PLEASE NOTE - Comments are regularly not posted, they are put in "Spam jail". I try my best to free them as soon as possible and to notify Blogger each and every time. But I have to eat, sleep and in general do other things. sorry.
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This meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.
Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.
And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.
This post goes live at 16.01 Tuesday my time. I have found out - hopefully now correct - that this is when Wednesday begins in Canberra.
For today the prompt are:
Fish
Kettle
Black
Human
Cloister
Serene
And/or
Flagstone
Quarry
Bush
Rowan
Finnish
Mango
Thank you for providing the prompts this month.
SvarSletThanks - I made these prompts back in December last yar, when accepting to provide them, so they are as new for me as for anybody else.
SletI hope you can use them.
My story is over here.
SletHere's mine and thanks for hosting Charlotte. I honour my daughter's late great Mango with this story. All prompts and colour used.
SvarSlet-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mango was a cat of uncertain heritage, an extraordinary shade of caramel with delicate pale ivory stripes and a jet black tail.He was serene of character and treated his human with respect as his affinity for fresh fish was acknowledged frequently.
His human had a large black old cast iron kettle at the corner of her flagstoned cloister under the Finnish rowan tree with the intention of using it as a planter but Mango made his intentions clear. This would be where he would catch his daytime naps.
He would keep his eye on the bush above the neighbouring quarry where a bluebird mocked him every morning. One day, he would show that bird a thing or two but now? There was a fully bellyful of fish to snore off.
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XO
WWW
A nice tribute to a sweet feline. Thank you.
SletWisewebwoman: I love this. What a beautiful tribute to a cat shoe I suspect was a much loved boy.
SletWWW; this is lovely, thank you.
SletI love cat stories like yours!!
SletWell done WWW - loved it ... I also love cat stories - cheers Hilary
SletA cat named Mango...and a mocking blue bird. Great Wisewebwoman
SletNicely done! A full cat usually won't bother hunting.
SletHa ha, Mary! Did I ever tell you are glorious?
SletHi Charlotte - here are mine ... one for each set of words ...
SvarSletWhy on earth the kettle ever called the pot black is buried in ancient history … humans when they came out of their cloisters were peaceful and so forever after called the kettle pale ivory pot serene! I don't think this brilliant idiom has entered into folklore ... ?!
The rowan trees and bushes, ubiquitously known in Finnish literature, could always been seen above the mango coloured quarry, especially when the berries were bright red – and then when they fell onto the pale ivory flagstones stained them bloody red.
Cheers - and I'll be back to read soon - Hilary
Thank you for these takes on the words, I enjoyed them.
SletHilary Melton-Butcher: And now my mind is wondering... Thank you.
SletWell done Hilary, intriguing.
SletXO
WWW
Rowan trees are Finnish? I did not know that.
SletInteresting story Hillary. Thank you very much!
SletYou always do it well, Hilary.
SletGood job with the prompts Hilary. I can just picture those stained flagstones.
SletHi River - thankfully I am right (almost!) ... they are found in Scandinavia, Northern Europe and mountain regions ... cheers Hilary.
SletThanks everyone ...
Well, you did it! nd with Rowan trees included. I'm impressed.
SletVery good take on the prompts.
SletHumans are a weird lot. We focus on our differences, forgetting that we have many more similarities. We all need to eat, but our preferences vary. I love a mango, and my partner says they remind him of furry tennis balls. I suspect that the Finnish people have elegant pale ivory skin in winter (and I hope summer). The people of my country often choose to bake themselves in the sun until they turn not black, but certainly the dark brown of leather (with much the same texture).
SvarSletThe serenity of a cloister appeals to me with flagstone walks, smoothed and polished by gentle footsteps across the ages. I can see myself there, admiring the rowan tree and sniffing at the scent of bushes as I wander by.
And yet I know that for some that would be a foretaste of hell and their ideal is a very different kettle of fish. Their quarry is not peace, but excitement and they cannot wait to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
To each their own.
Nicely done EC and I do wish people would focus more on similarities instead of differences. I brown up every summer even without the baking, just walking to and from the shops is enough.
SletI loved your story Elephant Child so much.
SletEspecially the principle that we should focus on our similarities.
Thank you very much!
Wonderful, Sue. Now if only we can all learn to celebrate diversity and not see it as a source of animosity we’ll be a whole sight better off.
SletHi EC - well done ... I can certainly see your story as it might have happened ... if only we could be peaceful and serene - cheers Hilary
SletGreat job EC. Wow you made excellent use of the prompts.
Slet"A furry tennis ball" Hehe, I love mangoes and like you I find people to be more alike than different.
SletYes - I should have mentioned the mango 'note' ... not furry and I love them!! Cheers H
SletYou hit this one out of the ballpark, Sue! Great job.
SletGood story, Sue. Agreed!
SletThe last four words ... hm ... surprised / irritated me, though.
" The common German translation of the phrase – Jedem das Seine – was written on the main gate of Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald [...]".
Like you, I'd want the quiet of a cloister, at least part of the time. You really nailed this one.
SletSean Jeating: I did not know that and would not have used that phrase if I had.
SletSean Jeating: I am not offended but horrified (given that my father was a German Jew) to use a phrase appropriated by the Nazis.
SletPlease, do not feel offended, Sue. I am not attacking Platon, but the Nazis!!!
SletA lovely take EC, I do love mangoes as well. And the sun can have devastating effects on our bodies.
SvarSletXO
WWW
Interesting mix of words, I'll have to do some thinking. I like your new header picture.
SvarSletThank you on both accounts. Normally I change my header more often, but I forgot.
SletInteresting words Charlotte,
SvarSletas well as color.
I'll try to write a story as well and come back with links!
Thanks a lot, you really provide us with nice stimuli to write about!
Thank you, I look forward to seeing where the words will take you.
SletIngrid was a novitiate and wondered what KETTLE of FISH she had landed herself in. A couple of bad FINNISH winters with failed romance hardly seemed to justify this extreme. Her BLACK robes mirrored her depression. She was HUMAN, clearly unsuited for life in these CLOISTERS, and however much she was supposed to feel SERENE she didn’t. The Mother Superior, with a face like a ripe MANGO, told her that she was having normal doubts, but that God would show her the way along the FLAGSTONES of virtue, devotion and chastity. Chastity! She longed for the company of a man. Even the thrushes in the ROWAN feeding on berries didn’t lack for the opposite sex, and flaunted it vigorously. Ingrid had picked up a lucky stone in the QUARRY this morning. Imagine that! A would-be nun carrying a lucky stone, when the rock in the sky was supposed to tell all. She scurried out of the dining hall before anyone noticed and went outside behind a BUSH to plan her departure. She clutched her lucky stone and simply walked out the gates. That seemed to be the easiest way out, with no explanations necessary. She was sure to be able to get a ride to her mom’s place. After all, who wouldn’t pick up a nun? And maybe Olaf was ready to make up after all. Life was looking better already.
SvarSletDavid M. Gascoigne: I really like this - and love that she found a lift home so easily...
SletI should give up blogging in English.
SletExcellent, David.
They should not have taken her, fresh from a heartbreak, and they're not supposed to. I'm glad she left. Nicely told!
SletRunning away form something is always a bad reason to enter a religious life - I'm happy she realised so soon.
SletGreat fun David - excellent tale relative to the words provided ... you certainly brought to life where the poor novitiate had landed herself ... I sure hope Olaf will help her return to life outside the cloisters. Cheers Hilary
SletTerrific take on the words, intereringly enough I am editing another writer's nun's story at the moment. Not as dramatic as yours but fraught as these events. I love how she "went pagan" as we say back home.
SvarSletXO
WWW
Imagine a serene Finnish man in a flagstoned quarry discovering a manga (not a mango!) showing a kettle of fish flying over a rowan bush near a monastery.
SvarSletUff! monastery = cloister
SletYou did this very well! Please do not give up blogging in English, you do a fabulous job, much better than I would do with Spanish (the language I've studied).
SletSean Jeating: I prefer mangoes to manga - but can see the one you have described - and it would make me smile. Broadly.
SletHehe, this made me see some funny pictures for my inner eye!
SletFun Sean ... no worries re the monastery, or a cloister within said monastery ... cheers Hilary
SletFish Kettle Black
SvarSletI want to go back!
To being Human and
Serene in my private Cloister
Cloudia: I am not always sure that I want to be human - but a private cloister sounds good.
SletI'd like to be serene in my private cloister as well - but I think I'd miss my family, so maybe not. Being Human - we can't avoid.
SletI hope wishing on a fish kettle works for you. That's a fun use of the prompts.
SletI sure hope there are wishes within your Fish Kettle Black ... cheers Hilary
SletMy story is on my blog tomorrow.
SvarSletRiver: I have read and enjoyed it.
SletAs the human sat in the serene cloister cooking their fish in a black kettle, it started to rain.
SvarSletMike: Hopefully not before the fish was cooked.
SletWell done, nice shortie. I hope the fish was cooked anyway.
SletInside with your cooked fish supper is a good place to be during rain.
SletI'm a little late but here's my take on the prompts: Fiction: The Girl in the Closet.
SvarSletYour choice of prompts is unusual and challenging but it's good, helps the wheels in my brain turn a bit more. Thanks for providing the prompts.
Have a lovely day
Better late than never - I find my own words challenging and inspiring, but never get to writing because life happens.
SletThanks for writing and wisiting!