100 Word Challenge forGrown Ups Week# 63

100WCGU (7)

 

Julia has gone for a seasonal prompt this week with ‘and winter will bring . . .’

I didn’t think I would make it, but as I’m babysitting this evening, the late night is an opportunity, so here is

Winter’s Gifts

And winter will bring enduring moon

regal rotund shining for hours through the six a.m. alarm

through sharp ice sky rolling to the west

as  dawn ripples from the east.

And winter will bring ice

crunching crystals on grass shooting veneer onto pond

silvered birch a forest of icycled chandeliers.

And winter will bring

spiralling north wind on street corners

whipping around limbs and petrifying ears.

And winter will bring light precious from low sky sun

concentrated through window an illusion of warmth

no substance and stunted shadows.

And winter will bring thrust from the underworld

Galanthus to herald the spring.

Join in with Julia at http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week63/

Book Cycle, from tree to book and back again

I’ve just had a trip out to my favourite book shops – well one of them, a book lover could never have just one favourite could she? Book Cycle is a charity shop with a difference, the buyer decides how much to pay. In my case that is to their benefit, because if I gave too little I would feel mean. I imagine that there are people who can only afford 20 pence and that’s okay too. They welcome donations and when I have books I can bear to part with, that’s where they go!

They send some of the donated books to Africa, see the photo, some of the profit goes to paying for the shipments, and they also plant trees . They have a small seed bank and occasionally have planting and fundraising events.

The other wonderful thing is the building they occupy. It’s in one of the oldest parts of the city, in a lovely Tudor timbered house, right next to Mathew the Miller and the House that moved (I’ll post about that one day).

The shop is staffed entirely by volunteers, of all ages, and they have Shelf Cycles in community venues around the city.

Today I found three books, the maximum allowed in a day, all short stories to help me with my creative writing course, and spent less than I would on one new one.

Book Cycle

What do you think of the shop?

Travel Theme: Spooky

My city is very old – two thousand years, and naturally has its share of ghost stories. So far, I haven’t managed any photos that spooky, so I’ve gone with the witches instead!

This is what happened

This is where it happened

Perhaps this is who it happened to!

Ailsa would love you to join in here http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/10/26/travel-theme-spooky/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreign

Sara Rosso says `Foreign. While foreign (rightly so) often brings up images of things outside of your own nation, it can also apply to things outside of or different from your normal environment, or even something which is out of place in general.’

Foreign is fascinating, if it’s different I’ll love it and want to experience it, so this week the challenge is fab as far as I’m concerned. The photo I’ve chosen was taken in . . . any guesses? 

To at least one blogging friend this isn’t foreign and I know that a fair few of my visitors live there!

If you would like to join in visit http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/weekly-photo-challenge-foreign/

Thursdays Windows: week 6

This photo was taken along the road from Salisbury cathedral, in August 2009. It was at first floor level and the building is very old. The Sheep? Well I tried to find out more and it seems to allude to Wiltshire being a sheep farming county. Sadly the other thing I discovered is that a year or so after I photographed it, the sheep was decapitated, a mindless act of destruction. I feel for the people whose windows they are.

 

Join in at http://sandraconner.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/photo-challenge-thursdays-windows-week-6/

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water

I’ve posted many photos of the canal, river and sea near to home so I wanted to find something different. All of these photos are from way back in my archives and taken with my first digital camera. Will you join in with Cee’s Challenge this week? Here’s where http://ceeslifephotographyblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/cees-fun-foto-challenge-water/

River SeineThe Seine taken from the first level of the Eiffel Tower.

The Double Locks ExeterThis is one of Exeter’s most popular pubs, the Double Locks on the canal. I took it back in the days when I played with photoshop and must have used a lighting effect because I named it Double Locks Omni.

My feet!The random shot!

 

 

 

Music in Pictures Contest: Alegria

Elisa says ‘The song I have chosen is called Alegrìa, which is the Spanish word for joy, performed by the Cirque du Soleil. For those of you who don’t know Cirque du Soleil, they are a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1984 performing some incredible shows, one of which is Alegrìa’ .

I hope my photos bring you joy! More at http://autumninbruges.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/music-in-pictures-contest-alegria/ And Twirl!

A Chestnut Walk to the Powderham Folly

Glorious weather and the dog’s need of some exercise made today a day for checking out Autumn’s progress. Earlier in the year I went to Kenton to take photographs for Lynne at On the Bench and found a new walk. At the time it was too cold to walk any further but it was always meant to be one to return to. The walk goes through the Powderham estate, the home to the 18th Earl and Countess of Devon. Building of the castle began in the 14th century and I’ve included a photo of the rooftop.

The start of the walk was a narrow muddy track through the marshes and then a climb up through the woods. There was a constant soundtrack from both the sawmill and the crazy sound of pheasants, whose presence tormented the dogs.  There are many ancient and magnificent oak trees but prominent today were the chestnuts, gnarled and old but still very productive. Empty shells were everywhere; no doubt the squirrels have full larders.

I was hoping for more leaf colour but there was very little display from the trees, we have only had one frost so far in east Devon. Plants in the hedgerow were definitely more autumnal though. In the field at the top of the track is the folly, built in the 18th century, and the view opens up, showing the river Exe looking east.

Click on any image for a slide show. I hope you enjoy my Sunday walk and have a lovely week!

Jakes Sunday Post: City

It’s Sunday so it must be Jake day and his theme this week is City. He says that a city is a ‘large center of population organized as a community. The word city is derived from the Latin word civitas, which denotes a community that administers its own affairs. In ancient Greece such an independent community was called a city-state; it consisted of a chief town and its immediate neighborhood. The cantons which constitute the Swiss federation are not unlike cities in this sense. During the Middle Ages a city was usually identical with a cathedral town; accordingly, when King Henry VIII of England established new bishoprics in boroughs, he made these into cities. In modern Britain city is merely a complimentary title conferred by the monarch on important towns.
In the United States a city is a chartered municipal corporation. Charters are granted by state governments according to requirements prescribed by the legislature of that state; a city must usually attain a certain population before it can be granted a charter. City charters vary in the degree of power they confer on the municipal authorities, and the measure of local autonomy is usually, although not always, regulated by the number of inhabitants. The chief executive officer is generally a popularly elected mayor, but many cities now have professional city managers.’

This is Bergamo, in Lombardy, Northern Italy. It has a population of 120,000 and lies at the foothills of the Alps, about 25 miles from Milan. Jake would love it if you joined in, http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/sunday-post-city/