Some difficult decisions were made in determining the inspiration for this week’s photo challenge, however I think what keeps me coming back, and moving forward searching for more, is that place where water meets the sky, and the colours they make together.
I’m going to take the lazy route and be literal about this week’s challenge – ROY G. BI and V make a beautiful rainbow..
Here’s my contribution to this weeks’s Monday’s Finish the Story, brought to us by Barbara Beacham.
Finish the story starts with “At first, it looked like an ordinary marble, but it was far from it.”
To the untrained eye, it was nothing more than a trinket, piled into the old straw basket sitting in a dusty corner of the bookshop. Cheap treats left at child height, making it easy for little hands to scoop out a reward for good behavior..
Mikah had already walked out of the store when a commotion made her glance back . A little girl had upturned the basket, scattering its contents all over the shop floor. She stepped back in to help the girl’s father and the shop owner who were frantically trying to clean up the mess. She stuck her hand under a bookshelf to pull out some of the escapees, and jumped back as a bolt of electricity ran up her arm. Shaking, she uncurled her fingers and stared at the tiny white orb which lay, ice cold, against her skin. It could only be one thing. A world seed.
This week’s challenge makes me think of “off-season” travels, when the weather isn’t as bad as the travel guide says it will be, but you get to experience special parts of the world without the usual hoardes of tourists at every stop.
London ‘not-in the summertime’ means not having to stand 10 people deep in front of every painting at the National Gallery.
We had this little corner of Prague all to ourselves for a brief moment.
Winter in Venice.
This is Colona, not far from Buenos Aires. It’s so very quaint (and quiet) in the off-season.
The usually inviting Pacific Ocean is looking unseasonably uninviting on its South American shores, in Lima, Peru.
This week’s FFAW prompt reminds me of a talk I went to a few years ago by an economist from the UN, and it was about how the world’s coral reefs will all be gone within 50 years. 50 years! Anyway, enough of my soapbox, here’s the story..
Dr. Sandy Shaw led the expedition to track down the world’s last remaining coral reef.
All around the world, reefs were dying, hapless victims to warming seas, pollution, and over fishing.
It was too late to stop the decline as the tipping point was reached well before we even knew what was happening, and ecosystems created over millions of years were being wiped out in less than a generation- all that could be done now was to salvage whichever species could be rescued.
But the degradation wasn’t over yet. A lucrative black market for highly endangered marine animals, some selling for millions of dollars had turned the oceans into a battleground.
And as they made their made way towards the tiny blue sanctuary, she saw the glint of other boats up ahead. Poachers. She gripped the barrel of her gun tighter as they drew closer. The hunt was on.
For this week’s MFTS challenge, I’m taking some inspiration from a story that I’m working on (kind of) about the old gods..
Finish the Story begins with: “Zeus was not having a good day and he made sure everyone knew it.”
He had just turned himself into a dolphin, ready for a serious day of frolicking in the Aegean with a couple of mermaids when he finally got the call.
And now he was sitting in a cramped little cave in the middle of theTibetan Himalayas freezing his tan off.
“Odin, just so you know, next time I choose the venue, yeah?”
He looked around the crowded room. “So who’re we waiting on?”
Buddha sat on cave floor, eyes closed, with a soft smile playing on his lips. “Your daughter, Thunder God. The goddess of the Earth.”
“That bloody, Gaia, never on time. She’s probably off saving a rainforest somewhere.. Apollo, go and get your sister.”
“But Father.. it’s not sunrise yet.” A bolt of lightening struck the God of the Sun as he ran out the cave.
Zeus turned back to the Old Father. “Right. So what’s the plan to save humanity?”
This is my contribution to Monday’s finish the Story, hosted by Barbara Beacham.
Finish the story starts with: “What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
Oscar read aloud the words which had greeted him each morning for the past 20 years at Hardwyke Forsythe and Rogers.
He turned to face the year’s new recruits, with their freshly ironed shirts, trim haircuts and unblinking expressions.
He looked down at his own clothes and noticed a blob of yesterday’s dried ketchup resting against his paunch. He flopped back into his seat and opened the orientation manual, before promptly slamming it shut again.
“So who can tell me what we do here?” “Yes. Simon?” He glanced down at his watch before meeting Star Eager Beaver’s eye. Two more minutes to a smoke break.
“We educate people learn about new products and services sir.” A chuckle escaped his lips.
“We sell dreams, son. We sell hopes and dreams in jars and tubes, and people buy them for whatever outrageous amounts of money we ask. Welcome to advertising school. Don’t believe a word of it.”
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is Vivid – which conjures up images of shiny, bright, red things in my mind. These are some examples I’ve encountered on my travels. I was surprised to not find more examples from India, but that may have been because I was too busy stuffing my face with food to pay attention to photography..
Wildflower growing high up in the mountains of Peru.
Macaws eating clay – Amazon Jungle.
Buenos Aires.
Some deadly little beauties from my garden.
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