On Thursdays I normally share random thoughts, objects or ideas I plan to use as writing inspiration or prompts.
Last week Stockholm was a winter wonderland. This week? Well, let’s just say I ran across Frosty the Snowman earlier. He’s nothing but a puddle now. In fact, most of the fields around our home are giant lakes. The kids are in love with it. But you’d think one puddle is good enough, right? Nope. They must brave Every. Single. Puddle. to see how high the water reaches. Thankfully, the deepest puddle they could find, the one on the soccer field, only comes to their knees.
Which brings me to this week’s Thursday Thoughts. What am I thinking about today?
Mud — Not a surprise, huh? Water or ice covers most of the ground. But the rest of it? Feels like the earth wants to suck the shoe off my foot each time I take a step. I need giant monster shoes just to walk to school.
Ice — Whatever isn’t mud or water, is still ice. Which makes for some slippery walks. I know it shouldn’t bother me, but every time the kids run across the ice I cringe. I let them do it, but inside my heart is racing. My daughter, I’m not so worried about. Her balance has improved greatly over the past two years, but my son? My son falls every time. It’s nothing new, either. Just after his first birthday, he fell down while holding a watering can. The nozzle went into the back of his mouth and we had to have emergency surgery. I often get calls from whatever school he happens to be in and I’ve seen golf ball sized lumps on the front, the side, and the back of his head. Freaky, by the way. They look unbelievable. So yeah. I cringe when he races across the ice. And pray for warm weather. Not all ice is evil, though. If you’re looking for beautiful ice, check out the Ice Hotel.
Mazes — Like this giant fingerprint maze. I remember going through a corn maze as a kid. Around Halloween sometime. Then I read “Children of the Corn” by Stephen King. Never went into another corn field, with or without a maze, again.
Shields — The kids got a Lego game on the iPad that requires them to scan shields they find. For two days they’ve looked up websites and tried to scan every shield they could find. They’re taking over, these shields. I found myself asking the kids what shields they want for a snack. I’m even dreaming of shields now. I figure if I can put one into a story, or poem, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll get this out of my system.
I could work with these. Ice, mud, mazes and shields, especially within the fantasy genre. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some mud-covered winter overalls to wash.
Happy Thursday =).
Cas Blomberg Communications 