Writing prompt: close encounters with birds
A friendly visitor to our picnic
Last week my wife and I went for a drive from our son’s home in Artarmon, Sydney, to Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. We stopped in several places along the way and ended up at West Head Lookout. From here you can see over Broken Bay and some of the beaches and islands in that area.
At one point my wife was sitting on one of the seats admiring the view when her phone rang. It was her sister calling from South Australia. She was so distracted by the conversation that she didn’t notice our visitor, an Australian Brush-turkey (see photos). The turkey just casually wandered around us, merely a metre or so from us. It was a wonderful photo opportunity.
Writing prompts
I love having close encounters with birds and the natural world of animals. I’ve written many poems about birds.
- Write a poem about a close encounter you’ve had with a bird, animal or other creature.
- Include animals, birds and the natural environment in a short story.
- Relate an incident where you were surprised, frightened, amused or amazed by a close brush with a bird, reptile, fish, animal or some other creature.
Read more about Brush-turkeys:
Australian Brush-turkey, West Head, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park
It’s beginning to look like Christmas
Gingerbread House
My wife and I are currently staying with our son and daughter-in-law in Sydney. We plan to be here for Christmas and look forward to sharing Christmas with our two little grandchildren, ages 5 and 2 and a half.
A few days ago we all chipped in helping to decorate the Christmas tree. Not one of those artificial ones bought in every shopping centre. No, we have a genuine natural tree bought from the local Scout Group who made them available to the local community.
Then the family gathered around the dining room table to make gingerbread houses. My almost two and a half year old granddaughter decided that it was far more interesting to eat her house straight away. Waiting for over a week to eat it is far too long for a little one.
Five year old grandson however, despite being an extremely active young boy, sat for over an hour with great determination to make the house shown above. We were all so proud of him – and I think he was too.
Writing prompts
We don’t have too many special traditions at Christmas time, but I know that many families do.
- Write about the special things you do as a family at Christmas.
- Relate a true happening when everything went wrong.
- Imagine a truly wonderful Christmas; make it into a story or poem.
Good writing.
Let the birds inspire you
Sun Conure, Adelaide Zoo, South Australia
I have to admit that birds inspire me. Not only do I write regularly about them on my site Trevor’s Birding, I also use every opportunity to get out into the the garden or the surrounding bushland to watch and photograph birds. I also enjoy visiting various zoos around Australia. Some of these, like my home zoo in Adelaide, have walk through aviaries which make the photography of birds a little less challenging, and often very rewarding.
Because of my love of our many wonderful birds here in Australia I have found myself writing frequently about them, not just on my birding site. I have written dozens of poems about them as well as featuring them in short stories and in my novels. Somehow, some of them always creep in – almost uninvited. As a spin-off from my writing and photography I also get many requests to be a guest speaker, showing my bird photos to community groups. Publishers now send me books about birds to review which is a delightful bonus.
Birds can be inspiring to everyone. Even if you are not as obsessive about them as I am, I’d recommend that you take time out to not only smell the roses, but to also watch the birds. If you lack bird life in your neighbourhood, seek out a nearby park, lake, swamp, zoo, river or seashore. Sit and watch the birds going about their daily activities. Let their beauty inspire you. You may find that just being near these wonderful creatures is enough to refresh you for your next writing session. You don’t have to even write about them.
Good writing.
Red-collared Lorikeets, Adelaide Zoo, South Australia
Writing prompt – favourite foods
Our pizza lunch at GPK Chatswood, Sydney
Many people write about food on their blogs. Some have even elevated this to writing for prestigious glossy, social magazines and yet others make a living from critiquing food and restaurants and writing about it in various forms.
It is my one regret from several trips overseas that I didn’t take more photos of the wonderful meals we enjoyed, especially in Morocco and Spain. Now that I have a smart phone with a decent camera, I intend to correct that oversight of the past.
On our current trip to visit family in Sydney we celebrated my daughter-in-law’s birthday. Her choice was to go to the local Chatswood GPK pizza restaurant. GPK stands for Gourmet Pizza Kitchen, and the one we visited is one of a chain throughout various cities here in Australia.
Between the six of the adults in our party we ordered four different pizzas which we all shared. I’ve shown only two here on this post today. The two grandchildren had their very own pizza. The menu is extensive with many named after prominent cities or countries of the world. Each had a particular cultural and culinary focus appropriate to the country. For example, we liked the Moroccan pizza as well as the one called Kathmandu.
With the term gourmet attached to the name of the restaurant one quite likely pays a little extra. But these are not your common or garden pizzas delivered by a pimply teenager to your front door late on a cold winter’s night. These are far superior in every way.
The flavours are intense and a delight to the taste buds. Some featured some surprising ingredients – such as broccoli – which worked amazingly well.
My rating: 8/10
Writing prompt: write about your favourite restaurant, your favourite food, great meals or gastronomic disasters.
Further reading:
- GPK Official Website – complete with downloadable menus.
- Five hundred meals away – the blog of a former student of mine who has travelled the world, writing about the food he has enjoyed – or endured – and the cultures and people he meets – and near disasters which seem to follow him. Onya, Andrew.
Our pizza lunch at GPK restaurant, Chatswood, Sydney
Writing prompt – what’s behind the window?
Windows in the Kasbah des Oudaias, Rabat, Morocco
On our visit to the Rabat, the capital of Morocco, my attention was grabbed by this intriguing, yet, beautiful, set of windows in the Kasbah des Oudaias.
The writer in me started wondering: what’s behind the windows?
Who lives here? What are the stories of the people living here?
If the windows could tell, what stories would they weave.
This quaint, simple scene is evocative of the mysterious, magical Morocco we experienced throughout our tour.
Could this be the setting for a poem?
A short story?
A murder mystery – or a tearful romance?
Good writing.