The exercise is to list 25 synonyms for a color and then write a paragraph using the synonyms. I chose the color red and wrote:
Crimson streaks lined the clouds as the sun set over the park. Wintergreen berries peeked out from the the forest floor as I gathered wood for my campfire. I sorted the tinder, kindling and fuel and built the frame. A cardinal dashed to an evergreen limb, called a song and pecked a sunflower seed from a pile I left at the edge of the site.
I unpacked dinner ingredients - tomatoes, radishes and beets from my garden - and sliced them to add to lambs quarters, plantains, rose hips, wood sorrel and chickweed, which I gathered on my hike. I poured myself a glass of Merlot, and lit the fire.
Flames rose up releasing the scent of maple and cherry wood into the air. As the fire burned, I examined my inflamed food. Tendinitis made my heel ache. A spot of dried blood stuck to my sock, where a burst blister had shed its skin and rubbed. The flames cast uneven light as I bandaged my wound and put on clean socks.
I watched day turn to night, fed the fire and finished my meal. Ruby, scarlet and brick-colored flames danced, eventually settling down into embers, which twinkled like garnets.
As my eyes adjusted to starlight, I lay back on my sleeping bag, grateful for a patch of woods and the time to enjoy nature’s beauty.