Monthly Archives: September 2017

The Finite. What We Can’t Fight.

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Universal Biography

In the end, all the same.
Although remembering your name,
eventually no one knows
the you that lived beneath your clothes.

They may see your charming smile,
your tender looks or cunning guile,
but they won’t have the faintest clue
of the authentic, inner you.

Perhaps we start out all the same;
so who’s the one that we should blame
when some turn into Phyllis Dillers
and others into serial killers?

Ghandi, Hitler, Bundy, and
the rest of us, by nature’s hand
instilled with sin or piety
in infinite variety.

But still, at end of life, we fall,
not so different after all.
At the very end of day,
returned to dust, we blow away.

 

The prompt word today is “finite.” This is a reblog of a poem I wrote two years ago.—

The Magical Kingdom of Candelabra Island

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When we sailed through the colossal bifucated stone split into the secret cove on Candelabra Island in Peru, we could not help but feel like we were intruders in this little paradise filled with thousands of cormorants, blue-footed boobies, pelicans, seals, crabs, terns, seagulls, pelicans and other huge flocks of birds that settled on the jagged rocks around the quayside structure where tons of bird guano was loaded up and sold to a lucrative market every 5 years. The birds, however, watched seemingly unperturbed from their vantage point high above on the jagged rocks. (The italicized words are the prompt words we were given to choose between.  This photo series seems to demonstrate them all.)

Cllick on first photo to enlarge all.

 

 

https://bopaula.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/thursdays-special-pick-a-word-in-september-y2/

Anticipation

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Today is that day I’ve been anticipating for months—the day I take the girl kittens in for spaying and the boy for neutering.  Since I don’t have that much time to write, I put today’s prompt word “anticipate” into my search engine on my blog and this is the former post I came up with to reblog: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/10/03/water-and-rocks/.
It takes awhile to find the word anticipate in it–as a matter of fact it is the third word from the end, but I enjoyed reading the story and seeing the photos as though someone else had written them, so perhaps you will, too.  There is an accompanying link to the story I wrote about our huge landslide many years ago.

I can hear the kittens meowing from three rooms away.  They want to be fed and poor babies, it can’t be done before their surgery.  I’ll be glad when their little ordeal is over.  I’m also anticipating the time when they can safely be released to the great outdoors and there will be fewer kitty litter boxes to clean.  Will I suffer empty nest syndrome?  They’ll still be around, but will be mainly outside cats.  Preparing them in anticipation of January’s house sitters who are allergic to cats.  And my friend Patty who is allergic to cats.

Okay, please his that blue URL link above and go back with me in time to another rainy season, another thrill of nature aside from abandoned kittens and murdered bats.  Still sorry about that one.

Before and After

No time to sort these, but below are 3 months of kitten shots from the first day they were mysteriously gifted to me to the present.  Now we are off to insure no new kittens are in my future!

Click on first photo to enlarge all and read captions.

 

Standing up to Annie to steal her meal. First time I saw kittens
First day I found them, feeding the starving kittens.
Dinner time, 3 months ago
Meal time a few weeks ago.
Meal time now. Two dishes necessary
Ollie Then
Ollie now. (In front.)
Kitten pileup at approx 3 months
Ollie and Roo at about 6 weeks old
About 16 weeks old.
6-8 weeks old.

The prompt was anticipate.

Eavesdropping

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Here is a Skype conversation that transpired last night between okcforgottenman and me. Wanna eavesdrop?

