Friday Flyers

Posted on September 18, 2026 by crispina kemp

Damsels and dragons and a few butterflies camera-captured on our walk on 31st August 2026. Enjoy, these could be the last of the season…

31st August 2026

🔼🔽⏬ All Common Darters, but variously male, female and immature

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼🔽⏬ More Common Darters

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼🔽 And yet more Common Darters. There really were loads!

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼🔽⏬ Southern Migrant Hawker

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼🔽⏬ Western Emerald Willow Spreadwing, the largest UK damselfly and quite new to our area

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 Green-veined White 🔽 Red Admiral ⏬ Speckled Wood

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed. You probably know what Common Darters look like now. But while there wasn’t much variety, there were certainly high numbers on this walk.

Next week, something different!

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments

CCC104: The Magical Bridge

Posted on September 17, 2026 by crispina kemp

When this was our ancestors’ land
Before they were drilled into darkness
And soaked into woe
This flow marked the highest lap
As far as the sea would go.

Edges were magical back in those days
As they’re magical still
So stand you firm upon the planks of this bridge
And wish as you will

We fae will hear you
And if the day doesn’t go ill
We’ll be kind to you
Grant your wishes
And send you no bill

 

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mythic Fiction, Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , , , | 28 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #104

Posted on September 16, 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 | 38 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Flowers, Berries and…Stuff

Posted on September 15, 2026 by crispina kemp

Additional photos from our walk on 31st August 2026. Most often I’ll group the photos ‘logically’ but today I’ve left them in the order they came off my camera – i.e. in the order encountered. Enjoy…

31st August 2026

🔼 Stinging Nettles in flower. Just so you can appreciate the difference between these flowers and those of Dead Nettles, which look more like mint (see below) 🔽 Guilder Rose. Poisonous

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 Hemp Agrimony, so named for the similarity of foliage 🔽 Hops, entangled with brambles and beech leaves

31st August 2026

🔽 Water Mint. And bee.

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 Black Bryony. I’m more used to seeing this after the vines have lost their leaves 🔽 Gemstones and gold! But poisonous…

31st August 2026

🔽 And silver, too – but only because of the overnight rain that the Fern’s leaves still hold

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

Here’s two fruits that aren’t poisonous, both much used in Vitamin C drinks 🔼 Elderberries 🔽 Rose Hips

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

Sometimes the berries aren’t easily seen 🔼 More Black Bryony 🔽 White Bryony, still in flower, draped over a Hawthorn hedge

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

From hedgerow to somewhat closer to the ground 🔼 Yay, fungus. The season has truly begun 🔽 Selfheal, surviving right in the middle of Weavers’ Way, despite a summer-full of feet passing by

31st August 2026

Flowers and berries 🔽 Last of the Great Willow Herb, not quite the first of the Blackberries

31st August 2026

That’s all for now, folks. Hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out Friday Flyers cos, yay, we have dragons and damsels!!!!

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Another Wetland Walk

Posted on September 13, 2026 by crispina kemp

31st August 2026 and the weather forecast suggests perfect conditions for a long walk. But in the UK, it’s a Bank Holiday and that means buses are running a Sunday service, which isn’t exactly fantastic. We agree to keep it local and, despite the overnight rain (yay, let’s celebrate), decide on Damgate Carr through to Weavers’ Way. And maybe we’ll walk further than last time during the high summer heat. So here we go…

31st August 2026

🔼 And already we can see how green these woods. They’re positively lush. And not too wet underfoot 🔽

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

Early morning and the light is fantastic, illuming the berries on vines that have spent the summer clambering up to the sky 🔼 Guilder Rose 🔽 Honeysuckle

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 We’ve noticed Hops here in previous years. But this year they’re rampant, scrambling everywhere 🔽 While some are fruiting, other vines are still carrying flowers

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 Out of the woods, we cross the main drain. Here, too, everything’s verdant

31st August 2026

🔼 A path leads us to Weavers’ Way (is it only a week since we walked the section of Weavers’ Way around Aylsham?) 🔽 The path runs parallel to the Norwich-Gt Yarmouth train line, separated by a drainage ditch

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 It matters not that we’ve had drought and a heat wave, Nature offers an exuberant harvest! 🔽 This is not a bridge we must cross. Yet the light is such that it demands my lens’ attention

31st August 2026

🔽 That light! Wow. And here are a couple of strays, separated from their herd which is way off to our left

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

🔼 More summer fruits, though I can’t name them. Probably a hybrid of multiple plum species 🔽 There are loads of these wonderful fruits along this lane ⏬

31st August 2026

31st August 2026

This isn’t where our walk ends, for we’ve now to turn around and retrace our steps back to the bus stop in Acle. But this is where this post stops.

