I like graffiti. Maybe it’s my (long-long ago) Art School training (graphic design). So yet again I’ve been unable to resist.
Graffiti under road-bridge along Marriot’s Way, Norwich: Photo taken 14th August 2018
And then there was this:
some bright spark …: Photo taken 14th August 2018
Love it!
It sat beside the same Marriot’s Way.
I have posted a photo featuring graffiti for the #2018picoftheweek challenge before. Then it was on a stand-alone wall, in woodland. This time we’re under a bridge.
Graffiti beneath a bridge over the Wensum: Photo taken 14th August 2018
#2018picoftheweek title: Symmetry.
But what boggles my mind is how the artist accessed that wall. While I stood on an apron of dry muck beneath the bridge on my side of the river, beneath that graffiti there was just a very narrow brick ledge.
Where land becomes sea; when day becomes night; when the tide rests at its height: these are liminal times and liminal places where the veil that hides the Other-World becomes a permeable thing and allows the magic to slip through. Sometimes we just happen to be there to catch it.
Sunset over Breydon Water: photo taken 6th August 2018
The recent heat wave has held me away. But tempted out by a cooler evening, I took the camera for a walk along Breydon Water, and hit just the right time.
#2018picoftheweek: Sunset, though strictly speaking this isn’t sunset. Technically there was still an hour to go. But the conditions were perfect.
Sunset on Breydon #2: Photo 6th August 2018
Breydon Water is a tidal estuary that sits at the back of Great Yarmouth; the remants of the Great Estuary into which flows three main rivers of Norfolk (England). And being on my doorstep, one of my favourite haunts.
Gosh, is it really another month gone? And what have I done? I confess I have wilted into lethargy in Britain’s current heatwave. Even so, I’ve not been idle. And nor have my beta-readers and critiquers though one or two are a little behind schedule with their returns.
As of today, I’m still waiting on two readers’ returns. But, don’t fret, my friends, I know how easily good intentions can go astray during vacation season. Besides, how could I possibly crack the whip at anyone who is generous enough to volunteer, and it’s not like I have a publisher breathing down my back.
Most of the changes arising from the previous round of reads and critiques were incorporated as they came in; ditto for those coming in during this last round. But there are two scenes which need reworking, and which I’ve saved till now. So this is next on my To-Do, along with anything that might yet arrive in my In-Box. Then, I hope, I can set that book aside until ready to publish.
Overall, I’ve been more than pleased with the comments. And that each reader/ critiquer has then volunteered to read/critique the next book in the series is definitely encouraging.
Which brings me to …
This has now been out with the beta-readers and critiquers for up to a month. So far one reader has completed the book and returned her comments; others are at various stages. At this point, I’m not chasing the returns, though I will be delighted when the overdue first parts show up in my In-Box. (Subtle nudge, no cracks of whips; full appreciation of the commitment you’re taken on.)
I have now completed the read-through, chapter analysis and first revision of Asaric Skies.
As far as plot and structure are concerned, I’m happy. The stages unfold to hit all the right marks. Yay! But I am disappointed that I couldn’t delete more than 5000 words from its total (which now stands at 139k). So, next revision will include an extremely critical eye cast over descriptive passages, i.e. I noticed excessive attention to the environment (trees, hills and flowers), far more than in the previous two books.
While I am itching to get on with this, I hope I’ll need to delay it in favour of the returns from Asaric Axis (Book Two). Yep, that’s another nudge. But soft key, friendly. I am so appreciative of what you’re doing. And I know how ‘life’ can get in the way. And, well, to be honest, I’m not exactly skipping and jumping myself—as might be noticed by how short this update and how lacklustre.
So, that’s that for now. My many thanks to those participating. Asaric Tales e-book update #10, due first weekend in September.
The heat with its debilitating effects continues to hold me prisoner; alas, no walkies for my camera and me again this week. It’s just as well I have a backlog of photos I can draw on for our #2018picoftheweek challenge.
“Fishing net draped over fence”: Southwold 26th June 2018
Seen at the small fishing port of Southwold in Suffolk, this rather tatty net tidied a treat when subjected to the simplest of edits.
#2018picoftheweek: Texture
Some days when I take the camera out the light falls just right for capturing the finer details on close-ups of plants. Other times the brush needs to be broader …
Beside Breydon Bridge, looking across the confluence of Yare and Bure to the town of Great Yarmouth beyond: Photo taken 20th July 2018
The sun had been up for about four hours when I took the photo, looking obliquely across the water with the sun still relatively low to the east—which produced just the right effect for this week’s #2018picoftheweek: Silhouettes.
So I left the house at quarter-to-eight, turned right into the row (that’s a very narrow lane to you, speciality of Gt Yarmouth), to meet up with my daughter who was waiting for me on the farside of the river and lo! There’s this olde-worlde-looking ship. Hoping to get some good shots during our walk that day, I had my camera with me. Wow, luck! Not so lucky was the tide (which was out) thus the olde-worlde-looking ship sat low in the water and I couldn’t even see her hull from the quay. And moving round to the bridge, the light was in entirely the wrong direction. So this is not the best of shots.
TS Royalist moored at Gt Yarmouth: photo taken 20th July 2018
TS Royalist isn’t as olde-worlde as it looks (it was built in 2014), and as its name might suggest, its a training ship used by the Sea Cadets. With up to 10 permanent crew, it provides real-environment training for up to 24 cadets.
This 130 ton is a 34-metre brig. But that’s about as much as I can tell you. I might live close enough to the quay to dip my toes in the river (though only when the tide is running high) but I know next to nothing about ships.
And where did I walk? Along the edge of Breydon Water, which lies just behind the town.
A ‘smaller’ vessel sailing on Breydon Water: photo taken 20 July 2018
There is a group of parish churches in southeast Norfolk with south doors a rival to the rising sun.
Ashby St Mary church, Norfolk: Photo taken April 2018
Dated to early C12th, it’s thought the work was performed by a German or Dutch stonemason who was visiting the area. Why was his visiting? Well, the design is remarkably similar to that found at Norwich Cathedral of the same approximate date.
#picoftheweek challenge: Entrance
Ashby St Mary up close
See also my blog of 2016: The Confusing Case of The Norman Arches, written when I stumbled upon the first of this group at Hellington.
Original image by skeeze; tweaked by cp
“It all began when Jan met Ned.”
No. Wrong.
Wrong?
Everything that ever had happened in Jan’s life led to that moment. Ditto for Ned.
Fine.
“It all began when Jan was born, three years to the day after Ned.”
No.
No?
You’re forgetting the effects of a mother’s nutritional levels upon the foetus. And we all know how a stressful environment can affect the child for the rest of its life.
Okay. If you say.
“It all began when Jan’s mother bought the pregnancy test-kit.”
No, no. You have to factor in the father. And what were the circumstance of the mother’s life up till then.
Okay.
“It all began when God, in boredom, sighed and for an instant reversed his gravity.”
Okay, so it’s not a road, but a path. And it’s not made of brick, but of short-cut grain-stalks. And it doesn’t go to the Emerald City but passing through an exceedingly emerald field, skirts a sand-quarry to arrive at Norwich City (whose football club colours just happen to be green and yellow).
Footpath through grain-field at Arminghall: Photo taken 21st June 2018
#picoftheweek: Follow the Path
The sharp-eyed amongst you might notice what could be a circle midway along that path. While it could be an outgrown modernday crop circle, it’s more likely to be the markings from an ancient round barrow. This field sits bang in the middle of a site sacred since Neolithic times (the path also passes alongside Arminghall Henge).
crispina kemp 