Fireblossom invites Toadal disaster

Yesterday, at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, our fabulous Fireblossom, having recently fried her computer by trying to clean it, challenged everyone to write a poem about a disaster. I recently killed my keyboard by spilling hot chocolate on it, but my husband bought me a new one, so I won't write about that.

Fireblossom provided helpful hints, such as: Write a poem about getting that pink slip, or slipping down some other slippery slope! and They say, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you don't understand the situation!

Well, I've seen disasters galore over a longish and too interesting lifetime, but one that happened about 20 years ago still stands out in my mind.

Walt Disney, 1937

HOLD ON A MINUTE,  DWARFS DEAR

workaholics

shouldn’t work so hard

coming in early

and leaving late —

stress and tessure-prension

take their toll...

suddenly you’re flat on your back

unable to move a muscle without pain

and as soon as

your sick days are used up

your employer gets fed up

with your face

and you’re out on your ass

with nothing but pain

no money to pay the mortgage

so you sell your house and

live on the proceeds

until you're a pensioner... THE END

Kay Davies, December, 2012

Our World, cruising by the Rhine castles

Last week on Our World Tuesday, I mentioned "a castle on every hill" and I got that impression as we cruised the Rhine River last month on our Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises.
Because the Rhine was, and still is, a major artery in European trade, each port had to be defended with fortifications and, when possible, the fortifications were on hilltops, so approaching enemies could be seen in time for all the people to get inside the fort, or castle.
Even in cloudy weather, often with a very unphotogenic autumn mist rising from the river, the castles are still impressive today, when the fortifications don't discourage approaching tourists at all.

Richard Schear photos,
November, 2012 

Richard Schear photos,
November, 2012  

De's collection of words for Toads

Last week, De Jackson asked everyone commenting on her Real Toads interview to share their favourite word, and suggested we use a list of all those words as inspiration for poetry.

Here's the list De collected, posted by Kerry as a challenge today at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, followed by my composition containing as many of the words as I could fit in.

linoleum ubiquitous serendipity synchronicity voice rejoice silence gypsy slumber endless peace butterfly indigo paw alabaster bedazzled idea magical patience hope sacred ejaculation periwinkle orangey mariposa briar shingadoogie snicklefritz horsefeathers

Bonus word: chthonic

HORSEFEATHERS

clker.com

by Kay Davies, December, 2012

the serendipitous synchronicity

of the ubiquitous orangey linoleum

in the magical gypsy caravan

made Hope lose her voice

and rejoice

in silence

  

then as Mariposa

the periwinkle butterfly

landed with one paw on the briar

and bedazzled

her again

she knew

  

she had found the chthonic idea

of sacred slumber

and endless patience

in the indigo

and alabaster

underworld

Subtle shadow shots in Bamberg

Richard Schear photos, 2012

Richard Schear photos, 2012

Halfway through our Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises, most of the passengers left the ship to travel overland, by bus, from Zeil, Germany, to the lovely city of Bamberg. I stayed onboard the Viking Danube as she cruised the Main River then stopped to pick up the others upon reaching Bamberg.

Posted for
Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Pet Pride: how to dress for a nap

Lindy is becoming quite the fashionista these days, what with her reflective snow boots, and her fur-drying sweater. She loves to wear the boots outdoors when walking in the snow, and the sweater indoors, perhaps for a nice nap after a walk. When the sweater is removed later, she's a warm, dry, happy dog.

Posted for
Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo
and his family at their Pets Forever blog in Mumbai, India.
Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo. I know you don't need to worry about staying warm, but right now we have a lot of snow, and I can get quite cold after a walk, so I wear my nice, soft, blue sweater. It dries my hair and keeps me cozy."

Photos by Kay Davies, 2012

Daryl provides prompt for Real Toads

I'm excited because, for this weekend's Sunday mini-challenge for Real Toads, Kerry has chosen a set of store-window photos by New Yorker Daryl Edelstein, probably my favorite big-city photographer, as prompts for our poems.

Daryl has such a great eye for composition, color, humor, pathos...and she's married to a real fun guy known as Toonman, so who could resist a combination like that?

I have some fun men and toon guys in my family, so I think I know whereof I speak. Daryl, you are fabulous! Kerry, you're pretty great, too. LOL

To see how other members and guests of the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads have responded to this prompt, click HERE.

