El Vendaval
The Mean Season Begins
Ducks stand motionless dripping with relentless raindrops, less concerned about the torment than hawks dipping from blue skies
The 31st-day morning humidity clustered for this pre-noon soaking, air cooled barely enough for baseless hope that September welcomes autumn.
So, ends our slow-moving August as the Mean Season begins and Jim Cantore becomes one with our anxious family.
Orange radar and Dr. Postel on our hourly newsfeed of African blobs churning towards us, vying for the next name on the list.
August may crawl but September boogies like the street-smart punk threatening to blow away all we’ve accumulated to stack, tie down, and shelter.
September deluges, the entourage for El Vendaval, howling warnings that humanity is a visitor on this Pale Blue Dot, guaranteed no homestead here.
Ask a Floridian what September means to her and she will respond hurricane season!
September is the heart of our storm season. All four hurricanes that I experienced in Florida arrived in September. The last and worst was Irma in 2017.
For the first time, I chose one of my own photos for our Weeds & Wildflowers banner for the month. I wanted a storm photo and didn’t have one in my treasure trove of writers’ pictures, so I broke my 15-month tradition and grabbed one of mine from the archives.
Even if hurricanes and tropical storms avoid our shores in September, we are sure to have some intense daily storms, much like the one in the banner photo taken two years ago when we were visiting Mount Dora near Orlando and ended the day watching the sunset at Lighthouse Point in Grantham Park. A storm blew in quickly, allowing me a few shots of this great blue before rushing to the car.
No surprise that I am choosing Storms as the Weeds & Wildflowers September writing prompt. But, there’s a catch. I learned from Captain Argentina that one of the words for storm in Spanish is el vendaval. I like that word, the sharpness of the v’s, the way it tumbles off my tongue.
There is another Spanish word for storm: la tormenta, which refers to a daily storm. El vendaval is more — it’s a forceful storm, a gale.
Our prompt is Storm but I urge you to explore the word in other languages and see where that takes you. Many of my Weeds & Wildflowers have native tongues other than English; I would enjoy learning their words for storms.
Tell us about your Storms — literal storms or figurative ones.
What does the word Storm conjure up for you?
Please make one of your tags Writing Prompt Response.
And, as always, our prompts have no due dates or deadlines.
Below, I am tagging the Weeds & Wildflowers. I do my best to include everyone but there is a glitch in Medium and contributors that I add to Weeds & Wildflowers don’t always show up in my list of writers. Medium Support is aware of the problem and working on it. However, I know I added several contributors in August who are not appearing on my list. Despite, my efforts to keep track of the missing names, some may have fallen through the cracks. Should your name be missing, please know it’s a simple oversight, and you are included. But, if you would be so kind as to let me know you were not included below, I can correct the list for next month.
I look forward to your responses to the September writing prompt of Storms.
