Sunday Selections #265

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  In March of each year my city has a balloon festival.  I look forward to it every year and this week was looking at some old photos.  These are taken in 2008, when we took a breakfast cruise on the lake to see the balloons go up.  It was a treat - but I prefer to be closer to the balloons so we haven't done it since. 

Just the same, here are some photos from that morning.  Autumn was MUCH more advanced than it is this year.

And I am also returning to the garden.  With a very different photo from the usual ones I take.

I was hanging out some washing one morning this week and looking down at the very dry garden bed under the clothes line when I spotted...

A LEAF DEMON!!!  And a close-up (neither the leaf nor the photo have been amended).  I hope its intentions are benign...

Words for Wednesday

The lovely Delores at Under the Porch Light had been running this meme for a considerable period of time, week after week.   Computer issues led her to bow out for a while and I took over.  When Delores' absence looked like being more permanent I begged and cajoled for other volunteers to share providing the prompts, and Words for Wednesday became a moveable feast.  Sadly Delores has (temporarily I hope) discontinued her blog.

Last month Jacqueline at Randomosity tested our mettle.  She tricked us and retired Randomosity and can now be found here at Cranky Bar.  
This month it is my turn.

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image.   What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.  I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

First some words:

1. emergency 
2. tragic  
3. ashes 
4. fabric  
5. analysis 
6. early

and/or

1. fumbling 
2. useless  
3. forearm  
4. grasp 
5. double  
6. antidemocratic

Then a couple of images.

Have fun.

Next month the prompts will again be here - but they will be provided by Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton.

Sunday Selections #264

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.
 
Like River I usually run with a theme. This week I planned to show you the purple pavlova I made for my nephew's partner's 40th birthday party (goodness that makes me feel old).  However, while the pavlova was enjoyed by those who partook, the photos were an epic fail.  It looked grey rather than purple. Which it wasn't.  The interior was a deep, deep purple, the cream was marbled with red and blue and it was decorated with blueberries, raspberries and sugar stars.  In a completely over the top way it looked ok.   Sigh.

So I am reverting ar the eleventh hour to more common obsessions; a stylish corella and a sunset.

First the bird.

Then the sky.  Two consecutive days.

 

WEP Valentine Challenge

The WEP (Write, Edit, Publish) Challenge so generously hosted by Denise Covey and Yolanda Renee is back.

This month (of course) the focus is on Valentine's Day.  We are asked to say what the day means to us - and can do so through fiction, non-fiction, photography...   Which leaves it wide open.

If you visit here and click on any names with a DL next to them you will be taken to some wonderful pieces.

 I am playing again - and have chosen to go down the non-fiction path this month.

I have shared my life with my partner, known among other things as the Smaller Portion, (because I resented my mother describing him as my better half, and I am taller)  for nearly forty years now.  We have shared good times and bad.  We are very different people and irritate each other on a regular basis.  And the foundation of our relationship is, as it has been since the beginning, love and laughter.

***

A true story.

My partner would say that he doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.
He is a stranger to the truth.  He doesn't do the Hallmark sentimental card caper.  He does better.
Thirty years ago we lived in the country, rented an isolated farmhouse and commuted (by motorcycle) thirty miles or so to work in a large country town.  It was a quiet life, a pleasant life, a peaceful life.  Our nearest neighbours were only visible at night when we could just see the lights from their home. 
Then I came down with glandular fever.  For the second time.  I had it badly and was a sick, grumpy and almost certainly fairly obnoxious puppy.  After a shower I was so tired I needed a rest before I could dry myself or dress.  I remember squeezing myself a glass of orange juice and being too tired to drink it.  I struggled for a while, and then took some time off work.
On Valentine's Day I heard (vaguely) the roar of the Ducati as he headed off to work.  And drifted back to sleep
Some eight hours later I was up.  I had even showered and dressed.  Which made it a good day.  A good day which was about to get better.  I had learnt (remember I said it was quiet) that If I put the jug on when I first heard the Ducati it was coming to the boil about the time he pulled into the drive.  On that Valentine's Day I was making his coffee when he came into the kitchen.  I went to hug him - but was waved away.
He unbuckled his jacket, reached inside and pulled out five glorious roses. 
Five glorious heavily scented roses. 
Five glorious and heavily scented champage coloured roses.
Five slightly crushed glorious and heavily scented champage coloured roses.
Both his shirt and those glorious roses were also spattered with drops of his blood, and shortly afterwards generously watered with my happy tears.

Bringing flowers home by bike was always going to be a challenge because the bike had no panniers and he hadn't taken a shoulder bag with him.  Down his jacket was the only place they had any chance of surviving the thirty mile trip. 
Florists remove the thorns.  Florist's roses have no scent. 
He knows that I consider a rose without fragrance a travesty and a tragedy.  So he had gone to a house in town whose rose garden I had often admired  and convinced the owner (who we didn't know) to sell him some of her best roses, and had ridden home with them pressed against his heart.  This from the man who finds talking to strangers difficult and doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.

My heart melted.  And continues to do so on a regular basis.

Word Count: 473
Full Critique Acceptable:

Words for Wednesday

The lovely Delores at Under the Porch Light had been running this meme for a considerable period of time, week after week.   Computer issues led her to bow out for a while and I took over.  When Delores' absence looked like being more permanent I begged and cajoled for other volunteers to share providing the prompts, and Words for Wednesday became a moveable feast.  Sadly Delores has (temporarily I hope) discontinued her blog.

Last month Jacqueline at Randomosity tested our mettle.  She tricked us and retired Randomosity and can now be found here at Cranky Bar.  

This month it is my turn.

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image.   What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.  I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

This week I am giving you two selections of words.

Set the first:

1. boulevard 
2. diplomacy 
3. dreamless 
4. dry  
5. southern 
6. horses

Set the second:

1. avenging 
2. optimum  
3. glutton  
4. exhibit  
5. salty  
6. desperate

Have fun.  And no, I have no idea where the words come from...

 

Sunday Selections #263

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week my theme is distractions.  Welcome distractions.  I am not in a good space physically, mentally or emotionally and all of these things helped.

We took a small excursion to our National Library to see an exhibition called Celestial Empire:  Life in China 1644-1911.  A free exhibition.  It wasn't the best I have seen and photographs of the exhibits were banned but I was blown away by the colours in some of the documents.  Hundreds of years old, and so vivid.

A snippet of information intrigued me too.  Apparently there was a time when China, Japan and Korea shared the same written language...

No photos of the exhibit, but some of the outside of the National Library.

This monkey has been set in place for the Chinese New Year.  I think it is on the grotesque side, and am intrigued by the solar panels.  I assume it lights up at night - and when Enlighten is on in a few weeks we will see...

  The next day we went to the Lifeline book fair.  Do I need any more books?  No.  Have I room for any more books?  No.  Did I buy books?  Of course.  Nearly thirty of them.

As a bonus, Wesley, a memoir written by a woman who shared her life with a Barn Owl for nineteen years, was amazing.  I guzzled it and will read it again.

I have also had some welcome distraction in the garden.  My pineapple lily (eucomis) is in flower.  This link will take you to some more information about it.

There are Bromeliads in flower too.

And we have naked ladies blooming in the back yard too.  Not the usual pink ones which appear to be sulking but some white beauties (also known as Belladonna lilies or Amaryllis).  Naked ladies because they bloom before the leaves appear.