He’ll Eat You Up and Gobble You Down

Posted on February 8, 2021 by crispina kemp

image by Owensart on Pixabay

I’d heared of him; he lived in the hills above our town. “Don’t you go there,” our mother would say. “He’ll eat you up and gobble you down.”

We thought him a gobelin or ogre or such, created out of the minds of our unmodernised parents. We didn’t believe he were real. Not till Sasha disappeared that day.

“That’ll be Gargantua has caught ‘er and munched ‘er.” our brother Tad said.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ma scolded. Yet I could see she were shaking, head to toe.

She shook yet more when they brought down the bones.

96 word for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Gargantuan

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Sunday Picture Post: When the Mist Rolls In

Posted on February 7, 2021 by crispina kemp

Thursday morning the sun dazzled, reflected off the windows opposite, making me feel like a lazy slouch for writing instead putting on shoes and coat and getting out there for a walk. But lunch taken, I succumbed. After all, Met Office is warning of heavy snow and freezing temperatures over the weekend; plenty of time to stay in and type.

As usual as I cross Haven Bridge I stop to take a photo…

4 Feb 2021

At Breydon, the clouds forms are fantastic. And this ranger’s boat is in a tearing hurry

4 Feb 2021

It leaves a notable wake… now I see why the Broads cruisers are governed down so can’t go so fast. Maybe the people had an emergency

4 Feb 2021 (taken as the wake was weakening)

Excitement passed, I return to my study of clouds…

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And turn to glance back… as is my wont… wow! that’s blue…

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…and turn back. And frown. Why has the temperature dropped? I can taste ice on the air. I feel it too. Brrr… that’s chilly…

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Wow! Look how thick this mist, all within a few minutes. No wonder I’m cold

4 Feb 2021

Again looking back… it looks like a cloud has dropped. I’d think it if this was at height, but this is sea-level

4 Feb 2021

Time to move away from the water. But now there’s a big cloud covering the sun

4 Feb 2021

Love this tree… the only reason needed for it to be…

4 Feb 2021

At the end of the lane there is a farmyard… nah, turning around, time to go home

4 Feb 2021

And hey, I’ve found where the beach donkeys go out of season! I decided not to get any closer

4 Feb 2021

And reeds. You know I can’t come here without taking photos of reeds… love reeds

4 Feb 2021

and finally a return to the bridge. See how much the sky has changed

4 Feb 2021

Hope you’ve enjoyed our little walk. Took less than 2 hours.

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Silence

Posted on February 6, 2021 by crispina kemp

Breydon Water: 4 Feb 2021

Breydon Water exhibits many moods, but only in a gale does it turn you away. The sun Thursday lunchtime drew me out. I’ll leave you to read how it turned to this  [See tomorrow’s post] Not as much as a gull or a wader to break this silence. Mist muffled.

Quiet, from the list provided for #2021picoftheweek provided by Maria Antonia

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CCC117: Learning to Fly

Posted on February 4, 2021 by crispina kemp

Gt Yarmouth’s former Heliport CCC117

Neve refused to speak to Raesan until safely arrived at the heliport. And the tension… like she sat in a bath with someone butter-fingered holding a bar-heater above her. It was a wonder the combined anger of Rat and Raesan didn’t burn every strand of the helicopter’s wiring. Five minutes into the flight, Neve would have talked about the latest soaps, anything to cut through the air of hostility. Instead, Rat distracted her with talk of his Viking past.

Excerpt from Learning to Fly, out in paperback and e-book 1st April 2021

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Fantasy Fiction, Mythic Fiction, On Writing, Photos | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #117

Posted on February 3, 2021 by crispina kemp

CCC117

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 , , | 18 Comments

Tuesday Treat: Frozen in Rime

Posted on February 2, 2021 by crispina kemp

Sunday 24th January being a freezing foggy day, I didn’t go far: the local churchyard and the dunes. Here’s what I saw…

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…and then to the shore…

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Hope you enjoyed. Now it’s time to go home, thaw out the fingers and toes!

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Nah, You’ve Gotta Be Kidding

Posted on February 1, 2021 by crispina kemp

image from pixabay

It’s your confusing style
Your ghost of a smile
Your softly formed profile
Not strong and agile
But disturbingly juvenile

It’s your decadent lifestyle
A voluntary exile
Lived on a fantasy isle
Away from the rank and file
You’re barely hidden and bitterly hostile
And you hope with that to beguile?

51 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Beguile

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

Sunday Picture Post: Gothic Mornings

Posted on January 31, 2021 by crispina kemp

Sunday 24th January begins with frost and fog. I’m advised not to venture out in such weather. So no 10-miler today. Instead, I keep it local

Overlooking the Yare from Haven Bridge, a few steps from mine

24 Jan 2021

St Nicholas Churchyard… cos where else would you go on a freezing foggy morning?

24 Jan 2021

I invite you to join me… beware vampires & werewolves

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In my short walk I became fascinated with the Victorian “Cult of the Dead”

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And iron that’s wrought into fanciful shapes…

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…in emulation of nature?

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Leaving the cemetery, I head to the beach…

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I crunch over sand patterned with yesterday’s footprints, now solidly frozen

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Not much to see… fog, frost, no birds, the sea a gentle sigh… waiting for the sun to winkle through

24 Jan 2021

You can see by how high the sun how late this is

I hope you enjoyed, and I bet you’re warmer than I was. More photos from this morning walk on Tuesday

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Here to Announce the Sun’s Return

Posted on January 30, 2021 by crispina kemp

Catkins: 27th January 2021

The hazel has made a start on hanging out its flags to welcome the Sun

Spring in the Air, from the list provided for #2021picoftheweek provided by Maria Antonia

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CCC116: Changes

Posted on January 28, 2021 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #116

They’d just made a start on building this bridge when I moved to this town.

Where Asada now stands was a pipe-yard. Pipes for what I don’t know but they came in all sizes and made for fantastic photos. Part of that yard remains as “wasteland” where migrating birds rest-up from their journey.

Where I’m standing to take this photo then was a higgledy Dickensian-looking array of boathouses reached by a narrow path between two ramshackle warehouses. I remember, redstarts nested there.

How much this has changed. Recent investment in the town has cleaned away the debris, left it modern and sterile. Thirty-eight years I’ve been in this town. Sometimes it seems like yesterday.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Thoughts | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments