Magpie Tales, and Real Toads: Hoppek's "Ever"

Boris Hoppek "Ever"

in parts of China,
as in Japan,
housing space has become scarce—
homes
and beds
are becoming
smaller
and smaller—
with
some beds requiring seatbelts
to protect the sleeper

Posted for Willow at

The Mag 101

(formerly Magpie Tales)

and Kerry at

Open Link Monday

for the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

Our World Tuesday: a year in the life

I'll leave it to you to guess which seasons these photos represent in southeastern Alberta, Canada.

Posted for
Our World Tuesday

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear, Alberta, 2011/2012

Mellow Yellow Monday: Las Vegas yellows

One year, Dick's company trip took us to Las Vegas. There were plenty of things to photograph there, and an amazing number of them were yellow, some much brighter than others.

© Richard Schear photos

Posted for Mellow Yellow Monday
hosted each week by Drowsey Monkey. Thanks, Drowsey!

Saturday's Photo Hunting: animals this week

I'm a bit late for our friend Gattina's Saturday Photo Hunting, but I couldn't make up my mind what to do. The theme this week is animals, and of course I immediately think of Lindy, but I wanted something different.
I've decided to show you these animals (and a couple of people) we saw in Russia last summer. These shots are taken from the deck of the river cruise ship Viking Surkov after our visit to Mandrogy.

Cattle and sheep.

A billy-goat and his family.

A dog and his human companion.

Photo hunting can be fun. The theme is different every week. I hope to see many more of you join us—preferably on Saturday instead of Sunday, because when it's Sunday afternoon here, it's already the middle of the night in Europe, and Monday in Australia!
Thanks, Gattina!

Succinctly yours: bluster

Photo provided as prompt

Oh, yeah? If you think I bluster, Buster, wait until you hear me nag, you old nag!

Posted for
Succinctly Yours
the weekly meme at the Grandma's Goulash blog, when Grandma chooses a photo, then her daughter chooses a word of the week without seeing the photo.
Writer-bloggers are invited to write a 140-word short story about the photo, or a mini-story using 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. 140 is the maximum, we can use fewer words or characters if we like. We can choose for ourselves whether or not we want to include the word of the week, which, this week, is "bluster".
Above is my submission of 82 characters, including spaces, punctuation, and the word of the week.

For Real Toads: photo prompt, M. Bednar

© M. Bednar photos

Kerry presented the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads with three photos by talented poet/photographer Margaret Bednar, and I found it difficult to choose which picture to use as a prompt for my own poem. Kerry also featured one of Margaret's poems and it is lovely.
I finally decided to use two of her photos as inspiration, and to share this one of the leaf just because it is beautiful.

a room

plain and simple,

a window, three hooks

and a bed

was all the weary man wanted—

a place to lay his head.

food came

and he cleared his plate well,

slept between soft sheets,

then awakened when the sun

shone through

the treetops outside.

he yawned,

then stretched

and thought of his horse.

Sebastian would like to work here, too,

he decided:

a good ranch

with good people,

plain and simple.

Camera Critters and Pet Pride with Grommet

Lindy, caught in soft focus, is looking mellow while visiting two of Dick's daughters and our three young grandsons, ages 8, 6 and 2, in Red Deer, Alberta, earlier this month. In the background (and below) is our granddog Grommet, a Jack Russell Terrier who used to be full of bounce but is much more mellow now that he is also 6 years old. He and Lindy really just ignored one another after their first introduction.

Posted for

Camera Critters, hosted by my friend Misty Dawn,

and also for

Pet Pride, hosted by Lindy's pal Bozo in Mumbai, India

Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo. I didn't pay much attention to Grommet. He's just a little guy, but he has a very nice family."

Another one from my friend

© Maryann Brown photo

This mixture of golden reflections and shapely shadows comes from my friend Maryann, a Californian now living on the beautiful Oregon coast. She spent Christmas in California with her children and grandchildren, and couldn't resist capturing this cell-phone shot of the sun's rays bouncing off windows and onto a parking lot in Santa Rosa. A golden gift for Christmas, for her to share with me, and I with you.

