This is one of the three new hibiscus plants I’ve planted in my garden while spiffing it up for the garden tour.
For Cee’s FOTD
Newest Hibiscus, for FOTD, Oct 12, 2024
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Monthly Archives: October 2024
“Hairclip” for SOCS, Oct 11, 2024
Hairclip
He rolls over,
pinning her
by her long hair.
He sleeps on it.
She draws his dreams
through its long shafts,
works out his days
into her web.
Her hair,
black raven coal
falling down the chute
between his hands.
Her hair
to be pulled down.
Her hair
his fist
coiled
in each other.
Her hair
his mouth
the cave
a feast of hair.
Her hair side-winding on the ground.
Passion.
Her hair whips
his face until he weaves
a bridge of it
to cross the high crevasse.
Her hair
drying
with a baby
swinging from it.
Her hair woven
into bags and harnesses,
yet when a strand slips from behind her ear,
it makes necessary:
fire, bronze, iron, steel, rubber, factories, the assembly line
just to invent
the
hairclip.
For Linda G Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “clip”
“The Devil Made Me Do It!” for Fibbin’ Friday, Oct 11, 2024
Don’t blame me! The Devil makes me do it!!!
Here we are again. Another ten words to practice my fibbin’ on:
1. Finifugal– a skeptical female fish.
2. Skirl–a denizen of the trees with a big fluffy tail.
3. Waesucks–the superlative form of sucks. He not only sucks, he waesucks!!!!
4. Popple– “cool” lingo for dad.
5. Gardyloo–an attendant in a public restroom.
6. Futz–What they called Fonzie when he was clumsy.
7. Frippery–What sidewalk ice is to a one-year-old just learning to walk.
8. Diphthong–underwear to swim in.
9. Wamble–what a one-year-old loves to do once he or she has mastered walking.
10. Phablet–a tiny lie.
For Fibbin’ Friday
Free E-book
My friend asked me to help spread the word of her new free e-book offering:
Free E-book, and a Good One!!
An e-book of best-selling author Laurie Devine’s latest standalone novel “Crescent,” a gripping family saga set in Lebanon, will be free to those who ask for it on Amazon beginning at 12:01 AM Friday, October 11 and ending at 11:59 PM on Saturday, Oct. 12. The link to get your copy is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D99FX69X\ (After this 48 hours, the book is still available free to Kindle Unlimited participants or for a very modest fee to everyone else.)
Laurie Devine is an award-winning author from Pennsylvania who writes family sagas featuring strong and memorable women of the developing world. Crescent, a sweeping multi-generational saga set in Lebanon, celebrates indomitable women from different sectors and classes.
The action of the book opens in 1958 and captures the pulsating sweep of war-torn
Beirut—the riveting loves, thrills, losses and triumphs that have kept Lebanon in the headlines for decades. Captured here are the endearing stories of four brave and lively young women friends–a Lebanese Christian, a Lebanese Shia Muslim, a Palestinian Sunni Muslim and an American of Jewish heritage—who come of age and learn to transcend fate. Over the next 25 years of this novel, they struggle to survive in the chaos of war, bombings, and kidnappings. But “Crescent” is not just about war; it’s also about friendship, marriage, love and family. These women are resilient and they somehow manage to grow into brave survivors of their crumbling world.
Their tales show the hopes, fears, and dreams of strong women caught in the crux of history. Their lives, riven by violence yet redeemed by enduring love, unlock the mysteries of one of the world’s most troubled and fascinating regions.
First launched in 1988 in London, this new Amazon Kindle edition is its first publication in the United States. The three other Devine Sagas already launched in 2024 and available on Amazon Kindle are Nile, Saudi and Kronos. All were #1 Amazon bestsellers originally written and published between 1979 and 1994––some by Simon & Schuster in New York and all by Andre Deutsch in London.
About the Author: Laurie Devine lived in Europe for nearly twenty years, where she indulged in her own thirst for adventure. Her base was in London, but she also lived in Egypt, Switzerland and Greece and traveled extensively in Africa and Asia. She still has wanderlust and is now living in Mexico.
“Walk this Way, Please,” for CWWC. Oct 10, 2024
For Cee’s CWWC Challenge.
Is That All There Is?
Adventure’s End
“Holy smoke!” the young man cries, pulling on the reins,
his heartbeats quickened, sending blood surging through his veins.
This glorious adventure—this quest across the plains,
fording raging waters, swollen by the rains,
seems to have turned against him as the arrow whizzes by,
shaving off his hat brim just inches from his eye.
He cradles fear, as weeping, he whips the plodding team,
prodding them to frenzy as though within a dream.
The bitter taste of panic, one brief surge of regret,
causes him to finally accept his sobriquet.
