My Life Of Late

Posted on January 11, 2021 by crispina kemp

image: bill taft on pixabay

Sat: Fireworks lit the laptop’s screen. Graphics chip. I’d bought a new machine the day before Lockdown closed our shops. But all had seemed well and so…

Sun: Powered the laptop. It groaned and whined. The fan. I persisted and meanwhile downloaded a year’s worth of Window’s updates to my new laptop.

Weds: Sister phone. My father has tested positive for Covid

Thurs: Phone call to say the owner of my property is selling. I have to find another home.

Apologies for not reading your posts. My life has become a crucible of late. I’ll catch up as soon as.

100 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Crucible.

Posted in Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged | 51 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: New Year’s Blues

Posted on January 10, 2021 by crispina kemp

With no desire to bring you down, yet our walk from Great Yarmouth to Gorleston beach was mostly undertaken in blue light. There was a heavy fog. Temperatures below freezing. But in the early dawn, it was wondrously quiet!!! We enjoyed it. I hope you will too.

That fog makes even the power station look ethereal

1st Jan 2021

Looking downriver to the ONE ship in port

1st Jan 2021

The Vos Glory

1st Jan 2021

A sad-looking gull; no one out fishing today

1st Jan 2021

The sun attempts to shine through but the clouds aren’t having it

1st Jan 2021

The lighthouse… it overlooks the river’s pool (where the ships turn)

1st Jan 2021

A solitary turnstone; he prefers the sparse findings on the pier to those on the beach. Why? Cos the tide is high

1st Jan 2021

Have you ever seen that sea so quiet? Oh, and look. Four hardy swimmers!

1st Jan 2021

Splash

1st Jan 2021

Colour. At last! Some beefy dog’s paw-prints in the sand

1st Jan 2021

What, more colour? Groynes, almost lost beneath the sand

1st Jan 2021

A lone marker

1st Jan 2021

People begin to appear… with dogs. Must be getting on for 10:00 am. Oh yes, so it is

1st Jan 2021

And the sun slips through the clouds

1st Jan 2021

While on the prom the beach huts remain shuttered until the summer

1st Jan 2021

A stately ascent…

1st Jan 2021

Frozen, the boating lake… pond… pool (for model yachts)

1st Jan 2021

This time of year, the gulls take to skating…

1st Jan 2021

Colour! The sun lights up the Pavilion Theatre. No pantomime this year

1st Jan 2021

And wildflowers bloom on the river’s side

1st Jan 2021

We then walked back to Great Yarmouth. Not a huge hike. About 6 or 7 miles. Since then the weather has been foul; essential shopping trips only. But next week… fingers crossed

 

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The Distant Moon

Posted on January 9, 2021 by crispina kemp

Blue Light: 27 Dec 2020

To the southwest, the sun had sunk beneath the distant horizon. I turned around, intending to leave my vantage point. And there, above the lights of Great Yarmouth train station, was the moon.

And for this, I claim the title, Blue Hour from the list provided for #2021picoftheweek provided by Maria Antonia.

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CCC113: The One

Posted on January 7, 2021 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Beaming light
A guide in the fog of night
A beacon to beckon us home
A call that’s heard from far and near
A welcome we cannot fail to hear
Regardless of the miles we roam
Not built of brick or stone
But a soul, throughout the world, the One.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #113

Posted on January 6, 2021 by crispina kemp

CCC113

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 , , | 26 Comments

Tuesday Treat: The First of the Month

Posted on January 5, 2021 by crispina kemp

I set myself a challenge: to post one photo from each month in 2020. Oh, but so many to choose from. So let’s say photos of plants, preferably flowers, and found growing wild. But that’s still too many to choose from. So let’s take them from the first day’s shoot of each month. OK. Let’s go…

Alder Catkins: January 2020

Pine cones: February 2020

Cherry: March 2020

Red Deadnettles: April 2020

Apple blossom: May 2020

Dog rose: June 2020

?Water Dropwort: July 2020

Fennel: August 2020

Himalayan Balsam: September 2020

Dogwood berries: October 2020

Silver Birch dripping gold: November 2020

Gorse: December 2020

I can’t wait to take photos of bright spring flowers again. What joy that’ll be after the winter glum

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My Love for You

Posted on January 4, 2021 by crispina kemp

image: Ruth Archer on Pixabay

My love for you does not accrue interest at any astounding rate
Indeed, since your farcical behaviour at last year’s carnival
My interest in you is reduced to not even marginal

31 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Marginal

Posted in Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Boxing Day Beach Photographer

Posted on January 3, 2021 by crispina kemp

I kept my walk short on Boxing Day (only 4 miles). Here are photos from the first half. I took loads of photos of the sunrise over the sea, but surely you’ve seen enough of these

Sunrise 26 Dec 2020

The ebbing tide left plenty of these… they fascinate me

Ghost waves: 26 December 2020

Always worth a backwards glance…

Britannia Pier: 26 December 2020

Not so many birds today…

A solitary Sanderling: 26 December 2020

But you can see where the gulls have been…

Big Bird’s prints: 26 December 2020

The weather forecaster par excellence…

26 December 2020

Eat your heart out Picasso, the ebbing tide does abstract art too

26 December 2020

26 December 2020

I thought of adding two small stones for eyes and calling arrangement of seaweed Neptune…

26 December 2020

And into the dunes…

26 December 2020

Sea holly: 26 December 2020

A common plant in these dunes. Misnamed. It forms a low-growing shrub

Tree lupin: 26 December 2020

26 December 2020

The dune community… ferns and lichens… the little plants

26 December 2020

26 December 2020

A look back before we leave the dunes…

26 December 2020

… and enter a made-environment…

The Waterways: 26 December 2020

The Waterways with its gardens provide shelter from the sea-breezes but are also a suntrap (as I discovered back in the summer when, taking a coffee break, I burned!)

Waterways Gardens: 26 December 2020

Steps back up to the prom… and we are done

26 December 2020

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk.

And a Cheery New Year to you all

 

 

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What is it?

Posted on January 2, 2021 by crispina kemp

Gorleston: 1st January 2021

Caught this immature gull looking quite quizzical on the frozen boating pond on Gorleston seafront. Definitely In The Cold

A new year, a new list of titles for #2021picoftheweek provided by Maria Antonia.

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2020’s Saturday Photos

Posted on December 31, 2020 by crispina kemp

In 2020 I posted 52 photos for Maria’s #2020picoftheweek challenge (for all 52 photos see HERE). For this post, I’ve selected one from each month, my favourites though the choice wasn’t easy.

January: Water

Plot, for in March I was to publish the five books that make up The Spinner’s Game

February: It’s in the Details

The weather keeping me close to home, I went for a familiar detail on a building I pass every day

March: It’s Time

With talk of a national lockdown, I made the most of early March. And what better promise of better days than the primrose

April: Tucked Away

By April I’d realised the buses weren’t much used, which made for safer travel. I could go further afield

May: On the Road

I visited some of my favourite spots

June: Framed

July: Bend in the Road

August: Thankful

September: Big Picture

October: Miniature

November: Happiness

But late November and into December, we were again in lockdown, as reflected in these last two photos

December: Far From It

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