This week – the prompt is G is for Ground.
This opens up a world of possibilities.
There’s ground as in terra firma, the earth beneath your feet, and it’s usually outside (inside it’s a floor, outside it’s the ground). You can break new ground, metaphorically or literally, if you’re having groundworks done; you can go underground. You can buy ground cover plants – but don’t buy ground elder.
It’s an outside area set aside for a specific purpose, e.g. a burial ground, playground, recreation ground, football and cricket grounds and there’s usually a groundsman. Or of course, there’s the grounds of a stately home.
And then there’s the meaning as in reduced to fine particles – ground spices, ground coffee, ground almonds in a bakewell…
It can be a reason or motive – grounds for divorce; people may object on religious grounds.
To ground is to prevent somebody or something doing something – ‘You’re grounded for a week!’; planes can be grounded and don’t forget they have ground staff or ground crew.
You can run something into the ground, run a ship aground, or hit the ground running.
Is something happening in the background or foreground?
Other phrases: Oh, it suits you down to the ground. Stand your ground.
Maybe there’s a groundswell of opinion; a certain level of education gives you a good grounding in a subject.
Or maybe you’re having a groundhog day.
And if you want a historical setting, in Shakespeare’s time the people who couldn’t afford covered seating and so stood in the open air in front of the stage were known as the groundlings.
So let’s see what you come up with!
Remember your six honest serving men – what, why, when, how, where, who.
Remember this is just a prompt for you. If you’re writing anything else, why not let us have a look at that?
Send your piece to louise.hulland@bbc.co.uk and we’ll review them when we next meet on the radio.