Monissa

Amongst their number might be experienced soldiers, who had some skill with a blade. We'd fight. Against my fake sword, they'd win, and I'd die defending the winehouse and the people within.
I wished that didn't sound so good.

#WIPsnips "fight"

No dancing for me. But I could look across the floor to catch those eyes that always sought me out. To imagine us on the dance floor, crossing paths, hands lingering long enough to enjoy the illicit touch.

#WIPsnips "shimmy"

The alley opened to the plaza in front of the citadel, where once the army lined up and now the Royal Guard used it for endurance tests, because it showed the city residents how impressive the Guard was and because their captains are sadistic bastards.

#WIPsnips "residents"

I don't usually do chapter headers. This might be why.

One of the other characters objected to how the narrator's headings.

#WIPSnips "chapter"

I clambered into the cart, and sat beside my young friend.
"You said something about a secret tunnel?"
"I did. I did." He beamed at me. I'm never seen someone so pleased at the prospect of imminent death or imprisonment.

#WIPsnips "beam"

Still don't have the history of Moorina, but I did trace the hotels from the beginnings to ends. (This is the Chinese memorial & funerary oven in the Moorina cemetery).

Anyway, I shall get back to sharing photos soon, when I think of a topic. (Any suggestions?)

A small enclosure, surrounded by a a metal fence typical of cemeteries (narrow uprights, with decorative types, rather flimsy) with a gate, open. On the left is a small concrete cone sitting on a square concete base. It's actually a small oven, with a little metal door in the one side, but you can't see that form here. On the other side is what looks like a marble headstone, also sitting on a concete base. It is side on, but if it was front, you'd see a row of Chinese characters down the centre and at the bottom it says "This stone has been erected by the Chinese of Garabaldi, Argus and Moorina, as a place of worship of Confusias religion to the departed Chinese and those connected with the Chinese in the Moorina cemetery." The surrounding land is mixture of large rocks and dry grass, edge by large trees

So, I was going to post a phot of Moorina but I wanted to add a short history. As I couldn't find one, I went to wrote one, but things happeneds, and I never got back to it. And never got back to here.

A cluster of dark blue flowers on a stem. Each flower is five petals, with the top petal shapped like a hood. The upper flowers re just starting to open, and are covered by the hoods.

"So beautiful, that a man would think they were of some excellent virtue, but non est semper fides habenda fronti" (appearances are not always trustworthy) --Gerard's Herball

#monkshood #BloomScrolling

While I prepared proper tea, Luke unfolded a map, which he laid on the table. He used the sugar bowl and milk jug to hold down two corners, and the teapot and bowl of flowers for the other corners.
"It's old but it has the important bits on it."

#WIPsnips "table"

Ten years ago, the area was developed for mountain biking. Lots of hills & mountains, interesting forests and rocks, and apparently everything mountain bikers love. Derby is a busy little town now. On the Sunday after Christmas, it was extremely busy. Lots of cars. Lots of people. Lots of bikes.

A weatherboard box-shaped building, painted blue. The front wall is high, with horzontal lines of weatherboard up to door height, and above that a flat panels. In the cente are double wooden doors with glass panels. Above the door is a sign with AusPost logo and the word "Post". To the side of the door is a bank of PO boxes. There's a red mailbox out the front. On the far side and beside the doors are posters indicating the services the PO offers and items the shop sells (hard to read, but it includes cold drinks & first aid supplies) Other signs advertise the business for sale.

A small weatherboard building, painted yellow, with a high gable and corrugated iron room paiinted red. It's attached to a house, of a similar design and colour. The gable of the front has wooden decorations picked out in red and green, and the words "1888 National Bank of Australia Limited". The bank might have been built, but the house has a gable and front window that look more 1920ish. The building is surrounded by a leafy bushes, some with red flowers, some with white (possibly roses). A sign beside the house says it's a B&B

Until recently, Derby was a quiet town that managed to support a couple of cafes and many small houses that "need a bit of love". It was a good place to stop on your way to somewhere else, to get a drink and check out the interesting local history museum in the school house.

A wide street with a row of old weatherboard houses converted to shops . Single storey, except for one at the end, with verandahs on the front and corrugated iron roofs. The near one is rusty. Some have signs out the front, advertising products or the name of the cafe, and a "Now Open" sign. One has a row black mountain bikes stuck out the front. There are other bikes amongst the shops. There is a row of cars parked along the street. Tree-covered hills rise in the background.

A yellow weatherboard building where the street divides, against a background of tree-covered hills. On the gable is a sign "Derby, 1923, Town Hall". At the front is a square porch with a flat roof held up by wooden poles, with a door at either end, painted white with brown bars, and white circles either side. This gives a 1920s feel to the building. The street to the right passed the front of the hall. The street to the left curves around, towards the hills. There are a lot of cars parked in the curve and on the other side, two mini-buses and a truck.

