crispina kemp

Sunday Picture Post: Ships, Steps and Sea

Posted on August 30, 2026 by crispina kemp

17th August 2026. The day might start overcast and cool, but that’s not going to last. So we’re keeping it local. And how much more local can we get than to walk along the river to where it greets the sea. Yay, seaside time! Enjoy

17th August 2026

The river Yare finds outlet between the two coastal resort towns of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston. But the two banks of the river couldn’t be more different. While Great Yarmouth was founded on a sandbank, Gorleston spills down a cliff. 🔼 In some places a lane joins town to river 🔽 In other places, it’s steps

17th August 2026

🔼 Some steps give access to the houses that line the High Street 🔽 Other steps take you up

17th August 2026

🔽 Another lane…

17th August 2026

🔼 In recent years a 3rd bridge was built to ease the town (Gt Yarmouth) of port-bound traffic 🔽 The Yare is not a huge river, neither in depth nor width. This limits the size of ships that can enter. Though there now is an Outer Harbour (only visible from the air. Drats!) for the bigger ships

17th August 2026

🔽 Every ship requires the services of a Port Authority pilot to ensure a safe entry and exit!

17th August 2026

Another difference between the two banks of the Yare 🔼 Industrial 🔽 Kinda…Dickensian and decaying.

17th August 2026

🔼A ‘celebrity’ in port today…

17th August 2026

🔼 This is the biggest ship I’ve seen in port. This one is leaving, but lack of space means it must reverse out 🔽

17th August 2026

🔼 Beyond the harbour’s mouth, Gorleston’s beach stretches out at the base of the multi-layered promenade 🔽

17th August 2026

🔽 And for those easily tired by climbing cliffs…plentiful seats

17th August 2026

That’s all for today. We’ve had enough of these cliffs, we’re heading to a little cafe for lunch.

I hope you enjoyed 😎

Posted in Photos | Tagged Ships, Photos | 14 Comments

A Rippled Wake

Posted on August 29, 2026 by crispina kemp

17th August 2026

The ripples in the wake of Eden Rose’s passing cut and disrupt the ship’s otherwise perfect reflection.

R for Reflection, my August choice for Maria’s Photo Challenge.

Posted in Photos, Prompt | Tagged #2026picofthe month, Photo | 13 Comments

It’s the Season

Posted on August 29, 2026 by crispina kemp

Image: Open ClipArt Vectors from Pixabay

Those months of deep blue sky were boring
Happy to see grey skies with weather warning
Rain that hammers the leaves don’t leave me yawning
Enthusing, exciting, but alas inviting
Wasps, jams, fruits and other sweeties wanting
Shoo them, curse them, tell them to go
So much for meals alfresco

50 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Alfresco

Posted in Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged poems, Prompts, Sammi's Weekend Writing Prompt | 27 Comments

Friday Flyers

Posted on August 28, 2026 by crispina kemp

The butterflies and dragons (and one little bird) that I managed to snap along the way on our walk of 11th August 2026 There were more. There were lots more. But it was windy.

11th August 2026

🔼 Wall Brown 🔽

11th August 2026

🔼 Meadow Brown 🔽

11th August 2026

🔽 Small White

11th August 2026

Common Darter 🔼 Male 🔽 Female or Immature

11th August 2026

🔽 The charming, the wonderful, Robin. Possible this year’s brood, now coming into adult plumage

11th August 2026

Hope you enjoyed!

Posted in Photos | Tagged British Birds, British Butterflies, British Dragonflies, Photos | 32 Comments

CCC101: This Spell, This Love

Posted on August 27, 2026 by crispina kemp

The spell she cast
Was weak
It wouldn’t last
But for this one day’s length
It would give her strength
For a task she’d rather not
To dig a grave
For a love she’d never forgot
Thereafter
The weeds could grow again
To obscure the place
Where they had lain

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged #CCC101, Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poem, Prompts | 19 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #101

Posted on August 26, 2026 by crispina kemp

Every Wednesday I’ll post FOUR photos (if you want to get a head start you’ll find them marked in that week’s Sunday Picture Post and Tuesday Treats). Lots of choice!

And here they are:

You respond with something CREATIVE. Perhaps an answering photo, or micro-fiction, or a poem, or just a caption

As before, there are 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.

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Prompt | Tagged #CCC101, Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Prompts | 14 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Summer’s Harvest

Posted on August 25, 2026 by crispina kemp

An assortment of photos of flowers and mid-summer berries taken on our walk on 11th August 2026. Enjoy

11th August 2026

🔼 Where there were Dog Roses there now are Rose Hips 🔽 Where the Briars blossomed there now are Blackberries

11th August 2026

🔽 Where there were pink blossoms there now are Apples

11th August 2026

🔼 Tucked into the lush grass at the edge of the marsh, this pea-flowered Trefoil 🔽 Thistle, in flower and in seed

11th August 2026

🔽 Water Mint. Well, of course

11th August 2026

🔼 Tangled into the thorn trees that edge our way, Bindweed 🔽 Forming thick yellow carpets amongst the marshland grasses, Common Fleabane

11th August 2026

Where a water-filled drain edges our path and trees cast shade: 🔼 Bittersweet and 🔽 Elder in berry

11th August 2026

🔼 Where May blossoms decked the hedges alongside arable fields, now the red Haws hang 🔽and still the White Campion flowers

11th August 2026

🔼 The last of the Poppies, all-but hidden amongst the stubble that’s the last of the wheat 🔽 Bracken (a fern) as usual, it’s the first to don autumnal colours

11th August 2026

🔽 Finally, for the curious, here’s one of those beets!

11th August 2026

Hope you enjoyed. We did. It was a wonderful walk, culminating in a wonderful lunch. Though I will say it was a trifle windy!

Don’t forget Friday Flyers, though I didn’t manage to photograph many

Posted in Photos | Tagged British Flora, Photos | 26 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Walking the Edge of the Marsh

Posted on August 23, 2026 by crispina kemp

11th August 2026. The summer heat continues, so rather than waste the cooler morning hours in travelling, once again we keep our walk local. We’re heading to Burgh Castle, where we’ll lunch. But this isn’t our usual walk along Breydon wall. Instead, we’re walking at the back of the grazing marsh, the edge of the Great Estuary-that-was when the Romans invaded. Fill those water bottles, and let’s go

11th August 2026

🔼 To reach the start of our route we first must thread a way through an industrial estate, then cross the town’s bypass. Here’s a bridge that helps us with that. Happy it’s still very early, not much happening 🔽 And here we (officially) begin with a footbridge over a drain

11th August 2026

🔼 To our right (north) the marsh, not much grazed these days. Too wet, even after these weeks without rain 🔽 To our left (south) signs of industry. Not sure what that red car is doing up there!

11th August 2026

🔼 More signs of industry 🔽 But as you can see, the marshland nudges right tight against it

11th August 2026

🔼 Despite our drought the marshland remains green. And yellow! That’s fleabane, run rampant this year 🔽 I forego foreground focus as I zoom in on the distant water-tower. Distance concertinas. Between my camera and that tower there’s a river, more marshland, a railway line, a busy major road, and finally the far shore of the former Great Estuary. Yes, it is the same tower as I featured last week

11th August 2026

🔼 Moving a tad away from the marsh… 🔽 Arable replaces grazing

11th August 2026

🔽 But we’re still close to that luscious grassland

11th August 2026

🔽 This house has been abandoned since I can remember. What’s to become of it? In the foreground is a field of sugar beat, our path thick with mugwort (photo taken looking back)

11th August 2026

🔽 From sugar beat and a path easily walked to unkempt grass grown tall entangled with thistles and nettles and… it’s not nice to walk, especially with the sun now beating down fierce on us

11th August 2026

🔼 So pleased to see this gate! It ushers us onto a proper road. We’ve reached the village, oh yay! 🔽 Still a way to reach the pub, but no hurry, it’s not open yet. This is Burgh Castle’s Back Lane. Wonderfully cool in the shade when the weather is hot.