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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CCC112: Mind the Puddles

Posted on December 31, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge 112

Prison. What a great way to end 2020. And why?

“Ms Carpory, you are charged with the irretrievable destruction of twenty cubic meters of the Universe. THIS Universe. OUR Universe.”

But it wasn’t intentional, I didn’t know. No one said not to throw the stone. I mean, it was a puddle…

True, there was a fence around it.

And a dense screen of guards.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A split in reality,” the youngest guard said.

“Oh yea?” I laughed. And threw the stone.

BANG!

Happy New Year.

And mind those puddles.

 

 

 

 

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Crimson’s Creative Challenge #112

Posted on December 30, 2020 by crispina kemp

CCC112

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

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Tuesday Treats: Beach Photography

Posted on December 29, 2020 by crispina kemp

So there I was, walking the surf line, Great Yarmouth to Hemsby, eyes down and in the raking light of the newly risen sun…

17 December 2020

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17 December 2020

See you in the New Year. I’m voting for a good one. What about you?

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Forbidden

Posted on December 28, 2020 by crispina kemp

image: CK

Mailak slumped, legs slung over the precipice, swinging them idly. Mailak wasn’t happy.

“I forbid you,” her father had said.

“And I refuse your prohibition. I’m not a child. I’ve left you once already, you didn’t stop me then.”

“No, because I approved of that man.”

“Wedded, bedded and two children with him.”

“And all three died in the same rockfall. And so you come running home to us.”

“You are my family.”

“And I refuse this alliance.”

“Why? Is it his hair? That he’s different to us?”

“It’s because he’s a troglodyte. CAVE DWELLER!”

95 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Troglodyte

 

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Sunday Picture Post: Sand, Sea and Seals

Posted on December 27, 2020 by crispina kemp

December 17th. Early. We arrive at the prom just after 07:00 am. Sunrise will be 08:00 am. At first, it looks like we won’t see much as a thick sea mist begins to rise

Britannia Pier in the early light

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But we walk the surf-line… and see these scurrying sanderlings. There must be at least 50 of them spread out along the shore

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08:00 am. The sun shows herself on the horizon. The mist soon clears

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And fully risen, she turns all she touches to gold…

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… making the stones, mostly quartz and flint, look like amber

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A ship passes the wind-turbines on the horizon

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A random post? No, the remains of a groyne

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Caister Lifeboat Station. Funded by donations alone, not part of the national system

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And then… the seal. And I’m thinking how lucky if I can get a good shot of his head…

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… and I grin. But even so, I’m sure this will be all…

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… twenty or so photos on… wow!

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Excitement over, more groynes, this one repaired

17 December 2020

as elsewhere along this coast, imported granite from Scandinavia forms sea-defences

17 December 2020

with the beach becoming narrow, we head to the edge of the dunes and the older sea-defences. And a bench where we sit to drink coffee from my flask

17 December 2020

From here the dunes will soon become cliffs

17 December 2020

… as I was saying…

17 December 2020

Bye-bye beach. Guess which way the wind blows at Scratby?

17 December 2020

And as we trail past the holiday camps at Hemsby, I’m delighted to see a gull keeping a look-out

17 December 2020

I hope you enjoyed this walk, though I doubt you’re as tired as I was. It wasn’t the distance (just under 10 miles) but beach walking pulls on the legs

These weren’t the only photos I took. I found I’d a liking for “beach photography.” I’ll show you on Tuesday.

 

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Isolation

Posted on December 26, 2020 by crispina kemp

Breydon Water: 22 December 2020

Breydon Water sits on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. And as of today, these two counties are in Lockdown. Again. Not alone, but with the rest of East Anglia. So this is likely to become my photographic home for the next few weeks. But it’s a beautiful place, and although only 1/2 hour walk, it feels far from habitation.

Far From It, another title achieved in Maria’s Antonia’s #2020picoftheweek

[No filters, no tweaking. This is how the photo came off the camera. Merely resized.]

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Tis the Season

Posted on December 25, 2020 by crispina kemp

Image: CK

This year, not everyone can be in the heart of their family or with their friends. Many must spend Christmas alone. And so this is for you, this Christmas Day

We’re here in the liminal days: a time when magic fills the air and strange things can happen, a time when wishes come true.

I wish you love. It’s there, deep inside you. SMILE. You are not alone. The soul holds us and enfolds us and keeps us safe until the required changes come

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The Liminal Bird

Posted on December 24, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #111

Alice pulled the wishbone with her brother. “Hey! I get the wish.”

She closed her eyes and thought really hard. But what was the point in this blighted nation?

“Come on, Alice,” said her brother, “or I’ll make my wish.”

“I wish… I wish…”

“Hush! You mustn’t say it out loud,” said the Goblin King who had suddenly appeared on the Tele. “Go find the Liminal Bird down at the beach. Tell him your wish and maybe – just maybe – it’ll be granted.”

Alice had to wait till Boxing Day. But down at the beach, she found the Liminal Bird.

“Liminal Bird, I wish… I wish…” Alice began.

“Hush,” said the Liminal Bird. “You mustn’t say it out loud.”

So Alice said the wish in her head… that the blight would be gone from the nation before Christmas came around again.

Happy Christmas everyone, from Alice, the Liminal Bird and me

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