If We Were Having Coffee on the 3rd of December, 2022 #weekendcoffeeshare

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Hello and Welcome! Come on in and I’ll get you a nice mug of super strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or some hot cocoa. It is a little damp out there and will rain most of the day, but relatively warm (it will be around 55 f/13 C most of the day). It was an odd week weatherwise. We had a few days that felt super cold even though it wasn’t as cold as a few weeks ago (wind, moisture in the air, etc.). And then there were a couple of nicer days – yesterday was cool but felt warm because of the sun and no wind. Oh, where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as coming from New Hampshire.

I was back to a normal work week. It wasn’t terrible, but it was busy.

I played around with music a little more this week than I have for a couple of months, which is good – I need to get back into it! I did a little blog writing, but nothing outside of it, which may be why I needed to play more music.

Despite rain and cold, I did a lot of walking this week, mostly with dogs. I had massage. I did a little exercise, though had trouble completing my routine (both dogs and cats didn’t let me!), I ran a couple of times, and pretty much had a normal late November/early December week.

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Neighbors #writephoto

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Photo by KL Caley

I was walking down a residential section of the city when I stopped to look at the two doors.  I smiled and gave the doors a tip of my black hat.  It was possible I found my man.

Or whatever you call them.

A man walked out of the well-lit Number 4, stole a frightened glance at the darkened Number 2, then started to walk away.

“Sir, one moment,” I said.

The guy jumped.  Then spun around.  I could see beads of sweat appear on his forehead.  People often don’t see me, so that he walked past me without a second glance isn’t surprising, but that frightened reaction, well….

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Last Embers

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PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

The room was dark and drab, the flowers looking more funeral than cheerful. 

The sunset over the river, though, was different.  Seen through the window the bright reds and oranges did speak of endings, but the colors were also filled with life and hope for the future.

“Red at night,” Dave muttered.

It only took a second.  Dave knew it would be over by the time he turned from the window.  Nobody would know, nor blame him if they did.

For the moment, though, he watched the last dying ember of daylight, ignoring the dimming light on the hospital bed.

***

word count = 100

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by  Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.  This week’s prompt is here and uses a photo by @ Roger Bultot. If you want to join or see other stories, go to the inlinkz linkup.

The Weekly Smile for the 28th of November, 2022 #weeklysmile

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Hi All! It was a pretty good week. I took a few days off of work, so that was nice. It was a holiday here, Thanksgiving, which was also good. Although there was rain on Friday and Sunday, the weather was pretty good. I spent a lot of time outside on beaches, in the woods, walking around town and village, across fields, etc. Over all, pretty nice. This was a week where I could pick my smile from several. So, what will I pick?

Animals seen in the wild.

I often see animals when I am out and about and have written about some of the critters here. Today I will talk about three.

On Wednesday I was walking by a cranberry bog when I saw movement. There was something out there swimming. At first I thought beaver. It looked a little sleeker, so I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t see the tail, which is a huge give away with beavers. Also, there were no signs of beaver around, i.e., no chewed up trees or wood. Possibly a muskrat? Maybe. I didn’t get a long view of it as it hid and I didn’t have my camera. Later I looked up these types of critters and decided that it was most likely an otter. That would be cool because I never saw an otter down here, at least not when I knew it was an otter.

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If We Were Having Coffee on the 26th of November, 2022 #weekendcoffeeshare

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Hello and Welcome! Come on in and I’ll get you a nice large mug of super strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or some hot cocoa. It is gorgeous out there – blue sky, no wind, though a little cool. After the bitter cold we’ve had, being “a little cool” is actually great! It is pretty close to what it should be for this time of year, not 20 degrees too warm, or 20 degrees too cold like it has been. Where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as being from Cape Cod.

I drove down to The Cape on Tuesday evening. As the holiday was approaching, the traffic was a little worse for a Tuesday than usual, but not bad. I took The rest of the week off of work so I did not have to bring my work laptop.

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The Lost Land

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PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

It was a song my grandmother used to sing to me when I was a child.  She said her grandmother had sung it to her and had told her that her grandmother had said she had lived in that mythical birthplace of our people.

