Monthly Archives: March 2016

Disparity

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Disparity

The moods of blogs have verity
that ranges wide from a to zee.
From pathos to hilarity,
the mundane to rare oddity.

Some blogs practice idolatry
which some see as frivolity
when all they read and all they see
is film stars and celebrity.

But I say we should all be free
to write about whatever we
want to think about or be
without the charge of heresy.

I applaud the rarity
of blogs that flaut disparity
and flood the interweb’s wide sea
with a rich diversity.

So show yourself for what you be
as you are formed––from mother’s knee
to what the world has made of thee.
Express your angst or jollity

for all the world to share and see.
for no entrance price or fee.
This cyber world should be kept free
in thought and cost–that is my plea!

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/frivolous/

 

Color Your World Robin Egg Blue.

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Robin Easter Eggs

Robin Easter Eggs (Can’t get more robin egg blue than this!)

And, a few weeks later:

Baby Robins 1
Baby Robins 3
Last out of the nest
Empty nest

pacific_blue_1395389 Color Your World Robin Egg Blue

Thanks to okcforgottenman for allowing me to use the photograph of the nest and eggs he sent me on Easter day four years ago as well as the subsequent photos of the chicks and empty nest.. I had never seen robin eggs before and had imagined them to be more of a sky blue, but this turquoise color is gorgeous.

http://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/03/27/color-your-world-robin-egg-blue

The Edge

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IMG_4024

(If you are reading this poem in The Reader, please click on the title “The Edge” above to go to my page to read it as the Reader cancels out the line spacing  and this is a shape poem. )

The Edge

        Moving between
        the edges
        of my life,
         I have railed against sleep,
        not knowing how long
        the journey between them
        might be.

At three,
I rebelled against naps,
craving the daylight adventures
lost to them.

At sixty-eight,
I fight off sleep in the wee hours,
hoping to gain a little bit more time
in a life whose furthest rim I am approaching.
.

I needed my naps more than the other girls,
my mother always professed,
not knowing all the long nights I stayed awake even then,
trying to win back the time lost to them.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/edge/

Gazania: Flower of the Day, Mar 27,2016

11 Replies

Version 4

Christine Goodnough identified this plant for me.  Thanks, Christine!!!

http://ceenphotography.com/2016/03/26/flower-of-the-day-march-26-2016-daffodil-2/

Happy Easter, Happy Spring

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Happy, Happy Everything!

I couldn’t resist these Peeps spinoffs.  They were Bob’s favorites.  He’d wait until after Easter and then scoop them up at a discount. I’ve seen him stuff four in his mouth at a time––a childhood fantasy finally realized in his fifties, no doubt.  At any rate, these Easter goodies will be hidden for Yolanda and Pasiano’s children to find.  Must remember to lock Morrie and siblings in the front yard, or they’ll make fast work of them before the kiddies ever arrive.  Happy Easter to all.

Thanks, Ladies! Inventions by Women

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Inventions by Women

(This was sent to me by a friend.  I don’t know who the original compiler was and can’t locate them on Google. Please let me know if you do and I will credit them.)

1. The Car Heaterhttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-2NrkkiWR0/VmGQwXUFazI/AAAAAAACfPw/W04Zh5sQLhY/s1600/1.pngWe all owe our thanks to Margaret A Wilcox who invented the car heater in 1893! (Margaret also invented a combined clothes and dishwasher)

 

2.  Monopoly This popular board game was designed by Elizabeth Magie in 1904, originally called the Landlord’s Game. The purpose of this game was to expose the injustices of unchecked capitalism. Her game was ripped off by Charles Darrow who sold it to Parker Brother’s 30 years later.  However Parker Brothers later paid Elizabeth $500 for her game. Gee Thanks!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-78-eAt579ME/VmGRKPkXUBI/AAAAAAACfQo/F6F2VPTZTlM/s1600/2.png
3. The Fire Escape http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-91hmz5K9cIA/VmGRUv-cTmI/AAAAAAACfQ4/LEM0slvJbQw/s1600/3.png
The fire escape was invented by Anna Connelly in 1887
4. The Life Raft http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qthcmDHrO-4/VmGRWKlMbTI/AAAAAAACfRE/P55-S6jMr8Y/s1600/4.png
The life saving Life Raft was invented by Maria Beasely in 1882. (Maria also invented a machine that makes barrels)
5. Residential Solar Heating http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eK2sENL4Yx0/VmGRVfUtrII/AAAAAAACfRA/ZnIYBHRDAEM/s1600/5.png
Solar heating for residential housing was invented by Dr Maria Telkes in 1947. Dr. Telkes was a Psychiatrist in addition to being a Solar-Power Pioneer
6.  The Medical Syringe http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-48EAaU1BevM/VmGRactsvEI/AAAAAAACfRQ/8HHeThKoNPI/s1600/6.png
The medical syringe which could be operated with only one hand was invented by a woman by the name of Letitia Geer in 1899
7. The Modern Electric Refrigerator http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iF13AzX5kzw/VmGRe045CsI/AAAAAAACfRY/Opjyi3tya2M/s1600/7.png
The electric refrigerator was invented by Florence Parpart in 1914 (Florence also invented an improved street cleaning machine in addition to the refrigerator)
8. The Ice Cream Maker http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hkufQsePYtU/VmGRfBgki2I/AAAAAAACfRc/YILBQhN5hkc/s1600/8.png
The ice cream maker was invented by a woman named Nancy Johnson in 1843. Her patented design is still used today!
9. The Computer Algorithm http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ik2Q1BgF_Mo/VmGRhBPxY1I/AAAAAAACfRo/uEAbPUVRW1o/s1600/9.png
Ada Lovelace is essentially the first computer programmer due to her work with Charles Babbage at the University of London in 1842. In fact her notes was an essential key to helping Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.
10. Telecommunications Technology http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NASUsGYcvZ0/VmGQnmHYpHI/AAAAAAACfPc/PoNK6xfiStc/s1600/10.png
Some of the Telecommunication Technology developed by Dr Shirley Jackson include portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cells, fibre optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting.
11. The Dishwasher http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ohrsue6EDWY/VmGQuKbJQ5I/AAAAAAACfPo/RFD02tgIctA/s1600/11.png
The Dishwasher was invented by Josephine Cochrane in 1887. Before her time, she even marketed her machine to hotel owners and even opened her own factory without the help of a man!
12. Wireless Transmission Technology http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLUO1-lmfoI/VmGQz7Ca9FI/AAAAAAACfP4/0JwkG7sO33E/s1600/12.png
Hedy Lamarr, a world famous film star, invented a secret communications system during World War II for radio-controlling torpedoes. This Technology also paved the way  for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS
13. Closed-Circuit Television Security (CCTV) http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jiTKKQQIXzw/VmGQ-ujR8xI/AAAAAAACfQA/iAHyhOoUDzs/s1600/13.png
Marie Van Brittan Brown invented CCTV because of the slow response of police officers in 1969 to help people ensure their own security. This invention influenced modern CCTV systems used for home security and police work today.
14. The Modern Paper Bag http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-60pY2TBXQDI/VmGQ_bisNvI/AAAAAAACfQE/pRmlrx_KQ4c/s1600/14.png
Margaret Knight invented a machine that makes square bottomed paper bags in 1871. She almost didn’t get credit when Charles Anan tried to steal her work claiming that it wasn’t possible for a woman to create this brilliant invention.  (Margaret also invented a safety device for cotton mills when she was 12… that invention is still being used today)
15.  Central Heating http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G027BarXAUM/VmGQ_kEa3-I/AAAAAAACfQI/WshwpR19LT8/s1600/15.png
Although Alice Parker’s invention in 1919 of a gas powered central heater was never manufactured. Her idea was the first that allowed for using natural gas to heat a home, inspiring the central heating systems used today
16.  Kevlar http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G3WoOwbz76E/VmGRDhWnR-I/AAAAAAACfQY/AQC0lG2s4a8/s1600/16.png
This life-saving material that is 5 times stronger than steel and used to make bulletproof vests was invented in 1965 by Stephanie Kwolek
17. Computer Software http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D-wPykaKTn8/VmGRK_N0BoI/AAAAAAACfQw/qNsG9Rcrxzk/s1600/17.png
Dr Grace Murray Hopper was a computer scientist who invented COBOL which is the first user-friendly business computer software system in the 1940’s.  She was also a rear admiral in the U.S. navy and the first person to use the term “bug” in reference to a glitch in a computer system when she literally found a bug (moth) causing problems with her computer.

