The lovely Delores at Under the Porch Light
has been running this meme for a considerable period of time, week
after week - even through the A to Z challenge. Sadly she is having
issues with her computer freezing on her (much as my brain does when
faced with some of her words). She has asked that someone take over on a
temporary basis and I have stuck my hand up.
Essentially the aim is to encourage us
to write. Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be
words, phrases, music or an image. What we do with those prompts is up
to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with
ignore...
Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
This weeks prompts:
Conscious
Plant
Aromatic
Growth
Vulgar
Sky
And/or
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteIt seems we can both relate to Delores and computers freezing up. There was a time I had to wipe the icicles of my computer screen.
Hey, all the best with the words. And all the best who get involved with the words, whichever prompt they choose.
Gary
klahanie: A decidedly first world problem - but very, very frustrating. Infuriating even.
DeleteSending you hugs for a tough day my friends, sans all virii of course.
ReplyDeleteJacquelineand...: Did you mean to send me this comment? I hope you are feeling better yourself.
DeleteTaking meds on an empty stomach, plus a fever, tends to render me more incoherent than usual; my apologies.
DeleteJacquelineand...: Hugs.
DeleteYour words always allow for so many directions! Have to think about them, and post on Friday. My mind whizzes in all sorts of places before settling.
ReplyDeleteBless you for continuing this for Delores!
Susan Kane: Having 'found' the words and created the prompts my brain refuses to play. Another reason to be awed at Delores - and long for her return.
DeleteHere's my attempt...
ReplyDeleteThe ‘vulgar’ ‘yell’ that emanated from the dense bush across the way made her skin ‘crawl’. ‘Fearless’ as she always was, although ‘conscious’ danger may lie ahead, she tossed inhibition to the ‘sky’ as she raced across the laneway towards the ‘root’ of the noise. The wild ‘storm’ approaching didn’t deter her as she pushed her way through the ‘aromatic’ ‘growth’ that impeded her progress through the dense scrub. To her relief, she discovered the cry she’d heard was in fact a ‘joyous’ scream of discovery. There in front of her stood her botanist brother. In his hand he held a ‘plant’…one they’d searched long for. In most circles the plant was considered extinct. This proved it was not.
Lee: I love it. A direction I hadn't even considered. Thank you.
DeleteI always like reading what people write with the words. So fun!
ReplyDeleteHere is my try:
The storm raged on as I yelled for my husband. I had to crawl through the debris and falling trees and felt joyous as I heard his reply. He was trapped and I had to be fearless as I got up and raced towards him through the whipping rain and branches scratching me. When I tripped over the root I landed hard on the ground and gave out a cry. Pain surged up my leg and I realized I might not make it to him in time.
That came out much more depressing than I expected!
Have a lovely week-
Jess
DMS ~Jess~: Sometimes the words take on a life of their own. Hopefully your heroine will discover that she can reach her husband, or that help is on its way.
DeleteAnd a wonderful week to you and yours too.
What a great set of words; my mind is already spinning and churning out odd sentences. I'll have to harness them and see what I can do.
ReplyDeleteExcellent efforts by Lee and DMS.
River: I am, as always, looking forward to seeing what you create with them, and I agree about Lee's and Jess's writing.
DeleteOnce again my vulgar rude snobby angry neighbor has stolen my sleep. Once again she has stolen my view of the night sky. How, you ask? By turning on her outdoor lights aimed right at my bedroom window, turning night to day. The first time this happened she claimed it was an accident. Although I believed otherwise, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Not this time. I will not pretend to believe. She made a conscious decision to take my sleep from me. How will I respond? I'm thinking I'll put a huge aromatic plant out there. In other words, a plant that stinks to high heaven! Stinkorama! The growth, the escalation of this battle only fires my creativity. Until further notice, I'm at war. Ok, my drama is cracking even me up. I'm getting a mirror, to hang out there, to redirect her light, next time, right back at her. Bwahahaha.
ReplyDeleteStrayer: I love it. Stealers of sleep deserve death. My mama grew a particularly vile smelling plant called a dead horse lily. Dramatic to look at, but aptly named on the odour front...
DeleteOoooh a dead horse lily, sounds perfect. There are other noxious smellers too and since that window doesn't open, not my problem!
DeleteI like the mirror idea, angled so that light is reflected back into her own home while you put blackout curtains on your window. and the dead horse lily too of course.
DeleteI think my brain froze, or at least slipped a gear this morning. Maybe it was the cat puke alarm early this morning that caused the outage...
ReplyDeleteRiver Fairchild: Quite understandable. Cat puke alarms are the most effective and unpleasant that I know. I hope the rest of the day improved.
DeleteI am joyous that our storms last night are over! Now we need some sun to dry out all the rain.
ReplyDeleteAlex J. Cavanaugh: And we could do with some of the rain. Preferably not a storm.
DeleteOh how I love words. And lists:)
ReplyDeleteAnd the play they inspire.
