Postcard Story

(Germany, Dresden, Zwinger Palace)

Hello!

Hope you are all okay. We are still having a blast in Europe! This week we are in Germany. My favorite place so far is this royal palace. The gardens were so lovely and the palace so huge!

Luke made friends with a guard dog and I sneaked a foot dip in a the fountain. There’s been a heatwave.

On Monday, we travel to Belgium for a few days then France for a week and finally England for the end of our trip! I’ll send you postcards from Paris and London.

Miss you loads. Lots of love, Harley.

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Postcard Story

Dear family,

London is mad! It’s huge, so much to see and do. We’ve been around so many museums and shops that my feet are dead! My brain is overloaded right now. Uncle wasn’t wrong when he said we wouldn’t do everything in a week!

Tomorrow, we are off to see the Queen. Though Dee says we won’t really get to meet her, it’s just her house and stuff. But I’ve been practising my curtsy and manners anyway!

Hope the weather is nice back home and everyone is doing well!

Love, Twins.

Glamping #FridayFictioneers

Glamorous camping was the latest fashion trend. I wasn’t impressed, for me camping was sleeping under the stars around a fire, getting away from all things and this ‘glamping’ was a hotel room inside a tipi. At least my girlfriend was impressed and there’s no way I’d ever convince her to spend a weekend without electricity; ‘I can’t survive without my hair drier!’

For me, the scenery and the escape from city life had made up for the luxury camping experience. Outside the Tipi of High Life there was a whole barren land to be explored.

(Inspired by; https://rochellewisoff.com/2019/01/30/1-february-2019/ with thanks).

 

Wave #WritePhoto

There’s nothing special or magical about Wizard’s Cove, just an old impossible legend about Merlin. It goes like this; Merlin hid out in a cave here for years when the King cast him out. Merlin did a vanishing act but all the time he was right under the castle, waiting for the King to realise he needed a wizard to help save England from invasion.

Walking along the strip of sand between the rocks and the out going tide, heading over to the caves, I decided that if I was Merlin I wouldn’t want to live here for a few days let alone years! There was nothing on this small patch of shore and getting back up the cliffs was really hard for a fit, thirty year old man who’s hobby was rock climbing. So, I couldn’t imagine an old man being able to do it!

Unless, he used his magic powers….Could Merlin fly? Could he levitate? Could he call a bird or other beast to transport him? Or maybe he could just appear and disappear wherever he wanted? How much did the stories go into Merlin’s powers?

I cast my mind about trying to remember even a hint of information. Merlin was said to be a most powerful wizard. In the Disney film, he does lots of magic; he makes things smaller, things clean themselves, he changes others and himself into different animals and he does at one point vanish then reappear later saying he’s been to the future! I was fond of that film as unlike the other Disney movies there no Princesses.

Shells and rocks crunch under my boot, bring me back to my walk. A wave came close then rolled back, leaving seaweed behind. I avoided it and approached the caves. There were three entrances close by each other but only one of them went far back. The other two were just hollowed out holes.

I stepped into the cool gloom, happy to get out of the hot sun that had been burning my neck. A slow dripping sound echoed and I could hear the rush of the sea. I got my torch out and shone it around the walls, ceiling and floor. There was nothing but sand and natural stone.

What had I been hoping for? Some scratched in words; Merlin was here? A magic spell in Latin? The drawing of an owl? Perhaps even, the remains of a skeleton? I laughed and the sound boomed, trailed and took awhile to fade.

There was nothing and even if Merlin had come here anything would be long gone now. I turned, thinking that tonight I’d do some more research into the legends. My torch light caught something, a sparkling. I looked down at the wall and there just above the sand line was a faded letter ‘M’. Or so it seemed to me.

‘No,’ I breathed and shook my head, ‘it’s a trick of the light or someone carved it not long ago.’

I bent down and scrubbed at the wall and sand. I traced the shape with my finger and decided it could just be but of course that would be impossible.

 

(Inspired by; https://scvincent.com/2018/06/28/thursday-photo-prompt-wave-writephoto/ with thanks).

Explore More #Pegman

Niobe took a deep breath and looked around, Turkey was not as she had imagined it to be. Then again, none of the other countries she had visited had been.

Tourists and the media only showed you a friction of a place. To really understand a country, you had to walk the poorest streets, look deep into the history and visit the lesser well known places.

Niobe would do all that then post it on the internet for all to see. Then perhaps, she could change the misconceptions about places and inspire others to explore more.

(Inspired by; https://whatpegmansaw.com/2018/06/16/what-pegman-saw-turkey/ with thanks).

Postcard #43

Greetings from the airship Harmonious Hope! 

We are currently flying over Peru though expect to land in a few days. So, thought I’d try and get this to you then. It’s rather hot and wet here, even more so when we fly over the jungle! I’ve seen a few ancient Temples though and been able to map them. My work is going well enough.

I miss England terribly! The good tea has all run out and rationing has been in place for a few days now – though sometimes it’s too hot to eat anyway! Hopefully, the new supplies will be adequate.

All my love, George.

Ps. The monkeys are doing better now and are recovered from eating my artist equipment!

Bauble

I don’t know what it is, nor why the humans seemed so fascinated by it, maybe it’s because it smells so awesome? Humans aren’t really known for their sense of smell though, not unless you did something stinky in the corner or brought something already decayed inside. Those things just can’t be helped though and don’t humans have an indoors room where they go about their business anyway?

Perhaps, if my kitten-hood had been different I would have known about this event called ‘Christmas.’ I was born wild and rescued- reluctantly, I might add- from the abandoned farm shed, my mother had decided to call home. My memories of that place are dim, but I remember the animal shelter well enough. Thankfully, I got rescued –very willingly, of course-from that place and now I have a good home with two big and one little humans.

When they first brought the tree in, I hide and shyly watched them from behind the table leg. They put the tree in a bucket placed in the corner of the big chairs room and seemed very excited about it. Next, there came the boxes filled with wonderful objects. I was eager to investigate, but stayed away because of all the noise. I’ve only just gotten use to the kitchen machines. It’s the rolling, sucky monster that scares me the most though. Why must humans have everything so clean all the time?

They put the objects on to the tree, chatting loudly, though the only words I understood were; tree and lights. The human vocabulary is still beyond me. After a very long time, in which I took a nap and ate the rest of my breakfast, they were finished and had come away. Ignoring me, they went about their day and I stalked the tree. Some objects were low enough for me to smell and touch. Light bounced off shinning balls and other things I don’t know the names of.

I pressed my nose to one of the balls, it moved gently. I touched it with my paw and it moved more. Ah! A game! Just like the humans tease me with toys. Batting the ball about, I spun to the floor, laying on my back and play biting the ball as I pressed all my paws to it. Rolling to the side, the ball came with me and I jumped in surprise. The ball trundled away and stopped. I stared, then took up my pounce stand and went after it. Grabbing the rope at the top, I threw it and the ball landed in the tree branches.

Glancing about, to make sure the area was still clear, I dived after it and straight into the tree. The leaves stung me, though not painfully and I forced my way through and climbed to the top. Balancing there, I could see the whole room and actually, if I moved down a few branches, I could nestle inside the tree and still perfectly see. Maybe, the humans brought this in here for me? Though it’s not as comfy as my bed basket and the ‘toys’ are not as good as my mice or feather stick, but still, I could get use to this.