100 Word Challenge - Week 74

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 104

…the extreme weather meant…

They were up early ready for their big trip. 

The car was packed apart from the last few bits to go in the final bag. As he drew back the bedroom curtains he was just starting to say that they should make the journey in good time, when he yelled out. 

Together they stood and looked at the piles and piles of snow. Looking at each other, neither admitting that they had not checked the forecast. Well the extreme weather meant a long and dangerous trip. In fact should they go at all?

Disappointed they went out to the garage to empty the car

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #74

100 Word Challenge - Week 73

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 105

…the notes from the piano…

The hotel was set in lovely grounds, and had the most beautiful gardens.  They were fortunate to have a room which gave them access via patio doors to the gardens. They locked their room and left via the patio doors. 

They walked around the pond, observing the lily pads and enjoying the evening breeze. There were some beautiful Azalea bushes displaying the most vibrant pink and purple flowers.  

In the distance they could hear the notes from the piano being played in the restaurant. They wandered up to the restaurant and were looking forward to a romantic dinner together.

It was a celebration. Happy Anniversary!

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #73

100 Word Challenge - Week 72

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 105

…you said you’d do WHAT?….

Putting the phone down he knew when he relayed what he had just offered it was going to cause a row. He moved over to the dining room table and sat down in front of his roast. He had been looking forward to it, but now didn’t fancy it.

“How was she?”, “Is she coming down?” his wife asked,

He looked up, his chicken balanced on the end of his fork.

He feeling brave, replied

“I said I would drive up and get her”

“You said what?” You do realise its 900 miles round trip.

Suddenly, the room turned chilly.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #72

100 Word Challenge - Week 71

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 103

....as midnight struck

They stood hand in hand just by the pier. Just the two of them. From where they were they would hear the bells of the church chime and they would know the New Year would be upon them. The only sounds they could hear was distant party goers and shouts of “Happy New Year” and the waves very gently lapping upon the sand on the beach.

As midnight struck, and the church bells sang they shared a very gentle kiss and they hoped that the New Year would yield much happiness and all they wished for. A bright new year was before them.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #71

100 Word Challenge - Week 69

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 100

Courtesy of Julia's Place

She was clearing away the plates from the Office party. She had been SO controlled, and had barely eaten anything. Her stomach growled in support. She had promised herself that she would loose the weight before her big date and she was determined not to fail. Truth be told, her colleagues were running a book on it.

Yet, she was SO hungry. Each time she passed the table she checked the last piece was still sitting there, begging to be eaten. She could just snaffle it as she walked pass. Could she pull it off?

Only time would tell......

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #69

100 Word Challenge - Week 65

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 100 

Copyright - Julia's Place

She walked through the dense forest, glancing over her shoulder every now and again hoping that she was not going to be spooked by someone. She glanced down at her notes and the instructions, which advised her to follow the orange dots to the secret rendezvous.

So far she had counted 9 orange dots and there didn’t seem to be any let up soon. Goodness knows how far she had walked. She hoped there would be opportunity for a sit down and a coffee at the rendezvous, but only time would tell. Of course what was the point of the secrecy?

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #65

100 Word Challenge - Week 49

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt. Total word allowance - 100 + 10 words of the prompt.

….Murray was just about to serve for the Championship when… 

The only noise on the court was the sound of the ball as it bounced against the tarmac. It has been a tough season, and here he was at the final, he could hardly believe it.

Murray was just about to serve for the Championship when he looked down and spotted a small black mark on his shorts. Suddenly his concentration was gone. Why on earth had no one said? So here he was, about to serve in what would be the highlight of this year’s tennis and he had a mark on his shorts.

Alas, the damage was done as the ball whizzed into the net. Game over.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #49

100 Word Challenge - Week 47

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following picture

The very moment I saw this prompt I was cast back to my childhood.

I have wonderful memories of my Great Aunt singing to me, complete with hand gestures.

“I am a little teapot short and stought

Here’s my handle, here's my spout,

Lift me up and pour me out”

I guess I was about two or three years old and it somehow seems rather comforting that 40 years later I remember those happy days of my childhood and wonder if my Aunt had any idea that those early memories would be with me all these years later.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #47

100 Word Challenge - Week 43

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following words.

….The flame flickered before…. 

The cellar of the church was very poorly lit. No one comes down here the Church Warden announced, you're the first, for many many years, which is why we are still using candles.

She nodded, keen to get on and read the records she was seeking. The flame flickered and then reappeared. Thankfully her pencil zipped across the page, all the while she hoped the flame would not go out.

She wrote out another few pages then the flame flickered before finally turning the cellar deadly black. As she panicked, fear rising in her throat her thoughts were “Never again”

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #43

100 Word Challenge - Week 42

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following words.

LIBERTY -  EMPIRE  - APPLE - YELLOW - ENORMOUS

They were eager to land and start exploring the delights of the City that never sleeps. The enormous guidebook sat taunting them.

Having checked into their hotel they looked at their travel list, held in a yellow filofax. In alphabetical order was a rather impressive list that included the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Icons of the big Apple. Frank Sinatra would have been so proud of their planning and organisation.

They stood on the sidewalk and simply lapped up the feel of the City. Reaching for each others hands they headed off to explore.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #42

100 Word Challenge - Week 41

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use this picture titled "Old Bones" Copyrighted to Julia (JFB57)

Doning wellington boots, they started walking through the old cemetery. She walked ahead, keen to find the headstone, to be the one to call gently “it’s here”.

Walking about the rows, reading the epitaphs and wondering who these people had been, what their lives and loves had been like.

After several hours she spotted the headstone. Not exactly how she remembered it, but it was definitely the one. She bowed her head in respect and remembrance for someone long since passed.  

