Thursday photo prompt: Fume #writephoto

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

#writephotoWelcome to this week’s writephoto prompt.

You can find all last week’s entries in the weekly round-up, which was published earlier today.

Throughout the week, I will feature as many of the responses here on the Daily Echo as time and space allows, usually in the order in which they are submitted. Please be aware that I tend to schedule reblogs in advance and these spaces fill quickly so an early submission is more likely to be reblogged.

All posts will be featured in the weekly round-up on Thursday, 9th January at 10am GMT, linking back to the original posts of contributors.

Use the image below as inspiration to create a post on your own blog… poetry, prose, humour… light or dark, whatever you choose, as long as it is fairly family-friendly.

Submit your link by noon (GMT)  Wednesday 8th January.

Link back to this post with a pingback (Hugh has an excellent tutorial here)  and/or leave a link in the comments below, to be included in the round-up.

Use the #writephoto hashtag in your title so your posts can be found.

There is no word limit and no style requirements, except that your post must take inspiration from the image and/or the prompt word in the title of the post.

Feel free to use #writephoto logo or include the prompt photo in your post if you wish, or you may replace it with one of your own to illustrate your work.

By participating in the #writephoto challenge, please be aware that your post may be featured as a reblog on this blog and I will link to your post for the round-up each week.

Regular contributors are also welcome to come over as my guest and introduce themselves (click here for details).

Please note: As I do not share my political opinions on this blog, please do not use the challenge as a platform from which to share yours. Party political or racially offensive posts will not be reblogged.

This week’s prompt ~ Fume

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a line of leaf-bare trees outlined against a pall of white smoke, brightly lit from within. The shape made by the smoke looks rather like the head of a mythical beast…

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 160 Comments

Photo prompt round-up: Offering #writephoto

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

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Become the vessel

Offering an open heart

No will but to serve

Give shape to what is given

Be shaped by the love you hold

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The photo for this week’s prompt is from an old painting of mine… an experiment with oils. I was fairly pleased with how it worked and put it on the bookshelf to dry. When my son came to visit, he actually asked for the painting… it reminded him of a book we had both loved and he wanted to take it home. That was the highest praise I could have asked for and meant more than the lucrative commissions I was getting at the time.

A few weeks later, he was in a coma and fighting for his life. This little painting that he loved sat on the table beside his bed in the high dependency unit, throughout all the months he was in hospital, along with photos of family and friends and all the small things that might help him remember who he was when he woke… and it stayed there when, miraculously, he did.

It now hangs on the wall beside his bed, a constant reminder of a journey through darkness to light.

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Thank you to everyone who took part, visited or reblogged the posts or left comments for their authors.

A new prompt will be published later today. As always, 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 next Thursday.

All the posts are listed below, so please click on the links below to read them and leave a comment for the author!

Pingbacks do not always come through… and I can miss things… 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.

An invitation to writephoto writers…

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 writers to come and introduce themselves on the blog as my guest! Click here for details.

Come and join in!

Thank you to all Contributors!

Please click the links to read and comment on the author’s site.

Rosemary Carlson, Writer

Kerfe Roig at K-Lines that aim to be

Leena at Soul Connection

Christine Bolton at Poetry for Healing

Kathy Lauren Miller at A View to a Book

Lady Lee Manila

Tanya at Salted Caramel

Willow Willers at willowdot21

Deborah at A Wise Woman’s Journey

Sitharaam Jayakumar at Jai’s Jottings

Anita from Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie

Frank J. Tassone

Paula Light at Light Motifs II

Penny Wilson Writes

Fandango at This, That and the Other

Goff James at Art, Photography and Poetry

Jane Dougherty Writes

Dr. Lim Keng Huat at wonkywizard

Jen Goldie

Neel Anil Panicker

Teresa Smeigh at Tessa can do it

Di at pensitivity101

Suzanne at Being in Nature

Jim Adams at A Unique Title for Me

Na’ama Yehuda

Anjali Sharma at Positive Side Of The Coin

Alethea Kehas at The Light Behind the Story

Sadje at Keep it Alive

Honoré Dupuis at Of Glass and Paper

Reena Saxena

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Whitby Weekend: Fantastic beasts

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

What we had really come to see at St Andrew’s church had very little to do with the church itself, except that many of the carved, tenth-century stones had been found, used long ago as building blocks within its walls. It seems almost criminal to think of such fabulous work being opportunistically ‘quarried’ from the surrounding landscape, but we know so little of the local story. The stones, though nominally Christian crosses, are carved with scenes of mythology and of the hunt… and they are classed as Viking.

The Vikings were invaders from Scandinavia. Their early incursions were short raids, but in the winter of 850, the army stayed in Britain and, over the years, their strength and presence grew. It is possible that the iconography of these eleven-hundred year old stones was seen as simply too pagan for the builders of the church. Or just inappropriate. Or perhaps it was a long memory of invasion that tore down the crosses. But as they were crosses, they became part of the church and were not simply discarded or broken. Leaving them for us, a thousand years later….curiously, just at the time when Stuart is exploring the symbolism of Norse mythology.

