Monthly Archives: December 2020

Travel Challenge, Day 5

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I was nominated by my friend Konstanze Venus to post one favorite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then to nominate someone else to participate. That’s 10 days, 10 travel pictures, and 10 nominations. I may not make it to the end of ten days, but for now I nominate Dolly at Koolkosherkitchen . Some people I nominate may be on Facebook and others on blogs. Just post wherever you wish but link to me so I know you have. If you are not interested, no problema.

Nowhere in the rules does it say you can’t guess where the photo was taken and that I can’t agree if you are right, or keep guessing if you aren’t. Or answer any other questions you might ask. It’s just that I can’t publish any explanation in the original post!

Go HERE to see my Travel Challenge photo, Day 6.

FOTD, Dec 10, 2020

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Click on photos to enlarge.

For Cee’s Flower of the Day

Patent Pending

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Image by Jake Pierrelee on Unsplash.

A Modest Proposal

I am applying, here on bent knee,
for you to grant a franchise to me
to be your beloved—your regular guy.
Given that I am awkward and shy,
but I am also one jubilant fellow,
determined in will though my legs are like Jell-o,
who aims to get over his natural bent,
in order to voice, to proclaim and to vent
that my heart will be steadfast and loving and true
If you will grant me a patent on you!

Word prompts today are shy, franchise, jubilant and beloved.

Dog Smarts

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Dog Smarts

My dog is a rapscallion, ingenious and quick.
I rarely have an ice cream where he doesn’t steal a lick.
Every time I think that It’s not happening this time,
he gets the better of me with his little mime.

First he feigns indifference so I’m caught off my guard,
and then in a mere second, he’s running through the yard,
my cone extending from his jaws as though he is a bird.
So rapid that to try to run and catch him is absurd.

But in my desperation, I do so anyway.
I aimed to teach a lesson that crime doesn’t pay,
so I bought another cone–my second one today,
and took him on a walk with me, licking all the way.

I wouldn’t look the other way. I wouldn’t get distracted.
The seizure of my ice cream cone would not be reenacted!
It was my dog who got distracted  by a small dog with a bone.
By the time that I caught up with him, the other dog lay prone

with my dog above him, thinking that he alone
should have it, so you guessed it, I offered him my cone!
And so my efforts foiled again, I resorted to barter,
demonstrating once again, my canine friend is smarter.

Prompt words today are rapscallion, ingenious, desperation and rapid.

Tabachine: Flower of the Day, Dec 9, 2020

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This tabachine bush blooms year round and there is usually a new crop of butterflies to flutter around it. Most of the hummingbirds have defected to the neighbors’ hummingbird feeder pictured in my Thanksgiving photos, but a few still come visit this little tree which is in perfect view from my studio.

 

For Cee’s Flower of the Day prompt. See Cee’s gorgeous poinsettia macro HERE.

As Her Majesty Ordains

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As Her Majesty Ordains

An extraordinary show pooch, she was top dog in her class.
Her coat was long and silky and glittered like fine glass.
Her canine teeth were pearly, her tail a lovely plume.
Every eye turned toward her when she walked into a room.

Her master, pumped-up in his pride, gloried in her fame.
Every judge in every show knew her fabled name.
At shows he closely guarded her from every dog she met.
Never took her walking, lest her feet get wet.

Not once had she chased a ball, a rabbit or a stick.
She couldn’t jump in leaves for her coat was just too thick.
Her master feared she’d sully it and he would be the one
who’d pay with time spent grooming her if she had some fun.

But the neighbor was her savior when her master was away,
for he would come into her yard and they would run and play.
Fetching sticks and playing tug-rope and racing through the yard,
she could simply be a doggie and let down her royal guard.

But one day her master came home in the middle of the morning
and caught them in their playtime with nary a pre-warning.
He promptly whistled for his dog to bring it to an end,
casting a baleful look at his pet’s clandestine friend.

But her highness did not deign to come, in spite of all her training.
No matter what her master did, she ended up remaining
close to her only playmate–hoping the yells would end,
but instead her master fumed and shouted at her only friend.

“You hogamadog? I going to steal your cat one day!”
(Did I reveal he was Italian? You know they talk that way.)
And did I say the neighbor had a cat? He did, you know, of course.
(Sometimes when I talk, the cart goes on before the horse.)

But the whole thing ended happily. The neighbor pled his case
and before the day was over, the dog’s master joined the chase.
The neighbor helped with grooming after they all jumped in leaves,
thereby doing in one of the master’s former peeves.

Did I introduce the owner? His first name was Giuseppe.
Oscar was the neighbor, both duplicitous and peppy.
Duchess was the given name of the illustrious bitch
who improved her retrieval once her master learned to pitch.

 

Prompt words for the day are pearl, fumes, hogamadog and glitter.

Travel Challenge, Day 4

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I was nominated by my friend Konstanze Venus to post one favorite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then to nominate someone else to participate. That’s 10 days, 10 travel pictures, and 10 nominations. I may not make it to the end of ten days, but for now I nominate Derrick Knight . Some people I nominate may be on Facebook and others on blogs. Just post wherever you wish but link to me so I know you have. If you are not interested, no problema.

Nowhere in the rules does it say you can’t guess where the photo was taken and that I can’t agree if you are right, say keep guessing if you aren’t.

Go HERE to see my Travel Challenge, Day 5.

For Cee’s FOTD

Then and Now

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Then and Now

That spontaneous body that moved with swish and sway
never quite believed that there would come a day
when spring would turn to sprang and run turn into ran
and movement would become a thing achieved by plot and plan.

Dancing done in memory raises less of a sweat.
When we swim in remembrance, rarely do we get wet.
Every action has two pleasures. The first is when we do it,
but it’s equally fantastic later on when we review it.

 

Prompt words today are swish, body, spontaneous and fantastic.

Empty House: FOTD, Dec 7, 2020

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For those of you who saw this insect on a leaf on my blog yesterday, the mystery is here revealed. This is actually the shed outer skin of a cicada. Amazing, no? Right down to the hairs!!

 

For Cee’s FOTD