Tag Archives: #writephoto

The Bucket #writephoto

I’m not the type to relax on the beach, and I would never think of sleeping. I might sit for a minute and people watch. I might even read for a few. But relax? No, relaxing is walking or swimming, or exploring or, well, just about anything in the world other than just sitting. Sitting on a hot beach was my personal idea of Hell on Earth. The idea of sleeping on a beach was repugnant.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up.

Of course it took me a moment to establish were I was, and then another moment to recall sitting down to dry after a quick swim. How had I fallen asleep?

I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that the beach was completely empty.

Continue reading →

Door #writephoto

20 Replies

Another day, another dozen old buildings. A lot of them were called “castles”, some “towers” and then there were the ancient manor houses, though anything newer than 15^th century was right out. This struck me as strange since most of the restoration jobs made these places about as authentic as Disneyland.

OK, I’ll admit, my sense of romance had worn a little thin after the first dozen. As I entered, my first thought went to lack of indoor plumbing and how cold and damp they must have been. Brrr.

And let’s face it, it wasn’t just the castles. I had lost the romance over pretty much everything in life.

Life. It had become a bore and a challenge.

No. Romance was something for children.

Continue reading →

Den #writephoto

4 Replies

What did they always say? One of us hairless apes needs just water, food, clean air, shelter and clothing to survive? Something like that? And what do we do when all of those things become contaminated?

I think they also used to say “man does not live on bread alone”, but, you know, that’s pretty much all that is needed to survive.

Along with water, shelter, etc., etc.

But I am getting a little ahead of myself here.

Continue reading →

The World as a Kite #writephoto

12 Replies

People watch us as if we are full of whimsy, a temple to childhood and carefree days. Maybe, but after losing the first baseball game of the season and being charged a nickel to be ridiculed for my loss, I am now stuck here, wrapped by string around this evil kite-eating-tree! Ah, Peanuts, I wish I was old enough to use proper swear words!

***

This was written for the writephoto challenge that is run by KL Caley. She provided the photo at the top of the page and the key word, kites.

OK, I will write more, maybe much more about the story than the story length itself!! Of course a lot of the words came from the photo – The building looks like a temple and, to me, looks like what is called a “whimsy”. It appears to be early spring and there are kites in the air, though the people are surrounded by bare trees. And, as most of you know, the comic strip Peanuts follows Charlie Brown as he loses baseball game after baseball game, is harassed by many in his town, including Lucy, who charges 5 cents (a nickle) to “psychoanalyze” poor Charlie, which usually means she just has another way to make fun of him and charge him money at the same time. And then, to relax, he goes out and flies his kite, that almost always gets caught in the kite-eating-tree, as, on too many occasions, is Charlie. And some people think childhood is all fun and games! No, it is a dark dangerous business!

The Fairy #writephoto

18 Replies

“Mommy, look, a fairy door!”

“Yes, Timmy, someone was very clever putting that so high up and yet so highly visible from the path. Now let’s go.”

“Not someone, a fairy…”

“Sure, Timmy, a fairy…”

Twinkles left her hiding spot after the humans were out of sight. She inspected the door.

Sure enough, someone had put a spell on it so the humans could see.

Not knowing what else she could do, she went over to visit Glower, the sour fairy, to ask his advice. Much to her shock, his door was visible as well!

Continue reading →

Island #writephoto

17 Replies

“Avast, Matey!”

“Come on, Tom…”

“Captain Tom!”

“…Captain Tom, your honor, sir, I know Matt has been getting pretty fat lately and must out-mass an elephant by now, but isn’t calling him “vast” a little mean spirited? I mean, just asking…”

“Shut up Kyle. OK, let’s launch the ship…”

“The SS Sinker.”

“…The Dread Pirate Ship Black Skull!”

Continue reading →

Stamps #writephoto

39 Replies

Although I guess I had always known, it was really at her funeral that I realized how different Mom was from her younger siblings. Looking down the row of mourners, I thought she might have been even more different from hers than I was from my own younger siblings.

It was brought home even more when I overheard Uncle Pat talking to Aunt Ann at the wake. I don’t remember everything, but the way Ann said, “She was so much like our mother in oh so many ways,” that struck me. Pat nudged her after that statement and tilted his head towards me.

They changed the subject.

Why? What was it about her?

Continue reading →

Portal #writephoto

32 Replies

“Look Mommy, the world is split open!”

“No dear, that’s just a puddle. It rained last night and there are puddles all around. See?”

“But there’s trees and things in there…”

“No, Danny, you are just seeing the reflections of the trees around us. Look down into the puddle and then up above you. It’s the same. See?”

“But I saw someone move down there.”

“No, that was just us; we’re reflected, like the trees. When I wave, that reflection of me waves too. See?”

Continue reading →

Feather Cloud #writephoto

35 Replies

I lay down in feathered sleep where dreams and visions mix with the real world around me. The spirits of the ancestors surrounded me and spoke to me as I floated in the part trance, part waking, part sleep that was so important to the Seeing.

I say the ancestors surrounded me, but that was not quite true. I knew the stories and legends and so understood that our people had moved in from the west and the way east was unexplored. Yes, we have journeyed for days to the east, but never venturing beyond what we knew was safe.

The cold winters have become colder, the glacier has approached. We had moved from the land of the ancestors to the west when my grandfather’s grandfather was a small child. We occasionally met with our kin, but they have grown strange.

Or we have.

Continue reading →

Subsea #writephoto

40 Replies

Ed couldn’t believe his luck.

It was in relatively shallow water and pretty close to the coast. It was off of the beaten path, but still within an area known to tourists. It should not have existed, but there it was.

He rushed back to his room and did some searches, just to make sure it wasn’t known. He was positive he would have seen something about it if it were well known, but he had to look.

Ed was touring the Greek isles and was spending a day snorkeling just off of one of the lesser-known ones. He wasn’t an expert or anything, but he enjoyed it, and the crystal-clear water was just so amazing.

But then he had found it.

An ancient shipwreck.

Though shallow, it was too deep for him to do more than catch a glimpse of some perfectly preserved timber and a few large jars or amphora.

How had this gone unnoticed? Had a storm recently cleared off the sand and silt, exposing it for the first time in millennia? It didn’t matter, it was there and he knew that he was the first to see it.

Of course, he would report it. He had to. But he decided to go back out and take another look. Of course, taking anything would be completely illegal, but if something small, say a coin, somehow stuck to his hand, well…

Ed hyperventilated for a moment, took a huge breath, grabbed the heavy rock off of his inflatable, and dove with the help of that weight.

Continue reading →