thanks for reading ❣️

#WrittenReels 📚
#TinyStories