Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Sean Jeating and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. barely 2. bird 3. keep 4. simply 5. too 

and/or: 

1. breath 2. calm 3. silent 4. soon 5. wood

also included is Charlotte's colour of the month: dahlia yellow

Here is my story:

Browned from the sun, wrinkled and dry from the latest drought, the old man might have been carved from the same wood as the verandah post he leaned against. The sun had set, but there was still light, plenty of it in this wide brown land. The evening was silent and calm, not even a peep from the bird life that somehow managed to survive. It was simply too hot to go inside, so the old man stood, watching and waiting. “Soon,” he thought, “it must come soon, I will keep watch a little longer.”

The once green landscape had yellowed to an ochre shade, reminding him of the yellow dahlias his wife had planted almost half a century ago.

And then he saw it, barely there, a baby’s breath of movement in the treetops. It was enough to satisfy him. The rains were on their way. “A week,” he thought, “maybe ten days. The rains will come.”

Comments

  1. The rains are coming here today.

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    Replies
    1. Mike; they always turn up somewhere eventually.

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  2. This is lovely. I hope that a lifetime of experience means he is right too.

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    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child; the old ones who have spent a lifetime in the outback are usually right

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  3. jabblog; I have lost your comment, it was in spam and I clicked the tick to publish but it vanished.

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    1. That's odd because I haven't commented on this post and just came here to do so. Blogger's mad!
      Anyway, I just wanted to say that I liked your story and I loved the phrase 'a baby’s breath of movement in the treetops.' Janice from jabblog

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    2. jabblog; perhaps I deleted a comment from an older post, they sometimes show up in spam. Thank you.

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  4. Very well written again.
    I know you don´t watch Gilmore Girls, but Lorelai can smell when snow is on the way and she is always right.
    Weather is so crazy. Some have too little rain, others drown.
    Our region luckily is quite safe...

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    Replies
    1. Iris; thank you. I agree weather is crazy and it has got crazier with too many floods and droughts in places that don't need them, then there's the earthquakes. I would like to be able to tell when rain is coming.

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  5. He's better than a TV weatherman!

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    Replies
    1. Val; old outback Aussies usually are, they're like those people who say "it's going to rain because my hip is aching" or something similar. When you live outback with no other distractions you get a feel for the weather I guess and can tell when a change is coming.

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  6. Replies
    1. Dora; I think it grows everywhere, I used to have some in a garden way back when I was about twenty.

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  7. When I was ill with COVID24, I could barely eat like a small bird. I struggled to keep food down and was simply too nauseous to move from my armchair. Each breath was a struggle and I needed to be calm and silent for soon I expected to be placed in a casket made of wood - sprayed dahlia yellow as detailed in my last will and testament.

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    1. Yorkshire Pudding; Covid 24! I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that. I think a dahlia yellow casket would be pretty.

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  8. This was ... is ... just excellent. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Sean Jeating; thank you. And thank you for the words this month.

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  9. Well done, excellent detail. I do hope, for his sake, the rains do come.

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    Replies
    1. messymimi; thank you. The rains do come as they always do eventually though it might be years between each rainfall. Drought is very common in outback Australia.

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