Crimson’s Creative Challenge #099

Posted on August 12, 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: The Wet and the Dry

Posted on August 11, 2026 by crispina kemp

A parade of photos taken during the second part of our walk along Marriott’s Way to Costessey Ponds on 27th July 2026. Enjoy

27th July 2026

🔼 Sweet Peas run rampant at the turn off from Marriott’s Way to the Tud meadow 🔽 Yarrow and an incredibly vibrant Thistle

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Another look at the Thistle. It’s everywhere in the ultra-dry meadow 🔽 A late Poppy, and seed pods

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 What, you mean I’m obsessed with those Thistles? Um, yes. But that purple against the dry grasses just jumps up and yell at you 🔽

27th July 2026

🔽 Not more thistles? No, but the same botanic family. Knapweed

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 This water mint continues the purple theme 🔽 The Water Soldier plant lives beneath water only rising to flower in June to August. Those flowers much resemble its cousin, Frogbit, which is the other plant here

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Water Plantain, left high and dry with the shrinking water 🔽 White Water Lily, the flower almost hidden beneath the luxuriant growth of ‘pads’

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Water Lilies, Yellow and (pink-tinged) White 🔽 ⏬

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Now if you’re thinking we’d chosen our destination for the lilies, I will confess, this is so! But they are beautiful. And when we’re officially in drought, the rivers and ponds are a blessed sight.

Hope you enjoyed. And next week, something altogether different (weather permitting)

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Sunday Picture Post: Last Destination of July

Posted on August 9, 2026 by crispina kemp

Continuing our walk of 27th July 2026 – when we reach our beautiful wet destination.  Stay with us, you’ll see what I mean. Let’s go…

27th July 2026

🔼 To our left, a grazing marsh which over recent years has become a nature reserve stands between Marriott’s Way and the higher ground of the last of Norwich suburbs 🔽 To our right, the Wensum with one of its many bridges glimpsed beyond a wind-torn willow

27th July 2026

🔽 Marriott’s Way at the city/county boundary

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 A meadow lies alongside the river Tud, a tributary of the Wensum. I don’t know when it last was grazed, but I do know it’s now thoroughly overgrown with grassland plants (see Tuesday Treats) which attract butterflies (which refuse our lens!) Although, seen here is Himalayan Balsam, clustered around the Tud 🔽 The Tud is a chalkland stream with crystal clear waters, though of late the bankside vegetation has somewhat encroached

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Today it’s known as Gunton Lane Recreation Ground. Until the twentieth century it was Costessey common. To claim parish relief, the men (women too?) were sent to the common to dig gravel and sand for road repairs. They’re not deep pits, and they weren’t yet flooded in the early 1960s. They are now. Now they’re marked on Google Maps as Costessey Ponds 🔽 The river Tud flows through the former common

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Back in the days (my teens, 1960s) the ground here was mostly open. A few saplings and scrub (brambles, broom and gorse). But that oak must have been there too, and even then been a sturdy fella 🔽 The rest has grown up over the past 50/60 years

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Costessey Ponds 🔼 I’ve not seen the water this low in recent years. Yet the water soldiers, and water lilies are surviving. Fingers crossed they’ll continue. 🔽

27th July 2026

🔽 This old giant stands sentry to wish us a safe journey home. Sad to see it lopped so low. But with so much fungi around it, I doubt it would have stood (safely) much longer

27th July 2026

And here, my friends, we must part company. We’re off to catch a bus into Norwich, to find some food, before tackling the bus back to the coast.

Hope you’ve enjoyed 😁 Don’t forget to check out Tuesday Treats 🙂

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August’s Harvest Turned to Dust

Posted on August 8, 2026 by crispina kemp

Rosehips – 6th August 2027

August First: Lughnasadh
When we make a start on gathering in Nature’s gain
But Nature’s only harvest will be rust
If the sky doesn’t soon give us plentiful rain
Cornucopia’s precious fruits will turn to dust

36 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Cornucopia

 

Posted in Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 28 Comments

Friday Flyers

Posted on August 7, 2026 by crispina kemp

A few of the butterflies seen on our walk on 27th July 2026. And a damselfly.

27th July 2026

🔽 Common Blue Damselfly, lots of these about, not many cooperative 🔼 Meadow Brown

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Lots of these too, but devilishly difficult to photograph. Common Blue. Happy to get this shot 🔽 Green-veined White

27th July 2026

🔽 Speckled Wood resting against green, just so we photographers could see it!

