Progress
Here is my story for Adam Ickes’ “Storybook Corner“. This month I am literally down to the final few hours before the deadline! Maybe one month I will get this sorted out a bit earlier.
The idea is to write 300-500 words to a photo prompt. To read the other entries, click Bracken, the little froggy. Coincidentally, this month’s (well May’s) prompt is also of a frog.
(After a bit of Googling I’m adding this disclaimer: all company names used in this story are entirely fictitious and any similarity to actual company names is entirely coincidental.)
That wasn’t the prompt picture, that was the logo. The prompt picture is below.
Hoppy jumped up to the brow of the hill to look around.
(Frogs don’t have names as humans understand them, they refer to each other based on description. “Hoppy” is more succinct than “He Who Is Mostly Green With A Little Brown And Lives Next To The Second Lily Pad On The Left”.)
The noise was coming from a series of – Hoppy could hardly believe his buggy little eyes – monsters! Huge beasts of destruction! Great gouts of smoke blew from blow holes, great mashing jaws destroyed everything in sight. Trees exploded into splinters. Small hillocks disintegrated.
They were moving fast, and moving directly towards him!
Hoppy jumped away as fast as he could, his little back legs propelling him high into the air.
Glancing back, he could see the monsters, gaining on him. His little heart pounded faster and faster as he fled. All around him other creatures, some of them his friends, ran past, terror in their eyes. From behind Hoppy heard a voice – “Wait up! Wait for me!” It sounds like “He Who Is Green With A Bit Of Orange And Talks Too Much But Is Generally A Nice Enough Fellow”, thought Hoppy.
The cries suddenly cut off. Hoppy didn’t want to stop and look – he knew the monsters had caught up to his friend. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he raced on with renewed energy.
He knew the monsters were gaining.
Just up ahead he could see a large structure. It was made of the same stuff as trees, but a different colour, and stretched to left and right as far as he could see. If he could only reach it, and slip underneath, surely he would find safety!
The fence (as humans call it) was close, but the monsters were closer, and gaining. Hoppy bounded as fast as he could, but the dreadful maw of one of the monsters caught his back leg and flung him through the air.
His lifeless little body splattered across a sign which proudly proclaimed:
“Coming soon – Woodland Pines! Two hundred environmentally friendly homes for the eco-conscious. 20% already sold. Phone now for details! [Eco-Homes Ltd: protecting the ecosystem so you don’t have to]”
A Morning at Godrevy
Yesterday I went for a visit to Godrevy, another location owned by the National Trust. In contrast to Trelissick, Godrevy is all cliffs and beaches.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking 🙂
Built To Last
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers! This week our lovely hostess Rochelle is taking a break so the prompt is from long ago – long before my time at Friday Fictioneers as well.
The photo has apparently defied all attempts at enlargement, but appears to be of a house under construction or renovation, and was contributed by Mary Shipman. I managed to resist my first urge, which was to have a body discovered in the wall.
To read all the other stories this week, click on Bracken, the little blue frog.
Copyright Mary Shipman
Work at the construction site was in full swing. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians – all scurried around with planks, pipes and wires.
“Two inch planks here, Frank.” The contractor pointed at a doorway.
“That’s not really up to code…”
“I’m not made of money!” joked the contractor.
“Uh, boss?” asked the plumber. “There’s some mistake, this pipe is lead-lined…”
“Got a great deal on that pipe!” laughed the contractor.
“Ten gauge wire into this fuse box,” the contractor told the electrician.
“Twelve, boss, surely?”
“Ten, Mark.”
The contractor was pleased. The new children’s home would be completed on time, and well under budget.
A Morning at Trelissick Garden
I took a trip to Trelissick Garden yesterday and took some snaps. The first set are from the “woodland walk” (it goes down to the water before entering the woods) and the second is from inside the garden itself.
Here is the set from the gardens. Please excuse my finger at the top of one of the shots!
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Crooked and Squiggly
I haven’t done a “Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge” before, but I took a couple of photos yesterday which I thought fit with this one quite well. They’re not great as I am just a “happy snapper” with a camera phone, though I am getting into this photography thing, so a decent camera is now on my list (along with new TV and new bed).
The challenge is “crooked and squiggly”. I took these pictures at Trelissick Garden, which is owned by the National Trust (I’m on holiday for two weeks so I took a wander there yesterday – more photos to follow).
I’m not sure why the branches grew like this! In search of the sun?
False Advertising
I bought this bottle of Diet Coke yesterday. “Share a Diet Coke with Kirsty”.
I sat there drinking it for an hour. Did the promised “Kirsty” ever show up?
No, she did not.
What a scam.
Sharing My World Week 23
Here is the Sharing of My World, week 23! Wow, week 23 already. We’re almost half-way through the year, and I’m now on 2 weeks annual leave. I have quite a few jobs to do, but I know from past experience that the more time I have, the less I do, so we’ll have to see how it all works out. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using my PS4 a lot, if nothing else.
Share Your World is hosted by Cee over at her photography blog. Head over there for great photos, photography tips and more.
Would you rather be stuck in a small plane with mild turbulence for 2 hours or be a passenger in a car racing the Daytona 500?
I’ve Googled “Daytona 500” and it appears to be 500 miles of driving round in circles. That’s not for me! The plane trip sounds lovely, even with “mild turbulence”. I could look out the window, maybe have a nap.
Would you rather be alone with nobody in the vicinity for one month or never be alone not even for a minute for one month?
I can’t imagine not being alone at all for a whole month. That sounds like some fresh circle of Hell. Being alone for a whole month sounds idyllic. Maybe the plane ride drops me off somewhere nice and it’ll be back in a month to pick me up.
Would you like to sleep in a human size nest in a tree or be snuggled in a burrowed spot underground?
Tricky. Being up a tree would afford a good view, but it seems too exposed. I’ll go for snuggled underground. It would have to be bug-free, however. I’ll need some surveillance cameras to see what’s going on above-ground, too. The only problem would be lack of natural light. Once of those houses buried in a hill-side would be nice.
In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
Generally I would prefer to be a driver. I’m so seldom a passenger I’m not really used to it, and I very seldom have passengers in my car.
The only time I’d rather be a passenger would be when driving in a unfamiliar city. In that circumstance I’d rather be navigator(*) – I’m quite good at looking ahead on the map(**).
Notes for young people
(*) Navigator: a SatNav in human form
(**) Map: a representation of the local area, printed on paper(***)
(***) Paper: made from pulped trees, “paper” was used to record information before hard disks, CDs and the Cloud
Blurred Reality
Here is my Friday Fictioneers submission for this week, hosted as always by the talented Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Ted Strutz, to which we need to write a story of roughly 100 words.
This week’s photo appears to feature some dentistry tools. Sorry to be a bit obvious in my story, but I’m not passing this one up.
To read this week’s other submissions, click on the little blue froggy (whose name is Bracken).
Copyright Ted Strutz
The whirring of the drill rang in Simon’s ears as The Dentist’s leering face loomed before his eyes.
“Pain!” laughed The Dentist, chief “agony technician” of the Vekta Crew. “You shall feel… such pain!” Simon closed his eyes in terror and felt…
… someone shaking his shoulder.
“Wake up, honey! You’re having a bad dream!”
Simon opened his eyes to see his wife looking down at him.
“That was a bad one!” he smiled.
His wife’s eyes grew cold. “Or is this the dream?” she snarled, her face morphing into that of The Dentist.
Simon screamed as the drill bore down into the sensitive pulp of his tooth.
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – Room
This week’s photo challenge is “Room”. I thought I’d share before, during and after shots of my bedroom as I moved in.
Bedroom
Oh no!
Getting there…
Lazy boy that I am, it took me weeks to put the bed back together 🙂
Sharing My World Week 22
Wow, I can hardly believe it’s time to Share My World again! It’ll be Christmas before we know it.
In Sharing Your World, Cee poses four weekly questions for us to answer. Check out her blog full of wonderful photos!
Regarding animals would you prefer not having them around or having domestics pets, farm animals, or seeing them in nature or the zoo?
I’d like to have a little cat again. Pets are quite a responsibility, though, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that just yet. Maybe sometime in the future (at least now that I own a house I can if I want!).
Regarding “wild” animals, I love seeing them in nature. I know that zoos serve a purpose – educational as well as preserving very endangered species – but all things being equal, animals should be left in their natural habitat.
It’s very sad to see a big cat in a cage. Or in some celebrity’s back garden.
Roam free little Dartmoor poneh!
Are you a collector of anything?
Not really. Stuff I have a lot of (books, DVDs) I have for what they contain, not what they are. I don’t have a library of books because I love the smell and touch of books or whatever, I have the books for the stories they contain. My DVDs allow me to slip into other lives for a while. Digital copies of books and films are just as good.
That said, I do have a house full of crap. I have trouble throwing stuff away (though not on the scale of those poor souls you see on TV reality shows who can’t move for falling over piles of newspapers).
If you could know the answer to any question, besides “What is the meaning of life?”, what would it be?
I have no idea. Maybe I don’t know myself well enough to know what I really want to know? My question could be “what do I really want to know?” Then I could spend my life trying to find the answer.
If you were to treat yourself to the “finer things” what would you treat yourself to?
Once I’ve outfitted a home cinema room, I would stock the industrial size fridge with quality cheese, ham and so on – quality nibbles for a quality cinematic experience. After sitting for hours watching films and eating cheese, I would probably also require a quality personal trainer!
See you next week where I will Share My World once again!
Click for a random post!
Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
Share Your World
Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 