Come away with the raggle taggle gypsy-o
As you must know the Chinese Year of the Horse has begun. To celebrate it I’m posting a few pics of horses I’ve met , some of which you may have seen before. Click for a bigger view of any photo.
I wasn’t born in a horse year and as I’m not keen on the animal of my birth year I’m not telling you what it is!
This is the best article I came across about the year of the horse, enjoy!
… whenever I hear it, I think of you …. is Julia’s prompt this week, here are my 100.
Sea King
They rush to get the boys off the football pitch. One, in green shorts and a striped top dribbles a ball in circles, oblivious of the shouts; he’s waiting for grommet surgery. Soon even he hears it, or feels the vibrations, and runs out of the way of the big yellow bird, coming in to land next to the hospital. It’s the Sea King again, whenever I hear it, I think of you.
If the air ambulance had space for both of us, you might have made it too, but it didn’t, they took me, leaving you to bleed.
Strolling
At last I see hope
wild violets smiling through
a purple delight
There’s a new blog in town. It’s called Creating Something Every Day and has been created by Myfanwy, who some of you may know as Chittle Chattle. For a weekend of fun and creativity Myfanwy posted 33 prompts with the idea of getting as many people as possible to spend 15 minutes , or more of course, seeing what they could produce. There is a Facebook group as well as her blog and for several days people around the world have been posting photos and sharing their makes. And what makes! the work has been both beautiful and inspiring, using a multitude of media, lots of which I’d never heard of.
I just posted once, to the Facebook group, three potential journal covers that I designed especially for the challenge.
These are all created from my photos, the central circles are from the chocolates I posted here . https://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/weekly-photo-challenge-joy/ with some editing in Pixlr and Photoshop. The background type print is a photo that I took of my own short story.
I’m a dabbler and I quite like the results but if you go and peep at the Facebook page, the work there is wonderful. I think Myfanwy is repeating the challenge weekend once a month but you can also ask to join the group and share something you make at any time.
This will explain all!http://createaday2014.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/
Legend tells us that after 10 years of fighting with the Trojans the ancient Greeks turned to subterfuge to win the war. They built a huge wooden horse, hid their best soldiers inside and then pretended to sail away. The Trojans, thinking the horse was a splendid battle trophy, dragged the horse through the gates of their city. Under cover of darkness the Greeks crept out and opened the gates to the rest of their army. Troy was overthrown and the rest is history!
I went to the ruined city of Troy a couple of years ago. Seeing a huge wooden replica of the horse was an unexpected justaposition.
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge at WordPress where the theme is juxtaposition, join in here http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/photo-challenge-juxtaposition/
Julia has been to a conference this week and took advantage of the opportunity to talk about the childrens version of 100WC which is a huge success in schools around the world. She is always on the look out for people to visit and comment on the children’s writing so if you have a little spare time go and talk to her. The conference inspired her prompt this week, it was just a sea of faces.
Here is my tongue in cheek attempt.
Calories
I took a bow with the rest of the troop, one – two – three and the music started. It’d been a long time since I last performed that routine, I was desperate to keep up, one step wrong and we would have ground to a halt. I stopped looking at the audience, it was only a four-four beat, but I had to concentrate to get my feet right.
It was just a sea of faces, but I recognised Nina, Lori, Rossi, Louisa, even Dido and Daisy – goodness knows how they snuck in!
My Wii friends had come to cheer Wii Mii on, ahh twenty calories burnt! 
To join in visit http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week118/
Flotsam
a rusting record
of vehicle or tin can
decays origin
thrown long ago by human
sure to turn to sand with time
After leaving Branscombe, its beach and the lovely St Winifreda’s church, we drove back through Sidmouth and continued west up to Peak Hill. On the right is a free car park, the edge of Mutters Moor, a lowland heath where the walks have stunning views. There was a lot of mud and puddles on Sunday. 
Sunny gorse, pinecones and last years beech leaves next to this years new shoots.
Our Lady of the Woods had fallen, undermined by the flood. 
There were magical reflections. 
And after an hours walk we found ourselves nearly back at the start, when we had the first hint of something splendid. 
This is always a beautiful view, but today the light was perfect, changing every minute and to make it even more special, a family of ponies, Dartmoors I think.
Sunday January 19th, the day that kept on giving.
Click on any photo for a bigger view.
Marianne has begun a new challenge where you take one trip every month, near or far, and take photos or write all about it. Join her here http://eastofmalaga.net/2014/01/20/new-challenge-one-trip-every-month/
Lucid Gypsy 