Suddenly, she felt her colour drain away; for there was a small pile of bones.......

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #41

100 Word Challenge - Week 40

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt, 

RUBY

He was at the table, hoping that she would soon arrive; he was not very good at being patient. The item sat in his pocket, and it was all he could do to not take it out and have another look at it, all red and twinkly. Eventually she arrived and he was overwhelmed at her beauty. As she approached the table he stood and gently kissed her cheek. Sitting back down their fingers gently touched as they looked at each other.  

He reached into his pocket and removed the box. Slowly opening it he placed it on the table and said 

“will you”?

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #40

100 Word Challenge - Week 39

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt, 

.….I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you….

She opened the door, so glad to get home. Dumping her handbag and briefcase on the hall floor, she threw her shoes off and tweaked her toes, feeling the soft carpet. Her jacket was unceremoniously hung off the bottom of the bannister. She made her way to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

Just as she was about to mount the stairs she straightened her jacket; she would need it for tomorrow.

She lovingly kissed her husband who was leaving for a night shift then said “I won’t see you off, I'm exhausted. Shut the door behind you....

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #39

What would you choose?

Last week I read via the Prompt-ly site of a website called The Listserve. The site planned to go live at the point of having 10,000 subscribers and at the point I joined the list it had just under 12,000. The site describes itself as an email lottery. Each day a subscriber is given the platform to write whatever they wish and post to everyone who is subscribed. Once your email address has been selected to write the post for a particular day you have three days to respond.

Now, that amount of email freedom can be either used well or completely inappropriately and a whole load of stages in between. This has the potential to be a really good platform for serious, positive and thoughtful discussion. There is also the possibility of reading posts that I find unacceptable - abuse, excessive violence, post  things that are against our individual values. I guess we have to accept that in a virtual world those things happen and if that is the case then remove your email address from the list.

What though, if the post is a suicide note or a note of despair or of abuse? I don't know what the answer is. A similar debate happened regarding the Post Secret site and a great article is HERE.

A few fellow reader of the Prompt-ly site wrote a post in response, which you can read HERE. From further reading and questions it seems that the site organiser is taking responsibility if thing really do go down the pan. I hope not.

This is an opportunity, not just to write about whatever your passion or worry is, but an opportunity to perhaps influcence others and a great social experiment.

So, given this opportunity, if you could write anything that would be sent to say, a million people what would it be?

100 Word Challenge - Week 36

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt, which is 8 words long in addition to the permitted 100 words.

....."What was the rabbit late for",wondered Alice...... 

His legs were moving as fast as they could carry him. Rushing about, trampling over branches and moss. He occasionally stumbled and then succumbed to the temptation of a mouthful of the carrot he was carrying. As he chewed the wonderful tasting carrot he slowed down then suddenly increased his pace as he remembered.

It was a vicious circle, he rushed, then tripped, had a mouthful of carrot, slowed down, suddenly remembered then picked up speed, so much so that he fell over his own feet and became quite dishevelled. What a sight he looked.

Alice observed and could not help wondering, what was the rabbit late for.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #36

100 Word Challenge - Week 35

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt with no more than 100 words.

......the red box...... 

As he lifted the red box and placed it on his desk he was shacking a little inside. He knew that as he later opened the red box and subsequently read from the papers inside he would absolutely have made his mark in history. He would either be labelled the chancellor who made history or the one who damaged his career in the time it took to read the details. Either way, he was reading what he believed was absolutely the best thing to do. To be the best, you must do the right thing. There was no turning back.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #35

100 Word Challenge - Week 34

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following prompt with no more than 100 words.

......but I turned it off......

They had just sat down to eat when she felt wetness on the back of her head. When she looked up, towards the ceiling there was a dark brown patch. A further look around and she realised that the dripping had been happening for a while. Suddenly they both rushed from the table upstairs to the room above. When they entered, water was up to their knees and the bath tap was still running.

She turned to look at him and said, “but, I turned it off”

“Apparently not” he replied whilst reaching forward to the taps.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #34

100 Word Challenge - Week 33

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following picture with no more than 100 words.

Copyrighted to Julia & was taken at the Eden Project

It stood in the foyer, replicating its true graceful form.  There was something about the almost real like structure that simply made you reach out and stroke its mane and side. All at once, you can envisage it running and frolicking in the fields, enjoying rides and sugar lumps. Or perhaps simply wandering and grazing on grass and the odd daisy and buttercup; even enjoying the sunshine and life.

Suddenly, you are cast back into the here and now and realise that this wonderful structure has never frolicked in a field, munched on grass and flowers or enjoyed sugar lumps.

Copyright J Goucher - July 2011 Taken at Jersey Pottery

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #33

100 Word Challenge - Week 32

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following with no more than 100 words.

........take a leap of faith.....

They had discussed plans for the future, but……

The whole downsize, relocate and travel plans were hanging there, flapping in the breeze, just not quite within reach, but why not?  There was always, the excuses, a room needs to be decorated, or work is getting too busy to think of moving house, or there is too much sorting to be done now and what is the rush?

Then on the other hand, life is for living and you only live once, not to mention, let there be no regrets.

Sometimes, a leap of faith is all that is needed.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #32
Submitted to what is set to be the biggest blogging event of the year - Feb29th.net

100 Word Challenge - Week 31

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following with no more than 100 words.

........the flip side.....

She wandered into the bookshop and drifted along the bookshelves, occasionally touching the spine of a book or selecting a book to read the back cover. She stopped at a large display in the centre of the store and debated whether or not to purchase the hardback tome in front of her. She thought back to all the books she had already, on bursting shelves and toppling piles at home.

She reached into her bag and extracted a coin. The flip side must land on heads for her to buy the book. A few moments later she headed to the till.

Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #31