I'm afraid of them, why aren't you?

I’ve always been afraid of clowns

although one’s never harmed me

instead of facing just one clown

I’d rather face the army—

I dislike slapstick comics, too,

I just don’t think it’s funny

when someone else goes fall-down-boom

and lands upon his fanny.

yes, clowns can really terrify,

it’s verified by media

yes, by today’s most trusted source

none less than Wikipedia

coulrophobia's what it's called

although I can't pronounce it

sometimes I'm tempted to uprise

and thoroughly denounce it

let's rid the world of this disease

let's rid the world of clowns

remove them from the streets and trees

from cities and from towns

Photos by Richard Schear, February, 2013, Barcelona, Spain

Posted for my weekend prompt 

at the online writers' group

Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

I takes 'em where I finds 'em

Wherever we go, I'm always willing to pet a friendly dog or two. Here, I'm greeted by a yellow Labrador Retriever and his bouncy little buddy as we stop for a photo op on our trip up Italy's Amalfi Coast from Sorrento toward Salerno.

Richard Schear photo, March, 2013

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

Weekend Reflection in Italy

Photo by Richard Schear, February, 2013

When we visited Italy, my intrepid photographer often chose to take on ambitious hikes, while I demurred. His determination almost always resulted in wonderful photos, such as this serene reflection of a brick and stone wall in La Spezia, Italy.

Posted for
Weekend Reflections
hosted by James, the ultimate reflection-finder.
Thanks, James.

The last of the mixed bags

Baga Designs

Mary's Mixed Bag has been a popular feature at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, but Mary has had to withdraw. We will miss her, but we do know that life sometimes gets in the way.

Just for today, Kerry took over the prompt and presented us with an intriguing Mixed Bag idea...
imagine a bag containing something harmful and something healing, and write a poem about how we choose between them.

oddstuff
magazine

The Haunted Addict

I have in my hand a mixed bag,

some harmful things,

some healing things,

which will I choose today?

I’m afraid I know the answer,

it will, as always, be

the items in my mixed bag

which are the worst for me.

I was born without the will

to avoid temptation

although I know some things will harm

I still want the sensation

of candy melting in my mouth

of bread with butter loaded,

on darkest chocolate I have grazed

until my brain exploded.

Just a little, I would say,

a bit to get me through,

and I won’t do it any more,

but then, of course, I do.

Think you I exaggerate?

I really don’t, believe me,

my list of harmful things imbibed

will always haunt and grieve me.

Clouds can be beautiful, too

Above, clouds over Pisa.

Below, on the Amalfi Coast.

Photos by Richard Schear, Italy, February and March, 2013

Posted for
Skywatch Friday

De's word list for Wednesday

A Wednesday word list for the online writers' group, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, was presented today by De Jackson.

It's a wonderful list. In fact, it's so wonderful that I was tempted to take the words just as she listed them, to use them in the order they appeared. Delightful fun to string the list, like a bowl of beads, into couplets:
*

sketch screen march snowberry

elder tawny bergamot meadow

(the first 8 words on the list)

*

shunning shallow thorns on sapling

leave twisted indigo adaptations

(the last 8 words on the list, with "on" added)

*

 The other words in De's list of 20 were:

ivy stout-stemmed cluster  zigzag

  

So, I did write a poem using many of the words, but I am not at all sure it can beat, or even measure up to, the original list.

 

bergamot, a balm for the bees,

the shallow roots of sapling trees,

the zigzag paths of passing deer

leave twisted routes for walking here.

shunning more familiar places

avoiding thorns that grab shoelaces

I stopped to sketch a meadow then

where ivy grew on trees stout-stemmed.

I started with bergamot (monarda, or bee balm) because I recall trying to grow it in a too-cold climate. It grew, and was lovely, but unable to over-winter.

The pictures here are the ones shown on De's prompt, apple and blossom, jack-in-the-pulpit, and trumpet vine, from The Book of Wildflowers which she found on ebay.

Partaking: Succinctly Yours meme

Once a week, at her blog Grandma's Goulash, Grandma posts a picture, and has her daughter Calico choose the word of the week before she sees the photo. This week, Calico chose "partaking" which is difficult, but not impossible, to apply to this week's photo.

Our job, then, is to write a short story of no more than 140 words, or a short-short story of 140 characters or less, including spaces and punctuation, using the photo as a prompt, and including the word of the week if possible.

It's good to be back, Grandma, because I might have become verbose rather than succinct if I had remained in Italy, where communication involves many, many words, facial expressions, and a plethora of gestures.

Photo provided as prompt

My brother was joining the Canadian Navy, but first checked out how other sailors fared.
He didn't want to partake of the bottom one's fare.

(140 characters, including spaces and punctuation.)

"Hurry up, lads, we'll soon be going to Italy and partaking of some fabulous food and rich desserts."
(101 characters)



Thinking of partaking of the challenge offered by Succinctly Yours? Click the link below to join us.
(100 characters, not including the link below.)

Posted for Succinctly Yours

Spain and Italy for Our World Tuesday

Above and below, Cinque Terre,
five hillside towns on the northwest coast of Italy.

Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear

Florence, Italy

Above and below, near Malaga, Spain

Rome

Not a leaning tower plus tree in Rome,
just a leaning tourist on the top deck of a hop-on-hop-off bus.

Carnival masks were still on sale after Carnival in Venice

Posted for
Our World Tuesday

Open Link Monday at the imaginary garden

Here I am, back from the mid-Atlantic and from Europe, back to my old ways again for Open Link Monday at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. All I have to offer is a limerick I wrote for Madeleine Kane's blog.
However, it is the second anniversary of Mad Kane Limericks, so I did take more than five minutes to write the following, and I scrambled through cyberspace for a drawing, if that makes any difference.

Wikimedia
Commons

A fellow who wanted a raise

proceeded his new boss to praise

but his boot-licking

earned him butt-kicking

when his own work was appraised

I'm still not thrilled with my use of "praise" and "appraised" but there we are, it's Monday and my brain is on strike. Again. Tsk. As I always say, no one warned me I'd turn into an old lady.

For Real Toads: food can be challenging

Posted for Grace's food challenge at the

IMAGINARY GARDEN WITH REAL TOADS

Thanks, Grace!

From fruit to nuts

and everything

halfway in between,

European markets

offer good things

to be seen—

European shoppers

buy fresh every day

with small refrigerators,

that’s the only way.

Chocolate is tempting

but so, they say,

are fish—

whose faces

are so ugly

I’d not want them

on my dish.

Spices and rices,

ham and lamb

and all kinds

of sausage,

sliced and wrapped

before your eyes

like a birthday package.

Olives and capers

seasoning things,

seafoods familiar

and scary,

not to be tried too hastily

by visitors unwary.

Stop for a snack

if you have time

to eat it, every bite,

then shop some more,

refreshed for hours,

and gladdened by

the sight of flowers.

Photos by Richard Schear, February, 2013

Some market photos from one of our long-time favorite ports-of-call, Barcelona, Spain, as part of the final cruise of the Carnival Destiny, from Miami, Florida, to Venice, Italy, with stops at Malaga and Barcelona, Spain, as well as Livorno (for Florence and Pisa) and Civitavecchia (for Rome).

The ship is being refitted and renamed, thus the maiden voyage of the Carnival Sunshine will be in November, from Barcelona to New Orleans.
I met a lovely yellow Labrador Retriever at the market, and I know our dog Lindy would have loved to be there, too, but as she's unused to such bounty, she would have gone into sensory overload.

Camera Critters, Cinque Terre, and Venice

In Italy, or at least in the part of it on the northwest coast called Cinque Terre, children feed the seagulls and chase the pigeons away.

Photos by Kay Davies

Farther east, in Venice's famous St. Mark's Square, my husband chatted with a pigeon, explaining why we didn't bring food for these critters, who have no fear of humans.

Posted for
Camera
Critters

Weekend Reflections in Cinque Terre

I'm still waiting for my intrepid photographer's photos of our recent voyage, so I have only my own few pictures.
It's impossible to avoid looking for reflections, thanks to James of the popular meme Weekend Reflections, so here are two from northwestern Italy's rocky coast and scenic towns known as Cinque Terre (pronounced cheen-kway tare-ray).
It's a beautiful area to visit. We used the local train from our temporary base in La Spezia, and were able to see all five towns, plus one or two others.

A placid inner harbor for fishing boats provides more chances for reflection photos than the open sea beyond the breakwater. (Kay Davies photo)

This opening in the rock that supports the houses actually leads to a beach on the other side. Of course my husband had to go through there, hunched over, to investigate. I stayed behind, and caught the reflection of the sun on a pool of water left by high tide. (Kay Davies photo)

Real Toads interpretation: Yemaya Oshun

Artist, Chelsea Bednar
Photo, Margaret Bednar
(Copyright)

goddess of all waters, 

Yemaya Oshun!

rivers, oceans,

lakes and streams—

many dreams

the fishers dream there:

dream of you

and bounty flows—

fish to feed

Africa’s families,

fish to feed

Africa’s dreams.

ponds for frogs,

wetlands for toads,

goddess of all waters—

your bounty

gives us hope,

gives us health,

so take our dreams—

mayhap one day

you'll give us

prosperity,

and Peace.

At the Imaginary Garden with Real Roads today, Margaret's Artistic Interpretations challenge features a photo of her daughter Chelsea's body painting. The subject of the painting is the African goddess Yemaya Oshun.
Margaret assures us we can look forward to more of Chelsea's work in future challenges.

For Real Toads: a work of love

Izy's Out of Standard Challenge is a two-day event this week at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads but, unusually for me, I am writing this on the first day. Out of standard, indeed.

Izy challenges me to think of the worst job I ever had, make a list of words or phrases describing the job or how I felt about the job, and use those words in a poem that is not about said work.

Whew, a challenging job indeed, Izy, but here I have risen to the call—as a phoenix rises out of the ashes, so do I rise out of the mind-numbing stress of reporting my stolen wallet, eager to present fellow Toads and other poets with barely-poetical nonsense once again.

It's good to be back, too. We cruised from Miami, Florida, to ancient Venice, and had a wonderful time, except for the theft on the train from Naples on the second-last day of our unguided tour of Italy. I loved going to Europe by ship. As the phoenix and the other birds say, it's the only way to fly. And there are ships traveling to Australia from Vancouver, the city in whose environs I spent my working life. This gives me to think, indeed.

*

my angel, my darling,

for you do I long,

hours out of every day

and all the night...

Wikipedia image

there is no help for me.

I will always love you,

I cry while my poor

pained heart yearns

for the responsibility

of caring for you.

there are dead lines

on my forehead

as I double shift

my sports car past the house

where once we lived,

where once we loved.

Day 2 of Izy's challenge: I am reminded I forgot to include my list of job complaints:
long hours
poor paying
no help
double shifts
deadlines
responsibility (without corresponding pay, of course)

The crime and fall in the Roman Empire

Here I am on our transatlantic cruise from Miami, Florida, to Venice, Italy. I received a lovely gift from our wait-staff on Valentine's Day...a dessert I didn't need.

Sunset behind the Carnival Destiny, now being refitted to emerge as the Carnival Sunshine.

Florence, Italy. I found a lovely little restaurant for lunch nearby.

The cathedral and its famous tower in Pisa.
My husband climbed it. I didn't.

Trevi Fountain, "somewhere in the heart of Rome"!

The weather may have been grey, but I felt sunny just being in Venice.

Waiting for Dick to register at our hotel in Milan.

Too many beautiful views from which to choose in Cinque Terre, Italy.

The same can be said for the Amalfi Coast. There was beauty everywhere we looked. Here my intrepid photographer prepares for one of the thousands of photos he took in Italy.

We tried to pack light, but it was a month-long holiday, so we still had a lot of luggage to carry around Italy, getting on and off trains, and sometimes to and from hotels. However, we came home with less because the big suitcase on the right was stolen from the train in Naples.
Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies

Yes, it's true. We wuz robbed.

On the last of several trains by which we travelled in Italy, we lost some luggage. Dick had to make a report to the carabinieri in Rome. They gave him a form to fill out, shrugged, and said, "Oh, Napoli. Si, Napoli." That was pretty much what the hotel staff said to us when we finally arrived there. "Oh, yes, Naples. You have to be very careful there."

It seems Naples is not the place in which to leave any of your luggage unguarded while you put other pieces into the overhead bins.

Unfortunately, for me at least, I had absentmindedly tossed my wallet into the large suitcase when sleepy the night before. It had just been in my way on the beside table, and I didn't mean to leave it in the suitcase. However, in the morning, I forgot all about it.

I had only taken one credit card with me, and when I phoned to cancel it, I discovered someone had tried to use it while we were flying home, but failed because they didn't, of course, have the PIN number. Whew, thank goodness for chip cards and PIN numbers.

However, the wallet also contained photocopies of my birth certificate and our marriage certificate (because we have different surnames, I thought it would be good to have my husband's name on me if I'm ever hit by a bus).

Now I'm frantic about identity theft. I've been hearing about it for years, but the details didn't sink in. Can these items be used for someone to pretend to be me? If they have my mother's maiden name, can they take out other credit cards in my name? Our address is on the tags on all our luggage, in case an airline loses it, and I am always wary of purse-snatching, but theft of a large suitcase containing our end-of-vacation laundry, hadn't occurred to us.

So, I'm not washing clothes today, but I am definitely fretting.

*

So, there you have the crime, but what of the fall mentioned in my heading?

Oh, that was me, too. If I don't watch my feet while I'm walking, I trip over things.

I came off an elevator and was talking to Dick as he opened our hotel door about 10 feet away from me, which meant I was looking at him and not at my feet. The doorway from the elevator lobby to the hall had a two- or three-inch lip, and I knew about it, but didn't see it because I was looking at my husband instead of watching where I was going.

Splat!

Down I went, and I didn't go quietly. Dick says I screamed, but I know I didn't. I did make a whole lot of loud squeaky noises, however, because I came down on my right knee, the one with an old, old scar that still hurts when hit, as many scars do.

"Ow!" I said, and, "ooh, ooh, ooh" several times, perhaps more than several.

It took one husband, two chambermaids, and a chair to get me up, and once I got onto my bed I had no intention of going anywhere very fast.

So I missed a second day in Rome. We had checked out the sights (wow, the sights!) from the hop-on hop-off bus, visited the Trevi Fountain, and had lunch in a non-touristy restaurant nearby, but left the more intense sightseeing until later. Dick had to go by himself, of course, while I lay down until I felt well enough to get up and eat the chips and cookies from the mini-bar. By evening, I was functioning again, and able to limp out for a delicious dinner.

More photos will, I'm sure, be coming up. So far, I only have the ones taken with my little camera.

Posted for

Our World Tuesday

Also posted to

Open Link Monday at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

Arrividerci, Roma

In 48 hours or less, Dick and I will be home and so will Lindy, and you will be able to read all about it right here.
Thanks for all the comments while we have been away.
Developments have developed and all is not as it seems, dear readers. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.
Please stay tuned.
K