Sunday Picture Post: Dr Prunella

Posted on July 7, 2019 by crispina kemp

After last week’s Poison, I thought I’d go for something more … beneficial.

Selfheal. A low-growing plant with odd-looking flower-heads: 26th June 2019

Selfheal, prunella vulgaris, is the herbalist’s heal-all. The leaves dried and steeped to make a tisane, it can be used to treat throat infections, or it can be applied topically to treat cuts and bruises, boils and abscesses, and those troublesome cold sores. Magic. Why don’t we use it more often? Which is not an invitation to go plucking the leaves off wild-growing plants.

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Decayed Technology

Posted on July 6, 2019 by crispina kemp

Long Stratton Mill: 23 March 2019

Time was, a windmill was the last word in technology. Every village and town must have at least one. Wind-driven, it could be sited away from the rivers. It wouldn’t get flooded when the winter snows melted. This was, after all, the Mini Ice Age. And the state of that millstone advertises its long years of use.

I have a choice of two titles for this photo. I’ll go for Decay

For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge see MariaAntonia

Posted in History, Photos | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

Inspired Whispers

Posted on July 5, 2019 by crispina kemp

The third of my four poems to be accepted by Whispers and Echoes—Inspiration Called Today—is published today.

Inspiration called today.
You were not here,
You’d gone away …

See Whispers and Echoes for the full poem

Inspiration Called Today was written in 2003 and first posted on crimsonprose on 8th December 2012. I posted it again in April 2018. (Yep, I like this poem!)

Whispers and Echoes is an online journal that publishes flash-fiction of up to 100 words, and poems up to 10 lines (excluding blanks); see here to submit. It is chiefly edited by Sammi Cox, well-known and loved for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompts where she punishes us with impossible targets, and thus pushes us through the gates of inspiration.

Earlier issues of Whispers and Echoes can be seen on the Dreaming Spirit website.

Posted in On Writing, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , | 20 Comments

CCC#34: The Washer at the Ford

Posted on July 4, 2019 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #34

He saw a woman at the ford
a wicker basket, hard ridged board
but this, mid-summer, and cloudless sky
the river at that ford ran dry.

He heard the woman start to drone
an ancient song with words unknown
a chant perhaps in verses three
a chant to set the waters free.

He stood a while and as he watched
from beyond that ford, the waters rushed
then knelt she with her linens blooded
and scrubbed them in the ford that flooded.

An ancient story filled his mind
of the Morrigan and Cúchulainn
of deaths this woman did foretell;
and in the distance heard he the knell.

The fool man stood so long in gaping
That around that corner a car came racing.
Ask not for whom that death bell tolls
For that washerwoman gathers souls.

Wordcount 131

Written for Crimson’s Creative Challenge #34

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

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #34

Posted on July 3, 2019 by crispina kemp

CCC#34

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 | Tagged , | 48 Comments

They Misunderstood

Posted on July 2, 2019 by crispina kemp

Original image by Prawny on pixabay, altered by cp

Careless, they accused.
But they misunderstood.
Not careless, said I,
and defiant, stood.
Carefree.

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

14 words: Carefree

 

Posted in Mostly Micro, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

What Pegman Saw: The Word of Grandfather-God

Posted on July 1, 2019 by crispina kemp

Pinar del Rio: Image by Murat Çelik on Google Maps

“Your Excellency.” Padre Bartolomé bowed his head and waited, a flick of his hand to the lad behind him, Bori-Damaso.

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar looked up from the papers cluttering his makeshift desk.

Padre Bartolomé took that as permission to say more. “You enquired of the crops these Taino-folk grow.’

“Of the leaf, sí, that they do not eat.”

“It is their god.”

The lad, Bori-Damaso, waiting behind him, grunted something inaudible, his shaken head vehement that Bartolomé had said it wrong.

“Let the boy speak,” said de Cuéllar.

“Not god,” Bori-Damaso said. “Voice of god.”

De Cuéllar sat back to consider him. “Voice…? As in our Bible?”

“Sí, our grandfather-god sent tobacco to take his place among men. When we smoke, we talk with him.”

“He speaks good Spanish,” de Cuéllar observed.

“My son,” Padre Bartolomé said.

Wordcount: 139

Written for What Pegman Saw: Cuba

 

 

 

Posted in History, Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Thistly Things

Posted on June 30, 2019 by crispina kemp

This Sunday four photos, two plants. Wrap your eyes around these. But be warned, they’re not flesh-friendly.

Cotton Thistle: 26th June 2019

The Cotton Thistle is native to East Anglia, but a garden escape elsewhere

Cotton Thistle: 26th June 2019

Of course, neither of these photos do justice to this thistle’s height (topping a man by a good 2 ft). But found on wasteland, I went for close-ups to exclude the junk.

Teasel: 26th June 2019

Another giant of the wayside. These can grow to ten feet or more. This was a junior, but it’s still early season. The teasel was used in the weaving industry. Tacked in dense arrays on a flat board, they were used for cleaning and aligning the wool fibres, and once woven, to raise the nap. Here it was growing alongside Dyer’s Weld. Cannot be coincidence.

Dyers Weld: 26th June 2019

Dyer’s Weld yields dyes in all shades of yellow; it was one the three plants used to dye the threads for the Bayeux Tapestry; woad and madder being the other two. Together they produced the ten colours used.

Posted in History, Photos | Tagged , , , | 44 Comments

Two Fine Horses

Posted on June 29, 2019 by crispina kemp

Hello, says these two fine horses: 4 April 2019

If you count legs you’ll discover there’s one hiding. But these two wouldn’t allow the third one to snuffle his snout in.

So … Hello, as per the title in Maria’s photo challenge

For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge see MariaAntonia

We found these two (three, but the third can’t be seen) when walking a country lane that led to …

4th April 2019

I was a tad worried about those loose horses with their low flying balls. Thank heavens there wasn’t a match that day!

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Friday’s Post: Poison

Posted on June 28, 2019 by crispina kemp

Not all plants are friendly. Here are two poisonous in all their parts. The first you’ve probably heard of since it brought Socrates to his end. The other … not so commonly known.

Hemlock. Lethal. 17 June 2019

Usually marked with random purple blotches, the stalk here is exceptionally bright, veers more to red, and barely shows any green. It grows to around 6′.

White Bryony 17th June 2019

A member of the cucumber family, those little white flowers produce bright red berries in late summer/early autumn. And as you can see by the tendrils, it”s a climber; it scrambles around and over everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 27 Comments