Posted for
Weekend Reflections hosted by James in California. Thanks, James!
and
Shadow Shot Sunday 2 hosted by the new team of shadow-hunters. Thanks, team!

Special thanks to Maryann, who has joined me on Weekend Reflections before.

For Real Toads: nonsense

What a wonderful way
To start out my day
Of poetry-writing and dishes.
Thanks go to Laurie
And here is my story
Which doesn't contain any fishes. 
By definition, it doesn't have to make sense. It is nonsense, the word of the day offered by Laurie for the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.
*
It took me a while to get used
To the books of the late Dr. Seuss.
It's true. I had never heard of him, or his books, or his crazy characters when, in my teens, I was babysitting for family friends, and their children asked me to read "Green Eggs and Ham." Well, my stomach curdled at the thought, and I wasn't comfortable with Dr. Seuss for years after that. I loved the title of "The Cat in the Hat" however, and eventually became a fan.
Meanwhile, I had always liked Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" — especially the first two lines, with their infectious rhythm and ridiculous words.
*
So, here we have it, my nonsense for the day, just as it proceeded from my brain to my fingers without being interrupted by anything like thought in between:
*
HORSEFEATHERS

“What ho!” cried the hog

As he rode on his log

Through the fiery blog

And the beansprouts.

“What ho, indeed,”

Said a fiery steed

Who had made the blog bleed

In the first place.

“But I am in first place,”

An old soldier yelled,

“And you are in second and threed!”

“But when I catch up

“You will be ketchup,”

Called out the hot dog who'd treed

A series of skunks

Which had run up the trunks

And now could scarcely be seed

Through the leaves of the sorrel,

And, therefore, the moral

Of this whole sorry story is speed.


Also linking to Writers' Weekend Retreat over at Grandma's Goulash.

Book Blurb Friday: a couple near water

Each week, Lisa Ricard Claro presents Book Blurb Friday at her blog, Writing in the Buff. She offers a photo (this week from the camera of Sioux Roslawski) for us to imagine as the cover of a book. Then, writer-bloggers are to imagine the book itself and write a blurb for it, a blurb to turn browsers into buyers. However, there's a catch: the blurb must be 150 words or less. It's a challenge, and it's fun.
Here is my submission of 146 words, not including the title:
*

NOT THE TITANIC...

The passengers from the Costa Concordia wept. The ship’s chief purser, who had worked so hard to save so many of them, had not yet been found.

“We’re going to find out what happened here,” one passenger, a reporter for a Canadian daily paper, said to his wife as she cried on his shoulder. “We’re going to find out and we’re going to tell the world.”

They did find out, and Serge Suffield wasted no time in telling the world. This, his first book, tells of people who perished; firefighters and scuba divers who searched; confusion and false reports; and the captain’s attitude as it contrasted with the kindness of the people of the Tuscan town of Giglio who opened their homes, schools and churches in the middle of the night to help survivors.

What did this Canadian reporter find in his search for the truth?

*

Blog owner's note: The chief purser of the Costa Concordia was rescued the day after the ship ran aground. He had worked to save as many passengers and crew as he could until he broke his leg. There is no Serge Suffield, ace reporter, as far as I know, but the people of Giglio, in the Italian region of Tuscany, did welcome the ship's survivors with open arms.

SkyWatch Friday: sunset, Red Deer

That would be the city of Red Deer, Alberta, blog fans, not a herd of red deer looking at a sunset. Dick and Lindy and I were in Red Deer recently to see two of Dick's daughters and three of the grandsons. Lindy behaved so well at the Red Deer Lodge, and Dick was pretty good, too...he took these photos of the sunset!

I love the layers of colors between the trees (above).

