CCC8
Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN
Here’s how it works:
Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE
Here are some suggestions:
- An answering photo
- A cartoon
- A joke
- A caption
- An anecdote
- A short story (flash fiction)
- A poem
- A newly minted proverb, adage or saying
- An essay
- A song—the lyrics or the performance
You have plenty of scope, and only two criteria:
- Your creative offering is indeed yours
- Your writing is kept to 150 words or less
If you link your post to this post I’ll be able to find it
If you include Crimson’s Creative Challenge as a heading, WP Search will find it (theory)
If you tag it #CCC others should be able to find it by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)
Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.
Details of the photo are given, if relevant, below this line
East window in ruined church at South Burlingham (between Norwich and Great Yarmouth)
crispina kemp 
The view never changed until the boy became a man.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Nice one. And did it change then cos, grown taller, her could see out of the window? Or because as a man he wasn’t blinkered by what he’d been taught?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Up to the reader 🙂
In my mind, he’s a prisoner behind the bars.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yea, I saw it as the picture of a prison too.
My take of it posts tomorrow.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lovely image – where is it? Have scheduled mine for Friday
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have explained it right at the bottom. It’s the abandoned, ruined east church window of an old church. But I managed to catch it so you can see through to the interrior and out the far end, the usual west tower absent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, missed the description! Just a great image, so atmospheric
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, misunderstood question. Currently have screwy eyes, migraine approaching, have taken tabs, hope I’m in time. Meantime, weird kind of vision.
Where, right. It’s St Peter’s Church at North Burlingham which is on the A47 our of Norwich on road to Great Yarmouth, close to Acle. No bus stop. I had to walk it cross country from Aclo. Buy worth it; so many times seen from the bus. Great to see it up close. You’ll find another photo of it in Pick of the Pics, I thnk it’s the second or third photo, with a link to the original with more info about the church.
Soorry if I’ve missed words. everything’s blurry at the moment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great Gothic imagery. Very MR James! Sorry you’re feeling so rough. Hope you caught it in time
LikeLiked by 1 person
The visuals seldom last more than 20 minutes, and usually allow me time to pop the tabs. Plus, they’re very infrequent these days (time was it was almost daily). And though the visuals can make you feel queasy, disoriented, bloody annoyed, I don’t feel rough (at least, not yet!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hideous things. I have a friend who has them regularly and they wipe her out for a day at a time at least. Fingers crossed you caught it in time
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea. One learns. Also I take tablets that usually prevent them, or at least lessen the severity. But I’m still careful to avoid triggers. Such as people perfumes and makeup (not easuly avoided, but I try.) I think today I forgor to take the tabs at lunchtime, and paid for my forgetfulness. Ne’er mind, eh. Others het things a whole lot worse. 🙂 My sympathies to your friend. Tell her, Clonidine, only available on prescription, and she’ll probably need maximum dose (6 tabs a day). But it works.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think her triggers are coffee and hormones – not a lot she can do to avoid the last one till she’s through the menopause! I’ll try to let her know, thanks. Stay well
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ta muchly.
Much of mine was hormone-driven. But the day comes … I was presecribed the clonidine to counter the nasty flushes. Only to discover, when I tried to come off it, that is prevented migraines as well. I should have known. I’d had it prescribed 5 centuries ago, when the migraines were at their worst (in my 20s — the Pill, I believe) but hadn’t known at the time that I needed toi take it at maximun dosage. We live. We learn. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad you found something that works for you. I’ve only had a couple in my life – when I was a teenager – and found them debilitating. Do they know exactly why they happen? Be interesting to know the science behind them
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, at one time I could have reelled it off, complete with biochemical names.
