Words For Wednesday

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  When she left us briefly we realised that the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast.  I am very, very sad (and angry) to write that a troll has led Delores to leave us again.  She will be missed and I hope her meme continues. 

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...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

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, which includes cheering on the other participants.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

The prompts will be here this month (Margaret Adamson and her friends were to provide them, but she is travelling so we have swopped).

This week's prompts are:

1. mild
2. uncertainty
3. haircut
4. consultation
5. mystery
6. movie

And/or

1. joy
2. surface
3. agreement
4. freckle
5. fixture
6. solo

Have fun.

The prompts will be here again next month, but will be provided by Margaret Adamson and her friends.

We have someone to provide prompts for December (thanks Cindi) but after that we are promptless.  If you are happy to provide them please let me know (in comments or by email) letting me know which month(s) would suit you. 

Sunday Selections #452

  Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.
  
The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle.
 
The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
I usually run with a theme.  While himself's sister was staying with us she and I wandered down to the local Uniting Church to check out their recycling fete.  I weakened (of course) and brought a plant and some books home.

Some of you will remember the 'canoodling scarecrows' I showed from our Community Gardens.  It seems that the church owns those gardens (and makes them available to nearby apartment dwellers).  They were open and I wandered through and photographed the many, many scarecrows within.

I snaffled a piece of this pigface to bring home (with the garden attendant's approval).

Some of them are much 'better' than others, but I still walked home smiling.

Words for Wednesday

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  When she left us briefly we realised that the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast.  I am very, very sad (and angry) to write that a troll has led Delores to leave us again.  She will be missed and I hope her meme continues. 

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...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

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, which includes cheering on the other participants.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

The prompts will be here this month (Margaret Adamson and her friends were to provide them, but she is travelling so we have swopped).

This week's prompts are images:

And/or

Have fun.

Sunday Selections #451

  Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.
  
The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle.
 
The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
I usually run with a theme.     This has been a busy week and our house guest is still with us - which my excuse for being lazy.  Most of today's photos are from our garden (again).  I will try and do better next week.

Starting with something I saw on a trip into town.

How I wish it was that easy.

And the next photo was from the next stage of that trip.

 Any day with a rainbow is automatically made better.

And back to the garden.

Yet another cymbidium Orchid.  I am pleased to see it.  The vandals snipped off the flower spike before it opened last year.

A 'sumo' lilium emerging.  It is going to be huge.

The first of the Bearded Iris.

A dandelion and a Dutch Iris flowering side by side.  Oops.  This gardener's work is never done.  Or even nearly done.
 

Despite planting it I cannot remember what this delicate little charmer is, and its tag seems to have gone missing.  Hopefully I will remember its name soon.

I hope your week is filled with colour.  Our house guest leaves late today, and I have an optometrist visit and some tests tomorrow but hope to return to normalacy after that.

WEP/ISWG October Challenge - Horrible Harvest.

The challenge is back.  Huge thanks to the organisers and pariticipants.  A visit HERE will give access to a range of talented (so very talented) and different takes on the theme.  I do hope you will visit others and applaud them.

Just for a change (not) I am out of my comfort zone.  I can't watch horror (which these days includes the news).  I rarely read it.  Just the same there are undeniably some dark corners in my mind.

***

I watch over you, and will even give advice from time to time, but I am not an angel of any description.  Protecting you seems condescending to me.  Your life, your decisions, your outcomes... 

If you go down to the woods today, the sky will be blue and the air will be soft and perfumed with flowers but you must never step off the path. 

The trees are  green, and filled with bird song so long as you stay on the path.

It is  warm.  You kick off your shoes and walk on the lush green grass remembering not to stray from the path.

Time is irrelevant today.  You follow the path in the here and now, absorbing the sun, the song, the peace.  The sunshine on your face and arms is balm.  You walk taller and lighter with your head held high and wearing a contented smile.

The path ambles over an old stone bridge.  You laugh with the babbling brook below and delight in the silvery fish dancing in the crystal clear water.


As you leave the bridge and the brook  there are  fruit trees so very close to the path.

The trees are laden.  You don't recognise the fruit, but is golden, plump and obviously delectably ripe.  Your mouth waters.  You long to sink your teeth into that juicy perfection, but it isn't quite close enough and you must not leave the path.

You stretch greedy hands for it.  You jump for it.  You fail.  You jump and stretch again.  You look around and see no-one.  You look again.

You take a step.  And another.  A piece of that luscious fruit falls into your hands. 

It smells incredible.  It is velvety, sun-warmed  and heavy in your hands.    You take a bite, and it explodes in your mouth.  The juice spatters your hands and your face.  It fills your mouth and coats your tongue.
The taste and the smell are beyond incredible.

Your mouth is filled with the taste of undercooked offal coated in caramel, of resentment, of dashed dreams, guilt and bitter regrets.  Sticky, nasty putrefaction.

Your nose is swamped with odours of  sick beds in closed rooms, unemptied bins, stale tobacco and alcohol, and a rich marinade of cloying, clashing perfumes.

You retch, you helplessly vomit, you weep, you  moan.   Your hands and mouth burn as you stagger back to the path.

You run, back over the bridge where the brook laughs at you. 

And still you run.  Birds swoop ominously overhead as the skies darken.  That velvety grass is replaced with gravel and glass.  Your feet bleed. 

You reach the safety of home, rush inside and slam the door.  You strip off your blood and vomit stained clothing.  You stand in the shower frantically scrubbing till long after the water has run  cold.  Your hands and face are blistered and oozing. 

You scrub your hands, your face, your mouth, teeth and tongue till they bleed.  You scrub some more.  Rot and decay still fill your mouth and nostrils.

I told you not to leave the path.   

Full Critique Acceptable.

512 words.

We have a house guest and my time on the computer will be limited for the next few days so I am unlikely to be as quick to read other entries as usual.  Just the same I WILL get there, and am looking forward to it.