Leaving the Seclusion Room: A Journey to the Far Side of Sanity and Back Again

Posted on May 7, 2014 Posted in Uncategorized1 Comment

It’s Mental health month, please take the time to read and share Kathryn’s post, it’s so important for people to gain some understanding.
Thank you, LG

Kathryn M. McCullough

I will forever associate spring with an up-close-and-personal encounter with crazy, with losing my mind in an over-the-top kind of way. And, indeed, my March Madness of 1990 ended life as I knew it.

Spring brings many forms of madness.

A university writing instructor, I was suffering through what should have been a relaxing spring break, when I began to crumble. In Oklahoma the branches were barely budding, when I started obsessing over trees and their ability to lead me elsewhere, wherever there was. I imagined it was a dimension parallel to the world around me.

A parallel place–

I wanted desperately to go there, and it was that longing that ached me into action. It muscled me forward, compelling me to bring bare branches indoors and decorate my walls with them. (I kid you not.) It seemed I was suddenly and acutely aware, as the sculptural quality of those limbs stunned and…

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Wordless Wednesday, guesses welcome

Posted on May 7, 2014May 7, 2014 Posted in Nature, PhotographyTagged England, Nature, River of Stones, Wordless Wednesday17 Comments

Beer Beach

Posted on May 5, 2014 Posted in Devon, EnglandTagged Beach, Devon, England, Flowers, Photography, travel18 Comments

The craft fair season has begun and today I’ve been to a regular venue at Beer, in east Devon. It was a glorious spring day with a cool breeze coming off the sea, and lovely for a stroll.

The fish shop on the beach is as fresh as you can get

Plants will always strive to grow in the most unlikely places, including high up on the cliff face at Beer, the bright yellow and purple ones are wild wallflower. I think the more delicate yellow are a type of wild cabbage and the paler mauve are a mallow variety.

The beach at Beer is very special, unspoilt and traditional, with ice cream and crab sandwiches, pebbles and driftwood and the opportunity to try your hand at mackerel fishing.

If ever you’re in Devon, pay Beer a visit, try a crab sandwich and then perhaps a walk on the coast path to build up an appetite for cream tea!

100 Word Challengefor Grown Ups Week# 131

Posted on May 3, 2014 Posted in flash fiction, WritingTagged 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups, Flash fiction, Magical realism13 Comments

Julia is expecting some sombre entries this week because her prompt is, …when the night demons visit… here is my entry.

Creeping

Something’s moving in the grass by my feet. It stops for a few seconds and then sets off again. There is a sound, like an army of ants nibbling, every time it halts.

‘Fergus, did you hear that?’

‘Uh, go sleep,’ he groans in the sleeping bag beside me and turns over. On my own then. As I take my next breath my throat dries and closes over, I cough to clear it, and swallow the taste of sulphur. Raising my head an inch, I catch sight of the grass swirling.

When the night demons visit they ride on the back of a snake in the grass.

You can join in with a flash fiction at http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week-131/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring

Posted on May 2, 2014 Posted in Flowers, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Aquilegia, Columbine, Cyclamen, Flowers, Fritillery, Photography, spring flowers, Violets, Weekly Photo Challenge21 Comments

It’s photo challenge day from the Daily Post at WordPress and the theme is spring.

I seem to have been posting photos of spring a lot recently but I can always find more. Spring comes early in my neck of the woods, the south west of England is warmed by the gulf stream, so it’s here by February -oh yes it is, as far as I’m concerned anyway, so that’s when I start looking for signs, in whatever daylight I can grab. February’s picture was taken on a lunchtime stroll close to where I work.
Daffodils are sending up their elegant green stems and tiny wild violets are in flower. If you’re lucky and the sun is on them the perfume is lovely. March is a snakeshead fritillary, one of my favourite spring flowers – I know I have many, many favourites!

Doesn’t she look shabby chic in her printed spring frock?
April, and delicate little cyclamen shine out, among all the yellows and blues in a spring garden.

They look like they are waving with happiness in the sunshine.
May is here, the last month of spring, summer will be here before the month is out.
Columbine, or Aquilegia if you prefer, are all over the garden right now. I like this colour but they don’t always come true and tend to revert to a pale mauve pink or white as they self seed. They are lovely little dancers whatever shade, and the bees love to visit them.