Challenge #224 - week of 8th August 2016

I've been doing a lot of clearing and tidying the last couple of weeks. I need to clear some space - this is definitely an ongoing project - and I need to tidy up so that we can be ready to receive guests the week after next. This is exciting, even if the tidying is less so! But to keep me occupied and entertained while I clear, I've been listening to Podcasts. BBC podcasts to be precise.

One of my favourites is Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" which has been running now since 1942 if you can believe it. The concept is simple, a well-known (or sometimes less well-known) guest is invited to pick 8 discs to take with them to a desert island. These should represent their life and help them through the hard times of being deserted. Then they talk about the discs and their life before being "cast away" with the tracks. At the end, they have to pick one that they would save from the waves. I particularly love trying to come up with my own 8 discs at the same time as listening to details of lives that I might not have heard before or discovering interesting people I didn't previously know.

You can find the website here: BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs and there is a archive of  almost 1,500 guests. The older ones are wonderful with the plummy accents and a different approach to life but very often, it's the people who are less well-known to me who are the most fascinating and people who have particular skills or work in humanitarian files who make me stop and think. However, I can recommend some recent episodes such as the wonderful Tom Hanks, Hugh Bonneville (well-known these days for playing in Downton Abbey),  British Polar explorer Ben Sanders, a hilarious Dame Judi Dench or a particularly emotional Kylie Minogue.

Anyway you might have guessed it, I'd love you to be inspired by Desert Island Discs this week.

You could make a layout featuring your own 8 discs, your favourite piece of music, how a particular piece of music says something about your own life, perhaps how much you'd love to be stranded on a desert island - if only for a while - or maybe feature one of your own famous or unsung heroes. Which way will you take this inspiration? I can't wait to find out.

We'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#224 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#224 in the write up text so that we can find it.