crispina kemp

Sunday Picture Post: Another Wetland Walk

Posted on September 13, 2026 by crispina kemp

31st August 2026 and the weather forecast suggests perfect conditions for a long walk. But in the UK, it’s a Bank Holiday and that means buses are running a Sunday service, which isn’t exactly fantastic. We agree to keep it local and, despite the overnight rain (yay, let’s celebrate), decide on Damgate Carr through to Weavers’ Way. And maybe we’ll walk further than last time during the high summer heat. So here we go…

31st August 2026

🔼 And already we can see how green these woods. They’re positively lush. And not too wet underfoot 🔽

31st August 2026

Early morning and the light is fantastic, illuming the berries on vines that have spent the summer clambering up to the sky 🔼 Guilder Rose 🔽 Honeysuckle

31st August 2026

🔼 We’ve noticed Hops here in previous years. But this year they’re rampant, scrambling everywhere 🔽 While some are fruiting, other vines are still carrying flowers

31st August 2026

🔼 Out of the woods, we cross the main drain. Here, too, everything’s verdant

31st August 2026

🔼 A path leads us to Weavers’ Way (is it only a week since we walked the section of Weavers’ Way around Aylsham?) 🔽 The path runs parallel to the Norwich-Gt Yarmouth train line, separated by a drainage ditch

31st August 2026

🔼 It matters not that we’ve had drought and a heat wave, Nature offers an exuberant harvest! 🔽 This is not a bridge we must cross. Yet the light is such that it demands my lens’ attention

31st August 2026

🔽 That light! Wow. And here are a couple of strays, separated from their herd which is way off to our left

31st August 2026

🔼 More summer fruits, though I can’t name them. Probably a hybrid of multiple plum species 🔽 There are loads of these wonderful fruits along this lane ⏬

31st August 2026

This isn’t where our walk ends, for we’ve now to turn around and retrace our steps back to the bus stop in Acle. But this is where this post stops.

See Tuesday Treats for more pics. Hope you enjoyed 😎💖

Posted in Photos | Tagged Damgate Carr/Wood, Norfolk Walks, Photos, Weavers Way | 15 Comments

Let’s Blame The Heat

Posted on September 12, 2026 by crispina kemp

31st August 2026

It’s been a long season
And the heat’s been the reason
These beautiful winged beasties
Haven’t been seen on my screen

21 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Screen

Posted in Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged Photo, Poem, Sammi's Weekend Writing Prompt | 16 Comments

CCC103: Tilly’s Wall

Posted on September 10, 2026 by crispina kemp

See that wall? That’s where me and Janey used to play ball. Until…

It wasn’t my fault. Wasn’t her fault either. It was that nasty boy, Tilly.

Along he came, cut into our game, picked up a rock and hurled it hard. Cracked that wall.

But everyone knew Janey and I played ball against that wall so we got the blame. Our parents paid for two of those braces when it ought to have been Tilly.

But later, that Tilly came a cropper. Rode his bike straight into that wall. It was Tilly that paid for the third brace.

Yay! Comeuppance. 🙋‍♀️🤪😀

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro, Photos, Prompt | Tagged #CCC103, Crimson's Creative Challenge, Micro fiction | 18 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #103

Posted on September 9, 2026 by crispina kemp

Every Wednesday I’ll post FOUR photos (if you want to get a head start you’ll find them marked in that week’s Sunday Picture Post and Tuesday Treats). Lots of choice!

And here they are:

You respond with something CREATIVE. Perhaps an answering photo, or micro-fiction, or a poem, or just a caption

As before, there are only two criteria:

!!!!! Your creative offering is indeed yours !!!!!

!!!!! Your writing is kept to 150 words or less !!!!!

If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it.

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Prompt | Tagged #CCC103, Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Prompts | 12 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Late August Flowers and Fruits. Mostly

Posted on September 8, 2026 by crispina kemp

A miscellany of additional photos taken on our walk on 24th August 2026. Enjoy…

24th August 2026

🔼 As the flowers fade so the fungi begin to appear. Not enough yet to give them a post of their own, but it’ll come. Patience.

24th August 2026

🔼 Be it a wall or a tree, sometimes something catches your eye and you just have to click that camera 🔽

24th August 2026

🔼 Thistle and Rose Bay Willow Herb, all fluffy 🔽

24th August 2026

🔽 The rugged Hogweed, still flowering

24th August 2026

🔼 See note above about catching the eye and having to click 🔽 I’m afraid the wall-rooted Ferns haven’t fared so well in our heatwave and drought. But I’ve no doubt they will recover

24th August 2026

Two of the earliest fruits. Strange how both are associated with alcoholic drinks 🔼 Elderberry 🔽 Sloe

24th August 2026

Two autumnal ‘harvests’ once favoured by schoolboys 🔼 The seeds inside the Rose Hips yield a nasty ‘itching powder’ 🔽 Horse Chestnut gives us conkers for playground battles

24th August 2026

🔼 White Bryony in full fruiting mode, and again, all entangled with the Elderberries 🔽 Don’t mistake one for the other: White Bryony is poisonous

24th August 2026

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed 🤪

Posted in Photos | Tagged British Flora, British Fungi, Photos | 22 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Where Two Ways Meet

Posted on September 6, 2026 by crispina kemp

24th August 2026, the day begins woefully overcast. Yet rain’s not forecast, and it’s so much cooler than of late. Time to head inland. But to where? The imaginary flipped coin lands on Aylsham. Often described as an ‘unspoiled Norfolk market town’, it’s the end point of Marriott’s Way (which starts in Norwich) and the mid-point of Weaver’s Way (which starts in Cromer and ends in Gt Yarmouth.) Good choice. Let’s go…

24th August 2026

🔼 And with very few steps we’re out of town and noticing the trees’ subtle colour changes 🔽 The way-marker appears and, lo, ha, another farmyard

24th August 2026

🔼 What with the low quality of light and the baked white grasses, everywhere seems… washed out 🔽 If it weren’t for the trees… and that wheel… the scene would be colourless

24th August 2026

Ah-ha, red brick to enliven the scene 🔼 Posh house. The 4×4 windows suggest a Georgian build 🔽 And a ‘Dutch’ barn. This alone advertises money and is almost certainly a listed building (protected from alteration). But this display of wealth doesn’t surprise me. Aylsham was the biggest, most prosperous, textile centre in Norfolk… back in the day

24th August 2026

🔼 While Marriott’s Way uses a former rail track, Weavers’ Way uses it only in places. Here’s one place. To which I say Yippee, cos I love these old bridges 🔽 ⏬

24th August 2026

🔼 Aylsham sits on the banks of the Bure, one of the three rivers that find outfall at Great Yarmouth. Here, the river is a tad smaller than it is at the coast 🔽 All too soon we leave Weavers’ Way and head into town

24th August 2026

🔽 The former mill on the Bure now houses luxury apartments. What a beautiful place to live

24th August 2026

🔽 And here the two Ways meet…

24th August 2026

🔼 There is a busier route into the town centre. But why endure traffic when we can take the path less travelled 🔽 Finally we’ve arrived at the main shopping street. Now to find somewhere to eat.

24th August 2026

I hope you enjoyed. Join us next Sunday for another walk. Meanwhile, don’t forget Tuesday Treats! 🥰

Posted in Photos | Tagged Aylsham, Norfolk Walks, Photos, River Bure, Weavers Way | 31 Comments

When Trade Is A Problem

Posted on September 5, 2026 by crispina kemp

When trading’s a problem…

The soon-to-be king needs land for his house. But the only available land belongs to the eblann, an ancient shamanic order.

Detah says to deal for it using the eblann’s much valued green-feather herb which is currently in her keeping.

The soon-to-be king refuses to deal with the eblann for land that will remain in his kingly line far beyond the foreseeable future. He asks Detah to deal on his behalf.

But Detah is also an eblan, and the eblann are forbidden to deal amongst themselves.

90 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Trade

A very brief summary of Chapter 92 in my current wip: Detah And The Saramequai.

Posted in Fantasy Fiction, Mostly Micro, Mythic Fiction, Prompt | Tagged Sammi's Weekend Writing Prompt, Fantasy Fiction, WIP | 15 Comments

CCC102: Improvisation

Posted on September 3, 2026 by crispina kemp

“Jack! What have you done?”

Jack stood back, his chest collapsed. His teeth bit into his lip, almost enough to draw tears and blood. It was all there in her voice. The sarcasm. The scorn. The intense displeasure.

And all he’d wanted was to surprise her, his grandma. But since summer’s end was too early for the proper stuff he’d improvised. Clever, yea? Apparently not.

“You’re to clean that away. Bad enough that humans cover our world in plastics, without you doing it too!”

The way she breathed, that frigid huff… almost cold enough for him to do the proper frost stuff.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Prompt | Tagged #CCC102, Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro, Photos, Prompts | 20 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #102

Posted on September 2, 2026 by crispina kemp

Every Wednesday I’ll post FOUR photos (if you want to get a head start you’ll find them marked in that week’s Sunday Picture Post and Tuesday Treats). Lots of choice!

And here they are: