Welcome to my Friday afternoon paint chip prompt. There are other paint chip prompts out there, but they’re very precise in what they ask for. Mine is open ~ write a poem, a story, a memory, whatever you like. Take your inspiration this week from Valspar’s “lavender moon” and/or “twilight mist.” Tag your post Paint Chip Friday, or PCF, if you wish. Prompt will continue until December 31.
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A Lavender moon hung low on the horizon
The purple glow illuminated the landscape
Little animals scurry deep in the shadows
An owl hoots from the top of the barn roof
I sit and enjoy the deepening dusk and its peace
There is a calm here that’s unparalleled in any other place
Me and the moon engage in a conversation meant for us alone
Surprise birthday or anniversary party count usually as a pleasant surprise. But life can throw unpleasant surprises at us without notice as well.
While most people take pleasant surprises in their stride, unpleasant surprises really throw them off.
I have rarely been surprised with a party, but many many times with gifts that I had wanted. My elder daughter is the one who lavishes expensive presents on me. While my husband is the practical type and always asks what I want for an upcoming birthday or anniversary!
As for unpleasant surprises, I usually adjust after a while to them. I think there is a part of my brain who expects bad things to happen. It is balanced by my optimism but when bad/ unpleasant things happen, I am not very surprised. I try to find a silver lining in those dark clouds.
So this is my story!
What about you? How do you handle the good and not so good surprises?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section or you can write your own post and link it back to this post.
Easy. Each week I’ll provide a prompt to inspire you to write a very short story. The idea is to manage to type your whole story in a minute or less. Of course, you can think about it before hitting the keyboard, and you can take all your time to edit it afterwards…
Just make sure to tag your story with #1MinFiction, and create a pingback to my week’s challenge post, so I can easily find it!
So, here is this week’s picture;
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Whenever I passed by this little house on the hill, I wondered who lived there. The house seemed empty and I never saw anyone coming or going, yet it appeared well looked after.
One day I ventured to the front door to satisfy my curiosity. As I knocked, no one answered. I opened the door and there I saw myself sitting at the table, reading newspaper……..,
Crispina is the host of Crimson Creative Challenge
Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN
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Silently they move in the foggy morning. The gentle wind causing the wind turbines to convert the energy of wind into electricity.
Stretching for miles, these silent structures dominate the landscape. People have finally realized that using fossil fuel was destroying the environment and deteriorating the climate to a level where it was becoming a threat to human survival.
Now the majority of the energy used is electrical, manufactured through wind turbines and solar panels. Cars are now only operated on electricity!
Humans have realized that climate change has to be stopped by taking drastic measures and by behaving responsibly.
Welcome back to Throwback Thursday Bloghop, where Maggie and I alternate offering a blog topic about a nostalgic object, event, or memory. After you’ve written your reply post, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here. You can also add your thoughts to the comments below if that works best to you. –Feel free to use the photo above in your post and tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhento make it easier for others to find.
Today’s subject: The Pets in My life
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Since this promptis all about nostalgic memories, I was reluctant to join in at first as we never had a pet growing up. Our family were only interested in raising chickens for eggs or giving the occasional stray kitten/cat a saucer of milk.
But there is a pet in my life now so I am writing about Dinky, our Tom cat. My grandson wanted to adopt a cat and a friend of my daughter had rescued this little guy.
He is such a mischievous kitty. With my 2 1/2 old granddaughter, he is patient and gentle but with my grandson, he is deliberately provoking. He sees his shorts clad legs and aims for a bite in the calf region. There are shouts and tears and then there is a truce between the two.
And then he comes to my grandson for a cuddle and snuggles next to him and goes to sleep. In the three months he has been with us, he has grown up a lot.
Now we have shifted to another city and Dinky is missing his little owner. The plan is to go back, after we have settled and transport him to our new home.
Linda is the host of Stream Of Consciousnesses Saturday
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “puzzle.”Use it any way you’d like!
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I love solving puzzles, both digital and mental. When there weren’t any smartphones, I loved to do crossword puzzles in the daily newspaper, sudoku and also tried my hand at the jigsaw puzzles.
With the advent of smart technology, I have lots of brain teasers on my phone. In fact, I have an old Samsung phone just to play games on. I have sudoku, jigsaw puzzle, tile connect, tangle master….. just a few of the names I recall.
I do this on the advice of my older brother who is a surgeon in England. He told me to keep on using my brain to solve tricky puzzles as it’s going to keep it sharp.
So that’s why I spend a couple of hours daily solving puzzles. The fact that I still forgot small details, that’s another matter altogether!
A folly is a building usually constructed strictly for aesthetic pleasure. I think this one is a little gem, what do you think?
The Folly – Image by KL Caley
For visually challenged writers, the image shows an almost symmetrical brick folly with gothic style arched doorways at either side.
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I first came across this word when as a young girl I read “Dead man’s folly” by Agatha Christie. I didn’t know what a follywas!
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It was midnight and Jackie couldn’t sleep. It was always the case when she was in a new place and for the first few nights, sleeping well was a struggle.
She and Rob had decided to shift to this old place left to her when her aged aunt passed away. The house was old but modernized with indoor plumbing, central heating, and a modern kitchen. The grounds were vast and included a folly. Coming from America, she wasn’t very familiar with this idea but was taken with the quaint structure.
She decided to walk in the moonlit garden to tire herself so that she may fall asleep. As she strolled in the lawns she detected light in the folly. She approached it cautiously and quietly. What she saw there was astounding.
Two ghostly figures were there having an animated conversation. A man, and a woman. The woman looked like her deceased aunt and the man was undoubtedly her father!
The two ghosts paused as they felt her presence, and greeted her with joy. Jackie didn’t believed in ghosts but seeing the evidence before her eyes she couldn’t dispute their existence. She didn’t feel any fear or awkwardness in their presence as they were family after all, albeit deceased.
After a couple of hours of talking with them, she returned to her bed and slept soundly. Next morning, she didn’t remember anything except as a dream.
“I feel blessed to have had such a background, where animals, food raising, harvesting and canning were a natural part of life.” – — Trina Paulus
Wednesday Challenge – Preserving Food From GC and SueW.
This week, my partner Susan and I invite you to write about PRESERVING FOOD.
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When I was growing up, my paternal grandmother was around a lot. She was a woman who never wasted anything, least of all food. So whatever food was in excess at home or cheaply available in the market, she would preserve it to be used later.
Her forte was jams and jellies. Apple, apricot, and guava were made into jams and distributed among the family. She was a wonderful cook and anything she made, tasted great. I would assist her as all of that chopping had to be done by hand. And she was obsessed with cleanliness so either she did it herself or I was allowed to do it. I remember my fingers getting discolored when I would cut apples.
I learned the process by watching her. She wasn’t a very literate woman so she followed her own recipes. And they always turned out so well. When tomatoes were cheap we would make tomato ketchup and at the beginning of summer, we would pickle green mangoes with limes and chilies in mustard oil. This pickle, known locally as “achar” is such a yummy treat that it makes the blandest of food heavenly.
When I was a young mom, I made lots of jams and jellies. Strawberry jam was the easiest and the yummiest one. Now I am either too lazy or too old to do it.
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