When his mother named him Chauncey which his dad shortened to “Chance,”
it signaled wild adventure and dangerous romance,
and as he set out on his travels to find fortune and fame,
not once did he consider the two sides to his name.
Now he rests forever beside that lonely road
that in his youth he thought would lead him to the mother lode.
For https://chellebcom2.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/song-title-story-is-that-all-there-is/
Hide and Go Seek
Yesterday when Pasiano and I were madly carrying plants and planting them, I asked Yolanda to clean off the ledge of the wall between my neighbors and me that usually holds pots of plants as well as stone sculptures. When I came up from the garden to collect yet another plant to plant, I noticed that just one slab of slate was still on the ledge, so I removed it and set it on the slate deck below. I had only gone a couple of steps when Yolanda called out for me to come back. When I turned to do so, I saw her pointing at what I thought was a leaf stuck to the side of the wall, but as I got closer, I saw exactly what it was!
Click on photos to enlarge.
It was a tiny gray tree frog no more than 2 inches long, clinging to the side of the wall behind the piece of slate. I quickly replaced the slate but an hour or so later came out to photograph him/her, then quickly replaced the slate. That evening, I check again and this is what I saw:
So sad to lose my little neighbor.
This experience, however, put me in mind of another experience Forgottenman and I had when he picked me up iat the airport n St. Louis to drive me to Morehouse, where he lives. For that frog adventure, go HERE
Day of the Dead Barbie––What Next???
It’s true. They are marketing a “Day of the Dead Barbie!” In the current issue of Conecciones, Agustin Vasquez Calvario talks about the commercialization of events and holidays that once had a more spiritual purpose. My friend Harriet Hart wrote the following article wherein she interviewed him about Day of the Dead in San Juan Cosala, the town I live in:
I have written several blogs about my friend Agustin. To see the first, go to the link to his name in the first paragraph of my blog. To read the complete issue of Conecciones, go to its link there as well.
Where the Wild Fern Grows (And Other Greens)
Strange Fruit but Delicious!!!!
Papaya and The Sexes
For the first 21 years I lived here, I always had a producing papaya tree. When I knew one was within two years of its life span, I would plant another and by the time the last one was no more, the next one would be producing fruit. This is now the only papaya tree left, and it has taken two years to produce fruit, but it is very strange fruit indeed as instead of growing in a clump at the top, the papayas grow at the end of very long cordlike stems that hang down a few feet from the stem. Pasiano told me today that this is a male tree and that the fruit is inedible, but my next door neighbor, to whom I gave a tree produced from the same seed that grew this one, says their tree is growing fruit in the same manner and revealed that they are hermaphrodite trees! I Googled the term and this is what I learned:
Papayas come in three sexual varieties: male, female and hermaphrodite. The hermaphrodite produces the flavorful fruit that is sold commercially.
Every day a new surprise!!! David and Sergio next door are netting their papayas to protect them. Today I planted new seed and was planning on cutting my tree down, but guess I’ll do the same and bag my fruit and see what happens. Monkey see, monkey do.
Above was the former post and below is today’s addition:
Today’s developments: Well, I did bag the fruit and only took the bags off a week or so ago. The fruit is a bit bigger and one had nearly ripened. Other than that, they looked pretty much like they did 4 1/2 months ago. Then today I went out and two had fallen to the ground. One looked ripe, but the other was still green. I was going to toss them but then at the last minute decided to bring them inside. A little worm had started to dine on the ripe one, but the hole it had made was only about the size of a dime and not much deeper, so I brushed off the worm, scooped out the tiny part he had dined on and brought the fruit in and rinsed it off with water from the garrafone and set it on the counter.
That was about 12 hours ago. It is now a bit past 9 PM and when I went into the kitchen for a drink of water (and to be truthful, to polish off the remains of a carton of ice cream) I noticed the ripe papaya and decided to slice it open and see what it was like inside. It was about the size of a large cucumber or zucchini–8 inches long and about 2 inches wide. I sliced the end off and saw that it was a lovely color. I decided to scoop all the seeds out and to slice it in 1 inch slices, removing the peel of each round of papaya. Luckily, I had ordered 4 ice tea spoons on the internet a few months ago and one of them was perfect for removing the seeds. It was long enough to reach all the way to the end of the papaya and exactly the right size to remove the seeds without removing any of the flesh. I removed seeds from the first 4 inches or so, sliced one circle and cut off the skin. Then I couldn’t resist taking a bite. OMG! It was the sweetest and tastiest papaya I had ever eaten! The texture was perfect and it was go good that it was enough to turn a girl off chocolate! I continued slicing it, put it all in a small soup bowl and put it into the fridge for breakfast with Saran Wrap over it to preserve the freshness. Here is a photo of the end result. This is the entire papaya except for the one piece I ate:
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 