To Celebrate Spring

Posted on April 18, 2026 by crispina kemp

16th April 2026

To celebrate Spring
The woodland invites you in
Feel that warmth upon your skin
Hear the drum of your feet as a grin begin
Hear those birds
Sweetest song you’ve ever heard
Watch them flit
No hope to identify them, they’re so quick
Smell that woodland scent
Definer of the lady’s bower
Inspiration of the perfumer’s hard worked hours
See those leaves, freshest green they’ll ever be
Adorning in sprays the twigs of every tree
See those blossoms – cherry, apple, and pears
Hanging from the branches like mystical chandeliers

89 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Chandelier

Posted in Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , | 21 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #082

Posted on April 15, 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 , , | 25 Comments

CCC082: The Final Stage

Posted on April 15, 2026 by crispina kemp

This gate opens onto the final stretch of Weaver’s Way, the 61-mile walkers’ route that starts on the North Norfolk coast at Cromer and wends its way across the county to the sea at Great Yarmouth.

Along its way, it leads the walker through woods, fields and pastures, alongside rivers and, occasionally, it takes to the roads. It weaves its way through the Broads villages to arrive here, on the outskirts of Acle.

It has yet another two villages (Tunstall and Halvergate) to visit before it crosses Halvergate Marsh for its final seemingly unending stage around the great sweep of Breydon Water and into Great Yarmouth.

This last stage, from Acle, is reckoned at 13 miles. Have I walked it? I have indeed. Several times. But not in the past 10 years. Now I walk only as far as those last two villages. I’ll leave Halvergate Marsh and the banks of Breydon to enthusiastic youngsters.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Mostly Flowers

Posted on April 14, 2026 by crispina kemp

More of those photos from 1st April 2026. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed that walk

1st April 2026

🔼 Walking through the village, heading to the ‘swamp’ this little vignette caught my eye. Perfect, despite the flowers aren’t at their best 🔽 The on-going query of which wild plum-species these belong to. I’ll plumb for cherry-plum 😂

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 It is in the nature of wet woodlands to grow ample moss… which is the exact right conditions for the scarlet elfin cup 🔽

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 There are many species of forget-me-knot. Which are these? I’m not sure 🔽 But I do know these are primroses ⏬

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 Red deadnettle sharing the screen with hemlock leaves 🔽 Red deadnettle, a favourite of bees at this time of year

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 Everyone’s remarking on the abundance of ladybirds already in evidence this early year. Testimony to the abundance of last year’s food supply. Let’s hope they multiply to yet more before the summer infestations of black, green and white fly which they love to feed on 🔽 Celandines here finding purchase amongst the reeds beside the water

1st April 2026

I hope you enjoyed.

Next week, perhaps a different environment…

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , , | 23 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: A Norfolk Swamp

Posted on April 12, 2026 by crispina kemp

1st April 2026 and we’re off to a little known Norfolk swamp. No kidding. Put your boots on, and let’s go

1st April 2026

Damgate Carr, on the outskirts of Acle, is a thoroughly wet woodland, and one of the few in the Broads area with easy access 🔼 Moss-covered trees sprawl in a most relaxed attitude 🔽 The water-loving red currant makes the most of spring to flower before the canopy closes over ⏬

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 Reeds have been cropped over the winter allowing new life to bloom. Trees are greening now, though ivy is still the main green-note 🔽

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 Moss covers everything. Yet these primrose plants have found a foothold amongst it 🔽

1st April 2026

🔽 We had wondered how muddy this walk would be, but it’s not too bad. Primroses and forget-me-knots line the paths (see Tuesday Treats)

1st April 2026

🔽 Out of the carr the land rises, and is drier. Here hemlock flourishes. Highly poisonous, the flowering stalks will reach 6′ or more by mid summer and release a distinctive ‘burnt coffee’ smell in the heat of the day

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 A drain runs alongside the railway embankment. Always happy to see the water-plants flourishing here 🔽 To your left, Acle. To your right, Great Yarmouth. Between them miles of rich grazing grasses

1st April 2026

1st April 2026

🔼 Weaver’s Way begins on the north Norfolk coast and wends across the county to cross the railway and thereafter head out to Acle marsh. Willows line the Way, and in early summer the cuckoo calls 🔽 Acle marsh. Follow the Way through a couple of small villages, then cross another marsh, and follow the edge of Breydon Water to the end. It’s a long walk, and not for me today

1st April 2026

Hope you enjoyed. As ever, it’s been a difficult choice, which photos to pick. I hope I’ve given you a taste of the place.

More photos from the day on Tuesday.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Wisdom

Posted on April 11, 2026 by crispina kemp

Image: Flockine via Pixabay

Wise are those who will not hide their gems in an iron-bound chest
Afraid the administration’s taxman will take it along with the rest
Not for them the glittering piles of golden wares
An inheritance to pass on to their heirs
Not a chest but a room of shelves, a veritable library
For to them, these books are their precious treasury

61 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Treasury

Posted in Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

CCC081: The Doctor’s House

Posted on April 9, 2026 by crispina kemp

The doctor’s house wasn’t on a bus route. I had to pick my way through a waterlogged meadow, deeply pitted by the cattle, then through a wood alive with every kind of biting thing. But eventually there was the road, and the doctor’s house.

I’d asked during the online interview whether he was a medical doctor or a professor with a doctorate. It was only after the connection dropped that I realised he hadn’t answered. Yet the questions he’d asked me tested my knowledge of anatomy, so I guessed him something in the medical line.

But then, why would he want someone proficient with needle and thread?

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #081

Posted on April 8, 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 | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Spring, Glorious Spring

Posted on April 7, 2026 by crispina kemp

Some of the flowers seen on our walk on 18th March 2026, and a surprise at the end. Come enjoy this glorious feast for your soul and your eyes…

🔽⏬ Is it any wonder these early flowering plants have found their way into our gardens

18th March 2026

🔼 Forget-me-knot, the first ones I’ve seen this year 🔽 Daffodils, as if I need say

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼 Primroses 🔽 This mauve form is restricted in distribution (I know a few places where it grows)

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

Violets  🔼 white and 🔽 violet forms

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

Two that have remained ‘wild’ 🔼 Red deadnettle 🔽 Butterbur, a lover of boggy stream edges

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼 So difficult to identify the many species of the plum family. But though I see no thorns, neither do I see leaves so I’ll guess at black thorn, aka quick thorn, mother of sloes 🔽 And which willow does this belong to? We’ll just say pussy willow aka Sallow

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

Seeds! Oh yes they are. 🔼 The wonderful fluff of Old Man’s Beard aka Traveller’s Joy aka Clematis vitalba 🔽 Mistletoe berries. How many kisses await you here?

18th March 2026

And now for your surprise. Butterflies!

18th March 2026

🔼 Peacocks 🔽

18th March 2026

Hope you enjoyed. It really was a glorious walk!

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Walking On Sunshine

Posted on April 5, 2026 by crispina kemp

Weather forecast for 18th March 2026: gentle wind, gentle warmth, and sunshine. Not going to need the thermals today. So let’s go, let’s walk on sunshine!

18th March 2026

🔼 Our destination, Swardeston, and we hop off the bus with a definitive spring to our step 🔽 Where most villages have long since lost their common, Swardeston retains two. This is the lower common, lower as in ‘in the river valley’

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

These pastures are still referred to as the water meadows, although they’ve not been deliberately flooded this side of WWII (my father remembers skating on those at nearby Newton Flotman. 🔼 I’m thinking this is drainage from the fields on the hill (hill, as in the Norfolk sense) 🔽 My favourite tree, still throwing her arms in the air and dancing

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼 We’re in that swathe of villages where it seems every tree is host to the mistletoe 🔽 Trees are greening, catkins are browning, and here’s the gate that takes us into the woods

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼🔽 Daffodils are everywhere at this season, but none delight the eye as those that paint the woodland floor in hues of sunshine-gold

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼 With where this village lies I expected this small stream to be a tributary of the Tas (which is a tributary of the Yare . But no, it’s a direct tributary of the Yare. A footbridge is provided for we adventurous walkers 🔽 Woodland part two

18th March 2026

18th March 2026

🔼 This part of the walk ends in a gate onto a lane, that lane will take us back to the start 🔽 Along the way, the houses display more imagination than our modern offerings

18th March 2026

That’s all for today. Hope you enjoyed this sunny walk. Next week… more sun! But a totally different environment

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 14 Comments