[2017-09-05 23:40:26] Judy: Okay. You are not going to believe what just happened!!!!
[2017-09-05 23:40:44] okcforgottenman: I don’t believe what just happened!!!!
[2017-09-05 23:40:50] Judy: I heard a crash in bedroom and what sounded like breaking glass.
[2017-09-05 23:41:12] okcforgottenman: gulp
[2017-09-05 23:41:34] Judy: I went in and there was a cloth doll on the floor..Kittens were charging around. I picked up a different cat toy and when I did, something flew up out of it. It was a bat that must have flown in through the gap I left in the sliding glass door for the kittens to go in and out through!
[2017-09-05 23:41:50] okcforgottenman: HAHAHA
[2017-09-05 23:42:18] Judy: The kittens pounced on it, it got away, flew up, I grabbed a pillow and threw it on top of it and it started to wiggle out from under it.
[2017-09-05 23:42:30] Judy: This was a rather large bat.. and they have rabies here!
[2017-09-05 23:42:46] okcforgottenman: Yes, scary. But hilarious.
[2017-09-05 23:42:54] Judy: I pushed the pillow over it and stood on the pillow and looked around for something else to throw over it.
[2017-09-05 23:43:03] okcforgottenman: (I had a bat experience in St Louis.)
[2017-09-05 23:43:05] Judy: But I couldn’t move or the bat could wiggle out.
[2017-09-05 23:43:29] Judy: I jumped up and down on the pillow, stomped on it, but it was a thick feather pillow and I had on Crocs.
[2017-09-05 23:46:09] Judy: The only think I could reach was their stainless steel food dishes, so I edged the pillow up and stuck the dish over it, then got another dish to weight it and got two books to put on top. I went into kitchen and got a plastic flat thin cutting board, slid it under the dish, put a book under and over it and unlocked sliders, then took it outside and dumped it. I actually think it was dead by then. Ugh!!! It is on front steps now. Doors and screens shut. Never thought of bats coming inside. Thought they didn’t like the light.
[2017-09-05 23:46:16] Judy: God. What next?
[2017-09-05 23:47:09] Judy: Its wingspread was probably six inches.
[2017-09-05 23:47:16] Judy: Tough little bugger.
[2017-09-05 23:47:23] okcforgottenman: Check on it later, maybe. Don’t want a crippled bat in Yolanda’s path tomorrow.
[2017-09-05 23:47:55] okcforgottenman: How you suffer for blog stories!
[2017-09-05 23:47:59] Judy: It will be in Pasiano’s path first.
[2017-09-05 23:48:01] Judy: Ha.
[2017-09-05 23:48:03] Judy: yes..
[2017-09-05 23:48:09] Judy: no. no photos.
[2017-09-05 23:48:19] okcforgottenman: I wasn’t gonna ask.
[2017-09-05 23:48:37] Judy: and there was another little stand for a doll I made but must be under the bed. I had two little handmade dolls up there that are gone.
[2017-09-05 23:48:39] okcforgottenman: What made the sound of breaking glass?
[2017-09-05 23:48:45] Judy: probably destroyed.
[2017-09-05 23:48:55] Judy: I don’t know.. perhaps the metal stand for the doll.
[2017-09-05 23:49:20] okcforgottenman: How did the kitties react while you were battling?
[2017-09-05 23:50:02] Judy: Without knowing it, I was kicking the stand around when i chased the bat and kept thinking I heard breaking glass. For awhile I thought the bat was making the noise..but then once it was under the pillow, and I still heard the noise, I realized it was coming from behind me and was me kicking the little metal stand.
[2017-09-05 23:50:32] Judy: I opened the door and they ran down the hall to terrorize Annie in my bathroom. I could hear her hissing. Never a dull moment, Dux.
[2017-09-05 23:50:44] Judy: better go see if she ran into my closet.
[2017-09-05 23:51:09] okcforgottenman: Doggies none the wiser?
[2017-09-05 23:51:24] Judy: Annie is asleep in her bed in the tub in my room.
[2017-09-05 23:51:51] Judy: No noise from dogs that I remember. If they’d been in the house the whole room would’ve been wrecked.
[2017-09-05 23:52:00] Judy: gonna go give kitties more food and water. They can’t eat past 1 AM because they are being spayed or neutered tomorrow.  Poor tykes.
[2017-09-05 23:52:38] okcforgottenman: Shame you couldn’t adopt the bat, teach him to play fetch with Morrie.
[2017-09-06 00:01:53] Judy: Oh god, Dux. What a life. Do you think I have more odd things happen than most people or do I just make more of a fuss over them?

(Published before Dux (aka okcforgottenman) responded further.)

R.I.P. little interloper.  Wish I hadn’t overreacted and you’d been able to fly away. I admit that I panicked. I had my film group over to watch “Love at First Bite” on Sunday night.

Water Water Everywhere

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Click on first photo to view all in larger format.

 

 

 

 

 

For this challenge: https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2017/09/05/tuesday-photo-challenge-water/

Bougainvillea Bushes: Flower of the Day, Sept 5, 2017

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The rainy season on Lake Chapala turns everything a lush green.  Although generally they flourish in a drier climate, the bougainvillea seem not to be minding it either.

For Cee’s Flower Prompt.

 

 

 

 

C is for Caterpillar

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I have a whole new crop of caterpillar photos, thanks to Yolanda and Pasiano who had them all lined up on the patio table for me last week.  Pasiano had been picking the hornworm caterpillars off the overhead Virginia creeper vines over the patio, and knowing how fascinated I am with them, they’d produced a display of all the different stages.  I saw a new one this time.  In sixteen years, I’ve never see the smallest red stage–the one with the horn that seems to eventually grow into an eye.  In the third photo, you can see its size in relation to the largest size. Here they are, modelling their finery for us before being relocated to the vacant lot. We never kill caterpillars in this house. They are fascinating creatures that I both love and dread to see every year.  I don’t begrudge them their food—just their poop and how hard it is to find and relocate them.

I hope you click on the first photo to enlarge and read the commentary as you see the slide show. 

 

Here it is a bit closer up and in curlier form.
For comparison-the first stage next to a later, but not final stage.
This is the final stage before cocoon. The horn seems to grow into the one central eye you see on this fellow.

                                             Hey!!! Wasn’t this feature supposed to be about cats???? Curiouser and curiouser.

 

For Cee’s prompt: https://ceenphotography.com/2017/09/05/cees-fun-foto-challenge-c-the-c-word-needs-to-be-at-least-4-letters-in-length/

Chipping Away: Tuesdays of Texture 35, Sept 5, 2017

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Time, weather and man are the elements that eventually diminish a tree, turning the ground around it into a graveyard of its bits.  This initial stage of decay has a beauty all its own.

https://narami.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/tuesdays-of-texture-week-35-of-2017/

Seeking Acclaim

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Acclaim

Those who seek to elevate
their fame with words too profligate
often find that others balk
at such narcissistic talk.

One heard tooting his own horn
is often lonely and forlorn.
When it comes to charity,
many have reached parity
who do not need to try to flout it,
let alone to shout about it.

Others have performed great acts
without broadcasting the facts
of honors won or feats achieved,
and one who boasts is oft believed
to be exaggerating––or,
is simply thought to be a bore

So, even though you’re justly proud,
please don’t voice that fact out loud.
If your act is worth a plaudit,
best leave it to another to laud it!

 

The prompt word is elevate. (Rerun of a poem written three years ago.)

CFFC Challenge, Colors That Begin With “B”: Beige

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Click on first photo to enlarge all and view as slide series.

 

https://ceenphotography.com/2017/08/29/cees-fun-foto-challenge-colors-that-start-with-the-letter-b/