I know the pain is caused by the tighteing of blood vessels. Also, oneo f teh brain chemicals is involved (dopamine, I think). That chemical used to have me happy-hyper about an hour before the attack. And I never could suss whether it was cause or symptom. Apparently it’s symptom. But more than that I don’t remember.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like complex chemistry alright. Perhaps people with narrower blood vessels are pre disposed to them? Good in a way that there are these pre warnings, as I believe there are with epilepsy and diabetic fits.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good as long as you recognise it as such. Next warning, with me, are the visual disturbances. But by then it could be hitting the digestuve system — which goes into a rhythmic wave of squeezing and relaxing. End result: nausea. If it persists (which by then it usually does) the intestinal tract goes into eruption-mode. All orifices. And then saliva mega-produces, phelgm, mucus, tears, everything flows. Safest place then is the bathroom! And that’s not to mention the headache. Over the years I learned to ‘go with it’. Just ride it, like givingbirth. The more you clench against it, the more painful it gets. But it takes years to learn how best to cope. And everybody has it slightly different. Years ago, when the children were young, I would save the ironing until I had a migraine. The monotony mindless activity helped me relax and ride through it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, it really does hit every part of you, doesn’t it? I can see that about the pain. They do say to relax into pain makes the pain better than if you tense. As you say, not easy to do though. Mindset, as is so often the case, is so important in these things.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All body-over. And that’s before you get some of the odder symptoms. A feeling of one half of the body being much bigger than the other; a sense of disorientation: just two of the odd ones. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your body feeling different sizes is very odd – I wonder what causes that? Thank goodness for medication. How on earth did people cope before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lay still in a darkened room, was the standard recommendation. Although Queen Victoria smoked cannabis for relief. 🙂
After many many years of not taking meds in time to catch it, I discovered it made no difference: take them early or forget it. So I many a migraine wirhout medication. I would open all windows (cos the triggers to migraine also triggered an asthma attack but I didn’t realise that, didn’t know I had asthma till fairly recently) but the fresh cold air helped the breathing. Then I’d wrap myself in a blanket and, bowl in hand, circle around the room. Round, and round, endlessly. The idea being to tire myself. And when tired, I’d flop on the bed. By then I wold have totally emptied my body of every liquid. Exhausted, I’d sleep.
I was lucky, migraine seldom lasted more than 6 hours. Others suffer for days. I can’t imagine it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s so debilitating, so all consuming! Have you ever written about it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nah. I wrote a blog about my experence wuth CFS?ME way back in 2014. But many others have focused on migraine. It’s pretty well understood these days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking as part of your fiction, really. A protagonist who has migraines
LikeLiked by 1 person
Could do. Cos migraine isn’t a C20th problem. The Greeks named !. It’an idea. I thank you. Hey, perhaps I’ll use it for a Pegman’s story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t know that about the Greeks. Interesting it’s been recognised for so long, compared to many illness that have passed through history being muddled with others. It would make a good story, your poor protagonist suffering through, tormented by the pain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It has been suggested that the trepanned skulls dating to Neolitiic times were migraine treatments of the day. Amazing that, without metals, the ‘doctor’ could cut into the patient’s skull and recmove a small circular disk of bone, and the patient survived … at least long enough to develop scar tissue. Of course, equally possible, the op was done to allow the crazy demons to escape. We just don’t know. There’s also the thought that the nasty visuals one gets at the onset, being remarkably like those of a shaman entering trance, perhpas in primitive societies initiation into shamanism was the usual path of the migraine sufferer. It’s an idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a very interesting idea and quite possible I’d think. Wouldn’t be the only time medical conditions were seen as otherworldly – just been reading how epilepsy was seen as a link to the Gods in ancient Greece and Rome. And yes, I’d heard about trepanning in ancient times – still can’t quite get my head around someone without anaesthetic sitting still enough to have a hole ground in their skull … They made them tough in those days!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you read up on medieval medicine? It rivals medieval pratcices of torture … not used on suspected traitors, but simply to get a witness statement for the most mundane of crimes. Incredible. We might thank whoever our chosen gods that we’ve come so far in relatively little time. Now we scream and hold up our hands in horrible at (relatively) minot infringements of human rights.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How right you are. Any procedure before anaesthetics and antibiotics must have just been horrendous. I read about the 18th/19th century ‘cure’ for kidney stone in men – as far as I can make out, it just involved a very long pair of tweezers … No wonder so many of us were dead by our thirties, though of course those ‘average’ life expectancies were skewed by the high infant mortality rate. As you say, we worry about data mining and dodgy ads on Facebook – trying living in virtual police states where there was no freedom of expression or worship, where you were tied to land and landowners. We are fortunate indeed
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if you have read Steven Pinker’s *The Better Angels of Our Nature*? If not, I think you’d … not say enjoy, but find it exceedingly interesting. He’s such a good writer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t, but after reading the reviews, now I really want to! I’d heard before that there’s scientific proof we are actually becoming less violent, there are fewer murders, the streets are safer and this sounds a wonderfully reassuring proof of that. Forgive me if I’ve recommended this to you before but have you read Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England 1600-1770 by Emily Cockayne. Just an absolutely fascinating study of how we dealt with our own rubbish and waste in the 17th/18th century. Sounds gross – and it is – but it’s never dull. Again, shows how lucky we are to live when we do
