Beneath The Surface

Posted on July 25, 2026 by crispina kemp

13th July 2026

Beyond the pool, beyond the garden, beyond the promenade and the sea wall, a fierce wind blows. But these fishes feel it not at all.

Clearly, this is C for Calm, my July choice for Maria’s Photo Challenge.

Posted in Photos, Prompt | Tagged , | 7 Comments

If I Give In To The Itch

Posted on July 25, 2026 by crispina kemp

2nd August 2021

See that fine black thread
Dangling from the tree
Dangling there and tempting me
Washing from my head everything that Mother said
Tempting me to maybe twitch, just an itch
Not pull, nor yank
It’s not that it’s wool wound into a hank
And if I give in to the itch
And if I twitch
Will it summon the witch?
Will she do her eight-legged crawl
To check who called
Tugging her gossamer thread

74 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Gossamer

 

Posted in Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

CCC096: Taken…

Posted on July 23, 2026 by crispina kemp

Where are they taking her?

To a grand place, my father said, to a gated community.

But he never said the gate was locked and I’d never see my mother again.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro, Photos, Prompt | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #096

Posted on July 22, 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

Tuesday Treats: Some Delights

Posted on July 21, 2026 by crispina kemp

A miscellany of (mostly) close-ups taken on our walk on 13th July 2026. Enjoy…

13th July 2026

🔼 You don’t need me to tell you this is a face-full of sea-spray! Great for cooling you down 🔽 Hollyhocks, they’re everywhere in this resort, colouring gardens and colouring the cliffs! ⏬

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

🔽 Scarlet Pimpernel, tucked beneath a ??? fern

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

Pond flowers 🔼 Water Lilies 🔽

13th July 2026

🔽Water Figwort. Toxic, upsets the belly, big-time, but not a killer

13th July 2026

🔽 Yellow Loosestrife

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

Pond life 🔼 Moorhen. Usually so shy but I guess here it’s grown used to people 🔽 Not so coy Koi

13th July 2026

The dune community…

13th July 2026

🔼 Tree Lupin, which isn’t a tree, now in seed 🔽 Sea Pea peeking out from beneath a boat

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

🔼 An enormous growth of Sea Kale. Edible? Maybe if you cook it long enough 🔽 Yarrow’s not at all fussy, it’ll grow anywhere

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

🔼 Hare’s Foot Clover getting friendly with Lady’s Bedstraw 🔽 Sea Holly. Isn’t it beautiful ⏬

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

And that, my friends, is all for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Next week, due to medical appointments and such, we’re taking a step back in time, into the depths of my archives, to photos you’ve not seen before

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Resorting to Another Resort

Posted on July 19, 2026 by crispina kemp

13th July 2026 and the forecast tells us there’s to be a noticeable drop in temperature!  While that’s much appreciated during this heatwave, it comes at a price. High winds and a uniform-grey sky. Since we’ve already decided on a walk by the sea, that being the coolest place, we keep to that. An early bus will take us south, to the next resort. Lowestoft. From there we’ll walk to Pakefield, another resort. So fill those water-bottles and let’s go…

13th July 2026

🔼 High winds and high tide combine to throw the incoming waves against the sea wall! So we have to stop to take photos of that. Then it’s onwards to Pakefield along a prom that’s mostly deserted except for a few early morning runners 🔽 There are dunes at Pakefield, which keeps the sea at bay

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

On previous visits we’ve walked the prom from one resort to the other, where I’ve taken photos of the boats, which I love, then turned around and walked the way back. This time I’m determined to do it different 🔼 We leave the prom via a steep path up the cliff 🔽 where we find Kensington Garden. We have to explore

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

Kensington Garden is host to ⏫ a Fernery 🔼 a Reading Corner with cupboards for donated books and magazines 🔽 a Fairy Tree ⏬ and a delightful, natural-looking pond

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

We tarry awhile in the garden, and pop into the adjacent cafe for a cup of raspberry & strawberry tea. Then back to the cliff 🔼 The grass is parched 🔽 Steps offer an easier descent than the path we’d taken up. But we ignore them

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

🔼 Colourful beach huts line the prom as it sweeps round to enclose the bay. But we’re not ready to go there yet 🔽 Many times I’ve photographed this wall and door from a distance. Today I get in close and personal

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

🔼 Finally, we’re down on the dunes where my camera happily eats up the boats. Unlike those at the other fishing resorts, many of these are no longer sea-worthy 🔽 ⏬ And those that are, are thoroughly wrapped and secured against storm and tide

13th July 2026

13th July 2026

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Don’t forget Tuesday Treats, though sorry, no Friday Flyers this week.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Heatwave Road Rage

Posted on July 18, 2026 by crispina kemp

Image credit: Christian Dorn

Humidity swamps
Tempers fray
Horns blast
Renting the day
That voice at the back of my head
Sits upon my shoulder instead
Calm it, Lady, it says
Kick off now, crash and kill
Eternity to experience the fires of hell

40 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Eternity

Posted in Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Friday Flyers

Posted on July 17, 2026 by crispina kemp

All those wonderful butterflies, and the dragons and damsels, we saw on our walk on 4th July 2026. Enjoy. Oh what a lot we’ve got!

4th July 2026

🔼 Speckled Wood

4th July 2026

🔼 Gatekeeper 🔽

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Red Admiral 🔽

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Large Skipper 🔽 Small Skipper

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Small Whites 🔽

4th July 2026

🔽 My first ever sighting and photo of a Purple Hairstreak

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Ringlet 🔽 Comma

4th July 2026

🔽 Painted Lady

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Peacocks 🔽

4th July 2026

That’s the butterflies. Now for the damsels and dragons

4th July 2026

Dragonflies 🔼 Southern Hawker 🔽 female Ruddy Darter

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

🔼 Four-spotted Chaser. New sighting so I went a bit crazy taking photos 🔽⏬

4th July 2026

4th July 2026

Damselflies… Azure. Loads of these, though some might have been Coom Blues

4th July 2026

That’s all. A really good haul. Don’t expect that every week. But we hope to visit this walk again in late summer when there should be more dragonflies, and maybe we’ll actually make it out to Tunstall Mills

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Revived from this day 2020

Posted on July 17, 2026 by crispina kemp

I was asleep when you crept in
You woke me, body, heart and soul
Awakened, aroused, enlivened
You whetted appetites from long ago
Appetites I didn’t want
This couldn’t be, this was fantasy
You scared me, go away and let me be.

But you with your constancy
Your serenity, sincerity
You opened a tight-furled bud within me
Showed me the truth of you, of me
And set the petals trembling
When you set before me
Around me, within me
This precious gift
Of love
This sedative for the soul

 

 

Posted in On Writing, Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , | 38 Comments

CCC095: Zoom-Zoom

Posted on July 16, 2026 by crispina kemp

Zoom-Zoom, the train speeds by
with a clickety-clack and a rattle
Zoom-Zoom, a life speeds by
with many a tear and a battle
But why do you cry when we’re born to die
And it’s useless to cling to the track cos there’s no turning back

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments