Dale offers the prompt “looking up” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
As it turns out recently there was a total eclipse of the moon. The only problem was it would occur about 5 am. So I set the alarm. The next problem I had not anticipated was clouds, but even the clouds cooperated enough. Then I wondered if my phone could get clear enough images.
Anyway, here are the best of the lot including one from the moonrise a few hours earlier.
Once upon a time there was an ever-growing clan of pigeons who found the statue of the lad and the big bad wolf as attractive as the photographers who featured photos of it everywhere. It was a beautiful bronze color, that is, it was until the pigeons did what they normally do when they float over your head and take aim.
Over the years people thought the spots turned the statue into a magical masterpiece that the town council – to save funds – cheerfully agreed to leave uncleaned. Eventually all that the tourists who came looking for the statue could find was a huge whitish gray, compost wannabe pile that the pigeons kept contributing to.
Thankfully most tourists thought the artistic touch added by the pigeons was even more impressive than the original statue which was no longer visible. By doing nothing the town found itself living happily ever after.
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Denise offers “float” as the prompt word for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Dale offers the prompt “first signs of spring” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I can’t tell which season it is where I am now except by where the sun sets in the west.
Regardless what it is actually doing the sun keeps moving across the horizon back and forth throughout the year.
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YES, it can!
In the following video Henry B. Smith, Jr from the Associates for Biblical Research interviews Bryan Windle who provides a top ten list of archeological discoveries that justify taking the book of Esther in the Bible as actual history.
As a conclusion, Windle quotes Karen H. Jobes’ NIV Application Commentary on the book of Esther:
Judaism and Christianity rest not on the inward, mystical journey of the mind and soul of the individual, but on events in history through which the Creator-Redeemer God revealed himself to people.
Biblical narratives such as Esther are the record of those events in the form of story. Purim would be a hollow religious celebration if the Jews in Persia had not truly been delivered from destruction.
Once upon a time, after the lad-wolf incident, Save The Wolf Foundation got a few votes too many in a low turnout election (except for all the dead people who miraculously voted) for seats on the town council. As the new majority they immediately demanded that a statue be set up to honor the big bad wolf who was brutally, but deliciously, barbequed.
This plan didn’t fly well with the majority of the (living) town folk – like maybe 100% of them – who now regretted not voting because they figured no one in his right mind would vote for Save The Wolf (as indeed no one in his right mind did). Threatened to be ousted in the next election – which would be watched like a hawk – Save The Wolf compromised enough to permit the town council to commission a statue of the lad with the big bad wolf chewing his leg.
After the statue was erected the town became a notorious tourist attraction drawing visitors from far and wide who wanted to see the statue that no one in his right mind would have erected. Anyone who could find a way to profit from this unexpected popularity by delaying the tourists’ stay with some lucrative lad-wolf amusement lived happily ever after.
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Denise offers “fly” as the prompt word for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Dale offers the prompt “the path to…” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Just some images of the path along the beach. There is sand, shells and birds. There is even an umbrella.
Keep walking. The path to the beach leads to more beach.
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All of these limericks were originally posted to either Esther Chilton’s Laughing Along With A Limerick or her Writing Prompts or derived from those posts during the month of February 2026.
Crazy Or Calm
“Are you crazy?” Not yet. I’m just calm
like a rash that is itching for balm
like a thought I won’t think
like a word with a wink
like a heart beating true in your palm.
Prompt word: “calm” February 2, 2026
Flying
“I am flying. I’m trying. OK?”
said the bird to his mama one day.
Then she jumped in the nest.
Pushed the chick out. The rest
is now history. He’s flying. OK?
Prompt word: “flying” February 4, 2026
Poisoned Apple
There once was a queen who thought she
was the loveliest queen that could be
till Snow White came along.
Though that apple was wrong,
the queen’s gone, right or wrong, thankfully.
Prompt word: “apple” February 9, 2026
Talking While Driving Is Driving Me Nuts
I could drive, but I’d much rather walk.
I could fly, if I could, like a hawk.
Since I know that a lie
makes a mess, I will try
not to lie, but beware when I talk.
Prompt word: “drive” February 11, 2026 (modified)
Deep Thoughts On Dim Light
The dim light wasn’t bright as was right.
Were it bright I would dim it at night,
but it’s day, as we say
when dark night goes away,
when the sun that’s not dim is quite bright.
Prompt word: “dim” February 16, 2026
Unrighteous Memories
Those odd memories refuse to stop
like a judge seeking justice on top
of your case every day.
All your lawyer need say,
He’s now righteous. So, let the case drop.
Prompt word: “memories” February 18, 2026
The Worry Wart Time Machine
All my worries are worrying fast.
They have cast into now what was past,
but today is today
and the past’s gone away
so this worrisome present can’t last.
Prompt word: “cast” February 23, 2026 (slightly modified)
Lacking A Taste For Mushy Stuff
So I told him it’s better to write
a love poem than whine through the night.
But his taste wasn’t for
all that mushy stuff or
he got wrong what he wouldn’t get right.
Prompt word: “taste” February 25, 2026
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 