Edge, Esther Chilton prompt.

Nebula ?

I wrote this post as a response to Esther Chiltons weekly prompt.

Edge
On the edge of the galaxy, in the streaming snow of stars, a snake like creature swims the dust lanes.
Pure energy, it feeds on supernova and quasars.
Many thousands of years old, it has started to glow. Corruscating colours flowing along it’s length.
What is this Edge creature? Totally alien, made of quantum fluctuations, entangled electrons. Perhaps when it ripens the galaxy will twist like a newly lit Catherine wheel on bonfire night.

Esther Chiltons weekly word prompt

Tests……..a short poem….
Tested to destruction
But you keep going
Ploughing on into the future
Maximum effort to pass
Even by one point.
Tested for healthiness
Bounced and bumped and pushed
Given medicine that may transform
Be a “cure”
Test positive, or negative?
The result depends
On interpretations
May you all pass.

Esther’s Word challenge.

Esther Chilton does a word challenge where you are given a set of words and a number to keep to.

This week’s was 38 words including:

OPERATION

PRAM

ATTRACT

VANILLA

QUACK.

This is what I came up with:

“Vanilla ice-cream always attracts my attention. The operation of the ice-cream machine twisting the milky substance into the waiting cone. Watching mums give their children the sticky treat dripping into prams. Ducks quack as they eat the wafers”.

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt “dark”

We live in a city, it’s impossible to see many stars. I just wrote this for Esthers challenge dark.

Darkness is needed for astronomy. We used to drive out at night to try and see meteor showers or comets, or stand in the garden under the shadow of the hedge and try and see Jupiter and it’s moons (we used a telescope) and even Saturn and it’s rings. We saw both planets. Once we drove under clouded skies to chase a massive meteor shower of up to 100 meteors an hour. But we never got out from under the layer of thin low cloud even though we drove at least 40 miles.

On another occasion we went out and drove into a wood so we could see a beautiful greenish comet. That was amazing.

Finally we recently saw the aurora borealis. An amazing thing to see in the UK.

Waiting, another prompt from Esther.

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt is waiting. I remember my school holidays.

I was waiting and waiting for the summer holidays to come. I remember being about 11, we had recently moved house and I was at a new school. We had a real garden, trees to climb, a swing and seesaw that dad had put up and I wanted to explore the area. My new friends and I would find new places to visit, the local arboretum, canals and the far end of the Broadway where my uncle and aunt lived. I was getting old enough to walk a few miles, or cycle around country lanes to go to parks for picnics. Those few weeks were really worth waiting for, everything seemed more colourful, exciting adventures like jumping across the local brook, or trying to collect insects. As I tried to balance on walls or climb up into the laburnum tree I was learning about the environment. At the end of the holidays I decided to get more interested in nature and was made a tree warden at school. That holiday was worth waiting for.

Photographs, Esther Chiltons weekly prompt.

I wrote this about her prompt.

My precious photos are of and with my hubby. Sometimes I sit and cry, sometimes I laugh at silly memories. Photographs captured that moment when we walked across a stream. When we returned hours later the tide had come in and the stream was a deep salt water channel. I lost my bike pump into the water and when I got it out to use again it had gone rusty. Photos can be like that. They can fade. And memory fades too, so photos make it easier not to forget.

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt

Beauty

Esther asked us to write about beauty this week. I struggled to explain what I think of the word. I wrote :

Beauty can be on the inside, you don’t have to look amazing to be alive and well thought of. If people could read your thoughts? How would they interpret them. Odd or plain, ugly or old? It’s your brain and thought processes are important. Consider the world around you and how people are perceived. Media makes things worse.

But then I thought am I talking about personal, intellectual beauty? In the case of the word should I just look at beauty as form? Like a lovely rose? As how I feel about a wonderful day or a landscape? There are so many connotations to the word.

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt is “Christmas”

Christmas, alone for another year. Make Merry they say. Bah Humbug! Do I reply? No, I’m not so lost that I turn my cheek to the world. But a quiet Christmas? Maybe. One chicken leg. A small bottle of beer. Three sprouts if I’m lucky? Any sparkle and cheer? I might make handmade crackers and tie one end to the door handle to pull them. Meanwhile, I bought myself a new garden bench to sit alone on, so happy new year, dear.

Dilemma? Esther Chiltons blog prompt.

Dilemma? Shall I stay or go?
Balance up the positives and negatives?
They balance out precisely!
Canvass friends and family?
Some say yes, some say go.
How do I feel?
Pleased and alarmed in equal measure!
How to decide?
Flip a coin!

Dilemma? Shall I stay or go?
Balance up the positives and negatives?
They balance out precisely!
Canvass friends and family?
Some say yes, some say go.
How do I feel?
Pleased and alarmed in equal measure!
How to decide?
Flip a coin!

My dilemma today? I’ve posted this twice!

Do I delete?

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt “books”

Books. I have so many, I counted them once and when I got to 1000 I gave up.

Many were my hubbys, trains, planes and bicycles, autobiographies, war and history. Stories about Rommel or Rome. My books are science fiction or fact, mysteries, art and illustration. We shared a love of JRR Tolkien and Ursula K Le’Guin and other writers such as Terry Pratchett. All our books are intermingled, it’s hard to see where ones obsession ends and the other starts.

Books are a library, some I’ve read over and over again, sometimes overnight, finishing the last page as the sun rises. Others I’ve savoured over months. Some bored me, but I still wanted to finish them. 

But now? Can I let some go, like puppies to a new home? I might never read them. If anyone knows of a book charity for schools let me know?

I’m glad Esther posted this prompt, it’s made me think about things.