Sunday Picture Post: A Wet Walk to Wickhampton

Posted on October 4, 2020 by crispina kemp

On Saturday 12th Sept I got up real early and bused out to Acle, thence a walk that skirted the grazing marshes as far as Wickampton, just inland from River Yare. 10-miles round trip. When I related the walk to my daughter, she wanted to make the walk too. So again the early rising, this time in the rain.

The start: 📷 23/09/2020

Damage Carr in the wet 📷 23/09/2020

Yea, well, the word carr does mean wet woodland. So…

Weaver’s Way 📷 23/09/2020

Weaver’s Way runs from Cromer (North Norfolk coast) to Great Yarmouth (East Norfolk coast). While some of it follows lesser-used roads, most of its 61 miles are along footpaths and other trackways

Autumnal Reeds and Great Willowherb: 📷 23/09/2020

Have I said that I love reeds? I love reeds 🧡

The Fleet at Acle Marshes: 📷 23/09/2020

The Fleet forms, as it were, the main artery for this part of the draining system

Detail of flora along the Fleet: 📷 23/09/2020

At last, the cloud is breaking: 📷 23/09/2020

It wasn’t to last. But at least there was no more rain

Beef cattle 📷 23/09/2020

Farm buildings: 📷 23/09/2020

We’re off the marsh now and we’re walking on a proper road. Single laned with some wide and deep puddles.

Sunrise? 📷 23/09/2020

It might look like sunrise, and we are looking to east. But this is 9:00 am.

📷 23/09/2020

What does one call a gathering of trees? A Twitter-friend of mine suggested an Ent-Moot and we decided Tolkein wouldn’t mind.

23/09/2020

Destination reached: Wickhampton grazing marshes stretch down the river. But gates were closed, the farmer moving his cattle, so we could go no further. Myself, I was content to take photos of the clouds.

See this Tuesday Treat for flora and fungi from this and related wetland walks

 

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Blue Schooner

Posted on October 3, 2020 by crispina kemp

De Gallant: 📷 23/09/2020

Something Old, Something New. another title achieved in Maria’s Antonia’s #2020picoftheweek

I arrived home from my walk on 23rd September to find this moored just across the quay from me. Delighted and curious to see a schooner in port, I had to investigate.

De Gallant belongs to Blue Schooner Company who operate a Voyage Cargo Scheme offering opportunities for producers to ship their goods using the power of the wind. The ships are manned by volunteers. On this occasion, it was carrying coffee and rum from South America.

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CCC99: The Greys. Again.

Posted on October 1, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #99

The bus trundled on through the rain, through a peopleless landscape. Where would their journey end?

And who was driving this bus? Rosemary asked those passengers nearest. Had they seen?

Someone called back from the front, “I caught a glimpse of grey.”

“You mean, a grey uniform? But that’s not the colour of this company.”

“Not uniform. Skin. And he’s a big headed fella.”

Nausea swept through Rosemary. Fear tingled every part of her. They’d been abducted, they all knew that. But by Greys?

Those wretched aliens again.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro, Photos | Tagged , , , | 29 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #99

Posted on September 30, 2020 by crispina kemp

CCC99

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.

For those interested, this was the 6:25 am bus I took on 23rd Sept, Great Yarmouth to Acle. Double-decker, top deck. As you can see, it was raining.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , , | 36 Comments

Tuesday Treat: Flowers and Fungi

Posted on September 29, 2020 by crispina kemp

The numbers of wildflowers diminish while we still wait upon the autumnal plethora of fungi. But here are some. Enjoy

Like a clutch of eggs: 📷 12/09/2020

You can see how small these are by the size of the moss surrounding them

Halloween garlands? No, bryony: 📷 12/09/2020

Bull-rushes and Great Willowherb:📷 12/09/2020

Oh, that’s me: 📷 12/09/2020

Fungi & Lichen: 📷 12/09/2020

Webs on hogweed: 📷 12/09/2020

Meringues? Swirled Potatoes? Na. Fungi: 📷 12/09/2020

Tutsan (wild Rose of Sharon): 📷 12/09/2020

Tiny fungi-caps : 📷 12/09/2020

These had sprung up during the morning. Not there when I passed on the way out, yet there when I returned.

Shaggy Inkcaps: 📷 14/09/2020

Found these while taking photos of the sunset on Breydon Water.

Water mint (?spearmint?): 📷 17/09/2020

All summer, trying to get a decent photo of this mint. Finally, at summer’s end…

Earth-Ball (fungus, edible, large): 📷 17/09/2020

Plantain: 📷 17/09/2020

Such a common plant, much ignored. Yet it’s one of my favourites

And as we begin, so we end: 📷 17/09/2020

Fungi, the alpha and omega… hope you enjoyed.

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Jamie, Jamie, Jamie and His Magic Torch

Posted on September 28, 2020 by crispina kemp

Image by CK

You remember that show
From years ago
On British TV
What a nonsense spree
Jamie, Jamie, he really was zany
All cockamamie with his magic torch
Whizzing down worm-holes
Into weird and fuzzy other dimensions
All done for children
To hold their attentions
It’s not like the Jamie I know now
Laidback and let the world go
Beamed out, don’t you know

62 words for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Zany

And for those who are lost with that reference:

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

Sunday Picture Post: From High to Low

Posted on September 27, 2020 by crispina kemp

17th September, 7:00 am, caught a bus to Norwich, and another from Norwich to Poringland… which is situated at the second-highest area in Norfolk. From there we walked downhill all the way to the Tas Valley.

It was to be a day of trees: 📷 17/09/2020

📷 17/09/2020

My eyes were keened for autumn foliage. Mostly I was disappointed.

On top of the world: 📷 17/09/2020

We were walking the interfluve between the rivers Yare and Tas. Claylands, the last to be cleared. When England was settled by Anglo-Saxons, this would have been woodland, grazed by cattle and swine.

Undulating land: 📷 17/09/2020

A field of yellowing peas: 📷 17/09/2020

I feared this was the most autumnal colour I’d find

All Saints’ church, Shotesham: 📷 17/09/2020

Shotesham once comprised 4 parishes and had 4 churches: St Martins, St Marys, St Botolphs and All Saints. St Marys and All Saints are still in use.

A grand old oak: 📷 17/09/2020

From Shotesham we continued downhill to Saxlingham Green. Here the houses, mostly thatched, are set back behind a deep corridor of greenery.

Loved the play of shadows and sun: 📷 17/09/2020

An Elizabethan House: 📷 17/09/2020

That wobbly fence I posted last Saturday for the 2020picoftheweek challenge belonged to this house. We are now into Saxlingham Nethergate.

Multi-trunked tree: 📷 17/09/2020

I found this wonderfully complex tree at Smockmill Common, Saxlingham Thorpe

A glimpse of the river Tas: 📷 17/09/2020

The Tas bounds Smockmill Common. It also forms the boundary between Saxlingham and Newton Flotman.

One last tree: 📷 17/09/2020

A veritable octopus of a tree. Clearly, its early life was spent in spacious conditions, not other trees crowding it.

Hope you enjoyed our visit to this tiny corner of Norfolk. Tuesday I’ll be posting flowers and fungi seen this day

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Wickhampton Grazing Marshes

Posted on September 26, 2020 by crispina kemp

Berney Arms Windmill framed: 23 Sept 2020

Big Picture, another title achieved in Maria’s Antonia’s #2020picoftheweek

Where once was the Great Estuary, the confluence of three rivers, now are grazing marshes the support the sweetest grasses. In times past those grasses attracted drovers from the North, even from Scotland, who brought their cattle here to fatten for the London market. They attracted artists too. For where else in Britain can you find such a wide sky?

Posted in History, Photos | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

CCC98: Cobbler Bob

Posted on September 24, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #98

The old man ambled along the road
Gnarled as the oaks he was passing
A much-patched backpack hooked over his shoulders
Shoulders already askew from the hump of his back
He saw the shoe
Looked down at his feet
Oh, for a shoe equally as neat
A lady’s, no doubt
And well-heeled at that
He sighed and took it
He’d return it in the morning
Resoled and worthy.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , | 31 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #98

Posted on September 23, 2020 by crispina kemp

CCC#98

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.

This is not a set-up photo. I was walking along the Cargate Lane in Saxlingham and there was this shoe. Just the one. What is the story behind it? The mind boggles. So I give it to you to imagine.

BTW, I had to tone down the greenery to enable the shoe to stand out.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , | 48 Comments