Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water

This time, Cee’s asking for three or four photos illustrating “water”.

So, here’s a set featuring various colors –

RedFallen maple leaves in the rain

GreenCovered bridge in Sturbridge, Connecticut

BlueThe Delaware River looking south from the Ben Franklin Bridge

And finally, in full color black and white,
a form of water I’d rather not see this winter –Crystallized!

Weekly photo challenge: Silhouette

This time, the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge asks us for silhouettes. I generally avoid taking backlit photos, but silhouetted evening shots work pretty well, I think. So here we go –

Saguaros (and ocotillos – they’re the thin twisty plants) in the desert twilight

and other desert shrubbery, with a bird.

Actually, these both come from the same photo – I cropped parts of a single shot that was primarily about one looming saguaro in the middle. (Or maybe I was interested in the bird. This photo is seven years old, and I don’t remember. 🙂 )Now that I see them in isolation, I think the two cropped pictures are better than the original!

Travel themes: Couples

For this week’s travel theme, Ailsa would like us to show photos of “couples”.

This mother and baby portrait was taken in Williamsburg, Virginia in May 2007. The lamb was very curious about us; the ewe didn’t seem to care. I suppose she had seen all the tourists she needed to.

100 Word Challenge: So Soon?

Julia’s given us another challenging phrase to spark 100 words of very short fiction – this week, we’re asked to tell a story of normal life based on

…it can’t be that time….

Here’s the kind of thing my head is likely to come up with for “normal life”. Please give me your opinion of it –

So Soon?

It can’t be that time, can it? Lately it’s been just like vacation. I haven’t been working half as hard as usual, and I sleep so deliciously late in the morning. So how can it possibly be autumn already? Nonsense. I’m going to keep clinging tight to my branch. So there.

“Just look at your beautiful new dress,” whispers my twig.

What new dress? Why, I’m all red! “It’s very pretty,” I say politely, “but I’m supposed to be green.”

“Green’s for ordinary days. Not the big event,” the twig answers. “Just think, you’re going to fly! I never get to fly.”

And just then, I do! I fly away, so free.

Friday Fictioneers: On the Bus

A fond farewell to Madison Woods as the host of Friday Fictioneers. Madison, thank you so much for your work inspiring and bringing together all these different 100-word stories! And a big thank you also to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for picking up the Fictioneers torch.

As always, I’d like to know what people think of my story this week –

On the Bus

Mom doesn’t like me to take the cheap bus, but a college student has to pinch pennies somewhere. Eventually the driver shows up, yawning and red-eyed. Makes me just a little nervous, but after he disappears into the men’s room for a few minutes he looks a lot more alert.

We shuffle onto the bus and find seats. I’m up near the front with my backpack between my feet. The old man beside me grumbles about that, but hey, I paid for my ticket just like he did. The bus pulls out half an hour late – then we speed up, start making up time. Great, really moving now.

Oh my God – the curve –

Thursday’s Windows: Ramparts

Another post for Sandra Connor’s Thursday’s Windows series!

You get a good view into Old City Quebec through this window (windowlike opening?) in the city wall.

(For context – here’s what the top of the wall looks like. You can see this week’s window on the left of the picture.)

Headaches, Part 3

All right, at this point I don’t know if I’m being self-indulgent or just responding to what people have posted in the comments. Anyhow, here’s another hundred words about that wounded World War I nurse (her name is Maud Raudabaugh, by the way; she’s from Pennsylvania).

Headaches, Part 3

“Miss! Miss!”

What now? I was so close to the stream! “Miss!” He’s scrambling down the hillside, dirtying his nice clean uniform. “Isn’t there a hospital around here?”

I laugh and laugh. “Up there!” I point at the rubble.

It takes a minute for him to understand. “But – I’ve got all these wounded men.”

He’s a bit shocky, I decide. But he does have a canteen of water. Oh, it tastes good! “Thank you,” I say, briskly, nurse-like again. “There must be some places in the world that haven’t been blown up. You’ll have to go there.”

Cee’s Foto Challenge: One Flower

And over at Cee’s Life Photography, Cee’s enjoying the spring flowers. So she’s encouraging us to share up to three pictures, each featuring just one flower. For preference, she urges us to go out right now and take some pictures. (Thanks to Jo Bryant for making me aware of Cee’s blog.)

Well. Um. October, you know? So, my first two flowers bloomed back in the first half of 2005 – other than that, they’re very different:

This orchid from the Philadelphia Flower Show is a pampered darling.

This little desert wildflower from Chaco Canyon has to be tough to survive.

And, last of all, I did go outside, about twenty minutes ago, and found this little burst of pink, blooming away in my front yard. We’ve already had frost a time or two; dianthus are determined.

100 Word Challenge: Headaches, Part 2

Julia’s prompt for this week’s 100 Word Challenge for Grownups is

…. I woke with another headache ….

This one’s for Limebirdbeth and Scribbler, who asked for more of yesterday’s story. Yes, I’m cheating, I guess. 😉  Anyway, a little more about a wounded nurse in World War I, somewhere near the trenches. Let me know what you think…

Headaches, Part 2

There used to be a little stream, down the hill. I tighten the splint on my dragging foot. Deep breath. Skirts will hinder me, but female clothes might make snipers pause. The big guns? Soldier or nurse, they won’t care, any more than an earthquake would.

Crawling under fallen beams, out of what was a hospital once. Day before yesterday. Nothing looks the same. Artillery echoes through my bones. Hobbling forward dizzily, creeping up piles of rubble and sliding down the far side. Once I fainted. I woke with another headache. Water gurgles ahead. What germs, what poisons does it carry? I smile wryly – I’m going to drink anyway.

100 Word Challenge: Headache

This week, Julia’s 100 Word Challenge for Grownups is using a phrase as the story prompt again:

…. I woke with another headache ….

(And I surprised myself by coming in exactly at 106 words, as requested, for once.)

Headaches

It’s annoying when stories tangle with reality. I woke with another headache this morning, sniffling, and reluctant to swallow because it hurts so much. But enough about me, warm, dry, safe, and quiet – for lack of a voice – in New Jersey. Let’s picture someone with a little drama about them (and yes, “them” was a deliberate word choice: the undefined gender third person singular).

Ah yes.

I woke with another headache. The guns were still thudding. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Have to find water today. See if the legs will work. If you’re lucky you can dodge shrapnel. Time to go.