When tin mining dominated NE Tasmania, Derby was a busy town. Thousands of people lived here. You can get of idea of what it was like from the small but fancy bank building below. But like many mining towns, when the mines went away, so did the population.

#Derby #Tasmania #StreetPhotography

Until recently, Derby was a quiet town that managed to support a couple of cafes and many small houses that "need a bit of love". It was a good place to stop on your way to somewhere else, to get a drink and check out the interesting local history museum in the school house.

I'm sorry :(

These people weren't making for the gates. They were locking their doors. Securing their windows. We passed two men pulling wooden gates across their shop front. They saw us, maybe noticed my sword, decided we were none of their business.

#WIPsnips "lock"

Bare red dirt, looking up at two rows of lavenders, running off in the far distance. In the distance are blue foothills

And a not-so-classic view

Slghtly curving rows of lavender, the purple flowers contrasting with the red dirt between rows. In the far distance, is a for of trees and behind that, slightly misty, is a rounded mountains with blue and green foothills.

The classic view at Bridestowe, with the red dirt constrasting with the rows of lavender

#lavender

#lavender #BloomScrolling #Tasmania

Lavender, lots of stalks of lavender covered in tiny purple buds turning to flower.s The rows stretch back until they seem to merge together. And then behind, there are more purple fields. So much purple. In the very distance is a row of trees and some hills but who looks at them?

Bridestowe lavender farm, NE Tasmania. Desipite believing lavender is one of the very best of flowers, I've never been here. Every time we pass, we're on the way to somewhere else and we'll go there "next time". Finally "next time" became "this Thursday", and here it is.

A large pool of greenish water, surrounded by a collanded stone walk. The top is open to the sky, so the centre is lit but within the walk it is darker. Not a lot but enough to make it a moody.

TV is babbling on about Bath, and the Roman Baths of course. So you get a photo. Taken a lot of photos lately I want to share but feeling a serious lack of motivation 😞

#Roman #Bath #Reflections

Time to end this.
I flicked Tallboy's sword from his hand, hooked my foot behind his leg, and down he want, knocking over his friend on the way,
"Old man?" I asked, as I walked back to my chair.

#WIPsnips "end"

Two flower heads, each made form many tiny white florets

Valerian

#BloomScrolling #NiceAndSimple

Luke tilted his stool back at a precarious angle. "I was polite. I didn't mention the thing he calls a wall either."
"It's a perfectly good wall."
"Raiders and armies and bolters would walk straight through it."
"It's only meant to keep the sheep out."
"They walk straight through it."

#WIPsnips

A large capstone (it is about as high as it is wide) sitting on four upright stones, well, three stones. The fourth stone isn't pulling it's weight. It's higher at the front than the back. Behind is a tall, ivy-covoered hedge/fence/wall

Carreg Coetan Arthur, a dolem in Newport (between St David's & Cardigan), Wales c. 3000 BC

#StandingStoneSunday

A single red rose bud, poointed on top

A partially opened rose flower. The central curled ptels are light orange, the outer open petals are pale orage.

Two open flowers. Five petals of pale pink, almost white in places with darker pink on the upper corners, around a yellow centre.

Two open flowers, with five large, bent petals of dark pink, almost purple. Below hangs the darker petals of an older flower.

Rosa "Mutabilis". All the colours on one rose 🙂
(I seem to recall this variety was discovered in a garden in Italy c. 1894 but Internet won't confirm it.)

#Rose #BloomScrolling

A white rose. Two crcles of rounded white petals, and inner petals curled over a centre. Background of small rose leaves, blurred.

Rosa alba semi-plena. First flower!

Two more buds about to open. This isn't a rose if you want abundant flowers. Hopefully next year will bring more.

(A Christmas present last year but it was finished flowering by then.)

#BloomScrolling #Rose #MuchAnticipated

I knew this city. My heart beat in time with the hearts of a thousand lives. My blood ran like water down its streets after a storm. I loved this city in a way I could never love a single person.

#WIPsnips "city"
MC2's favourite word, I think.

A cactus of many thin columns from which emerges two bright red/orange flowers with narrow, pointed petals.

It grew more, thicker, greener stems. It's almost quadrupled in size. And last week, it flowered for the first time. Lovely big red flowers.

Cacti need love too.

Earlier this year, it was knocked over and its pot broke. So I put it in one of my pots and incorporated it into my collection. It grew more stems and turned a nicer shade of green.

A few months later, when I moved the columnar cacti to a shared planter, I put the little guy in the front.

A Tale of a Cactus

One of the house cacti (i.e. not one of mine) was this tiny little thing, about 3 red-tinged narrow stems, which lived in a small ceramic pot on one side of the deck. It's been there for years. Occasionally getting water. Not growing but not dying.

#BloomScrolling #Cacti

1/3