We’ve had some really stormy rainy weather recently, and I’ve seen quite a few umbrellas lost to the elements, discarded on the street here and there. The autumn weather in the UK is always a bit unpredicatble, but it does feel like the winds are getting a little stronger, the storms a little more frequent and severe.

I picked this one to take a photograph of as I was really drawn to the way that the canopy had been almost completely stripped away from the internal mechanism. 

The different struts and wires remind me of the rib cage of a strange animal, like the abandoned umbrellas are some kind of odd sacrifice to the weather gods.

Stormy weather is often used in various forms of creative work to change to mood, to indiscate things are about to get bumpy, or that something sinister is about to happen. 

Who do you think may have discarded this umbrella?

Where were they trying to get to when the weather turned so furiously on them?

I’m not a huge fan of creative exercises, so it’s not my habit to tell people what to do with these prompts. There are lots of options – a scene, some flash fiction, a short story, an idea for a short film or a physical piece of art. If you do have a go with this one and would like to drop the result in the comments please do so. I would be very interested to see what people make of these so please do link to blog posts or comment below.

If you like the photos featured in these creative prompt posts you may be interested in my latest collection of prints and other things on Redbubble which feature a small selection of my best shots.

Thank you for reading. I also write, make art and films. You can read my short fantasy stories here on Simily. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see you could buy me a KoFi, and I also have a Patreon Page.