WEP Challenge - Spectacular Settings

As I have often said, I am a bookaholic.  I have always been awed by writers and those I have found and followed here in the blogosphere have increased that awe.

I am amazed at their imagination, their skill, the dedication and the immense amount of work involved.  My naive self has also learnt that the work is far from over when the work is published.

This month I have stepped out of my comfort zone and entered the WEP (Write, Edit, Publish) Spectacular Settings Challenge.  This challenge is the brain child of Denise Covey and Yolanda Renee and is fully explained here  on their shared blog.  

Please visit the blog and track down the work other people have submitted.  You won't be disappointed.  And the very generous hosts have opened up the challenge to writers, photographers, artists...

The challenge comes in two parts, both of which I will take on.  Mind you, while I am dipping my toes in the water, I do have my floaties on for protection.  I am mostly going down the photographic path (and regular readers of this blog will have seen the photos) with just a few words to go with them.

The first part is to share a photograph with a spectacular setting which has stopped my heart - and explain why.

Ok, so what is so spectacular about a hazy photo of a blackened beach?

This black beach is in Antarctica! The haze is heat rising from the ground.  Heat from a still active volcano.  Yes, there is snow on those hills, but I swam there - and have had cooler baths.

Antarctica was a dream come true for me, and this was a totally unexpected (but still cherished) part of that dream.

The photo was taken of the flooded caldera at Deception Island.  

***

In the second part of the challenge I am sharing another photo (not of Antarctica this time) and trying to make you share the magic of the night (or at least to make you wish you were there).

Fiers A Cheval
This was an amazing spectacle.  The flyer advertising it simply said 'Giant, inflatable illuminated horse puppets'.  It was brought to Australia from France for two performances only...

MEMORIES.  MAGIC.  MYSTERY

A steaming hot day, with nightfall bringing no relief.

Baited with the promise of novelty we could not stay away.

In ones and twos, family groups, clusters of friends, young, old, the fit, the fat and the infirm.  Jostling for position on a hill too small to hold us.

Standing room only, and still we came.
 

Flavoured with perfume, beer, and sweat the heavy air crackled with anticipation.

Dark shapes moving mysterious objects, orchestrated by a steady rumble of conversation.

Haunting music severed that rumble.  Silenced, we stared at the dark space beneath us.

Three men materialised out of the gloom.  Three men in strange costumes. 
Standing still, pinned under a spotlight and pinned under our gaze.

A blink and they were gone.  Replaced by twelve foot horses.  Majestic, beautiful horses.

Dancing horses, prancing horses.

Squinting we could see reality shake, blur, and twist.

The men were there, forming the horse's hind legs.  There, and gone again, swallowed by a magnificent new reality. 

Open-eyed and mouthed we no longer squinted.

Chameleon coloured.  First red, then blue, now bi-coloured with cream accents.

They cavorted, they danced, they pranced.  And all the people watched.

They leapt, they ran, they fought. 

Entrancing the silent watchers. 


Who can tell me?  Who will tell me? 

Which are the promised puppets?

The giant, illuminated horses doing their Lipizzaner routine, skilfully manipulated by shadowy men hidden in their legs,

or the silent, watching crowd  whose heads swivelled in unpractised but perfectly choreographed unison with each move ?

Word count 256.  Full Critique Acceptable.  I think.  I need to learn to grow.