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
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
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
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
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
A selection of photos taken on our walk through Damgate Carr and along Weaver’s Way on 4th July 2026. I’ve included more photos than usual; impossible not to. Hope you enjoy
4th July 2026
🔼 I’m no expert on ferns though I do like to see them. All I’ll say is this one’s a shield fern 🔽 Hemp Agrimony, very very common in wet places ⏬ Common Agrimony, though it’s not so commonly found
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔽 Everything about this young bird shouted ‘robin’ despite it lacks the distinctive adult colouring. I googled it when I got home and, yay, it’s a young robin
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 Hemlock. Oh so deceptive. Easily fatal when it’s young and in flower. But when it ripens, and the stalks dry… no mistaking it then 🔽
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
But here’s something you can eat: Fruits of the Forest 🔼 Wild Raspberries and 🔽 Red Currants
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
Prettiness abounds 🔼 Wild Rose 🔽 Great Willowherb
4th July 2026
🔽 Meadowsweet. One of my favourites
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
Birds seen along the Way 🔼 Greenfinch, not so common as they used to be; I feel privileged not only to see it but to get its photo 🔽 Blackbird, here singing its heart out high in a willow tree
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
On the waterfront! 🔼 Branched Burr-Reed, and wow, it’s in flower and in fruit and it’s wonderful 🔽 Purple Loosestrife. I get excited whenever I find this one!
4th July 2026
🔽 Red-legged Shield Bug
4th July 2026
And snails 🔽⏬
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
Because I love to see our pretty snails 🔼⏫
And that is all for now but don’t miss Friday Flyers because… it was a very good day!
4th July 2026, forecast is for another hot day. But the morning ought to be cool enough to go walk the camera. If we start early enough. We’re walking from Acle, via Damgate Carr/Wood and Weavers’ Way to as far as we can reach by 10:00. Then, no matter where we are, we have to turn back. That’ll allow us to reach Acle before the heat flattens me. So, let’s go
4th July 2026
🔼 To reach Damgate Carr/Wood first we have to pass under the bypass-bridge, then the railway bridge, the latter host to rabble of roses 🔽
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 The woodland is so dense and lushly grown with trees and brush that it’s impossible to get defining photos (plentiful berries and flowers, though: see Tuesday’s post). However, the trees back off as we reach the main channel, with a seat provided if we should need it (we will on the way back) 🔽 The view along the channel from one bridge to another, from foot to train
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 We’re out of the woods but still bolstered by trees. This narrow path, which runs alongside the Norwich to Gt Yarmouth railway, connects us with Weavers’ Way, the long distance walk from North Norfolk coast 🔽
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 Weavers Way, and the willows offer wonderful shade. Moreover, those reeds are home to damsels and dragons. Can you hear the sound of our cameras clicking? 🔽
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 The Way follows the main drain as it crosses the first grazing marsh. It then veers away from the water to head eastward towards Tunstall (and eventually Great Yarmouth) 🔽
4th July 2026
4th July 2026
🔼 We’ve not quite made it to Tunstall. As we’ve agreed, we stop at 10:00 am. However, we’re in a place with so many butterflies we don’t want to move. But, with reluctance… 🔽 We’re back onto that shady path, with the dragons and damsels
4th July 2026
I hope you enjoyed. By the time we reached Acle, the heat had become oppressive, so humid. But the walk was worth it, our cameras sated – as you’ll see on Tuesday and Friday 😎
17th January 2021
The waves toss themselves against the shore
Clutch and tear at anything there
Tumble the stones
Wrench at the shells
Batter the rocks
Like a starving child with fingers that grasp
Edible, inedible, what does it matter
Every last mark those waves must erase
Footprints of bird
Of man, woman, child and dog
Until all is planed to a primordial plain
The strand walker walking there
Looks at the pristine sand and wonders
How to leave a mark on this world
When the waves always wash it away
88 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Pristine
Lazing on the riverbank
Gazing at the fresh green blades
Following with my eye
Where they point into the sky
Squinting
What am I seeing?
A dot
A dot
A circle…
A saucer?
Fast to my feet
Fix on the—
On the—
Dash it all
The saucer’s a dish
And now that dish has disappeared
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
