Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesdays, assorted people have been taking monthly turns at putting up a selection of words which is called “Words for Wednesday”.

We have taken over this meme from Delores, who had been having computer problems.

This month the meme continues here, at Hannah’s blog

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write.   

Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or images.   What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...

Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.  We would really like it if as many people as possible joined in with this fun meme.

If you are posting on your own blog - let us know so that we can come along and read your masterpiece.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. whimsy

2. shadows

3. fluttering

4. untied

5. ice cubes

6. sunbeams

also this image :

which I wasn't able to use :(

Here is my short story:

 We all sat around on the grass leading down to the dock, some of us in lawn chairs in the shadows, the younger kids running around throwing ice cubes at each other. 

We were waiting for Uncle Ben and Aunty Kath. They'd bought a houseboat and had her refitted, repainted and renamed; their plan was to run her up and down as many rivers as they could, using up their retirement years. Today was the day the new name was to be unveiled.

There'd been a barbecue lunch earlier and a blustery breeze had set the jaunty banners fluttering, where they were strung across the roof of the boat. She was a grand old thing, with berths for six, so when they came to visit whichever one of us was nearest to whatever river they were on, grandkids, nieces and nephews could take turns sleeping on the river. 

Most of us lived near one or other of the major rivers, using the water to irrigate our veggie beds and fruit orchards. We'd all been river people all our lives, not a single one of us had any urge to move to the city or the outback. 

The sun was beginning to set and sunbeams speared through clouds gathering on the horizon, before Uncle Ben and Aunty Kath arrived. 

We called everyone together and moved to the end of the dock where Uncle Ben, with a flourish, untied the banner covering her new name.

And there it was, in fancy lettering, teal with gold edging, "The Whimsy." We all cheered and laughed, remembering the day Aunty Kath had ranted about "Ben's latest crazy whim", then when she saw the boat she had been as smitten as he was about spending their retirement on the rivers they both loved.