The crosses are distinguished simply by letters. Cross A is a ring-headed cross upon which a hunter has been carved. He is armed with a spear and the short sword known as a scramasax. He has two hunting hounds with him and below them is a majestic stag.

On the other side is one of the fabulous beasts, known as a ‘Jellinge animal’ because of its sinuous style. It appears to be some kind of serpent or dragon and it is bound. You cannot help but compare this creature, its power bound with cords, with the familiar depiction of St George, whose spear point holds the dragon. And whether you consider the dragon to represent the earth energies, the animal instincts, the unrefined ego, or… as some would have it, paganism conquered by Christianity… it is curious to contemplate the symbolic similarity.

Cross B shows a similar beast on one side, while the other shows a heavily-armed warrior with a pointed helmet. It was removed from the church wall in 1949 and is known as The Middleton Cross. You can see the different hands at work on these two crosses… one the work of a skilled stone-carver, the other rather more simplistic in style.

The third standing cross, Cross C, is badly worn but was once carved with ‘pagan animal heads’ according to the guide. The other face is still lavishly carved with interlacing.

Crosses D and E are no more than fragments, but show the same pointed helmet on the warriors as on the first two crosses. I rather like the forked beard on Cross D… it reminded me of my son, whose beard now seems to want to fork naturally… and who was called ‘le petit Viking’ by the nurses in the French hospital where he was born, for his size, blond hair and blue eyes in a land more used to dark-haired babes.

These stones are amazing to stand with… over a thousand years of history, and an insight into the art and culture of a people long ago absorbed into the life of the land in these parts. There are other stones too, fragments of decorative masonry, a stone coffin with a hogback lid… even a fireplace in the aisle that dates back to a time when it was used as a school and vestry and a trefoil doorway… Was it worth so many attempts to get in? Absolutely! But, there was still time to see one other place before we parted…

Posted in albion, archaeology, Art, Churches, History, Photography | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Realm of Dreams ~ Kathy Lauren Miller #writephoto

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

I am beckoned

Into the realm of dreams

where visions await

Continue reading at A View to a Book

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged | 2 Comments

Carried #midnighthaiku

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Seeking clarity

Sailing life’s jewelled waters

In grace and beauty

Finding peace in letting go

Carried by the flow of life

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Yvette Prior Reviews ~ Towards the Light and The Mad Quest by Trent P. McDonald

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from Priorhouse Blog:

Hello Readers,

I wanted to share my top three takeaways from Trent McDonald’s book, Towards the Light and The Mad Quest: Two Novellas – on sale here at Amazon 

Last April, I featured Trent’s book cover – here –   because the artwork reminded me of a painting by Forthemo:

Well today it is time to briefly share about the book.

Go here to see all of Trent’s books

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PRIORHOUSE TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS from Trent’s 2019 book (here): Towards the Light and The Mad Quest: Two Novellas

Continue reading at Priorhouse Blog

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Offering ~ Lady Lee #writephoto

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

An offering to share
Tell us the right and left
Surviving in this world
Grant us the peace and hope
Into the path we’re hurled

Continue reading at Lady Lee Manila

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged | 2 Comments

Looking for Templars by Brno ~ G. Michael Vasey

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from The Magical World of G. Michael Vasey:

Another term I had never entered into Google along with my location was ‘Templar’. Imagine my surprise and delight to find yet again that the Templars had been located very close to Brno! Apparently, the Templars entered Bohemia in 1231 during the reign of King Wenceslas 1 (Yes – the one who looked out on the feast of Stephen!) first establishing ‘Jerusalem’ in Prague.  Later, by 1248, they had established themselves in Moravia at Čekovice near Brno and by 1250 at Jamolice also near to Brno. How did I never know this?

At the earliest opportunity, I was off to visit one of the sites – I chose Jamolice as it happens and the ruins of the Templar Castle – Templstejn. Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much time and was dragging my reluctant daughter with me so this would just be a quick recce trip to prepare for a longer one in better weather (-1 and snowing!). As we set out and I entered it into the GPS, I realized that this site was on the banks of the River Jihlava – the same as the ancient convent of Rosa Coeli at Dolní Kounice – interesting huh?

St. Peter and St. Paul – Reznovice

Continue reading at The Magical World of G. Michael Vasey

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The Performance ~ Tanya #writephoto

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Swirling and and twirling

Her cape unfurling

Playing with light music and smoke

Continue reading at Salted Caramel

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Leave a comment

Offering ~ Willow Willers #writephoto

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Sue Vincent

The candle burned low as I sat alone contemplating my life. I was alone, cold and to be honest I was afraid. A draft caught the candle and I was in the dark. The blackness was plapable and I was enclosed in it. I could not see a hand in front of me.

It was so quiet I could hear my heart beating, it was a comforting sound, slow and rhythmic. I was totally alone, my life has always been so busy. Family, husband, children, grandchildren, friends. Where were they now. I was in need,but I was alone.

Continue reading at willowdot21

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments