Category: Photography

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Take a Hike

Dale offers the prompt “take a hike” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

I begin the hike by crossing Regent Parkway. I go up and down many hills because this part of South Carolina is not the plains, but more like the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, or some other mountains, I don’t know which.

After following the trail (or sidewalk) I reach a park. Soon I reach my neighbor’s flower garden. Then I wander down the neighborhood street until I reach the entrance to the abandoned golf course.

There is a (very) steep incline which I normally wouldn’t take except today I’m giving a tour. Then I follow the cement trail making sure I avoid any snakes needlessly sunning themselves. Then I reach the pond with the ruined structures.

And then I’m back home.

We have crossed Regent Parkway and are on the sidewalk lining that road.
Now we are at the park with Regent Parkway to the right.
A sunflower that is no longer in bloom, but producing seeds in my neighbor’s garden.
The steep incline. The top in the picture is not the top.
If you survived the incline, here is a view of the top.
A view of the pond.
On the way down the hill there are some ruins such as this one.
On the way home there are wild blackberries.
I bring some home for my wife.

Six Sentence Story: Blue Sky, Green Grass

Jeffrey lay on a sofa in the student lounge of the University of Noital with his mind full of sleepy sky-is-blue-grass-is-green dreams. He knew he had an assignment, due that afternoon, to write a six sentence story using the word “minute”, but, as usual, he preferred dreaming about the assignment being done rather than getting up and doing it.

Eventually he got so tired of being tired that he chased his dreams away, sat upright on the sofa, opened his laptop and typed: “The sky is blue.” He added, because he needed more than one sentence: “The grass is green.” Hoping it might encourage some stray muse to have pity on him, he wrote the last sentence next: “The End.”

Then Jeffrey closed his laptop and lay back down on the sofa as his sleepy dreams returned to remind him like a nagging conscience annoyed with having been pushed away earlier, “Don’t forget to use that word minute in your story”.

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Denise offers the prompt word “minute” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Say Hello To Summer

Dale offers the prompt “say hello to summer” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

On my walks in the neighborhood one of my neighbors has an amazing flower garden. I often stop by to take a few photos.

Here are some of the many flowers in his garden.

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Sunflower with bee
Another flower
And a bunch more

Six Sentence Story: The Doctors Of Nescience

Philip decided to start a company that would produce deceptively engaging nonsense for video channels. He hired his colleagues from the University of Noital each a renowned Doctor of Nescience to build the content. Being congenitally unemployable they were surprised to find themselves suddenly working.

The company was so successful that after many years of faithfully rigging the books, Philip’s CFO reported that profits exceeded expectations for the tenth quarter in a row. However, when the CFO demanded a bigger cut of the faked profits Philip, who failed himself to get a degree in nescience, took the company to the next level by firing the entire board of directors.

That was when Philip realized that he had acquired enough expertise twisting stuff to pitch it all and trash the books himself.

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Denise offers the prompt word “pitch” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: North, South, East and West

Dale offers the prompt “north, south, east, west” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Now, I can’t keep my lefts and rights straight so I hope what I label as north, south, east and west doesn’t get confused as well.

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EAST: Looking toward the Atlantic Ocean on the bridge connecting Bal Harbor and some other place I can’t remember the name of.
WEST: The water is the Intracoastal Waterway
NORTH: The door to the stairs at the place we stayed at in Florida
SOUTH: But the bird is facing west

Six Sentence Story: The Mousetrap of the Misguiding Muse

Bob told everyone he followed the Bible as closely as the next guy. However, when he read something he didn’t like, on those rare occasions when he read the Bible at all, the muse guiding his philosophical wanderings soothed his mind with a strand of myth, mystery and misinterpretation.

Nonetheless God enjoyed listening to Bob, because when the muse ran Bob’s mouth God couldn’t stop laughing (I mean He could stop but – you know – why would He want to). When Bob died, God looked forward to meeting him so He could ask him some trick questions just to hear how his muse might respond.

Unfortunately, right at the last moment, just outside the Pearly Gates and in spite of all the warning signs, the muse guiding Bob’s philosophical wanderings led him to that omnivorous, omni-awesome black hole, so logically logical that even Lucifer could get used to living there. Then, as Bob gazed down, deep, and ever deeper into the bottomless pit, the mousetrap snapped taking Bob with it into that dark abyss where some say not even light can escape if there were any light down there to try.

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Denise offers the prompt word “strand” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Bridges

Dale offers the prompt “bridges” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Below are pictures of two bridges in Prague that I took last summer.

The first two show up close views of part of two statues on the Charles Bridge. The last shows another bridge in the distance with swans.

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From the Charles Bridge in Prague: a mixture of part of a statue on the bridge and scenery
Part of another statue on the Charles Bridge with a building in the background
If you ignore the swans, in the distance is a bridge, not the Charles Bridge because there aren’t any statues on it, but still in Prague