Harken: Advance Warning

Posted on June 4, 2021 by crispina kemp

I’m moving home. But as yet I don’t know when. It could be next week, it could be in a month’s time. The one thing I am sure of is it’s already causing turmoil and it’s going to get worse.

I don’t know if I shall have immediate phone connection, if I shall have internet access, or if I shall be back in the dark ages. I do know that my trusty little phone will connect via 4g. But I also know it’s heavy on battery, and not ideal for uploading photos.

So I intend to upload and schedule as far ahead as I can (i.e. as far as I have available photos).

And I apologise now if I get behind with reading your posts. I know this is already happening what with eye-ops and jabs and side effects and viewing the property and trying to pack what’s not needed, and ferrying sackfuls of donations to charity shops…. did someone say moving is a stressful experience. Yeah? Really? Hah-hah.

So please forgive any lapses and moments of forgetfulness. I have given you due warning.

Posted in On Writing, Thoughts | Tagged | 24 Comments

CCC134: And in that year…

Posted on June 3, 2021 by crispina kemp
Crimson’s Creative Challenge 134

Breydon Water, my go-to place when I need to escape the pressures of the day. It never fails me.

I stand on the bank and look over the water… and I see ships. Long ships. Viking ships. A fleet of eighty. Where are they going – to raid the monasteries? In later years there’ll be one on the Yare at Norwich, but for now Norwich is just a collection of Saxon hamlets. Nothing there to interest Vikings.

Their longships hug the southern bank, and veer into the Waveney. The Waveney divides Norfolk from Suffolk and rises near Thetford not ten meters from the rise of the Ouse that then flows westward to the Wash. Thetford. They’re heading for Thetford, there to meet with others coming in from the west.

This raid will surely find its way into the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

In 869:
“This year the Viking army […] fixed their winter-quarters at Thetford. And in the winter King Edmund fought with them; but the Danes gained the victory and slew the king; whereupon they overran all that land and destroyed all the monasteries to which they came.”

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, History, Photos | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #134

Posted on June 2, 2021 by crispina kemp
CCC143

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 post a link in the comments section of 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)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Tuesday Treat: Flowers

Posted on June 1, 2021 by crispina kemp

Continuing the flowers seen along the way in Lothingland (12th May)

Stitchwort & Garlic-Mustard: 12 May 2021
Stitchwort & Red Dead-Nettle: 12 May 2021
Tiniest of flowers, Speedwell: 12 May 2021
From tiny to huge: female pine “flowers” and embryonic cone: 12 May 2021
the pine’s male counterpart: 12 May 2021
Broom, a member of the pea family: 12 May 2021
The humble daisy, overlooked and underfoot: 12 May 2021
And buttercups: 12 May 2021
Not flowers, but fresh young leaves of sycamore and ivy: 12 May 2021
Woord sorrel, always a delight to find: 12 May 2021
Bluebells: 12 May 2021
Blue and White bells: 12 May 2021
12 May 2021
Just a few of the photos I took in this bluebell wood: 12 May 2021

Hope you enjoyed. More flowers next week

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 13 Comments

To Call a Spade a Spade

Posted on May 31, 2021 by crispina kemp

It was Adam began it.

Look around you, said the Lord, at the trees, the flowers, the fruits in this garden. What will you name them? For without a name, you cannot know them.

Then the Lord said, look around you at the beasts of the air, and water and land. To you I give the right to name them.

And Adam did as he was bid and applied a nomenclature to the world around him.

76 words for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Nomenclature

Posted in Mostly Micro, Mythic Fiction | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Lothingland Part 2

Posted on May 30, 2021 by crispina kemp

Continuing our walk from 12th May, having passed through Ashby St Mary we head to Lound Lakes.

12 May 2021
We’re headed to that pine-covered hill: 12 May 2021
And from that hill and through those trees we witness this swan seeing off that goose. Wow, the noise! And look at those wakes, they’re travelling at speed: 12 May 2021
Pines aren’t native to East Anglia: 12 May 2021
And here we stopped to eat our lunch: 12 May 2021
Leaving the lakes, fields of canola: 12 May 2021
12 May 2021
And buttercup-meadows: 12 May 2021
Pylons, my passion: 12 May 2021
And finally we enter Bluebell Wood: 12 May 2021
12 May 2021
A short walk from here is our bus home: 12 May 2021

That’s it. I do hope you enjoyed the walk. And where am I going next week? I don’t know yet. See Tuesday Treats for the flowers seen on the way.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 32 Comments

Is This the Way

Posted on May 29, 2021 by crispina kemp
23rd May 2021

Pathway, another title achieved from the list provided for #2021picoftheweek provided by Maria Antonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 17 Comments

CCC133: Duckie’s Day

Posted on May 27, 2021 by crispina kemp
Crimsons Creative Challenge #133

Come on, Duckie
Another new day
But no time to play
It’s your turn to work
[While your siblings lurk]
To earn us a crust
To feed us you must
For such a cutie
Those humans are suckers to feed

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge 133

Posted on May 26, 2021 by crispina kemp
CCC133

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 post a link in the comments section of 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)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Flowers

Posted on May 25, 2021 by crispina kemp

As with Sunday’s Picture Post, I’ve divided the photos taken on our walk 12th May to cover two weeks since I’m unable to get out at the moment. But I’m sure you’ll enjoy them just as much

Lords and Ladies: 12th May 2021
Cow Parsley: 12th May 2021
Ground Ivy: 12th May 2021
Cow Parsley tangling with Alexanders: 12th May 2021
Hawthorn (May Blossoms): 12th May 2021
12th May 2021
My favourite, Red Dead Nettle: 12th May 2021
Red Campion: 12th May 2021
Alkenet: 12th May 2021
Garlic-Mustard: 12th May 2021

All are flowers of the wayside. Next week we’ll be at woodland flowers (amongst others)

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 17 Comments