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, it doesn’t sound gross. It sounds fantastic. Right up my street, so to speak. And Steven Pinker provides loads of evidence, loads of graphs, everything referenced, and it makes for a stunning read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looking forward to reading it – thanks so much for the recommendation 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
When it’s a good read, I like to spread the word. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You ought to be on commission 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I doubt I’d earn much. I might promote it, but for many people its conclusions negate their strongly held beliefs. The Golden Age is past, we’re descending into hell. Or didn’t you know? I see few optimists, at least not amongst those who are given to think. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, everyone needs to talk to a historian or two! You and I both know through studying the past how routinely violent, nasty and unpleasant people have been to each other. Trial by ordeal, capital and corporal punishment, regional wars, local conflicts … Much of this – at least in parts of the world – has all but vanished. People need to study more, rather than reading the tabloid headlines.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You put me in mind of my father’s conversation last week on the phone. At a loss of what to read (he’s 99 this year) he turned to some of my mother’s books. And, gosh, the author’s name has escaped me. Anyway, cradle-to-grave, family sagas, many of which have been dramatised. Now I know you know who I mean. Anyway, he was astounded at how badly people used to treat each other; the abuse of children particularly. Yet he’s no fool, I think he’s forgotten what life was like when he was a kid. And did he really believe Dickens made it up? Note, he has been an avid reader all his life, and he doesn’t have any noticeab;e mental health problems.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Catherine Cookson, maybe? She was one of my mum’s favourites, too years ago. Her books are full of mistreated heroines who battle through in the end. I think we do forget how badly people have been treated, how few rights most of us had until recent times. Teachers were still routinely beating kids when I was at school, a fact my 14 year old son finds shocking. You dad must have seen some changes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the one., Totally lost it. Yea, he’s seen some changes, but I think also he blanks a lot. While he’s physically and mentally able, there seems a tiredness about him. He doesn’t want to cope with any more changes, and one way to make them seem less is to forget them. Home-grown psychology here. 🙂
And yea, I remember boys getting the cane, and one teacher which a penchant for throwing the board rubber.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can understand where your dad’s coming from. If I ever get to that age, the world will tire me out too, I’m sure! Ah, board rubbers – they use interactive white boards and Power Point now 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea, devil of a job to throw one of those! Have to make sure you’ve powered off first!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! Very true
LikeLiked by 1 person
I ordered a copy! On it’s way from Blackwell’s now 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brilliant. And don’t be put off by the bulky tome. He provides tons of references. Everything he argues is thoroughly, thoroughly, backed by evidence/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really looking forward to reading it. A strange mix of a grim subject with a positive conclusion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea, one way to look at it. But unfortunately it’s message is slow getting through to those disasterists who continue to wave their flags and wail of our diminishing ethics, clearly a sign of our imminent self-anhilation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sadly the human race is intent on self annihilation, even if the murder rate is dropping and our streets are safer, but that’s more due to greed and complacency and there being too many of us. We love our cars and our ‘stuff’, don’t we?
LikeLiked by 1 person
But we’ve always loved our ‘stuff’, except for the small religious few. It’s only the nature of stuff that changes. And while we abhor human pollution, one asks which is worst, the pollutors, and the pollutants. I believe the planet is fully able to fend for itself. Probably by getting rid of us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I totally agree with you – you only need to look at an old cesspit or spoil heap to know we’ve always loved stuff. It’s just there are too many of us now, flooding up the place. And I also agree – dear old Mother Earth has outlived global extinctions before and she’ll outlive this one. Life will endure, though I doubt we will. Still, the thought of the green, blue ball still spinning fills me with hope
LikeLiked by 1 person
Survival of the fittest. Well, I’ve had my day. I waved my banners, laid down to stop the tractors, got all uppity and got all blood pressured. Now … it’s there in my writing, in praise of the earth, it’s there within me, seeping out to wash over others (I hope). More? Nah. I doubt I can do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We can all only do our best, our little part to make the world better and your love of nature and the planet shines through your writing. as for us, I’m proud we have eco energy, that we don’t drive, that we’ve hardly ever flown – it sounds like we’ve restricted ourselves and undoubtedly we have, but I hate the air of entitlement so many have, those who moan if they haven’t gone abroad this year. Well, boo bloody hoo. Travelling abroad is amazing, but we’re not entitled to it, as we’re not entitled to new phones every year, new cars, new clothing. Stay home and live a smaller life – a bit less desiring what we don’t have, a bit more hygge
LikeLiked by 1 person
Myself, I live at a frugal level. By choice. And I’ve never driven; a danger on the roads when subject to migraines and the first sign is objects disappearing from the field of view. I either walk or take public transport wherever I go. And if more people did the same there’d be less traffic and less pollution. As to the need to travel abroad (okay, my brother does it, but that’s for business), there are so many beautiful places in the UK, why go through all that airport rigmarole. And perhaps our own holiday indusry might then recover, with accompanying reduction in unemployment figures. But, I hear the call, can we guarantee the weather? What weather? Have you seen what the Med is getting right now?
