Perfect Day

Prompt response

Created on Midjourney

Dara, was first in line outside the coffeehouse where her favorite singer would play tonight. She reveled in the apricity of the sun’s rays on her face as she smiled at the flother floating down to land on her nose. Perfect day—music, warm sun, and the promise of snow.

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Perfect Day was written in response to a picture prompt from my good friend Justin Deming. I chose to change the picture, as the prompt image seemed dark for this story. You can read other responses (most of them dark) in Fifties by the Fire on Along the Hudson.

Here’s the image Justin provided:

Image credit: John Lightle

I really fought with Midjourney on this image, finally giving up and going with the version that came closest to what I wanted. For some reason, the program refused to give me only one snowflake and wouldn’t shrink the featured flake to a normal size. I quite like Dara, though.

I used two words in this story that I suspect most of you don’t know. I didn’t until I came across them in Susie Dent’s top ten list of winter words. It’s delightful.

Apricity is the warmth of the sun you feel on a cold day. A flother is a single snowflake that falls from the sky, heralding the arrival of many more. You can find other great words in Susie’s list. To find out what hibernacle means, you’ll have to follow the link above and read it for yourself!