The mystery of how holes were appearing in my kitchen windowsill basil plant was solved when I discovered a trio of uninvited lodgers. As beautiful as these hairy caterpillars are, I thought I should re-locate them outside before they a) ate me out of house and home, or b) metamorphosed and sprouted wings!

It made me ponder how much more dramatic this tale could be if the small guests who’d blundered in were likely to transform into fire-breathing dragons or some as yet uninvented magical beasts rather than moths or butterflies.

This is one to let your imagination race away with. What can you come up with, using this scenario as your starting point? What clues might give away the creature your character is inadvertently sharing their home with?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Building work is taking place all over my neighbourhood, and yet builders tell me that thanks to Brexit, there are far fewer competent construction contractors available than there were a year ago. Hardworking, skilled have gone home to their countries, leaving us with a terrible skills shortage.

This heap of bricks is a wall in all but execution. It makes me think of the fairytale of the Three Little Pigs, shoddy cut-price choices and, frankly, the difference between what we’re promised and what we sometimes actually get. In fact, instead of a pile of bricks, a big mound of something else might be more fitting in this case!

Can you build this into a cautionary satire or tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I glanced up during a stroll to find the sky full of wheeling gulls. It’s a sight that local folklore attributes to storm at sea, or, conversely, a spillage of chips.

I was unsure what had prompted this tumult of excitement until I lowered my gaze and spotted the winged ants scurrying and taking flight.

Passion for the ants equals feasts for gulls and other ant-munchers.

There are two details I love about this, which could prompt a tale:

1. To deduce the cause and effect, I had to look both up and down
2. Nature behaves in its wild ways even deep in the city’s urban reaches.

Of course, there’s a level of assumption in my extrapolation, which leaves plenty of room for something else to incite the frenzied birds. What story could you spin from this moment in time?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Imagine the person peering over this hedge to see a new construction taking shape. Might they be intrigued, perturbed or annoyed? Now imagine that the owner of the house being renovated is a rival of the witness. How might their history colour responses?

Now broaden your viewers’ understanding of what they’re seeing, based on earlier conversations or arguments. Rather than an extension, could the item being built be a spaceship or time travel machine? Remember that in the realms of fantasy, these can be constructed any shape and from any material.

Or could the builders be the focus of the witness’ attention? Is there one of particular interest? Why?

Can you weave in the emotions and backstory through your protagonist’s reactions and behaviour rather than telling your reader?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I love attempting to photograph the natural beauty that crops up in my surroundings, though the shots often have more to do with luck than skill.

One of my best butterfly pics is also one of my most absurd, as I happened to snap this beauty as it alighted on a pair of white satin smalls, on a washing line.

The butterfly has no idea of the absurd elegance of its sunspot choice.

It brings to mind an art exhibition I saw over two decades ago, which appeared to show rows of taxidermy pinned butterflies, which on closer inspection turned out to be exquisite pairs of miniature knickers.

Can you turn this into a story that is comical and poignant, perhaps examining the disappearance of our butterfly species in favour of fast fashion fixes?

Thank you to John Jackson on Twitter who told me this is a Painted Lady butterfly (not Tortoiseshell as I mistakenly believed). How perfectly absurdly poignant!

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

This mouse and cat weathervane sits on top of a primary school in my neighbourhood.

It’s been a strange year for schools, pupils and parents, with daily routines as changeable as the weather. There’s been a global sense of uncertainty that’s led to some feeling more like prey than humans are accustomed to!

Can you use this thought as a jumping off point to create a tale or artwork with themes of peril, daring and triumph?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

We’ve had a mystery occurring in our garden at regular intervals, and often, but not always, late at night.

Someone has been digging in our flowerbed. Sometimes the hole is so deep and neat it looks like a human has been searching for buried treasure. Other times, a profusion of flies lets us know something had been depositing its own, ahem, treasure.

The area in question is now a tapestry of cut brambles, coffee granules and orange peel – my eco-attempt to deter excavators…

So what does this have to do with writing? Other than the obvious metaphors of excavating for treasure and uncovering, ahem, something else?

This week your challenge is to write a story or create some other imaginative work based on the idea of a mysterious act that keeps happening outside or inside a home, and is beginning to slowly drive the residents bonkers. Write it from the point of view of the residents or the perpetrators, and see how you can harness the emerging mystery to drive the characters’ development.

Alternatively, use this as a prompt to push further in your writing. What can you unearth if you really dig deep?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Occasionally I see a tree that stops me in my tracks. Recently, it was this one in Bristol’s Victoria Park. I think it’s a black poplar. Its jaunty new leaves springing from those pollarded branches make it resemble a literary character.

Do you have a favourite tree, or one that you simply find beautiful? Can you make it the star of a satire, speculative story or other creative work? Perhaps two strangers meet beneath it, or perhaps its foliage or trunk hides a secret. Perhaps the shadow it casts offers a route to another world. Or could you write a satire about human society by focusing on the many species colonising a tree?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I love the gaps between things (houses, trees, ideas…) – they often offer a slightly skewed view that can lead your brain down an unexpected track.

In this particular slice between buildings and streets, I enjoy the shadow on the righthand wall. It seems to suggest a vast ship docking out of shot. What else might be occurring just beyond the camera’s frame? How can you use this to shape a story or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.