Our free-write is back by popular demand: today, write about anything — but you must write for exactly ten minutes, no more, no less.
I am not counting the quarter of an hour I just needed to upload a few photos, because by popular demand some people want us to write about anything and it is not my thing to write about anything. I lead a boring life, nothing really happens, no spotlights from the sky surrounding my aura and harps playing in the background. I hate these do-it-yourself prompts.
The last popular demand theme was saved by two crows that were perching on a roof and watching me with their beady eyes. This time I am sitting on the porch, no crows and a sleeping feline in the garden. This photo was taken in the morning of a female blackbird that does a regular worm search. Yesterday she had one in her beak proudly displaying it in my garden. I naturally dived for my super camera, nearly fell down on the way, and probably made so much noise that she had gone when I was ready. Note the owl looking on. One of my newest additions to the garden scenery from the local supermarket. I am looking forward to Halloween and hoping I can buy a few skeletons and ghosts to spread around the garden. I was wondering if they would have some coffins. I could fill them with earth and plant something in them like deadly nightshade or stinging nettles. That would create a perfect atmosphere and I am sure my garden would be the envy of the neighbourhood.
After awakening from my golden oldie midday sleep my first action was to grab my iPad, which was lying next to my bed, and see what the wizards of WordPress had for us today. I wondered whether to sleep for a further hour when I saw the subject matter or go into action in the hope that anything might happen worth a Pulitzer Prize. It did. I cleaned the shower and discovered that the water was not running away as freely as it should. There seemed to be a blockage. After a few muttered profanities Mr. Swiss came to assistance and unblocked. In the meanwhile I continued tidying the garden cupboard which he had started and afterwards returned to the shower to finish my original chores. Last year we organised the garden cupboard, but it seems that various objects had found their way into the cupboard which did not belong there, such as five large empty cardboard boxes. Luckily last year’s spiders as moved on to the spider happy hunting grounds, and their remains were just hanging around in last year’s web.
It was then that Mr. Swiss discovered we had almost no bread. As I am not empowered to distribute two slices to feed a whole family, like some other guy once did, Mr. Swiss has now disappeared on a quest in to a local supermarket. Actually I don’t mind, because this time he is going to the special supermarket, the one that has gourmet stuff, although I do not know how a gourmet bread looks.
Still two minutes to go. How I hate these daily prompts. I mean if I wanted to write what I wanted to write, what I feel like writing, I would not do the daily prompt. It is a free blogging country and we can write what we want to in any case. I think the people at WordPress have their annual excursion to Silicon valley. They have all packed their laptops in the rucksack and are writing about anything accompanied by a glass of an energy drink of some kind.
Time is up, Mr. Swiss has returned from the gourmet supermarket so I must see what goodies he has brought us, apart from the gourmet bread.
See you all on the flip side.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
That was a fun little insight into your day 🙂
LikeLike
the day is not yet finished, so anything could happen.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I would like to hear more about the gourmet supermarket. Is that where the knife wielding butcher lady works?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No she worked in the normal supermarket. She has now moved on, The gourmet supermarket has more stuff from other countries. I can get HP sauce there for example and that is english. they have good cold meat choices and the bread is baked on the premises, usually ciabatta bread.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially because you expressed so well how you hate these types of prompts – heck, it’s not really a prompt, is it? It’s like being in grade school and having a substitute teacher who doesn’t care what the class is doing as long as they are quiet and no one gets hurt.
Lovely, entertaining writing as usual! 😀
LikeLike
Thankyou for the kind comments. I remember a history teacher we had. She would walk into the classroom, and say “open your books girls and make notes” and that is what we did until the end of the lesson. I do not need a daily prompt for writing about anything.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who are these people who are part of the ‘ back by popular demand crowd ‘ ? I haven’t seen one blogger who enjoys this prompt. The reason I enjoy the prompts , is to be able to read other people’s views and ideas on the same subject .
LikeLike
How right you are. I think I will have to add a wise comment.
LikeLike
It’s just so much more fun when there are “good” daily prompts and we can visit each other’s blogs to see other viewpoints of one topic. Anyway, I always love your writing, no matter what the topic.
I still remember the first time I found your blog, you wrote about a parade, a train station and a rat on the train tracks… It’s the rat that kept me coming back for more! 😉
LikeLike
Those rats also keep coming back down at the local station, although I think it was more a mouse. They are quite happy living there dodging between the trains. I have often seen one or two whilst waiting for a train.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK people, own up. Who was a member of the popular demand crowd?
LikeLike
Not me, that’s for sure. I hate those prompts. I like real prompts with a topic or a challenge more specific and demanding than “write about anything”. It’s also funnier sharing with other bloggers when we are all writting about the same topic with different points of view. As you said, who needs a prompt to write about anything?
LikeLike
I’m going to weigh in here — I’d rather write this than a prompt that says, “Have you done anything that had an impact on your life?” or “Were you ever torn between two decisions?” Those are the prompts that get in my craw because naval gazing isn’t very interesting to me and one word answers are also pretty dull. At least with a 10 minute free write I can NOT naval gaze or say “Yes” or “No.” My personal favorite prompts are the ones that give three words that have to appear in whatever I write. I’ve gotten some good stories from that that I would not have otherwise written.
LikeLike
I just do not need a prompt that says write what you want to. I can write what I want to when I want to in any case. I have to be motivated to write and prompts with no subject are no motivation for me. I also like to read the other contributions and if we are all writing about the same subject, it makes the others more interesting to read their point of views.
LikeLike
That’s true — I just really hate the naval gazing prompts.
LikeLike
This was quite a fun post and I like the way Mr. Owl is looking at!
LikeLike
I have to admit, this really suited me today because I had a lot on my mind and this was a great opportunity to offload the cargo. AND I only had 10 minutes because I had to be in Boston to have a heart tune-up. But 10 minutes isn’t 10 minutes because I have to proofread (however poorly) and edit. But you have a point. I can write about anything without a daily prompt. I write about anything all the time. Often I write about nothing at all and that’s fine too 🙂
LikeLike
I usually write my prompt in the afternoon some time, but writing about anything is not a prompt for me. I like to be inspired and pointed in a certain direction. I also find that the other writes on such prompts are not so interesting, sort of a mixture with no specific aim.
LikeLike
Pingback: Daily Prompt: Ready, Set, Done | tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice
I used to like doing the Daily Prompt, but the topics have become odd and senseless. Funny thing about blogging is once you learn how to write better, and find your voice, writing jibberish to fill in a void becomes annoying.
“Am I saying something here? What the hell am I saying?
Swiss, I know you catch my drift. 😳😉
LikeLike
I am with you, but I have the life of a working person behind me, but cannot just sit around and watch my potted plants grow. I discovered blogging as a method to keep the grey cells alive, but a lot depends on the encouragement. I have been on many blogging sites, and many no longer exist. Nothing is perfect and WordPress do actually recognise blogging and it is the only place where they actually do something (although not always the best). They are prompts, and I liked to be prompted and go off at a tangent sometimes. What they do with “write anything” is to kill the prompt. Everyone seems to be going in a different direction and quite honestly some can be very boring, and even mine probably.
As a journalist you see this probably from a different angle. As a retired export clerk, mum, cook and housekeeper I like to be inspired. My vacuum cleaner no longer inspires me.
LikeLike
Nice pic 🙂
LikeLike
I like the coffin idea ! Now a days I am doing up my house and this seems to be interesting, ‘ghost garden’….. lol
LikeLike
Problem being that Switzerland is not a halloween country. They tried it a couple of years ago with halloween sweets, ornaments etc. but most of it had to be sold half price as there was no interest. I remember a halloween shop somewhere in NYC when I visited in October about ten years ago. They had everything. That was where I bought my halloween door bell that did a ghostly laugh when you rung – must search where that disappeared to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What fun with the bell ! I would certainly like to own one just to see the expressions on the faces.
LikeLike