CCC097: An Almost True Story

Posted on July 30, 2026 by crispina kemp

1271: Foundation of the grey-friars’ monastery (Franciscan Order)

1538: Dissolution of that monastery (by order of King Henry VIII)

Portions of land and buildings variously gifted and sold
Carter, local merchant, amongst those invested, or investing

Elegant town house erected
Warehouse raised around monastery remains (the granary)

1604: Annexe built as wedding gift to the merchant’s son

1605: Carters involved with the Gunpowder plot, discredited, fled

Former merchants’ buildings converted to solicitors’ offices

2000: Offices converted to residential units

2005: Latest occupier of the converted warehouse (formerly the granary) wakes around midnight, cold. There follows a heart-warming friendship of occupier and ghost

An almost true story

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, History, Mostly Micro, Photos, Prompt | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #097

Posted on July 29, 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 , , , | 23 Comments

Tuesday Treats: Up and Down The Streets

Posted on July 28, 2026 by crispina kemp

An odd collection of details and places that caught my eye in Summer 2020. Enjoy…

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼⏫ I do wonder if this ought to be called street art, since I found it not in the street but in an underpass that sneaks beneath the busy bypass road to allow we nature fiends to reach our destination without getting squashed! 🔽⏬

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 See photo of Benedictine priory in Sunday’s post 🔽 Flowers colonising our town wall

Summer 2020

🔽 From detail of town wall to detail of town hall…or rather its annexe, though it’s now converted into apartments.

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 In Sunday’s post I said about Gt Yarmouth’s rows. This one runs from the market place towards the quay. The signage is for Back To Backs, a wonderful pub that’s tucked into there 🔽 No words needed here

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼🔽⏬ More Yarmouth rows…

Summer 2020

🔼 I think this one is Capt Christmas’s Row. Christmas used to be a common name around here 🔽 Many rows are named for the pub on the corner. Lots of corners, lots of pubs!

Summer 2020

That’s all for now. I hope to be back into the rural lanes in time for next week’s posts!

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Sunday Picture Post: 2020 Hindsight, A Town In Lockdown

Posted on July 26, 2026 by crispina kemp

Due to too many appointments for both myself and my daughter, we’ve not managed a walk over the past two weeks. So, I must resort to the archives, and I thought you might like see our town. Here’s some photos I took during the lockdown of Summer 2020. Hope you enjoy

Summer 2020

I lived just 2 minutes walk from the quay in 2020 🔼 The trawler Lydia Eva is permanently moored here, but though a museum it wasn’t open to the public that year 🔽 While our fishing industry died long years ago, private boats were and are available to hire for those who enjoy line-fishing

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 Not every day is sunny. But the view of the river is always good 🔽

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 Back in the 12th & 13th centuries, our town had several priories – until King Henry VIII ‘dissolved’ them. Some parts remain. This is Greyfriars, upon whose former grounds I lived in 2020 🔽 Great Yarmouth town hall, built 1880 in Queen Anne style

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 The market place and town centre, looking even less exciting and attractive than usual. The photo is slightly deceptive, it was taken early morning before the shops opened 🔽 More than one hundred alleys, called rows, dissect the town, east to west. Back in the day those rows channeled the sea breezes and helped to keep the town plague-free. But some of those rows were rather narrow. Not this one. This is Broad Row

Summer 2020

🔽 Great Yarmouth has two literary connections. In 1848 Charles Dickens stayed at the Royal Hotel (on sea front) to write David Copperfield. And in 1820 Anna Sewel, author of Black Beauty, was born in this C17th house

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 St Nicholas’, reputed the largest parish church in England 🔽

Summer 2020

🔽 The old Benedictine priory, founded by Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Norwich, at the same time as he founded Norwich Cathedral (1101). Henry VIII closed it. It later served as St Nicholas Primary School (1853-1999) and is now a community-focused facility

Summer 2020

Summer 2020

🔼 And no visit to Great Yarmouth is complete without at least a look at the sea front. Somewhat quiet during lockdown. So sad to see the theatre closed 🔽

Summer 2020

I hope you enjoyed this trip into my archives. It seems the summer of 2020 wasn’t particularly bright! No comment to that. See Tuesday Treats for some ‘unusual’ bits and pics. And don’t forget Crimson’s Creative Challenge on Wednesday 😀

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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

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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.

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