Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring
This week’s Daily Post photo challenge is all about Spring. Not the boingy kind, but the season.
I have some flowers coming up in my garden. It’s quite exciting – I only bought the house a couple of months ago so I didn’t plant them and I don’t know what’s going to appear next!
Here is a picture of bluebells, according to my parents. I admit that they are bell-shaped, though more purple than blue, I would say. They also reckon that the little white flowers are garlic. Possibly the previous owner was worried about vampires.
Obviously I have some weed-removal yet to do, but I had to check with my parents first as I tend to remove the flowers and leave the weeds, left to my own devices.
Bluebells and weeds and stuff
Close-up of the bluebells
I have no idea of what these things on the stalks on the right of the picture are.
Little white things on stalks
Sharing My World Week 17
It’s time to Share My World again! There will be a new set of questions tomorrow – this week is a bit confusing as tomorrow is the first of two May holidays in the UK and I was thinking it was Saturday again today.
But it’s not. It’s Sunday. I might wash the car and do some gardening. “Low maintenance garden” my ass. There may be no grass but there’s weeds.
The questions, which I shall attempt to answer, are provided every week by Cee.
What are some words that just make you smile?
“Dastardly”. That’s a negative word but it sounds funny. That always makes me smile.
“Asshat”. That makes me smile too. It’s not actually a word though, apparently 😦
A dastardly character involved in some asshattery
(Image source and copyright information wikipedia)
When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
Even in the horrific storms this last winter I didn’t lose power. I was living in a town, so all telephone and electricity cables are underground. There was some lightning once or twice, but I guess it didn’t hit any electricity substations. Some homes in Cornwall did lose power, though.
However, if this should happen I have a couple of torches (=flashlights) around the place. I need to buy some candles (for nice mood lighting as well as emergencies) but I haven’t got around to it yet.
What is the longest book you ever read?
The type of book I read doesn’t tend to be particularly long. I’ve read David Eddings’ “Belgariad” and “Mallorean” may times, but that’s two sets of five books each, though all the same characters. “Lord of the Rings” is three books but that was quite long.
The book which seemed the longest was an exam text I had to read at school – “Sansibar oder der letzte Grund” by Alfred Andersch. It wasn’t really all that long but it was full of difficult words and I found it pretty boring. I preferred the other two books – they were plays, which meant dialogue, which meant more words I actually knew. There’s a big difference between speaking another language and reading a novel.
So you win a pet monkey at a fair, but this isn’t just any old monkey. It can do one trick for you whenever you want from getting a pop out of the fridge to washing your hair. What would be the trick?
Many of the posts I’ve read for this week would have the monkey doing housework. According to the covenant on my house I’m not allowed to keep chickens or pigs (there goes my dream of a chicken coop and pig farm combo in the back garden) but it doesn’t specifically mention monkeys.
Therefore I would open a monkey sanctuary so that all these hard-working housework monkeys can get one weekend off a month from their duties.
It would be run by Marcel because he looks like a sensible sort of monkey.
(Image source Friends Wiki)
See you again next week!
Melted
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle! My more-or-less 100 words this week have been inspired by a photo contributed by Renee Heath.
It’s a fantastic photo, full of demonic promise. However, I have resisted the temptation to ooze living wax down some poor sod’s throat and have had a shoddy stab at The Romance. I haven’t tried The Romance before and it feels a bit flat, possibly due to a lack of blood and other-wordly creatures. However, it’s good to push one’s boundaries every once in a while.
I’ll see if I can kill off twice as many characters next week to make up for it.
To read other stories for this week, click on the little blue froggy!
[Edit: I would like to thank Judah First and Sustainabilitea for helping me out in the second sentence of the “winter” passage – I just couldn’t find the right word!]
Copyright Renee Heath
As the wind whistled through the trees and shook tiles from the roofs he gave her his best line. She blew past him and was gone.
Snow lay thick on the ground when he invited her to share mulled wine. Her frosty mien belied the interest in her eyes.
When the first flowers appeared and the apple trees blossomed he enticed her to coffee. Hope grew within him.
In the warmth of a summer evening they shared a meal. He opened his heart to her and in the flickering light of the candles she melted.
Sharing My World Week 16
It’s Share Your World time again. That seems to have come around pretty quickly! I don’t know where the week has gone. Share Your World is hosted by Cee in which she poses questions about ourselves.
How many places have you lived? You can share the number of physical residences and/or the number of cities.
I was thinking that I’ve lived in loads of places, but on reading some other people’s answers, I really haven’t in comparison, and it was mostly moving around while at university, because that’s what students have to do!
- Carnon Downs, Cornwall, UK until age 5 (I don’t remember much about this place)
- Truro, Cornwall, UK until age 18
- Here begin the “University Years” – Guildford, Surrey, UK
- University accommodation (first year)
- Guildford town (second year)
- Stuttgart, Germany (third year – unleashed loose in the world!)
- University accommodation (final year)
- Guildford town (the PhD years)
- Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK (post-doc year one)
- Liss, Hampshire, UK (post-doc year two) (end of the “University Years”)
- Cork, County Cork, Ireland (three years)
- Cobh, County Cork, Ireland (one year)
- Truro, Cornwall, UK (three years)
- Elsewhere in Truro, Cornwall, UK (two years)
- Redruth, Cornwall, UK (five and a half years)
- Grampound Road, Cornwall, UK (two months so far)
One of the places I lived in at university accommodation was floor three in Bourne House. Sometimes when the phone in the kitchen rang we would all sing “Bourne Three” (“Born Free”). Ha ha ha.
What type of music relaxes you the most?
That depends on my mood. Something like Enya would do the trick. Anything except classical. Classical music winds me up big time. It makes me feel like I’m in a lift (elevator) or a restaurant. I keep expecting the doors to ding open on the sports equipment floor, or someone to come over and ask me if my food is to my liking.
If you could instantly become fluent in another language, what would that language be and why?
Didn’t I already more or less answer this one, and went for Klingon? I’ll choose something else, then. I’ll go for “American”. That way I won’t have to keep looking stuff up. Especially food. I spent years thinking “zucchini” was some sort of exotic meal, when in reality it’s just a courgette. What the hell is “falafel” or this “bear claw” thing people on US dramas keep eating? It would be nice to have this information at my fingertips!
If you could fly or breathe under water what would you prefer?
I would prefer to fly! As Abba said in the song “Eagle”:
“And I dream I’m an eagle
And I dream I can spread my wings
Flying high, high, I’m a bird in the sky
I’m an eagle that rides on the breeze
High, high, what a feeling to fly
Over mountains and forests and seas
And to go anywhere that I please”
That’s all for this week! Bonus question? What bonus question?
Going Solo
A bit later than usual this week, but here is my submission for Friday Fictioneers. Hosted by Rochelle, the goal is to write roughly 100 words in response to a photo which this week has been contributed by regular Fictioneerer Björn Rudberg. To see all of this week’s contributions, click the little blue froggy.
Copyright Björn Rudberg
World-renowned guitarists and best friends Frank Marks and Barry Strykes, 10 year anniversary tour here tonight. One night only! Sold out!
*****
Frank
Look at him sitting there with his stupid oversized banjo. Ten years I’ve had to listen to his amateurish plucking. Let’s see how well he strums after his brakes fail and he goes over the cliff. I’m going solo!
*****
Barry
A whole decade of sitting here covering his asinine mistakes. He missed that chord, the talentless little shit. Let’s see how well he strums when the strychnine in his nightcap rips him apart. I’m going solo!
Chocolatey Madness
We’re all taught to share our stuff, yes?
Surely this doesn’t apply to chocolate? Chocolate has a special exemption. Here’s a photo of the back of a large-size (not what I’d call “large size”, in what crazy mixed-up universe is 100g of chocolate “large-size”?) Milky Bar I bought a couple of weeks ago.
Great for sharing, apparently.
I bunged on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and five minutes later the Milky Bar was in my tummy. All of it.
“Great for sharing?”
As if.
(And if anyone thinks they’re getting a bite of my Easter eggs they can jog on.)
Sharing My World Week 15
It’s Sharing My World time again, hosted by Cee at her photography blog.
Here are this week’s questions.
For your blog do you basically use Windows or Mac, laptop, desktop, pad, or phone?
I’ll read on anything but I always write my blog on my Dell Latitude Ultrabook. I’m not sure what the difference between a laptop and an ultrabook is. It’s actually way outside my budget but I bought it from Dell Outlet, where people buy stuff and then immediately send it back so Dell resell it cheap, so £1100 became £650. Cool! It runs Windows 7.
I need a keyboard to type at any sort of speed. That’s why I use a laptop rather than my tablet or phone. And I need to be able to use it, which is why it runs Windows 7 rather than Windows 8 🙂
Here it is. I’m writing this post on it – freaky!
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be either a football (soccer player) or a train driver. Fortunately neither came to pass.
Every summer we visited my Gran in the north of Scotland and to get there we went by train much of the way. The car went with us on the train. It was very exciting, hence “train driver”. As it happens, though, driving a train isn’t as exciting as it looks. As for “football player”, well, doesn’t everyone? The closest I ever got to that dream was handing out half-time oranges at primary school. I didn’t get to play because I sucked.
Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?
I grew up in a little village, but only until I was five so I don’t really remember it. We then moved to the biggest (only, in fact) city in Cornwall, a teeming metropolis of around twenty thousand people. Ah, city life. The bright lights, the crowds etc etc.
Since then I’ve lived in reasonably-sized cities (Guildford, Cork, Stuttgart) but I like where I live now, a little village again, though I’ve only been here two months. Yesterday was very weird. It was a beautiful day. I was outside doing a bit of gardening, a couple of others were washing their cars. Everyone said “hello”. Then my friend from around the corner came round with two of her little kiddies and we all went to the village market. I felt all grown up. When did that happen?
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
Probably around 30, though I like knowing that I’m older when I get all the weird aches and pains. If I’d had these aches and pains at 30 I would have been seriously worried. Here is a list I have compiled of all my ages:
- Emotional age: 16
- Life experience age: 30
- “I’m getting too old for this” age: 52
- First thing in the morning age: 12
- Any time after 9pm age: 93
- Physical age: 107
- Actual age? Well, I posted a photo a little while ago, have a guess! Anyone guessing over 50 will be removed from my Christmas list.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I hate this question. It doesn’t seem like a “bonus” to me. I’m glad nothing went wrong last week and I hope nothing goes wrong next week? I’ll just copy and paste that from now on.
See you next week!
The Patient Ones
It’s Storybook Corner time again! As usual, I’m getting this in just under the wire.
This is a 300-500 word story based on a photo prompt, and is hosted by Adam Ickes. This week’s photo is quite open – just a door – where could it lead?
But first, the logo!
You can read the other stories for this month (March) by clicking on the little blue froggy below.
And here’s the photo for this month’s prompt.
Marcus took a deep breath and walked through the door, shaking the snow from his boots. It was warmer inside, and warmer too at his ultimate destination, he hoped.
They had arrived twenty-two years ago amid world-wide panic. “Invasion!” was the word on everyone’s lips. “Aliens!” followed close behind.
After a few days nothing untoward had happened. Contact was made.
The Vonotvi, they called themselves. A peaceful race from the far side of the galaxy, their planet had died when their sun exploded. These two hundred were the last of their race.
They brought new culture, new technology. Technology like Space Fold Unlimited Travel allowing almost instantaneous travel across the planet between any two terminals. Operated by SFUTlinkTM under the guidance of the Vonotvi, this building held one such terminal.
Today Marcus was travelling to warmer climes. The last of his family lost in a flaming mass of twisted metal, he was leaving familiar shores and painful memories behind.
He’d heard the stories, of course. People disappearing, walking in one end and never seen again. Nobody was particularly worried. Did they really disappear? No-one had reported them missing. Most were transients. Who knew if they were missing or not?
The Vonotvi had been on Earth for decades with never a problem and besides, there weren’t enough of them to cause trouble. Conspiracy theorists, they’ll always find something. Everyone used SFUT. Commuters, celebrities, hell, even world leaders. Perfectly safe!
And so Marcus walked up to the desk, swiped his ID and joined the queue of travellers. Men, women, children. Families. Families like the one he’d lost.
He swallowed to clear the lump in his throat and approached the Threshold. A swirling, pulsating mass of colours, the Threshold was everything popular science fiction had promised. One by one the travellers entered, to emerge on the other side of the planet. Marcus closed his eyes and crossed into the “tunnel”.
Immediately the air exploded from his body. He felt weightless. He opened his eyes but had no air in his lungs to scream as his eyeballs threatened to burst from his skull. He was floating in blackness, unable to breathe. Something had gone horribly wrong!
As consciousness left him, he imagined he saw a dark shape approaching.
When he opened his eyes again, everything was clear. He stood in a large metal bay, a hanger maybe, amidst many others. A huge screen flashed images of a planet – clear blue seas, huge cities, open countryside, somehow familiar? – his enhanced brain absorbed the information. Power generation centres, transport hubs, seats of power. Tactics. Mission parameters. The vicious pincers at the ends of his arms, bonded to his flesh, felt wrong somehow. Everything felt a little wrong, but he put that thought aside as he screeched the Vonotvi battle cry, echoed by thousands of others in the hanger.
Ka Vonotvi kee’ash! “For Vonotvi to the death!”
In the gallery above, two Vonotvi, or “Patient Ones”, smiled in grim satisfaction.
Soon.
Punchline
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers again – that came round fast! – brought to us as always by Rochelle. The photo, to which we write a 100 word story, has this week been contributed by Douglas M. Macilroy.
Quite a fun photo this one, so I’ll leave the horror and my current penchant for demonic possession alone for this week! Here’s a bit of silliness instead.
To read all the other stories, click on the little blue froggy below.
Copyright Douglas M. Macilroy
“So, a diver, a carpenter and a lawyer walk into a living room…”
“You mean bar.”
“Say what?”
“A diver, a carpenter and a lawyer walk into a bar.”
“Who’s telling this joke?”
“Well, excuse me.”
“May I continue?”
“If you must.”
“So, a diver, a carpenter and a lawyer walk into a living room, and the kid says, ‘What are you guys doing here?’”
“What kid?”
“The kid in the living room. Right, so the guys look at each other and then the diver says – oh boy, this is hilarious, you’re gonna love this – the diver says…“
Aw darn, that’s my 100 words all used up. Hey, I didn’t make the rules.
What did the diver say? Was it really hilarious? Do we care? Tune in again, same time next week, for a completely different story with no diver, living room and still no punchline!
Sharing My World Week 14
It’s Share Your World time again, courtesy of Cee over at her photography blog. I’ll dive straight in.
If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?
That’s a tricky one.
Tricky tricky tricky.
I’ll go with the following:
Bumpy road. That’s what most days are like. Especially at the moment when we’re still clearing up the work from last weekend while “normal” work is also there to be done. It can be quite confusing, like the following sign.
Picture by Dickbauch, public domain
What the hell? I’ve been on a “roundabout of roundabouts” like this somewhere to the north of London, while following friends in another car. In the end I pretty much just followed them and hoped for the best. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. At least the hospital with A&E (that’s ER) department is clearly marked in case of unfortunate collisions!
Is your hair short (total neck and ear showing), medium (covering ears and neck), long (below shoulders), extra long (at least halfway down your back) or bald?
Short! “Four” on the back and sides, “eight” on the top (that’s measured in eighths of an inch). Here’s a picture of me from one of our websites, to illustrate (taken at Chapel Porth, Cornwall). Currently my hair is about the same length (I get it cut every 6 weeks) but I’ve lost a few pounds! Yay!
When you are with your friends, do your interactions include much touching—for example, hugging, kissing, rough housing, rubbing backs? Would you like to have more of this? (Note: the answers may vary depending on where you live on this wonderful planet.)
No touching. I emit an aura of “stay away” somehow. There are one or two friends I hug but I never initiate it.
What do you feel is the most enjoyable way to spend $100?
I wouldn’t be able to as it’s not legal tender. So the first thing to do is to convert it to GBP. I’m assuming that we’re talking USD here so that comes to just under £60, currently. Suddenly that doesn’t sound so much.
That’s a bit over a full tank of petrol for my Fiesta. I think I’d fill up the car, drive somewhere nice and I’d have a bit left over for some food and bits and bobs. Here’s somewhere nice (Colliford Lake, Cornwall).
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that the work at the weekend went well. I’m looking forward to getting the rest of it cleared away next week (though it probably won’t be completely done).
Click for a random post!
Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
Share Your World
Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 