LikeLiked by 1 person
But as you say, if everyone took a small amount of collective responsibility, how much better would the world be? I quite fancy trying to see some seals up off Scotland for a big birthday this year – no point worrying about the weather there 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish you well with that. We sometimes get them off our beach, or at the right time of year you can take a boat trip out to Scroby. If you don’t mind 30+ windturbines all whumping overhead. And if the tide’s right.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’d be a hit and miss thing, wouldn’t it? Would love to see the Northern Lights too, but would have the same problem. And I’m not prepared to move to the Land of the Midnight Sun to guarantee a front row seat 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea, I’d love to see too. I don’t even get to see shooting stars, Once, in an entire lifetime!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve seen a few meteor showers here, though my stamina for standing outside in the cold with my neck back is pretty poor! There is a thrill to them though. And seeing the Moon and planets through husband’s telescope is special too
LikeLiked by 1 person
I decided to take photos of the recent full moon. I knew I wouldn’t get the Blood Moon. By the time that happened there’d be too many houses in the way, and in the wee hours of the morning I wasn’t going to go traipsing across the marshes to get a good view. So I clicked and clicked as the moon was rising, looking largely huge to me.
Result. 30 photos of a bright white spot in plain black sky! Ho-hum. I tried.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dammit! So hard to capture these things, I know. All those shots of gorgeous Moons across the world – totally overcast here!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve mostly had overcast skies. But then … wow! Let’s snap.
I don’t mind that I missed yet another *not to be missed* Blood Moon. I did see one back in … er … 2010 maybe? I just happened to be coming home from a friends in the wee hours when … lo! There it was. Folks must have wondered what I was about. Standing in the road, gazing upwards. It was pretty stunning. And it forms part of what happens in Asaric Book Four.
Never waste an experience. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that, weaving such a lovely experience into your work, that magpie mind that informs us all and how we work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing ever wasted, hey. Every experience set to good/vreative use. And I’ve seen that you do the same. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do, indeed, steal from everywhere – even some unpleasant/traumatic experiences have their uses, let you know how scared, lost, empty people can feel in certain situations. Graham Greene said there was a ‘splinter of ice’ in the heart of every writer and although that sounds a bit harsh, he had a point.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do know what you mean by that. Dispassionate, detached, able to observe, understand, without being emotionally disturbed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Storing things away, thinking ‘ooh, that will be useful’. I haven’t based any shorts directly on upsetting moments in my life, but I’ve certainly drawn on them. ‘Liars and thieves’, we are 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some things become woven into a story. And in their weaving, lose some of their bite, 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true. I’m cautious about using my own experiences too closely. I watched a documentary about Hanif Kureishi and how much he hurt his ex wife when he wrote a book about a man who had multiple affairs. ‘Truth’ in fiction is one thing – being thoughtless and cold is another
LikeLiked by 1 person
In full agreement there.
Also, I’ve read biographies where every word of a writer’s fictiona; story has been analysed to reveal a life I’m sure the writer never intended to make public.
One must evercise caution, and remain aware of what others might make of any ‘included’ incident.
LikeLike
I posted a comment and a link this morning, but I don’t see it here. I said ‘if it’s got bars on it, it says jail to me.’ That’s where this took me immediately, but it also says stuck in between freedom and being enslaved…. Excellent choice of prompts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your post shows in my reader.
When I chose the photo, it was for that ambiguity, though the verticals of an ruined church window, they so resemble bars and thereful some form of prison. I enjoy selecting the prompts
LikeLiked by 1 person
hmm. Do different things show up on the reader and the actual web page?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see on your blog that you’ve included the address to my blog. And this works.
If you want a link from my blog to yours, you’ll need to include your blog addresss in the comments, as per this one.
Otherwise, people can find it via the search box in the Reader, or displayed on their Reader if they’re already a follower of your blog. I don’t know how to do more than that. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s ok. We found each other, that’s all that matters….
LikeLiked by 1 person
I follow your blog; I shall always find you. But I would like others to find you too. 🙂
LikeLike
Arch without door,
Window without pane,
If only people could be so open,
We’d have so much less pain.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Indeed, agreed. But a shame that this edifice must first be ruined.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pingback: Crimson’s Creative Challenge | Photo Prompt – Table for One
Not sure if I did this right! Thanks for the prompt. I really like it; http://tablefor1.blog/2019/01/03/crimsons-creative-challenge-photo-prompt/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Crimson’s Creative Challenge: Fourth one along – Word Shamble
Thanks for yet another brilliant prompt! Here goes my take on it:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for participating. 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: I wanna… – Thru Violet's Lentz
Pingback: Miscellaneous Prompted Micro Poems 2 | Padre's Ramblings
Pingback: Bound but not Blinded | Sammi Cox
Pingback: Haiku: Freed | The Dark Netizen