Tracy Aston Deborah Christensen The Solitary Cook Jack Herlocker Erik Smith Harper Thorpe Annie Littlewolf Sherry Kappel Anna Rozwadowska Louise Peacock Mark Starlin Hank Eng Ré Harris Francine Fallara Terijo Wild Flower nan fischer Susan Christiana antoinette nevitt Agnes Louis Nancy Peckenham Rusty Alderson wistfulwanderer Jk Mansi Guérin Asante Joseph Massey Tien Skye Jane Vogel Louis Hart Bridget Webber J. Criswell Captain Argentina Edd Jennings Kathy Jacobs Erica Graham Vaishali Paliwal Tanya Bryan David S. Dana Sanford Beth Bruno Anisesh Linda Caroll Christina Ward 🌼 Heidi Franklin Joan Evans Pam Nolan Shringi Kumari Erika Burkhalter Sam Kimberle Samantha Beach Anne Shark Nyaalo Mia Kat of Magik Farah Egby Maymuuna Aisha Juweria Zoomedin Samia Shruti Sinha Kushal Poddar Lori McCray Joe Pregadio Bre Bitz Marcia Laycock Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻 Jessica Archuleta Lorna Ye Priyanka Srivastava David Wade Chambers Jenny Justice Lynette Clements Michelle Ewens Matthew Klope Leandro Teixeira Edie Tuck Christopher Bellkirk Susie Taylor Sylvia Clare MSc. Psychol Kris W Leon Justcallmejillybean Urszula Humienik Ann Litts Amang ＊大野芒＊水生花 Teddie Voss Matt Clarke Moriana Delgado Joanne Rigbye Lin Ro Brett Christensen Dascha Paylor Matt Booth Laura Manipura Carolyn Riker Joseph-Patrick McCain Ryan O’Neal Jr. Lynne Nardizzi Gretchen Lee Bourquin 💗POM-poet!💗 Christina Barber A. Christine Myers Scarlett Braden Tapan Avasthi ⛄️ Lisa Bolin Ray Burton Rosalind.J. Lee Noble Dias Martie Sirois Janet Chilton Somsubhra Banerjee Audrey Webster Linda A Robinson, PhD Kim Smyth Louise Foerster Tasneem Kagalwalla ALI YUSUF Katherine Pollock Pamela J. Nikodem, MS Terry Barr Sylvia Wohlfarth Hapsari Listya Sarah Levis Rhonda Marrone Kovid Rathee Shaan Sood Jean Crawford Evans Cassius Corbin Srinath S. Gail Walter Suzanne V. Tanner Jane Woodman Rebecca Marie Markham J Moody Tonya Renee the introvert Samantha Lazar Denise Shelton Beth Stormont Rob Moir Tristan Rivers Nikita Vipul Aspen Blue Rainman Krista Strom Jean Carfantan Nachi Keta Chris Alleyne Genvieve Deborah Barchi Flose Boursiquot Jonathan Greene Uday Jhunjhunwala Dipti Pande Gurpreet Dhariwal Nanette Schieron Edis Rune Sandra Barrett Sana Rose Shreya V Arjan Tupan Manasi Diwakar ICO Aimée Gramblin Quasimodo Connie Song Sadhana G Pablo Pereyra Noor Zanaid Dan Leicht Neha S.Saberwal Jamie McIntosh Anne Harrison Robert Bush Crystalclearcandace Amritansh Sagar Saloni Joshi Burak Göloğlu Madb Tighe Paul Mulliner Vinitha Dileep Martin Rushton Suryatapa JMontes Abigael Taiwo Gina Karasek Kallie Allen Eira Braun-Labossiere Roz Liddle Trisha Kaundinya GK Anne Bonfert Aissa Martell Vi.Smith Bridget Cougar Swati Suman Kevin Keeney Ms. Mary Ann AJ Cannon Sneha Devaraj Darshak Rana Praveen Prabhakar Anu Anniah Sukhi Ch. Pratik Routray Meenakshi Balachandar Noah Levy Carter Preston AJ Cannon Sneha Devaraj Darshak Rana Praveen Prabhakar Anu Anniah Sukhi Ch. Pratik Routray Meenakshi Balachandar Noah Levy Carter Preston Autumn Blossom INFJ Elder Barbara Radisavljevic David Petri Elisabeth Khan Tej Radha Kapadia Suryansh Mansharamani Denise G Selena Martin Abhina Jessica Lee McMillan Roger Blonder Gita Das Eileen Vorbach Collins Hirsch Singh, MSc Anna da Silva Geetika Sethi Mitchell S. W. Lim Anonymous Carcass Bernadette DeCarlo Schweta Riku Arikiri 🕊️ Caroline Mellor Moriah Rivera-Lawrence Egypt Iredia Jazz Ramsy Mia Verita Desiree Driesenaar Teodora Maksimova Chirag Phillip Psutka Muskan makrani Winifred Akpobi 🌟 ioanawrites Gloria D. Gonsalves Rinkesh Pati Franco Amati Sneha Mankar @𝒜𝒷𝒷𝓎 𝒞𝓇𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒶 Pasupu Qalam Arundhati Thalia Dunn Shalini C Suntonu Bhadra Rintu Daniel Sanka Rathnabarana Kallie Allen Dan Leicht Janaka Stagnaro Aissa Martell Dr. Jackie Greenwood The Conscious Wordsmith Jenine Bsharah Baines Daman Sandhu