Each weekday morning I set out early for a half-hour stroll before starting work. The wilderness I choose is a haven for birds, and recently they’ve seemed louder day by day.

It astounds me how nature came up with a creature small and light enough to fly, yet loud enough for the volume of its song to carry throughout woodlands.

This robin is a frequent sight, and it just one of the birds shouting at that early hour. I know they’re ferocious beasts, and love that the song we find beautiful is in fact their battle cry.

Imagine if we handled disputes in this way, where the most exquisitely varied song won a patch of ground. Instead of resorting to guns and bombs, could this be opened up to dance-offs, painting challenges or defiance portrayed in the form of spoken-word poetry? Could a couplet win a war?

Can you use this as the prompt for a story or work of art?

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 don’t know about you, but for me my local views are growing just a little bit dull. Every day, pandemic restrictions keep me confined to the same limited perimeter.

I have a favourite three-to-four mile route I walk most days in an attempt to stay sane. The other day, I decided to walk it back to front. BLEW. MY. MIND.

Setting out in the direction I would normally come back from made everything look different – the views that would normally be behind me were ahead and even the puddles refracted the light at fresh angles.

Imagine if you could take this far further and harness the hypersensitive smell or hearing of a dog or the ultra-violet aware sight of a bumblebee to understand your surroundings in a fresh way. What if you could see different historic eras your neighbourhood has experienced?

The possibilities are endless. Can you use this idea as a prompt for a short story or work of art?

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 pass this window often on my daily walks, and each time it strikes me a little differently. The bright colours and energetic shapes equally suggest children excited to be creative in an unexpected way, and homeschooling rattling out of control.

It’s possible that these pictures were scrawled by adults trying to cling to their sanity. Or could the adults have been absent physically or mentally for some time and these drawings be the clue that something is off-kilter inside?

I like to think this is a splash of artwork that displays hope – the figures are smiling despite their wonky bodies, and the colours are vivid despite grey weather. What inspiration can you glean from them to write a tale or create something unique and hopeful of your own?

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.

In the midst of a pandemic, when nothing fun had happened for weeks and we’d seen nothing new for months, a whisper crackled through the streets of Totterdown, Bristol.

After darkness fell on a chilly Friday evening, two stilt-walking angels strode through the streets, trailing sparkles and cheers in their wake. We wore masks to keep our exhalations from harming others and maintained our distance carefully, but for that moment we felt our spirits lift. It was a sighting of such creativity that we were reminded of how our vibrant city used to be, when artists invited us into their homes to witness their mark-making and performances erupted on street corners.

The talented stilt walkers of Corvus Angelicus have been striding their magic through different neighbourhoods in a bid to bring a smile to our faces in these challenging times.

This spectacular moment was a reminder of what we’re aiming for – a return to the weirdness we call normality.

Can you turn this into an encouraging or fantastical 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.

In a local park, a pond was dug, only to be filled in again after it became overwhelmed by fly-tipping and nefarious dealings.

Only the circle of trees gives away this fleeting attempt at a bit of inner-city natural beauty.

I loved discovered that someone attempted such a hopeful act, even if it failed that time. Perhaps people are more nature-aware a decade on and a fresh try could have a better chance!

Now that I know what was once here, I find myself imagining ghost fish and ghost frogs paddling about through ghost water only visible on certain moonlit nights.

What optimistic yet perhaps unsuccessful ventures haunt your neighbourhood? Can you weave them into a short story or work of art about what might have been and might yet be?

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.

The days are gradually growing longer and lighter, but even if the weather is still appalling where you are, if you’re in the northern hemisphere you can cling to the knowledge that spring is heading our way.

And if that journey seems too slow for you, imagine this: strolling in a woodland you come across a curious shining circle. An apparently natural formation of wood or vine has twisted into a loop that appears to contain a view into a glowing day.

Can you step through? If you do, what might you find? Is it really greener and brighter on the other side? Can you write a story or create a work of art that explores these possibilities?

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.

With travel off-limits for a while, why not treat yourself to an imaginary journey? Reading, gazing at art, writing and generally being creative give us opportunities to roam countless miles within the confines of your own mind.

One artwork that sweeps me away is the above painting by my mum, Pauline Darley. It shows a corner of her garden, the space where I explored and adventured for hours as a child. To the right of the painting is an immense fir tree that contained whole universes, including the occasional dragon, when I was small.

Find something in your own home that carries you away from your here and now, and then see if you can harness that feeling as a prompt to write, paint or otherwise imagine visiting a faraway land.

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 spied this curious shrine to lost gloves in Reykjavik, Iceland, in January 2017, and found myself asking a string of questions.

Who does each of these gloves belong to? What happened to those individuals? Where is their other glove? How have they solved the problem of having one cold hand? Or is this glove all that remains of them?

There are so many directions you could take this story in. Drawing on the island’s rich mythology, could it be an offering to Icelandic trolls, or, considering the Scandi Noir genre, a clue in a chilling thriller? Do they have the other glove in their home as a souvenir of some grisly act?

Or is it an altruistic act hoping to reunite people with their dropped knitwear, and the excuse for a Richard Curtis-worthy meet-cute?

Whatever strands you choose to follow, can you knit them together into a winter’s 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.