© Photos by Richard Schear

Posted for SkyWatch Friday

Thursday Theme Song ...is hard to do

© Photo by Richard Schear

Raking up is hard to do...our eldest grandson, Kayen, several years ago, but he still has the same great smile! He raked up this pile of leaves, then hid in it until his dad came along, and jumped up to surprise him. As Neil Sedaka would say, "Down, Dooby-do. Down! Down!" 
*
Down dooby-do down down
Dig myself in the leaves down down—
Don't take the lawn away from me,
Don't you leaf me here in mischief, please.
If you go, then I'll go, too,
'Cause raking up is hard to do.
*
I beg of you don't say goodbye
Let me give this joke another try
Come on, Dad, let me start anew
'Cause raking up is hard to do
*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbad22CKlB4

*

Posted for Hootin' Anni's musical meme
Thursday Theme Song
Thanks, Anni!

For Real Toads: the Tanaga

For this week’s poetry format challenge, Grace has presented the writers’ group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads with a style originating in the Philippines and called a Tanaga.

“It is similar in nature to the Japanese short forms of haiku or tanka. Most tanagas were passed down orally. They are claimed to be one of the oldest form of poetry in the Philippines,” says Grace. “We'll be working with a "modern" tanaga; historical ones are written in Tagalog or other Filipino dialects.

“A tanaga is a short poem of four lines, each line seven syllables with a single rhyme,” she continues. “Today, other rhyme schemes are used, including freestyle rhyme, but for the purpose of this exercise, let's try to stick with couplets.”

*

XXXXXXA

XXXXXXA

XXXXXXB

XXXXXXB

*

I’m glad Grace mentioned other rhyme schemes are in use today because, while I did try to stick to couplets for a few Tanagas, I broke the rhyme pattern in the last one. Even a simple format isn’t always easy!

Each of these was written to stand alone, but they can be read together without losing the theme.

*

seven syllables have we

for this form of poetry

poems can be metaphors

for life’s windows, for life’s doors

*

my life is many verses

the kind no one rehearses

strife happens in life, and then,

some things will happen again

*

memories of days long gone

are a most seductive song

time has blurred memory’s eye

we remember, and we sigh

*

in poems we look inward

we look forward, we look back

give thanks for what we’re given

yet we yearn for what we lack

A is for Arnhem: A Bridge Too Far

On 17 September 1944 thousands of paratroopers descended from the sky by parachute or glider up to 150 km behind enemy lines. Their goal: to secure to bridges across the rivers in Holland so that the Allied army could advance rapidly northwards and turn right into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defence line. If all carried out as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944.

Unfortunately this daring plan, named Operation Market Garden, didn't have the expected outcome. The bridge at Arnhem proved to be 'a bridge too far'. After 10 days of bitter fighting the operation ended with the evacuation of the remainder of the 1st British Airborne Division from the Arnhem area.

http://www.rememberseptember44.com

During our cruise in spring, 2011, with Viking River Cruises, we visited the city of Arnhem in The Netherlands. Our ship, the Viking Pride was berthed in full view of the bridge whose loss meant so much in the second World War.

Posted for the letter A
in Mrs. Nesbitt's alphabetical meme
ABC Wednesday
To see how other bloggers used the letter A, please click  HERE!

Succinctly yours: woman on bench

Each week, a photo is posted on the blog Grandma's Goulash, and writer-bloggers are invited to write a short story about it in 140 words or less, or a short-short item of 140 characters or less, including spaces and punctuation.
I'm running late  this week but I'm going to try for the 140-character option.
Here are my three submissions:

*


The woman sat, dreaming happily after her lunch. Little did she know the park police were coming, to make her their first littering arrest.
139 characters
*
The park policeman radioed: "We've got a litterer, Sarge, on the left: sunglasses and conflicting stripes. Should we bring her in now?"
136 characters
*
Her husband approached and said, "Quick, pick up those papers. Don't you know the new litter law starts today and I'm the crown prosecutor?"
140 characters
*
Each one a mini-story on its own, or read all three in a row for a maxi-mini story with a mere 70 words, half the suggested number.
However, the word of the week, chosen by Grandma's daughter Calico before she has seen the photo, is "dream" and I've used "dreaming" instead. Succinct, yes. Perfect, no. But it is almost midnight. G'night, folks!

Our World Tuesday: we missed the deer

We often have deer feeding at our ornamental crabapple tree when there's snow on the ground and the weather is very cold (it's -21C or 5.8 below zero F today) and some deer did visit last night but we missed them.

