'Colour', More Carrots, and Oh No!

During our most recent Uxbridge Writers' Circle meeting, we held a ten-minute on-the-spot writing challenge. The prompt was 'colour'.

Full disclosure: I have cheated! I didn't like the last sentence of my story, so I've changed it! But the rest is as it was written. I hope I'm forgiven.

I follow this very short story with a video clip of our most successful racehorse - three-time Stakes winner, I'm a Kittyhawk. And, you guessed it - she's eating carrots!

And I've included a picture of It's a Fluke. See below for the latest (Oh, No!).

Colour

Marcel looked at his palette with disgust and then peered at his work which was propped on an easel in the sunroom. He didn't like it. The colours weren't working. Nothing was going right. He detested having to complete a piece by a deadline. Artists shouldn't have to work to deadlines. But he'd been foolish enough to accept the commission. What made it worse was that he didn't even believe he was a competent portrait painter. Marcel was known for his abstract art of whirling shapes and clashing colours leaping off the canvas.

"Are you going to be much longer today, Marcel?" Anna was uncomfortable. Not only was the wooden chair hard and straight-backed, but there was a distinctly cold draft coming from the extensive picture window. The large trees blocked out the sun but Marcel had told her he liked the lighting.

"Not much longer." Marcel sighed.

"Isn't it going well for you today?" Anna asked.

"It's fine, thank you." But he dropped a tube of paint and his brush which clattered on the tiled floor.

"I'm going to go now. I'll come back tomorrow at the same time." Anna picked up her luxurious fur coat, hastily thrust her arms into the sleeves, and grabbed her snakeskin purse. The man dressed in a dark outfit opened the door for her. He glanced back at Marcel.

"You need to relax a bit, mate. It'd come better if you did."

Marcel thought it presumptuous for the man to speak at all, let alone comment on his art. But he had to admit his attempt at imitating Picasso's style was not working - Princess Anna's off-set red eyes stared out of her distorted head as if in horror.

Vicky Earle Copyright 2023

More Carrots!

Although we no longer own I'm a Kittyhawk (a very long story) we are excited that she's in foal to an Ontario sire and look forward to meeting her baby in the spring.

She's a classy mare and we were very fortunate to enjoy her racing career.

It all started when I bought Gato del Norte for Martin's 40th birthday! Gato was I'm a Kittyhawk's great-grandmother. We have Kittyhawk's grandmother (Lions Raw) and her mother (I'm a Cheetah) at our farm. They are 27 and 21 years old respectively.

And they love carrots too!

Oh No!

This is It's a Fluke patiently waiting for his rider to take him out for a timed work. This was planned to be his last work before a race scheduled for November 12.

But, it wasn't to be.

As only horses can do, he hurt his ankle and was a bit sore on it, so he was scratched from the race. (This happened just a few hours before he was due to run). The vet believes that it's nothing serious.

Such a disappointment. He was in top form and I'm sure he was looking forward to running.

We hope to find another race before the season ends!

Keep your fingers crossed for him.

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Thank you for reading this!