27th July 2026

🔽 Those that follow are all Gatekeepers. I think we found Gatekeeper Central! So many. But very fast moving

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 Love these longer shots! 🔽

27th July 2026

🔽 And this one, it would be sacrilege to crop it close

27th July 2026

That’s it folks. Hope you enjoyed

 

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 28 Comments

CCC098: Heal My Heart

Posted on August 6, 2026 by crispina kemp

Yellow Lily
River Lady
Focus of my fantasy
River Lady
Yellow Lily
Lend to me your remedy
Heal my heart
Mend what the world has torn apart
River Lady, there for me

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #098

Posted on August 5, 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 , , , | 18 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Late July Flowers

Posted on August 4, 2026 by crispina kemp

A small collection of late July flowers, photos taken on our walk on 27th July 2026. Enjoy…

27th July 2026

Two invasive plants but so very different 🔼 Himalayan Balsam invades and clogs our waterways. But the bees love it and it’s so pretty 🔽 A Bramble Briar entwined with bindweed. Here’s another pretty flower, and the bees love this too and we love its berries. But it shows up all over the place and is nigh impossible to eradicate

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Wetland delights 🔼 Up close and personal with Purple Loosestrife 🔽 Reedmace surviving, yet the ground is dry enough to support Ragwort and Thistles ⏬ Looking like an orchid, this Marsh Woundwort likes it damp

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Two yellow flowered plants 🔼 Common Fleabane and 🔽 no longer in flower so I can’t give you a definite ID but my guess is Birdsfoot Trefoil

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Two healing herbs 🔼 St John’s Wort, still used today for depression and anxious 🔽 Yarrow, one time used to staunch blood flow

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

Into the edibles. Maybe! 🔼 Wild Carrot. It might be the grandma of today’s carrots but you’d have to be desperate to make a meal of its root 🔽 Sloe might vaguely resemble a plum but… draws a mouth tighter than a purse!

27th July 2026

🔽 Giving us a taste of what’s to come next week. Yellow Water-Lily (squint hard, it’s there 😁)

27th July 2026

And that is all for this week. More next week. But don’t forget Friday Flyers

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 24 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Last Walk of July

Posted on August 2, 2026 by crispina kemp

27th July 2026, forecast cool morning, hotter-than-hot afternoon. We need a walk that’s done by noon and yet will feed the camera with ample shots. I know just the one, although we seldom walk it in summer, plus this time we’re varying it. So, let’s fill our water bottles and head out…

27th July 2026

Until I damaged my knee in 2024 we’d always started Marriott’s Way from within the city of Norwich. Since then we’ve reduced the walk, bussing out to join the Way at a later point 🔼 The new route takes us through a shady belt of trees 🔽 with a hump-backed bridge to take us over the Wensum, the river that is Marriott’s Way constant companion

27th July 2026

🔽 Way up river we see a bright spot. My camera zooms in. It’s a swan

27th July 2026

🔽 These days, Marriott’s Way is a long distance cycle route and also provides safe cycling for getting around the outskirts of Norwich

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼Although channels help to drain the land between the Wensum and Marriott’s Way, there are ample signs that it is still a wetland 🔽⏬

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼Since 2020, when the popularity of cycling boomed, these paths have been improved to make them cycle-safe. Happy for walkers too!🔽 Which way? We’re heading for Sweet Briar Marshes, a nature reserve

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 We might have drought, but the wetlands vegetation is rampant 🔽

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 A provided hard-surface path, but we walkers have always used the other path 🔽 It’s windy! Flowers and grasses alike bend to the blustery gusts. We welcome its cooling effect

27th July 2026

27th July 2026

🔼 The Serengeti-look of Sweet Briar Marshes. Yet butterflies are plentiful (See Friday Flyers) on the flourishing flowers (See Tuesday Treats)

🔽 Bridge over the Wensum, one of many of this walk. Hereafter we’ll be walking the county-side of the city boundary. But I’m saving that for next week – which ensures I’ve something to show you even if another heatwave zaps me

27th July 2026

That’s all for this week, folks. Don’t miss Tuesday Treats. Loads of flowers. And Friday Flyers.

Hope you enjoyed

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Oddments. Miscellany. Patchwork. Collage.

Posted on August 1, 2026 by crispina kemp

Image credit: Eynoxart via Pixabay

I tried not to stare at her
This dishevelled lass of indeterminant age
Late teens? She could have been older
In my continued silence
She repeated: I’m an artist
I asked: Performing? Creative?
She answered: Destructive
Then turned and said, Come see
When she opened her door I saw
Oddments. Miscellany
Patchwork? Collage?
Explosive hodgepodge!

55 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Hodgepodge

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