The exercise:
Our four lines of prose this week shall, in some minor or major way, involve something that is: yellow.
T'was a quick pick this morning, as things in the garden are really slowing down. Besides apples, all we're bringing to the market tomorrow are peppers, eggplant, ornamental squash, zucchini, patty pans, pumpkins, and potatoes.
At least it won't take long to set the stall up :)
Oh yeah, I promised a bird picture today. So here you go, one I took a while back but never got around to posting - and it even fits today's theme:
Our four lines of prose this week shall, in some minor or major way, involve something that is: yellow.
T'was a quick pick this morning, as things in the garden are really slowing down. Besides apples, all we're bringing to the market tomorrow are peppers, eggplant, ornamental squash, zucchini, patty pans, pumpkins, and potatoes.
At least it won't take long to set the stall up :)
Oh yeah, I promised a bird picture today. So here you go, one I took a while back but never got around to posting - and it even fits today's theme:
Mine:
He'd painted the walls of the spare room yellow the day after their doctor had confirmed a little girl was on the way. As soon as the walls were dry he'd put up posters of princesses and unicorns, and began constructing a crib he'd seen in a magazine. His wife had to drag him out of there just to have dinner every night.
But he never set foot in that room again after the car accident.
When she was seven her favorite yellow sundress had an empire waist line and thin straps that tied in a bow. The bodice was decorated with three embroidered flowers and the hem fell to her knees with a white eyelet lace poking out under the ruffle.
ReplyDeleteHe was sitting on his porch drinking from a large cup as the kids walked home from school and he called out at them being rude an offensive. When she got home the yellow dress was tossed in the far dark corner of her closet never to be worn again.
@Vicki: that's a sad little piece; a dress loved enough to be described like that thrown away on the strength of words!
ReplyDelete@Marc: I hope that if you've got less to take to market then you get away a little earlier and have an afternoon for yourselves.
Another quite bittersweet piece! Shakespeare claimed that yellow was the colour of melancholy, and it does seem to be bringing that out in posts today!
[Eensy-weeny correction for you: in your last line I think you mean either stepped or set instead of step.]
Yellow
Charles Asciugimento, Head of Building Security, watched the security cameras intently. His eyes tracked a short, oddly graceful figure as she walked across the lobby -- it was true, Bad Kitty was in the building. His finger hovered over a polychrome keypad as he debated what level alert to declare -- burnt sienna, ochre, umber, viridian, vermilion? No, some variety of yellow...ah, gamboge of course.
Marc – I almost didn’t notice about the bird in the picture. It is almost in a camouflaged mode. It feels like the bird is having some deep thoughts, maybe thinking about moving somewhere. I like the positioning of the sunflower in the picture; it did look like a driving force for the bird.
ReplyDeleteYour prose did have the feel of bittersweet like what Greg mention. I think it is nicely done :)
Vicki – I like the imaginary of your prose. The words that you have used seem to bring out that whole story nicely. :)
Greg – ah, I enjoy reading that, I like your last verse in particular :)
Mine:
Everyday when i look up into the sky directly into the sun, yellow is the only color that reminds me of the start of a brand new day.
Yellow sunlight that emits from the sun is kind of differentiating between day and night and so we can tell day and night easily ever since.
The mother earth never fails to amaze me when it is filled with yellow during sunrise and sunset.
Personally, I think that yellow is a color that brings life and is a sign of happiness.
marc, i love zucchini, i love peppers and i love eggplant but i hate pumpkin. this has to be a really big farm!
ReplyDeletethe last sentence of your piece felt like ice-cold water that suddenly got flashed on my face: sheer shock and unexpected.
vicki, wonderful details, i could almost feel and touch the yellow sundress.
greg, today i learned a new word and a new colour. gamboge. thanks for this.
zhongming, nice piece.
----
yellow prompt
Amanda, her eyes unbelieving, gingerly takes the small safe from the lawyer. This safe has always been the source of her fights with her now deceased mother, who ironically bequeaths it to her. The contents were piled the same way she remembered them, since that first and only time when she was ten and she had snuck inside her mother's bedroom closet to look at the safe's contents, not understanding what those now faded photographs meant, and the yellowed birth certificate neatly folded at the very bottom. She unfolds the birth certificate with her name and birthday written on it, and the name of her real mother.
Marc- Wonderful, simply wonderful!
ReplyDeleteVicki- See you on Tuesday. Read your blog if you want to know what I think. :)
Greg- Obsessed with who Bad Kitty is and where both you and she got her name.
Zhongming- The only story with a truly positive spin at this point. I struggled with the direction to take it. Well done!
Summerfield- Loved it. I couldn't figure out what would be yellow and forbidden. So believable!
------
Johnathan sat on the ground, the book open in his lap, pondering the text he had read over and over that day. Scuffling feet drew his attention to where two boys stood across the street. The smaller of the boys stomped his foot while the bigger boy pretended to cower in fear; a sweet game often played out between siblings. Yes, Johnathan thought, that's what they meant by the older brother playing at being a yellow-belly.
Johnathan sat on the ground, the book open in his lap, pondering the text he had read over and over that day. Scuffling feet drew his attention to where two boys stood across the street. The smaller of the boys stomped his foot while the bigger boy pretended to cower in fear; a sweet game often played out between siblings. "Yes," Johnathan thought, "that's what they meant by the older brother playing at being a yellow-belly."
Vicki - how terribly sad. I think you captured it all quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteGreg - argh, thanks for catching that. It has been fixed now.
Gamboge is a fun word to say. I'm probably saying it wrong, but I like saying it this way and I can't be bothered to look it up :)
Zhongming - yeah, the little guy was quite camouflaged :)
And mother earth rarely fails to amaze me as well.
Summerfield - the garden takes up about an acre and I think that's about as big as we're going to make it :)
I'm glad the twist at the end of mine worked for you, and I can safely say the same about your twist! Nicely done.
Heather - thank you!
As the youngest sibling I wonder if I ever played that game with my older sisters. I'm not convinced they would have played along if I had tried though :P