Showing posts with label Outdoors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Outdoors. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 April 2009

Entry for WAG 8. Writing Adventure Group

This is my first submission for the Writing Adventure Group. I have put the instructions for the challenge at the end of the post.

Beautiful Brock

Edward was almost sick when he first saw it. The sight unnerved him and squashed the thought of breakfast after his daily walk through the woods. Brock was dead. How could anything so beautiful now look so disgusting? He must have been caught by a speeding car as he tried to cross the road. What a waste!

The next day it was even worse, but Edward was captivated. The crows had taken the eyes and magpies had torn at the innards. At least poor Brock had given a few feathered friends a hearty feast.

On the third day he was covered in flies and bluebottles. The noise and smell of death hung in the breeze as they crawled on the rotting flesh and buzzed in the air around him. He almost seemed alive again.

A week later poor Brock was empty. He’d fed a few birds, and been recycled into maggots and worms. They in turn had fed more badgers and would help the set survive the winter. Now what remained would put a smile on the faces of the children at the local school.

Edward picked up what was left of poor Brock – some bleached bones and a dried and wizen pelt in almost perfect condition. He popped him into the canvas bag that he’d brought especially from home. Later that day he would go into town and take it to the taxidermist who would resurrect him as he once was. Handsome Brock, a proud teenage badger.


Instructions for WAG #8 – Rose Coloured Glasses

Go out and choose an unfamiliar object (in other words, one you have no history with) that strikes you as ugly, repulsive, annoying, etc. Some ideas might be: a wad of squashed gum on the pavement, a dead squirrel on the side of the road, an ugly sign, a loud construction site, a tacky sculpture in a charity shop. Write about it in such as way as to make it appealing to your reader. Really sell it! Use whatever words you want and cheat as much as you want, but do your best!



Thursday, 19 March 2009

Outdoor Inspiration

The other day I walked a mile or two of the North Worcestershire Way in the sunshine. As I meandered along I came across a cottage set back from the lane and up a unkempt path. It inspired me to write this piece. Maybe I'll use it as the beginning of a story.


Yew Tree Cottage

Janice frowned. Yew tree cottage wasn’t anything like she’d imagined. The yew was small and dwarfed by a large monkey puzzle tree, which was the centre-piece of the front garden. As she walked slowly up the path in trepidation she stared at the dilapidated cottage and wondered if she’d got the right place.

The blue paint had almost completely peeled off the wooden window frames and the once white-washed walls were green with mildew. The garden looked no better. A windowless wooden framed greenhouse surrounded by brambles and stinging nettles. And it looked as though the silver birch in the corner was the only thing holding it up.

She stopped in front of the wooden panelled door and looked for the bell. There was none, nor even a knocker. She banged on the door timidly with the side of her right hand and watched the flecks of blue paint fall onto the stone flags. Taking two steps back she waited. The door opened slowly and she glimpsed a withered old man in the dim light. She heard him croak, ‘Come in my dear, let me put the kettle on.’


(200 words)