On With the New

Posted on February 27, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #68: Aug 2018

Breydon New Bridge — seen above — was built in 1983.

I remember it well; it was the year I moved to Great Yarmouth…

… from Costessey, with its old bridge — seen below

Costessey Mill: March 2018

 

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , | 46 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #68

Posted on February 26, 2020 by crispina kemp

CCC#68

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.

Beneath The New Bridge over River Yare at Great Yarmouth

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , | 40 Comments

Author Interview: Crispina Kemp, author of The Spinner’s Game series

Posted on February 25, 2020 by crispina kemp

Posted last week by my good friend Lynn, over at Word Shamble. I do thank her most deeply for this.

Lynn Love's avatarWord Shamble

Crispina Kemp is a blogger, photographer, prehistorian and writer who has just released her fantasy series – The Spinner’s Game – for pre-order on Amazon Kindle (see links below).

Following on from my previous post where Crispina related the books’ evolution from initial ideas and blog posts to finished novels, she joins me this week to discuss mythical inspirations and future projects.

*

LL: Hi Crispina, thanks for dropping by.

You’ve described The Spinner’s Game as a story told across five books, as opposed to a five-book series. But what did you take as inspiration?

CC: The inspiration hides in an earlier book.

I had written a story set in the Neolithic period in southwest Britain with an antagonist named the Head of Kerrid. Keen as I am on Celtic mythology, I took the name Kerrid from the Welsh goddess Cerridwen. But I realised this antagonist needed a backstory. Why…

View original post 757 more words

Posted in Mythic Fiction, On Writing, The Spinner's Game | 25 Comments

The Jobber’s Jobs

Posted on February 24, 2020 by crispina kemp

photo by Rudy and Peter Skitterians on pixabay

The way he cleared the site… that was thorough
The clearings sorted into piles, biodegradable and non-perishable

The way he loaded the metals and plastics into the skip… that was admirable

The way he constructed a bonfire, safe so the flames wouldn’t spread… that was neighbourly

The way he mounded the lighter organic materials to be composted… that was masterly

The way he levelled the ground now cleared… that was careful

The way he measured and drove in the pegs… that was skilful

But the way he dug that hole… that was abysmal

93 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Abysmal

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

Sunday Fungi: A Bit of a Carbuncle

Posted on February 23, 2020 by crispina kemp

The birch, first amongst trees, seems to be host to every species of fungus… seems to be.

photo taken 8th October 2019

This one’s a birch polypore, though not in its usual hoof-shaped form. Truly, I felt sorry for the tree, to have such a growth bursting forth.

 

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Red Read in Reflections

Posted on February 22, 2020 by crispina kemp

Walking around town… mostly all I’ve done these last two months… and this caught my eye. So I stood a while and reflected: This might make a good shot.

Great Yarmouth Fire Station: 31st December 2019

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

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 25 Comments

CCC#67: Boggarts and Trolls

Posted on February 20, 2020 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #67

There is a mill upon the fen
Beloved of troll, shunned by men
Never a grain was grinded there
But water raised from flood to mere
All the work of boggarts and trolls
But don’t let on, you’ll scare our souls

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 51 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #67

Posted on February 19, 2020 by crispina kemp

CCC#67

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.

Tunstall Dyke Smock Mill, built ca. 1900, restored in 1994

Featured in a post I wrote back in April 2017, The Two Mills of Tunstall

 

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , , | 59 Comments

The Village Stones

Posted on February 17, 2020 by crispina kemp

The stones of Avebury: image by Tim Bigger

Opinions were divided on the nature of the village stones.

Were they carried here by giants to be sculpted in an ancient competition; said competition abandoned before any had completed a sculpture?

Or were they beasts and beings, rejected and discarded when they failed the creator god’s inspection?

Or had the moderns the answer and the stones were the remnants of an ancient seabed, trundled here by the trek of glaciers?

71 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

In truth,  Avebury’s stones are Cloud Stones: creatures caught in the act of becoming… as any who look at that sky will realise 🙂

 

Posted in Mostly Micro, Uncategorized | Tagged | 52 Comments

Sunday Fungi: Gardener’s Bane

Posted on February 16, 2020 by crispina kemp

I doubt there’s a gardener alive who’ll be happy to see this fungus spreading along the branches of fruit bushes and nut trees…

Coral spot, a fungal infestation

If you happen to see it in your garden, I found this link with advice on how to treat it and limit its spread.

Of course, if you see it in the wilds, it looks quite pretty.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 31 Comments