Thanks for sending light into my tired places,
Jennifer
Jennifer Richardson: How I love the way you make words dance. And sing.
Deleteshe made a conscious effort to purchase an aromatic plant at the nursery to plant in a pot at her doorstep, the rapid growth it made reaching for the sky gave her such pleasure and made up for the vulgar look of her neighbor's muddy boots at his doorstep.
ReplyDeleteLinda Starr: Yup. Plants trump muddy boots. And aromatic plants trump aromatic footwear too.
DeleteDefinitely betting some good ones are going to come out of the words. I'm hurrying along today, but wanted to drop in and send over a hello. Happy writing to all on this one. :)
ReplyDeletemail4rosey: Thanks for dropping in. There are some wonderful snippets being born from these prompts...
DeleteOhhh so much can be done with vulgar.
ReplyDeleteSonya Ann: And so much IS done with vulgar. Every day. Sometimes in horrifying ways...
DeleteOK here goes. the first story is fiction thank goodness however the second one is true.
ReplyDelete!twas a lovely day in June as I lay back on my rug in the park gazing at the blue sky and fluffy white clouds passing by.. I noticed the plants had put on a great spurt growth after the rain we had recently. I had only been lying down a few minutes when I was conscious of the most horrific smell , nothing aromatic about it at all. . I quickly rose to discover the most vulgar looking plant that the smell was coming from. As I held my nose I walked toward the smell to discover it was the Titan rum, corpse flower. Needless so say, I did not hang around for long!
Years ago, my husband and I took 2 friends with us when we hired a boat on Lough Erne in a Northern Ireland over 4 days during Easter. We were all keen to do some fishing and the rods were stowed on deck. The weather was not great in fact we had to chip the isceof the eck 2 mornings and all of a sudden a storm blow up causing all our fishing rods and lifebelt overboard. As the boat rocked from side to side, my friend Pat gave out an almighty yell. She was terrified and kept screaming. I had to crawl up the steps onto the deck, I could see the boat that had stopped and was drifting sideways to an island. I heard my husband say, " The root of the problem was that the lifebelt rope was now around the propellor" He told us we have 2 opinions, one to see if he put it into reverse and see if the rope would come off and secondly my fearless husband would have to go into the water and release it". The island was getting nearer and nearer so with batted breath he pushed the throttle into reverse and it works just when we were about 10 yards from the island. All four of us gave a joyous cheer but my friends refused to sleep on the boat after that and stayed in a hotel. We were happy as we had the boat at night all to ourselves.
Margaret Adamson: Both prompts. Wow. As I said to Strayer, my mother had a dead horse lily. Pungent, penetrating and definitely not aromatic.
DeleteYour long weekend sounds truly memorable. Glad that your husband didn't have to get into the water - which I suspect was very, very cold.
Hi Sue the pungent plant of you mothers , I am sure you gave a wide birth too. By the way just in case you are thinking ( for any reason) you are thinking of acquiring the pungent plant I mentioned, I see I left out a letter. It is Titan arum, corpse flower! I am enjoying these prompts and send the words to 2 other friends as well.
DeleteMargaret Adamson: I am actually sorry I didn't get one of mama's Dead Horse Lilies. They were spectacular - even if one needed to be careful about placement.
DeleteI knew about Titan arum, the corpse flower, but thank you for the clarification.
I am glad you are having fun with the prompts - and hope your friends are as well.
I could think of a sentence or two with the words "conscious" and "vulgar". :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
A Cuban in London: I am never sure whether the people who know they are vulgar or the unconscious upset me most. And yes, some sentences do readily pop into the mind.
DeleteI am behind in everything here and am constantly trying to catch up so I cannot do memes but I like reading all the comments. Then I don’t think I write so well – I prefer to take photos. But I do love words – when they are written by others!
ReplyDeleteVagabonde: You are seriously underestimating your writing talents but, like you, I am having a heap of fun with the comments.
DeleteI like the combination of plant and aromatic ;-)
ReplyDeleteVanessa Morgan: I have a fondness for aromatic plants myself.
DeleteMy mind has gone blank. I can't think of something to write. But I did read the commets. That's a lot of fun. You chose some good words. Maybe I'll use them in a poem soon. Take care.
ReplyDeleteMyrna R.: I would be honoured if you could use these words in a poem. And yes, the comments are a heap of fun. And talent.
Delete"Storm!
ReplyDeleteYell!
Crawl!
[You] Joyous,
Fearless
Root!
ALOHA from Honolulu,
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=
Cloudia: Sometimes I do (or am) all of those things. Love your poem.
DeleteA non-blogging friend of Margaret Adamson was sent the prompts and came up with these gems. I hope she will play again...
ReplyDeleteI really didn't see it coming! Walking through the meadow, allowing my finger tips to slowly drift along the flower heads, my head tilted happily to the SKY, luxuriating in the warmth that bathed my face. I allowed my mind to wander about the beauty of this PLANT and that plant, the rich AROMATIC scents expanding my sense of peace and growth. A smile gently lay on my lips and my eyes relaxed, half closed, so peaceful so safe. I walked slowly along marvelling in the colour of the butterflies, the bird song. Perfect, perfect day......and then the VULGAR awakening, a cow pat!
I was CONSCIOUS of the fact that the animals had been in the field earlier in the year, but so happy was I in my little world I didn't think where I was putting my feet until they slipped from under me and I ended up flat on my back looking at the sky from a different perspective and the plants from underneath and a totally different aromatic experience - ah well! At least the sun was still warm on my face.
CONSCIOUS, PLANT, AROMATIC, GROWTH, VULGAR, SKY.
The ROOT of the problem was a day when I overslept, the kids were unspeakably slow, the car didn't start and to top it all it was starting to rain .....bloody hell! It all came together as a perfect STORM of emotion, all bad. I found myself driven to YELL loudly at the smallest problem, even reverting to the kiddy thing of stamping my feet in a drumbeat of frustration when the bulb in the cupboard under the stairs and I hit my head. Could this day possibly get any worse? Never a good thing to tempt fate and well, yes it could and it did!
The call from the nursery came mid morning. For reasons which we shall not go into, my almost 4 year old son who was convinced he was batman had decided to CRAWL out on to a first floor window ledge and had now realised somewhat belatedly that actually he couldn't fly.
`yes, Mrs Sawyer all the emergency services have been called and are on their way, but please could you get here as soon as possible` the calm voice intoned.....what!
well my feet didn't touch the floor, all the other problems of the day faded into insignificance and I was talking to 'Batman'
`Now Tyler, we all know Batman is FEARLESS and not afraid of heights. Just keep looking at me and wait for the nice fireman to climb up and help you fly down. DON'T MOVE!`
Eventually Batman made it down to a JOYOUS and relieved Mum, happy to be once more on terra firma.
I think, in hindsight perhaps the t shirt with the cape held on by velcro may well have been a mistake.
Conscious
ReplyDeletePlant
Aromatic
Growth
Vulgar
Sky
She became conscious of the aromatic plant with a vulgar name when a growth spurt sent it reaching for the sky.
Linda: A rose by any other name would smell as aromatic...
DeleteAromatic, lovely word.
ReplyDeleteBob Bushell: Isn't it? And anything described as aromatic is immediately enticing...
DeleteComputer freezing = sucks! She should buy a Mac!
ReplyDeleteStephanie Faris: I have no idea what she has, just that it is seriously unwell. I hope she comes back to us soon though.
DeleteBeing ‘conscious’ that the rain would start at any given time, I had to ‘plant’ my flowers as quickly as possibly. The ‘aromatic’ scent of the oriental lilies were amazing, as well as their ‘growth’ ability. Tilling the dirt with the occasional cut from a jagged stone left me muttering out some ‘vulgar' profanities. Unfortunately, the sky began to open up and it started to ‘storm’.
ReplyDeleteThe black clouds came barreling in, and before my eyes, a tornado started to form. No one could hear me ‘yell’ across the yard because the sound of the twister made it nearly impossible. I ran over to the cellar doors opened it up and had to ‘crawl' inside by myself.
Soon enough, there was silence. When I opened the doors to peek outside, a ‘joyous’ feeling overwhelmed me — almost this ‘fearless’ sense of strength and courage that I had faced. I went back inside the house, poured myself a ‘root’ beer and called it a day.
Deb: Love it. A well-deserved beer too.
DeleteI've been writing Star Trek stories every Wednesday about the animated series. I'm looking forward making your words:
ReplyDelete"Storm
Yell
Crawl
Joyous
Fearless and
Root"
part of the blog post. It will prove to be quite an interesting challenge, I may not entirely succeed but I will try!
Spacerguy: I am looking forward to seeing how you incorporate them. And the number of words you choose to use is entirely up to you.
DeleteI'm very late sorry, and then clean forgot to incorporate the words into my post. I have done so now. Had trouble getting vulgar in there!
ReplyDeleteI'll link back to you in the morning when I'm not on my tablet.
DeleteCraig: Never too late - there is no time frame. You are v. clever in the way you slide the words into your post. Loved it.
DeleteI thought I'd go for a haiku:
ReplyDeletevulgar plant smells bad
aromatic like the dead
it grows joyously
Paper Chipmunk (aka Ellen): Ooh. Aromatic like the dead. The images that conjures. And you have just disproved my response to Bob Bushell's comment.
DeleteHeh... leave it to me to find the dark side of anything! Even "aromatic."
DeletePaper Chimpmunk (aka Ellen): Dark is good. Often. And laughter is always good (with not at).
DeleteI found several fearless, vulgar growths in the yard last week, and consciously, fearlessly rooted them out. Also cleared up damage from a recent storm. (Does this count? It's true!)
ReplyDeleteRiot Kitty: Of course it counts - how amazing that the prompts fitted in to your week so well...
Delete