See Tuesday Treats for more pics. Hope you enjoyed 😎💖

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments

Let’s Blame The Heat

Posted on September 12, 2026 by crispina kemp

31st August 2026

It’s been a long season
And the heat’s been the reason
These beautiful winged beasties
Haven’t been seen on my screen

21 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Screen

Posted in Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 27 Comments

CCC103: Tilly’s Wall

Posted on September 10, 2026 by crispina kemp

See that wall? That’s where me and Janey used to play ball. Until…

It wasn’t my fault. Wasn’t her fault either. It was that nasty boy, Tilly.

Along he came, cut into our game, picked up a rock and hurled it hard. Cracked that wall.

But everyone knew Janey and I played ball against that wall so we got the blame. Our parents paid for two of those braces when it ought to have been Tilly.

But later, that Tilly came a cropper. Rode his bike straight into that wall. It was Tilly that paid for the third brace.

Yay! Comeuppance. 🙋‍♀️🤪😀

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro, Photos, Prompt | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #103

Posted on September 9, 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 , , , | 21 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Late August Flowers and Fruits. Mostly

Posted on September 8, 2026 by crispina kemp

A miscellany of additional photos taken on our walk on 24th August 2026. Enjoy…

24th August 2026

🔼 As the flowers fade so the fungi begin to appear. Not enough yet to give them a post of their own, but it’ll come. Patience.

24th August 2026

🔼 Be it a wall or a tree, sometimes something catches your eye and you just have to click that camera 🔽

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 Thistle and Rose Bay Willow Herb, all fluffy 🔽

24th August 2026

🔽 The rugged Hogweed, still flowering

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 See note above about catching the eye and having to click 🔽 I’m afraid the wall-rooted Ferns haven’t fared so well in our heatwave and drought. But I’ve no doubt they will recover

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

Two of the earliest fruits. Strange how both are associated with alcoholic drinks 🔼 Elderberry 🔽 Sloe

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

Two autumnal ‘harvests’ once favoured by schoolboys 🔼 The seeds inside the Rose Hips yield a nasty ‘itching powder’ 🔽 Horse Chestnut gives us conkers for playground battles

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 White Bryony in full fruiting mode, and again, all entangled with the Elderberries 🔽 Don’t mistake one for the other: White Bryony is poisonous

24th August 2026

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed 🤪

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Where Two Ways Meet

Posted on September 6, 2026 by crispina kemp

24th August 2026, the day begins woefully overcast. Yet rain’s not forecast, and it’s so much cooler than of late. Time to head inland. But to where? The imaginary flipped coin lands on Aylsham. Often described as an ‘unspoiled Norfolk market town’, it’s the end point of Marriott’s Way (which starts in Norwich) and the mid-point of Weaver’s Way (which starts in Cromer and ends in Gt Yarmouth.) Good choice. Let’s go…

24th August 2026

🔼 And with very few steps we’re out of town and noticing the trees’ subtle colour changes 🔽 The way-marker appears and, lo, ha, another farmyard

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 What with the low quality of light and the baked white grasses, everywhere seems… washed out 🔽 If it weren’t for the trees… and that wheel… the scene would be colourless

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

Ah-ha, red brick to enliven the scene 🔼 Posh house. The 4×4 windows suggest a Georgian build 🔽 And a ‘Dutch’ barn. This alone advertises money and is almost certainly a listed building (protected from alteration). But this display of wealth doesn’t surprise me. Aylsham was the biggest, most prosperous, textile centre in Norfolk… back in the day

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 While Marriott’s Way uses a former rail track, Weavers’ Way uses it only in places. Here’s one place. To which I say Yippee, cos I love these old bridges 🔽 ⏬

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 Aylsham sits on the banks of the Bure, one of the three rivers that find outfall at Great Yarmouth. Here, the river is a tad smaller than it is at the coast 🔽 All too soon we leave Weavers’ Way and head into town

24th August 2026

🔽 The former mill on the Bure now houses luxury apartments. What a beautiful place to live

24th August 2026

🔽 And here the two Ways meet…

24th August 2026

24th August 2026

🔼 There is a busier route into the town centre. But why endure traffic when we can take the path less travelled 🔽 Finally we’ve arrived at the main shopping street. Now to find somewhere to eat.

24th August 2026

I hope you enjoyed. Join us next Sunday for another walk. Meanwhile, don’t forget Tuesday Treats! 🥰

 

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , , | 32 Comments