A LOT WORSE

by Kay Davies, 2012

© Daryl Edelstein

the cowboy’s ghost

couldn’t handle the city

the noise and the lights,

the cars and the fights

(not that they didn’t have fights at home,

 but they didn’t have drive-by shootings

 and they didn’t have store-window lootings)

so he parked himself 

in sombrero and bandana

in front of a strange-looking bull

in a window full of hats

where he decided that

© Daryl Edelstein

it could be worse...

all those pretty mannequins

in micro-mini-skirts so short

it took his breath away

just to look at them all day

(not that they didn’t have girls at home,

 but they wore jeans and shirts

 and sombreros and bandanas)

the cowboy’s ghost

© Daryl Edelstein

then guarded the city,

the girls in their windows,

from his window—

oh, there were things he missed

like sawdust on the floors

and hardwood swinging doors

and coyotes singing love songs to the moon

(not that they didn’t have the moon in the city

 but if you blinked fast, you missed it

 through the skyscrapers and the lights)

and the cowboy's ghost decided death could be a lot worse

Chocolate camera critters in Cologne

Richard Schear photos, November, 2012

I had some shopping to do in the German city of Cologne, and by the time we finished, I was tired, but after he saw me safely onto the Viking Danube, my husband carried on to the chocolate museum near the dock. As all the chocolate critters were housed in glass display cases, he couldn't get a photo without a reflection, but the idea of acres of chocolate is certainly evident here...more than mere Easter bunnies in this place!

Posted for
Camera Critters
hosted by Misty Dawn. Thanks, Misty!

Weekend Reflections on the Danube

Posted for
Weekend Reflections
hosted by that talented photographer, James. Thanks, James!

Richard Schear photos, November, 2012

On our recent Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises, I was unable to go ashore as much as I would have liked, but I did go ashore in the village of Durnstein, Austria, and now I want to live there! It's beautiful, and it reflects beautifully into the Danube below it. The 900 residents must be very patient people, because this lovely village attracts 1.3 million tourists per year.

A novel letter to Santa

Mama Zen has asked members and followers of the online writers' group, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, to write a letter to Santa using 50 words or less.
Verbose as I am, it was a struggle, but I managed to keep it right on the wire at 50. I don't know how Mama Zen manages to pack so much fire and life into so few words, but I intend to observe her at Real Toads for the next millennium or so, to see if I can figure it out.

Santa dear

I sadly fear

we’ve got too much stuff—

I’d like, this year,

please, Santa dear,

someone who’d get tough

enough

to rid the house of everything

we really never need—

the broken

the redundant

the unused and the ugly—

just leave our little hobbit house

adorable and snuggly

Skywatch Friday: blue over Cologne

We saw many grey skies and also a lot of fog on our recent Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises. In one or two places, however, we had sunshine, and Cologne, Germany, was one of those places.

Richard Schear photo, November, 2012

Posted for
Skywatch Friday

Revealing yesterday's mystery hostess

I thought I was being quite obvious in choosing Margaret Bednar as the lady who "invited" me and my motley crew to her home in yesterday's blog post.
Margaret didn't even recognize herself, however. Perhaps because I used a picture of a cow instead of a horse? Well, it was so cute, and I couldn't find a public domain drawing of a horse to match the cow ("kine" in my poem).

Public domain picture

And then, it turns out other members of the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads were much better at guessing than I was.
Oh well, for that I blame my old (or very, very late middle-aged) brain, which forgets things on a regular basis. You know that kind of it's-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue forgetting? Happens all the time. Drives me crazy.
Sigh.
I'm pretty sure none of the Toads wrote about me. Nobody mentioned little hobbit houses, or overweight Golden Retrievers, or Intrepid Photographers, or someone living where the deer and the antelope play.
But it was fun yesterday. Thank-you-very-much to my friend Ella of Ella's Edge for challenging the Real Toads to write about one another's houses.

At Real Toads: Ella challenges us

From Wikipedia

Wow, I don't know, Ella dear, this is a pretty complicated challenge. You want us to develop characters the way Charles Dickens did, and write, in a Dickensian style, a poem about the home of one of the other members of Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. Then, we can't reveal the other person's name until tomorrow.

So much for one old brain to absorb, think about, and turn into verse. I had to give it a try, of course, because you said to have fun with it, and that's what I like to do, but the Dickensian style seems somehow to have eluded me. Nevertheless, here goes...

Public domain picture

Luncheon with a lady who shall

remain nameless until tomorrow

oh, such an air

such an elegant air

had the home of the lady in blue

we rode in our phaeton

right up to her gate and

she greeted us: “how do you do?”

we went inside

and, without hint of pride,

she showed us around her domain

it was lovely and grand,

so beautiful, and

we were glad to get out of the rain

she wined us and

dined us, and then

took us all 'round the house one more time

then out to the stable

and there we were able

to meet all the horses and kine

oh, such a day

such a wonderful day

we had with the lady in blue

then got in our phaeton

parked at the gate and

drove off, calling: “bye, toodle-oo”

Kay L. Davies, December 5, 2012

Our World Tuesday: life on board

Despite the foggy, cloudy weather,
my husband toured Kinderdijk again.
We had visited Kinderdijk on a previous
trip with Viking River Cruises.

Last month we enjoyed a 15-day cruise on the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers, as well as the Rhine-Main-Danube canal, with Viking River Cruises.

We boarded our ship, the Viking Danube, in Amsterdam.

Here are a few photos my husband took on the first part of the trip.
Richard Schear photos

Our first port in Germany was Cologne.

Koblenz

I'm convinced there's a castle on
every hilltop in Germany.
Here we are at Marksburg.

I really wanted to see Miltenberg, with its wonderful half-timbered buildings, but I was confined to quarters to get some rest, and am delighted with Dick's photographs.

Cruising the Rhine. Although I didn't go ashore a lot, cruising the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube is a pretty nice way to spend a couple of weeks! Photos continue next week on OWT.

Posted for  Our World Tuesday

Lunch on our river cruise

the chafing dishes gather 'round

the long, long tables in the lounge

awaiting lunch, which will be served

appropriately sauced and herbed

for lined-up people who eat here

to be near the booze and beer

while downstairs in the dining room

a host of others will assume

sincere expressions of delight

secure in knowing they are right

to have the waiters bring their food

so they won't have to be rude

when spilling bowls of chosen soup

on someone else's luncheon group

Posted for
Open Link Monday
at the online writers' group,
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

Sunday Mini-Challenge
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

When I Grow too Old to Dream*

minaret, minotaur,

a dancing horse and a monkey

with music coming from afar

very funky

my dreams are getting more and more bizarre

my books in this field are

few and decidedly lacking

oneirocritic authors are

without backing

from halls of academe both near and far

checked my idea jar

for the name of that cute gypsy

though doctors might be best by far

(not as tipsy)

meanwhile I’ll consult my favorite star

Jupiter and Mars marred

by a lack of understanding

and love doesn’t steer the stars

peace not guiding**

so now I’ll never know what my dreams are

*   Oscar Hammerstein II

** The 5th Dimension

Posted for the

Sunday Mini-Challenge

at the online writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. Kerry presented us with a poem by artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti (not Dante Alighieri, thank goodness, although he was the younger man's idol) and asked us to write to the form:

6 syllables -- A rhyme
8 syllables -- B rhyme

8 syllables -- A

4 syllables -- B

10 syllables -A — and following stanzas have C, D, etc., instead of the B rhyme, but retain the A rhyme throughout.

The thing I found most difficult today was remembering that the first line was to be only 6 syllables, followed by two lines of 8. I kept using 8 syllables in the first line and having to rewrite it.

Pet Pride: look deep into my eyes

Photo by Richard Schear, 2012

If I look 'way into Lindy's beautiful brown eyes in this photo, I can see her daddy reflected in there as he takes the picture. This is one of the photos I sent to Canadian artist Aleta Karstad and, from the photos, Aleta painted a  lovely portrait of Lindy for her very proud, very surprised daddy. The portrait is now hanging in the living room near my husband's recliner.

Posted for Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo and his family in Mumbai, India,
at their Pets Forever blog.

Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo. Try not to be afraid of those silly man-toys. My daddy has a big toy grader thing, and it picks things up, but I'm not afraid of it. I just go to sleep and ignore it."

European camera critters

In a country where sausage is king, is it any wonder these statues of pigs frolic around a storm drain in downtown Hassfurt, Germany?

Richard Schear photos, November, 2012

Posted for this weekend's
Camera Critters
hosted by Misty Dawn. Thanks, Misty!