Archive | May 9, 2013

G for the Gate, a story of Facets of Dusk for the Giraffe Call

May9

Another take on [profile] cluudle‘s prompt. I didn’t want to start another Facets story when I have so many hanging out there, but this just called to me.

“That. Looks ominous.”

The team stared up at the gate.

“It looks beautiful.”

It had to be at least a hundred feet tall at its apex.

“It seems rather expensive.”

It was either made out of solid gold – unlikely – or gilded over the entire edifice.

“It seems rather gaudy.”

The whole thing had been sculpted or molded with flourishes, pineapples,
arches, and scrolls. There was not more than a six-inch span of straight line anywhere in the entire structure.

“Not to mention shiny.”

There were cabochons set into the gold, mostly yellow stones, reflecting light even more brightly than the metal did.

“And imposing.”

It was, after all, a gate. The doors were not solid, but they were made of some sort of woven mesh. The largest holes through the mesh were the size of Alexa’s fist, the smallest not wide enough to allow a hair through. The gate was set into an equally-shiny but black-silver fence, every bit as tall and every bit as impassible.

“Not to mention impossible.” Peter’s instruments did not seem to like the thing.

“Well.” They stepped up to the gate, studying it. Glaring at it. Contemplating it, as were their wonts. Cole cleared his throat. “I say we knock.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/530014.html. You can comment here or there.

F for Feisty Friend Felines of the Family

May9

To Rix_Scaedu‘s prompt and Kelkyag‘s prompt.

After Kitten Troubles and Auntie Kitty

Aunt Family have a landing page here.

“Well?” The Siamese kitten sat primly down on the edge of Beryl’s bed and began grooming a paw.

“Well?” Beryl stared at the kitten. Physically, she looked like any other kitten. But her voice, such as it was…

“Well?” Radar echoed. He seemed as uncomfortable with the whole thing as Beryl was.

::Well?:: Her necklace wanted to get in on this, too, and that was just too much. Beryl took the necklace off and put it – him? – in the silk-lined box she’d found for moments like this.

“Well.” The kitten looked between Beryl and Radar. “What can you do for me?”

Before Beryl could manage to respond to the small thing’s giant arrogance, Radar had arched his back and hissed at the kitten before batting her hard three times with his paw.

“We.”

“Are.”

“Their.”

“Friends.”

The kitten cowered, ears flat. “We’re cats.” There wasn’t much fight left in her voice, and she was mewling unhappily out loud. “We’re cats.” She repeated herself as if the words meant more to her than they did to Beryl.

“We are their friends.” Radar sat back and began washing his paws. “We are more than cats, my feisty daughter.”

“Don’t call me that.” Her ears were raked back again, and now the kitten looked as if she would try hissing at her father.

He was unimpressed. “It’s what you are. A feisty feline.” He seemed to like the sound of that. “And their friend.”

“Why?”

Radar glanced at Beryl. She, other than getting her hands out of the way of two angry cats, had chosen to stay as still as possible. This wasn’t really her business, not yet.

“That’s what we were made for.”

“You might have been made. I was born.”

“Well.” Radar did the cat equivalent of a shrug, and washed another paw. “Someone made you. Someone made you, and you were made from a kitten I sired. I was made to be their friend. And thus… you are their friend, too.”

“Or?”

Radar showed all his teeth to the kitten. “There is no or.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/529730.html. You can comment here or there.

“Gifts of the Giraffe” now avilable

May9

Better late than never.

Gifts of the Giraffe, an e-book compilation of the December 2011 Giraffe Call, is now available in pdf.

(If you have a good program you have used for converting to epub, please let me know).

If you donated to the December 2011 or January 2012 Giraffe Call (if you don’t remember, and I don’t fault you that, I have records), or if you have donated $50 or more to Giraffe Calls in the time between then and now, this .pdf is free for the asking.

If you have not donated, it is available for $1.33.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/529378.html. You can comment here or there.

April Giraffe Call Update

May9

I keep plugging away at the April Giraffe Call. At this rate, I’m not sure there’ll be a *May* Giraffe Call… but the April one keeps going!

My Signal Boost Poem awaits more signal boosts (or art).

I have written so far:
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z
– A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J

Continuations:
I

Prompter Count: 23
Extra Prompt count: 1
Donator Count: 6
Total letters to be written: 36/26

And we’ve reached $70 in donations!

Just $5 from being able to get the accessories for the foyer; just $10 from 2 people getting extra 500-word continuations!

Buy an Extension
500 words $5.00 USD
750 words $7.50 USD
1000 words $10.00 USD
1250 words $12.50 USD
1500 words $15.00 USD
1750 words $17.50 USD
2000 words $20.00 USD
100 words $1.00 USD

I’m excited! This is a much more energetic call than I’ve had in a while. And, once I get through all the prompts owed to people… on to the non-English letters!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/528965.html. You can comment here or there.

Rock Gardens.

May9

I’ve been thinking about rock gardens.

I even have a Pinterest board of rock gardens.

See, our property has a lot of rocks. It’s got so many rocks, it’s sort of like someone dumped a thin layer of topsoil over a gravel quarry.

(Someone did. The glaciers. We’re at the bottom of the Finger Lakes, which means we’re the dumping ground for a lot of Canadian rock. Anyone want their rock back?)

So as we do anything in the yard… we pull out rocks. Big rocks, little rocks. Tiny rocks and huge rocks.

We’ve started covering up a pretty horrid border garden to the west side of the house with large flat rocks, tucking Coleus plants in between the rocks. It’s looking decent so far; will look better once we get down more weedcloth.

But we have this wet sunken corner of the yard… and I’m thinking more rocks. Rocks, and a little water feature. Maybe a waterfall.

What do you think?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/528778.html. You can comment here or there.