The auroch had been thinning.  The land was changing.  I was old.  I wanted to see the ancestral homeland far to the east, the one in the songs that I knew so well.

My journey had only started when I was on a cliff.  I could see the shadow of the homeland across a new sea.

***

The British Isles used to be part of the continent. The most famous part is Doggerland, which remained an Island until around 5000 BC. There is an idea that a tsunami doomed the island. This may have been the same tsunami of around 6000 BC that cut the connection between England and France, making England an island. In the story, the MC’s great-great grandmother crossed from France on dry land, but the MC now discovers that they are separated from the mainland.

***

word count = 100

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by  Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.  This week’s prompt is here and uses a photo by @ Sandra Crook . If you want to join or see other stories, go to the inlinkz linkup.

The Weekly Smile for the 21st of November, 2022 #weeklysmile

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Hi All! This was an odd week. A short one today as I don’t have a lot of time to write. In ways, that might seem a little ironic when all is said and done. Why? Glad you asked!

Back in October I came up with an idea for a book. I did a little research. I then did a lot more organization than usual. And then, the last week of October, I sat down and wrote the book. It just came out, the words flowing like water from a fire-hose, topping off with writing more than 30,000 words in a single week!

Anyway, a little over a week ago I wrote “The End”. But I wasn’t done. I had made few last minute decisions so I had to go back and make a lot of changes. And then there was general clean up. After going through a few times, I can now call the first draft complete!

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If We Were Having Coffee on the 19th of November, 2022 #weekendcoffeeshare

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Hello and Welcome! Come on in and I’ll get you a large mug of super strong dark roast, a cuppa tea, a mug of hot cocoa or some other beverage. It is pretty chilly out there, below freezing, and it won’t get too warm at all today. What a difference a week makes! I kayaked last Friday and Saturday, even going into the water up to my waist on Saturday, and then… We had snow over night into Wednesday, but the the rain washed it away by noon. And where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as being from New Hampshire.

This was an odd week over all. As I said, it was cold. We had a bit of rain and snow. But I did get out and take pretty nice walks every day except Wednesday. That was the day that it rained all morning, work didn’t let me even leave my desk in the early afternoon and then I had massage in the evening. I was also able to run a couple of times and will get out today. My exercise routine was a little off, but I did a bit of that as well. It was a week of something happening every day after work again, so… I am ready to go back to the pandemic so I can exercise again! lol, OK, maybe not.

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A Slight Inconvenience

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PHOTO PROMPT © Starsinclayjars

“It’s a ski boot.”

“That’d be awfully cold if it’s a ski boot!”

“Water ski boot?”

“They don’t wear boots while water skiing, and people do that stupid tube thing instead of skiing these days any way.  No skill needed.”

The weird boot next to the sidewalk was an enigma.  What was it and why was it there?

After a while they just shrugged their shoulders and walked on, soon forgetting the boot.

Soon after they were out of sight the boot walked off on its own.

“I’ll be so glad when this broken foot heals,” grumbled the Invisible Man.

***

word count = 100

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by  Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.  This week’s prompt is here and uses a photo by @ Starsinclayjars . If you want to join or see other stories, go to the inlinkz linkup.

The Weekly Smile for the 14th of November, 2022 #weeklysmile

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Hi All! Today is a typical cold November day, perhaps even a little below average. It is funny since we have just come off of a few weeks of warmer than usual weather. This weekend was pretty nice (OK, it rained all day Sunday, but the rest of the weekend). It was a long weekend for me since we were celebrating Veterans (Remembrance Day in some other countries). Friday was a beautiful day. I spent the weekend on Cape Cod, so I am sure you know what is coming…

I walked to the nearest landing on Friday morning and was surprised at how smooth the water was. I went home, changed and was on that water within a half an hour, maybe closer to 15 minutes. OK, I wasn’t just floating by myself on the water, I was in a kayak. I did a relatively long paddle. The water was beautiful and I was the only one out. A perfect day.

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