Between the Dark and the Daylight

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“Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations
That is known as the children’s hour.”
                    –excerpt from The Children’s Hour” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

(Click on first photo and arrows to enlarge all photographs.)

 

 

The challenge was to choose a favorite poem and to publish photos to illustrate it.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/half-light/

The Demise of Scrub Daddy

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On February 20 of this year, I posted an entry about the Scrub Daddy Sponge my sister put in my Xmas stocking.

(Click first photo and arrows to enlarge and see commentary under each photo, then click on X at upper left to return and read the poem.)  Note:  Wordpress seems to be having some problems. If the process just suggested doesn’t work, hovering over each photo will let you see the captions.)

This is what Scrub Daddy looked like in his prime.
He fit perfectly into my Axion container.
Five weeks later, however, this is what Scrub Daddy looks like:

The Demise of Scrub Daddy

Scrub Daddy, Scrub Daddy, where you gone?
There in pieces, so limp and wan,
you hardly seem the selfsame sponge
meant to scour and expunge
clinging morsels of cooked-on rice
when I swipe once and maybe twice.

Yet after only thirty days,
I must amend my former praise,
for after one-too-many rubbings,
you haven’t very many scrubbings
left in you. You’ve lost your heart,
unstiffed your starch, fallen apart!

Scrub Daddy, Scrub Daddy, I won’t buy
another cut-out scrub sponge guy.
I’ll make do with a simple square
that’s lacking mouth and eyes and hair.
Though you’d win any cuteness casting,
I’ll choose a sponge that’s longer lasting!


Now, if you want to know the full story of Scrub Daddy, read my earlier posting about him Here.

And, if you want to know the final outcome of this story, read this:

https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/06/14/scrub-daddy-goes-on-fiesta/

and, since this post follows in the footsteps of an earlier one, I’m posting it in Footsteps as well.

Empty Studio

23 Replies

  daily life color132

Empty Studio

My memories
are footsteps
leading me to you.

I smell your scent of wood,
your sweat with the bouquet of bronze,
remember the finger you sacrificed
to impetuosity and art.

Finally the world fed all of you to the blade––
our severance as final as one of your straight sure cuts––
making you into memory I follow one step at a time,
my passing visible through stone dust
and wood shavings on the floor.

This is how you and I
create patterns
even after you are gone
from memories as fragmented
as what you left behind
when you created art––

stone chips, sawdust, pebbled glass,
curls of metal and winged shards of paper––
my footprints
pushing them farther apart
each time I pass through.
Leaving more of me
and less of you.

daily life color133

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/footsteps/

Lush Lilac: Flower of the day, March 26, 2016

9 Replies

Lush Lilac

If anyone knows what flower this is, I would be happy to know!  This is my 1800th post!!! Is there anyone who has seen them all?  If so, I’d like to hear from you. Or from anyone who hasn’t!!!

(Click on first photo and arrows to see enlarged views.)

http://ceenphotography.com/2016/03/25/flower-of-the-day-march-26-2016-daffodil/