Louise is a writer, poet and photographer who feels most at home when out and about, watching, photographing, and writing about the flora and fauna to be found along the lanes and in the meadows of her local area. She can happily spend hours lost in a field full of wildflowers.
It’s Saturday and so time for another Saturday Songster post. This week’s track is ‘I Recall a Gypsy Woman’ by Don Williams. Don Williams is an American country music singer and songwriter from Portland, Texas, often referred to as the ‘Gentle Giant’ of country music. In 2010, after four decades of solo performance, he was inducted … More Saturday Songsters – Don Williams
This is my entry into Cee’s Black and White Challenge. This week’s theme is Crooked and Squiggly Lines which immediately brought to mind the many pictures of curious tree roots I have in my archives . I hope you like them. Writhing, coiling, serpentine formations slithering out of the darkness of concealing earth, tendrils stretching into sunlight in search of nourishment, longing for … More Cee’s B&W Challenge: Crooked and Squiggly Lines
This post is for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy. The FFfAW challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. This week’s prompt was provided by me. Celebrations and Sorrows For the third time in less than a week Lili climbed the steps … More FFfAW: Celebrations and Sorrows
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s theme is harmony. Exultant voice trills Joining triumphant chorus Harmony embraced I encountered this incredibly tame robin when I was down at the stream last week. He flew from branch to branch in the tree above the bench where I like to stop to write, singing … More WPC: Harmony
This story is in response to the Sunday Photo Fiction challenge, hosted by Alistair Forbes, that asks that you write a story / poem of around 200 words using the photo as a guide. The Weight of History Jae reluctantly followed his classmates as they trooped onto the ship. He’d been dreading the field trip for weeks; had … More SPF: The Weight of History
It’s a day late but this post is for Adam Icke’s Six on the Sixth Challenge. For this challenge we are given six prompts and are asked to write between six and ten six word stories on the sixth of the month. I’ve written one story for each prompt and whilst each can be read … More Six on the Sixth: March
This post is for Sonya’s Three Line Tale Challenge, that asks us to write three lines in response to the photo prompt. She wandered in a dream-like haze, unaware of time’s passage. The sights and scents of paper and ink filled her senses. Occasionally a text would beckon and she’d digest every word before moving on. If this was eternity, she was … More TLT: The Eternal Library
It’s Saturday and so time for another Saturday Songster post. This week’s track is ‘The Riverman’ by Nick Drake. Nick Drake was an English singer-songwriter who released three albums before he overdosed on antidepressants in 1974. He’s often seen as being a ‘doomed romantic’ – a talented musician whose shyness and dislike of live performance led to … More Saturday Songsters – Nick Drake
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s theme is State of Mind and we’re asked to share pictures that reflect our emotions at the time we took the photograph. I often take pictures of reflections on water – I love to look at them as you do clouds, finding images in the play … More Weekly Photo Challenge: State of Mind
This post is for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy. The FFfAW challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. This week’s prompt is from Pixabay. Breaking the Silence Edan’s steps faltered, halting his furtive progress as faint strains of music reached his … More FFfAW: Breaking the Silence
This post is for Cardinal Guzman’s monthly Changing Seasons photography challenge. I joined in with this challenge for the first half of last year, taking photographs along all the lanes around the village that I live in. Unfortunately I was taking so many pictures that it reached the point where I couldn’t find time to sort through them all … More Changing Seasons 2016: February
This post is for the Sometimes Stellar Storyteller’s Six Word Story Challenge. This week’s theme is anticipation. Delighted giggles: “One more sleep, Mummy!”
This post is for week four of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. This is a quarterly photo editing challenge that asks us to edit one photo in four ways over a month, posting a different version to our blog each week. I would have liked to spend a little more time working on this final edit but, as today is the … More One Four: February Week Four
Clad in purest white Innocence personified The land awakens
This post is for Roger Shipp’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner challenge. For this challenge we are given a photo prompt and an optional opening line / prompt sentence. This week’s prompt line is “There it was. You could see the corner of the folded yellowed parchment sticking out of the torn lining of the battered book.” I’ve not used the … More FFftPP: Faded Calligraphy
This post is for week three of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. This is a quarterly photo editing challenge that asks us to edit one photo in four ways over a month, posting a different version to our blog each week. . I know I said I’d try to remember what I did to achieve the final edit this … More One Four: February Week Three
This post is for Jude’s Garden Photo Challenge. For February we’re asked to share monochrome photographs from around the garden. I took all of these pictures around our garden earlier today. I’d intended to share photographs from my sister’s garden as I did for January’s Garden Photo Challenge – she has lots of nooks and crannies … More GPC: February’s Monochrome Garden
This post is for the Sometimes Stellar Storyteller’s Six Word Story Challenge. This week’s theme is supernatural. Piercing screams echo through abandoned rooms.
It’s Saturday and so time for another Saturday Songster post. This week’s track is ‘Fifteen Years’ by The Levellers. The Levellers are an English band formed in 1988 whose music crosses the boundaries between rock, punk and folk. Their name is drawn from the seventeenth century radical democracy movement that was founded during the English Civil … More Saturday Songsters – Levellers
This post is for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy. The FFfAW challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. This week’s prompt was provided by TJ Paris. Thank you TJ! Solitude’s Isle He watched from the clifftop as she meandered along … More FFfAW: Solitude’s Isle
Robyn’s One Four Challenge is back! Yay! This challenge has always been one of my favourites so it’s great to see it return. For this challenge we’re asked to edit one photo in four ways over a month, posting a different version to our blog each week. I’m a little late joining in so rather than posting … More One Four: February Weeks 1 & 2
This post is for Baheya’s Miniature Writing Challenge. This week’s prompt is Freedom. For this challenge you are asked to write either an ultra short story (50-150 words), a haiku or a little poem. This week I decided to share a poem. Self-Doubt Ensnared in a churning morass of fear, insecurity, spiralling ever deeper. Not as good; … More Self Doubt
This post is for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is Things that are Cold. I have to admit that I got a little muddled this week. I had it in my head that ‘things that are cold’ was the theme for the Black and White Challenge. I dug out a selection of cold pictures from my … More CFFC: Things that are Cold
It’s Saturday and so time for another Saturday Songster post. This week’s track is ‘Luka’ by Suzanne Vega. Suzanne Vega is an American singer-songwriter who began her career in the 1980s, influenced by the poetic lyrics of musicians such as Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. She’s since released eight studio albums. The song ‘Luka’ is … More Saturday Songsters – Suzanne Vega
Sombre land washed clean Sunbeams shimmer on damp earth Splashing in puddles
This post is for Ivy Walker’s Six Sentence Story, a flash fiction challenge that I haven’t joined in with before but decided to try out this week. The only rule of the challenge is that you write a story in six sentences – no more and no less – on the given prompt. This week’s prompt is draw. A Question … More Six Sentence Story: A Question of Honour
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s prompt is time. Sunlight caressing A stark landscape awakens Vibrant leaves unfurl Days advance onwards Dancing on the turning wheel New growth supplants old Yesterday, for the first time in over a week, the weather was pleasant enough for me to venture out for a walk. It was nice … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Time
This post is for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy. The FFfAW challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. This week’s prompt was provided by Ady. Thank you Ady! Gifts “Thompson here yet?” Billy jumped, squawking in surprise at the sound … More FFfAW: Gifts
This is my entry into Cee’s Black and White Challenge. This week’s theme is Food and Beverage. This is another of those themes that I didn’t think I’d be able to find much for at first. I don’t usually take pictures of food, other than the fruit growing in the garden. Once I started flicking through my archives, though, … More Cee’s Black and White Challenge: Food and Beverage
With yesterday being the sixth of the month – and so taken by my post for the monthly Six on the Sixth challenge – my Saturday Songsters post was delayed until today. This week’s track is ‘Suzanne’ by the Canadian singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen. I first heard Leonard Cohen’s music in my early teens when my … More Saturday Songsters on a Sunday – Leonard Cohen
This post is for Adam Icke’s Six on the Sixth Challenge. For this challenge we are given six prompts and are asked to write between six and ten six word stories. We can use whichever prompts spark our imaginations. I’ve written one story for each prompt. Whilst each story stands alone they are all on a magical … More Six on the Sixth: February
This post is for both the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy and last week’s Tale Weaver prompt from MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie. The FFfAW challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. The Tale Weaver prompt is the sending of an SOS. I hope you like it. Worth the … More FFfAW: Worth the Risk
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s prompt is vibrant. Take flight, embracing each bright possibility, vibrant wings unfurled in joyous wonder.
This post is for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner challenge, run by Roger Shipp. This challenge asks that you write a story of up to 200 words in response to the photo prompt and an optional opening sentence. This week’s sentence is: “The last time, everything fit in three duffles…” I’m afraid I forgot to include it this time. Oops! The Long Search … More FFftPP: The Long Search
This is my entry into Cee’s Black and White Challenge. This week’s theme is Lines and Angles. I hope you like them.
It’s Saturday and so time for another of my Saturday Songsters posts. This week’s track is ‘Mr Brightside’ by The Killers. The Killers are an American rock band formed in Las Vegas in the early 2000s who quickly rose to fame with their ’80s style synth-pop. They’ve since won four NME Awards (2005, 2008, 2009, 2013) and … More Saturday Songsters – The Killers
This post is for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (FFfAW) Challenge, run by Priceless Joy. This week’s photo prompt is from Sonya. Thank you, Sonya! The challenge is that you write a story of 75-175 words inspired by the photo prompt below. I hope you like it. To Follow the Sun Sometimes Meredith wondered whether the … More FFfAW: To Follow the Sun
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s prompt is optimistic. Hoping: warm sun remains, dispelling bleak darkness, setting winter to memory. Eager. We’re having a very weird, wet, windy yet warm winter over here in England. Daffodils in January. Need I say more? The picture above I actually took right at the beginning of January – it was … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Optimistic
This post is for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner run by Roger Shipp. This challenge asks that you write a story of up to 200 words in response to the photo prompt and the optional opening sentence. I’ve included the opening sentence in italics. Defining Footsteps Enough is enough. Jarred stomped down the path, his … More FFftPP: Defining Footsteps
This post is for the first month of Jude’s Garden Photo Challenge, where for January we’re asked to share photographs of a winter garden. Those of you who’ve been following my blog over the last year may recognise that these aren’t from the garden that I usually photograph. They were all taken around my sister’s when … More GPC: January’s Winter Garden
The place where you can find out what Lillie thinks
Looking at life through blue eyes
: around the world :
Looking into why we do the things we do (and some crochet) each Monday
Amanda Tuke - nature writer and urban nature champion
A photographic journey.
Here and now, with all of it.
An Enchanted Place 