Looking out the new window in the door by my desk, I could see the footprints in the snow. Too bad we didn't see our visitors.

Above, the wind just about filled in the footprints between the little Alberta Spruce and the wide Spreading Juniper behind it.

Some of these footprints were left by deer, some by Dick and Lindy.

In the back yard, all the footprints belong to Lindy.

Here she is, waiting for someone to answer the door after she scratched at it.

"Mom! Why are you taking pictures when you could be letting me in?"

Posted for
Our World Tuesday

For Real Toads: Madrigals and Rondelays

It is Open Link Monday for the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads and Kerry invites us to post something unspecific. It would be difficult to find anything less specific than this poem I wrote in the middle of the night, and found on the table this morning. I rather like it, even if it ain't art.

Of Days and Rondelays

*

when the soft is on the kitten

and the warm is on the dog

when the wing is on the bird

and the turtle’s on a log

*

the world is good around us

and we know the joy of life

we feel a precious calmness

far from worry, far from strife

*

the chirping toads are chorusing

celebratory ’lays

and we know the precious peaceful

of extr’ordinary days

© by Kay Davies 2012

Mellow Yellow Monday: taxi in Quito, Ecuador

© Photo by Richard Schear, November, 2006

We laughed when we woke up our first morning in our Quito hotel, which was in the former British embassy, and looked out the front window of our room to see a familiar picture of The Kentucky Colonel.

There were many mellow yellows around The Colonel and his bucket-hatted young admirer, but this taxi was a far-from-mellow yellow, undoubtedly for increased visibility.

The sky, at 9000 feet (2750 meters) above sea level, rivaled the buses for blueness. After I got used to the altitude, we enjoyed staying in Quito and seeing something of the country of Ecuador before, and after, a yacht cruise in the Galapagos Islands five years ago.

Posted for
Mellow Yellow Monday
hosted each week by Drowsey Monkey. Thanks, Drowsey!

For Real Toads: the open gate

not a real toad

Kerry has featured poet-photographer Isadora Gruye, with one of her poems and three of her photos this weekend for the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.
Isadora's poetry and photos are hauntingly beautiful, leading me to drop my Pollyanna attitude briefly to make way for some haunting reality. The idea came to me at first sight of the photo below, and the form of the poem, with its short lines (5,6,4,4,6) and word repetition came to me unbidden. The message is an all too familiar one, however.

Isadora Gruye photo

ALLEY CAN'T
*

The gate is open

as it is every day

and I’m hopin’

oh, I’m hopin’

I can go out to stay.

*

One foot in front of

the other foot, and then,

no, I’m goin’

oh, I’m goin’

all the way in again.

*

I just can’t go out

the gate, out to the street

I want to go,

but I can’t go

I’m terrified we’ll meet.

*

Oh, what should I do

to escape from this lane?

It’s been too long

far, far too long

to just live here in pain.

*

They said they found him

and they put him in jail

but I am trapped

yes, I am trapped

because he’s out on bail.

*

They’ve let him be free,

but I’m here, all this time.

Why should victims,

Many victims—

Pay thus for rapists’ crime?

Pet Pride: one shoe off and three shoes on

© Photo by Richard Schear

Hi, it's me—Lindy!
I'm slim, and I'm trim, and I'm lovely, so if I want to let my dad carry one of my snow boots for me, it's okay. I've been around cyberspace long enough to know I have a few fans, perhaps more than a few, so I'm not proud. I know we'll go home, where my mom will have a hissy-fit about my poor, sad, cold foot, and she'll make sure my dad gets all the snow out from between the pads, and gets my hair good and dry.

Posted for Pet Pride

hosted by Lindy's buddy Bozo and his family

in Mumbai, India, at their Pets Forever blog

Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo. I really don't need boots. I can chew the ice-balls out from between the pads of my feet, but it makes my mom and dad happy when I let them put the boots on me. And they are reflective, which is a nice safety feature when Dad and I are walking at night. Do you go walking at night? I know you don't need snow boots, but maybe reflectors?"