*

Judged by appearance

Popular misconception

Defines perception

Too many stereotypes

Inciting blind prejudice

*

The photo for this week’s prompt was taken in Chalfont St Giles, on the village green, outside Merlin’s Cave… which is not a historic site, but simply a pub. The photo had a little help from editing software to make it more prompt-worthy, as it was taken on a sunny day, but it was the sign that caught my attention. The village does a nice line in signs.

We were in Chalfont St Giles because of the church and it was definitely one of our most self-conscious ‘raids’. Having unsuccessfully attempted to get in on a number of occasions, we had arrived to finally find the church open… and just a few minutes before a wedding was about to begin. About to beat a retreat, the bride’s brother invited us in… and the vicar interrupted rehearsing the groom to point out some of the things we should look at.

Blown away by the subjects depicted in the medieval wall paintings, we were sent to look at the corbels in the chancel, including the ‘hart in hand’ that illustrates the legend of St Giles. It is an incredible little church, and one where we found the ‘signs’ that led us to some startling ideas… We did go back for another look, without the wedding, but it was that first visit that put the place in the gazetteer of one of our books…

Where Milton wrote of Paradise, Salome dances still,
and holds the platter while the Jester moves in for the kill.
The walls tell many stories, some forgotten, some unknown,
the paint depicts the legends, but the tenderness is stone.
Look up, above the altar, and in Saint Giles loving hold,
a story of compassion for a fellow heart is told.
The King sent out his hunters, but the arrow’s flight is blind,
the wound was in the saintly hand protective of the hind.

From The Initiate

*

Thank you so much to everyone who took part this week and apologies for the couple of quiet days on reblogs while I was away.

All the posts are listed below, so please click on the links to read them and leave a comment for the author. Thank you too, to everyone who reblogged the prompt, round up and the individual resposes.

A new prompt will be published later today. I will reblog as many contributions as space and time allows, as they come in… and all of them will be featured in the round-up on Thursday.

Pingbacks do not always come through… and I can miss things too, so if you have written a post for this challenge and it does not appear in the round-up, please leave a link to your post in the comments and I will add it to the list.

A Reminder and an invitation

As there are usually too many contributions to reblog all of them every week, and so that we can get to know their writers, I would like to invite all writephoto regulars to come and introduce themselves on the blog as my guest! ‘Regulars’ does not mean you have to take part every week… Click here for details

Come and join in!

Please leave your comments for the contributors

Yellowstylo

Di at pensitivity101

Ritu Bhathal at But I Smile Anyway

Sadje at Keep it Alive

Teresa Smeigh

Jewel Ingalls at The Gist

Reena Saxena

Kim M. Russell at Writing in North Norfolk

James Pyles at Powered by Robots

Bladud Fleas at The Moon is Rising

Tina Stewart Brakebill

and a second from Tina

Trent P. McDonald at Trent’s World

Iain Kelly

Suzanne at Being in Nature

Geoff Le Pard at Tangental

Sisyphus at Of Glass and Paper

Willow Willers at willowdot21

Anjali Sharma at Positive Side Of The Coin

Sangbad at Thoughts of Words

Jane Dougherty Writes

Ramyani Bhattacharya at Panache

Fandango at This, That and the Other

The Dark Netizen

Daisybala at freshdaisiesdotme

Ennle Madresan at Abandoned Amenities

K. D. Dowdall

Lady Lee Manila

Roberta Eaton at Roberta Writes

Linda Lee Lyberg at Charmed Chaos

Dorinda Duclos at Night Owl Poetry

Anita from Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie

Michael at Morpeth Road

Kyt Wright

Diana Wallace Peach at Myths of the Mirror

Christine Bolton at Poetry for Healing

Jo Hawk

Kerfe Roig at methodtwomadness

Frank Prem

Hayley R. Hardman at The Story Files

Sascha Darlington

Hélène Vaillant at Willow Poetry

Anneberly Andrews

Michele Jones at Out of the Shadows

Janette Bendle at What She Wrote