Elephant's Child: Words for Wednesday 12/1/2022

Wednesday, 12 January 2022

Words for Wednesday 12/1/2022

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Computer issues led her to bow out for a while. 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.

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, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

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 and are provided by Hilary Melton-Butcher.

This week's prompts are:

'Chrome Yellow'.
Shell.
Experience.
Art.
Toxic.
Coincidence

And/or

Frost
Turnip
Bevy
Jaunt
Map
Daffodil

Have fun.

137 comments:

Elephant's Child12 January 2022 at 04:33
Grump, grump, grump. My experiences over the last few days have been nothing short of toxic, and if I was to map them there would be lots of places marked ‘here be dragons... I would very much like to crawl into my shell and refuse to play. Sadly that is not an option. I am very, very grateful that we took a jaunt down to the lake for a kangaroo fix before the smelly substance hit the fan. We were lucky too, not one kangaroo, not a bevy of kangaroos, but lots of them. They were relaxing as only cats of kangaroos can do, and were very obviously at peace with the world.
Back home things have been less positive. We are in the throes of having solar panels installed. A good thing. A most excellent thing. When the current debacles are over they will line our roof and harvest the chrome yellow, daffodil yellow, every kind of yellow rays from the sun. I may even welcome hot and sunny days instead of longing for the frosts to return.
In the interim we were told that our electricity meter and fuse box had to be replaced. So we have been hunting down an electrician who is qualified to undertake the work – and not on holiday. Even obtaining quotes so that we could get the best value for money was an ordeal. We found one. We accepted his quote. And then the artful dodger disappeared and didn’t answer his phone or emails. Back to the drawing board.
We selected another. We negotiated with our electricity company (who has to be involved) and found a date which suited them both. The day dawned. Hot. And sticky. Our power was turned off. Eight hours later it was turned on. Job done.
The electrician left. And we discovered that we had no lights in about a third of the house. The electrician couldn’t come back for two days. We waited. He returned, telling us that the new meter was much more sensitive and that such outages were common. No-one had thought to tell this turnip that in the lead up. He fixed the lights (and had to replace a light fitting in the ceiling). Ok.
We ran the dishwasher. Or tried to. It shorted out, half way through. It is NO coincidence that when it died it was half full of water. Yes, yes, I know. That more sensitive meter thing.
Today we have ordered another dishwasher. Which might be delivered this week. Watch this space, and block your ears. My language has not been pretty.
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Alex J. Cavanaugh12 January 2022 at 06:24
Now that is a challenging bunch of words! Well done.
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Sandra Cox12 January 2022 at 06:31
Ack. Sounded like Murphy was visiting.
Well done.
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Hilary Melton-Butcher12 January 2022 at 06:44
Hi EC - thanks for posting ... here's my first entry for the 2nd set of words ...

"Turnips a bevy of them lie in the fields … the frost glistens on the leaves, but we really need to harvest and store them before the ground freezes.

Once that happens … then the field can lie fallow until the Spring … over that time I'll be able to have a few jaunts – perhaps using my paper maps, rather than the sat-nav … and then those beautiful daffodils will fill the field bringing sunshine back into our lives."

I'll be back and around soon ... cheers Hilary

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Hilary Melton-Butcher12 January 2022 at 07:01
First set:

"What a toxic pigment 'Chrome Yellow' is … it is thought that many famous artists were perhaps poisoned over time by their use of this colour in their art works.

My experience of a swim in the sea at Dundas, Tasmania was enhanced by the shells I collected from the beach … by coincidence they'd been tinted lemon yellow from the outflow of a local crocoite mine."

Cheers H - I'll be back tomorrow ...
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Manuel12 January 2022 at 08:00
Estimada amiga. Quiero dejar claro antes de nada, que el texto que vais a leer, lo acaba de escribir mi nieta Daniela, de once años, en apenas una hora, que hace que pasé por aquí, y le copié las letras exigidas.
Ella, a la que le gusta mucho escribir, está pasando unos días conmigo, porque sus padres están en cuarenta, por dar positivo en el COVID.
Espero que os guste, aunque os pueda dar en la traducción alguna dificultad, ya que está escrito con el lenguaje de una niña de su edad.

Don Narciso salió de excursión, el día estaba frío, pero a todo su grupo de amigos avisó, y les dijo...
- "Sin que parezca una coincidencia hoy será el día en que vivamos una maravillosa experiencia, coged vuestro mapa y disfrutad con mucho arte de esta vivencia."
A pesar del frío, brillaba un bonito sol amarillo cromo, que combinaba con el color de la camiseta de Jeromo. Nada más comenzar el paseo, Narciso vio una siembra de nabos en un pequeño huerto.
- "¡Vamos a cogerlos!, dijo su amigo el tuerto. Y Narciso respondió:
- "Pero te vas a helar las manos, ¿no ves que están cubiertos de escarcha. Sigamos la marcha".
Caminando pasaron la mañana y les entró un poco de "gusana", y Narciso sacó unas ricas naranjas y dijo...
- "Dejaros de cháchara, comerlas y echar en este saco las cáscaras", a lo que Jeromo respondió:
- "Muy generoso estás tú, no serás tóxico este manjar, y nos vas a envenenar, jajaja".
Todos rieron.
Y así fue como pasaron un bonito día. colmado de amistad, naturaleza y alegría.

Gracias a todos, y si hay algún comentario, ya se los enseñaré a ella.

Abrazos.
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Sean Jeating12 January 2022 at 10:56
"Would you agree that a daffodil is not as poisonous as chrome yellow?" I ventured to ask Tetrapilotomos.
My friend, as almost always busy proofreading his 1669-page opus magnum "Pre_Assyrian Philately in a Nutshell", raised his eyes, fixed a new inkblot on the wall, which, not unlike a map, reminded me of a jaunting car being chased by a bevy of turnips in the frost, and - coincidence? - without the slightest twitch of the corners of his mouth, he murmured: "Art, not everything lost in translation is poetry."
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messymimi12 January 2022 at 12:32
My words will be over here.
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Cloudia12 January 2022 at 12:42
when the Frost is on the Turnip, grab a
Bevy for a
Jaunt all over the Map seeking The elusive
Daffodil!

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River12 January 2022 at 13:14
What colour frosting would you like on your turnip shaped cake, we have chrome yellow or daffodil.
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Anne in the kitchen12 January 2022 at 14:12
We were at a performance art exhibit to watch Lila and a bevy of her friends dressed as flowers (she was the daffodil) afloat on an imaginary sea provided by blue overhead lights. I will admit the way they simulated movement over waves was a lovely visual to experience, but I think some of the viewers might have been a little shell-shocked when the lovely flowers started writhing in pain as they floated into Chrome Yellow toxic water.

One lady complained loudly to her partner "You told me this little jaunt was going to be fun, not some environmental diatribe. I would have happily stayed home and worked on my map of Wisconsin bald eagle nests jigsaw puzzle instead of watching this."
You would need to be deaf to not hear the frost in her voice as she aimed her displeasure at him. We watched him as he eased slowly toward the door, then disappeared leaving her in the room. Later when the event was over, she was still alone like the last turnip at a produce stand, and he was no where to be seen. Coincidence?
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Mike12 January 2022 at 19:08
With our map we took a jaunt to see a bevy of turnup and daffodil in the frost of the morning.

There are people that are out 'shorting' me!
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Wisewebwoman13 January 2022 at 00:42
Great words Hilary, I've used them all.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Somehow “chrome yellow” did not suit her marvelous new car. She always named her cars. This one she christened Daffodil.

Out of the bevy of cars in the car lot, Daffodil had spoken to her, Jean. She wasn’t new, of course, but “gently used” as the smarmy little salesman had whispered as if it were a big secret. To her, Daffodil was art. It was no coincidence they had found each other.

She had just emerged from a toxic relationship and he had taken their car as part of the settlement. Experience had taught her, and she had much experience, that you replaced the relationship with something new, a pet or a vehicle in the absence of a new man.

The next new man was unlikely, for as her mother would put it, there was frost on her turnip now if grey hairs were the evidence.

Yes, a map and a long jaunt in Daffodil would clear those cobwebs and set her on a brand new path.

She turned the key and Daffodil sprung to life.
----------------------------------------------------------

XO
WWW
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David M. Gascoigne,13 January 2022 at 01:32
I found these words a challenge, Hilary, and this is not my best submission, but it is the best I could come up with.

The other day I had to make an infrequent visit to the doctor and while sitting in the waiting room, masked, sanitized and suitably distanced, I flipped through a gardening magazine, wondering how many sanitized hands had turned its pages before me. Who knows, perhaps the pages were TOXIC. What struck me was that a new variety of DAFFODIL on the cover of the magazine was lauded in glowing terms as having a ‘CHROME YELLOW’ inflorescence. It seemed like a huge injustice to ascribe chrome to the beauty of a flower. Some contract writer, more familiar with FROST on a TURNIP perhaps was clearly off the mark, but in my EXPERIENCE that’s what you get when get when you pay a nickel a word. It was no COINCIDENCE that his prose lacked finesse too. The ART of writing had not been part of the course he took from the local community college, and editorial rigour was chronically absent. One of the pictures showed SHELLS at the base of the plant, and this struck me as odd since even a duffer like me knows that daffodils are not found at the seashore. Suddenly my name was called, and I removed myself from the BEVY of people waiting to be healed. I followed the nurse as judiciously as one might follow a MAP on a JAUNT in the country, to the room at the end of the hall where my doctor awaited me. I almost fell over when I saw that she had a chrome-yellow daffodil on her table, nestled on a saucer with shell around the base of the pot. Never doubt the power of a waiting room magazine!
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cleemckenzie13 January 2022 at 04:31
Turnip? Seriously, Hilary? You're not making this month easy, but here goes:
The frost had barely vanished when the first daffodil of the season broke through the crusty earth. As spring aged there would be a bevy of them, and I'd take my yearly jaunt through the forest, map in hand so as not to miss the patches of bulbs I'd planted years past.

I'd been chided by friends about this penchant for planting daffodils. They thought planting a turnip or two would be so much more sensible.

"You can eat turnips, you know," they said.

"Ah, yes," I agreed. "But turnips only feed the body.

"Daffodils feed the soul."
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Granny Annie13 January 2022 at 09:30
LOVED THE RAKE by Granny Annie

Define someone who is a “Rake”

A rake is a lovable scoundrel. There's a wide spectrum of rakes. Usually, a rake is someone who has lots of experience with women and finds a number of relationships an art.

How was I to know this handsome fellow was first attracted to my shiny, chrome yellow '56 Studebaker? To me it was just a shell to get around in. I never dreamed my car's appeal would turn into a toxic coincidence. He did not own a car so I was his transportation, plus I loaned him my Studebaker often, never dreaming who he was visiting.

I named my car Daffodil and Rake and I had many a bevy of fun times during every jaunt. This car did not have a radio so Rake would charm me with his beautiful singing voice. Without GPS in those days, we had to rely on a map to take us new places. Yes once we even ended up stuck in a turnip patch. It was all good until one of his many girlfriends came knocking on Daffodil's windows that were covered with frost demanding to know who I was.

THE END?

Nope, I believed every explanation and married Rake. Though he was a scoundrel, he gave me two wonderful children and no regrets.
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Sean Jeating13 January 2022 at 09:35
Another good one, Annie.
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Sandra Cox14 January 2022 at 05:56
These are great, EC:) I'm enjoying the creativity.
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Susan Kane14 January 2022 at 09:41
Here is what I have created, good or bad:

When the frost covered the turnips, Graham knew it was time to harvest. Hooked the mule to the jaunting cart, he headed on over to Matthew’s house to help him with his turnips. If nothing else, Matthew would have some warm whiskey, when a bevy of pheasants flew from daffodils and fox grass. Dang, he thought. But Graham knew the map to Matthew’s cottage like the back of his hand. He’d been there often enough to enjoy some whiskey and maybe some poteen if he were lucky.
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Sandra Cox15 January 2022 at 03:45
Happy Weekend, EC:)
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