Flowers – Page 7 – Musings from the cold

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Image• Posted on March 24, 2016April 27, 2016 by Sharon

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Image• Posted on March 23, 2016 by Sharon

Photography

Winter garden

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Sharon

Tim seemed to think that I might be at a bit of a loss on my day off, particularly as I have no study to do, so he asked me to take a photo of one of the two roses in bloom in the back garden.

He was right. I was at a bit of a loss, so into the cold I headed and went in search of roses. It was a bit windy, and that always makes taking macro shots of flowers challenging, but the biggest challenge was trying to keep my hands still.

It was freezing and I was shivering so much that I couldn’t hold the camera still.

I hadn’t used my 90mm Tamron (macro) lens in absolutely ages, and for a while couldn’t remember how to switch it to auto focus. Eventually I worked it out, but then discovered that I’m so used to manual focus that I couldn’t use it in auto. I switched it back to manual and tried to time to shaking to the movement from the wind. I suppose I could have used the tripod … hindsight’s a wonderful thing!

Anyway, here are two shots from my winter garden.

Writing

Flower/story challenge – Day 6

Posted on November 28, 2012November 28, 2012 by Sharon

[Day 6 of seven]

Is it really day 6, or do I have my days confused? That’s highly likely you know!

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Today’s flower shot comes from my backyard. When we moved into the house three years ago, I was delighted to discover a lovely pink rose growing beside the clothes line, squashed into the fence by a rhododendron bush.

I have better photos of this particular rose bush, but I quite like the light on this one, so it will do for today’s stimulus.

Today, the challenge is to use the word ‘rose’ in the story somewhere. It doesn’t have to be referring to the flower, it could be something along the lines of ‘Jim rose from the chair … ‘, or ‘The bread rose gently …’ or ‘Rose wandered lonely as a breadcrumb through the aisles of a deserted theatre.’

It’s entirely up to you how you use the word in your 60-80 word story!

I look forward to your unbridled creativity.

Learning, Writing

Flower/story challenge

Posted on November 24, 2012November 25, 2012 by Sharon

[Day 2 of seven]

Before I start today’s blog I want to say how impressed I am with the stories that emerged from yesterday’s flower-story challenge. They were diverse, succinct, used the boundaries cleverly, and showed imagination and thoughtfulness. Thanks to all those who created a story, I really enjoyed reading them.

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Character.

Plot.

Setting.

These are the three main characteristics of a story. Many authors will develop characters as the starting point of their novels (and some will go to great lengths to learn as much as they can about their characters), some authors will write plot-driven stories (many authors who write for boys will begin with plot – the action of the story). Fewer authors will start with setting, but some do so to great effect – think Nadia Wheatley and Jeannie Baker.

The challenge today, if you choose to accept it, is to write a 50-word story with one of those characteristics in mind. Which one will you use as a starting point?

Here’s your flower stimulus … have fun!