Esther’s challenge this week is paper. You can read other contributions here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/06/04/writing-prompts-68/

Paper dolls (shadorma prose)

When I was eight, my sister, Hayley, was born. She suffered from cholic and was a terrible howler. Mom was exhausted and thin trying to care for this fretful baby who never slept. Granny Joan and Granddad Jack were living and working at a yacht club on the Vaal River, and they offered to have me to stay with them for the duration of the summer school holidays.

I was delighted. I loved staying with my father’s parents, and they liked having me as I was quiet and used to entertaining myself. The South African summer holiday runs for six weeks from the beginning of December, through Christmas, until approximately mid-January. The yacht club was great fun, with lots of family staying in chalets and enjoying the many activities including boating, swimming in the large pool, and eating endless ice creams and snacks from the small shop that Granny Joan ran with a helper. I made a few friends and joined in the swimming but, never one for crowds, I also liked alone time.

Prior to school closing, paper dolls had become popular. All the girls wanted these glamorous dolls made from thick cardboard. They came in a pack with stands and a vast wardrobe of clothing with tags to attach them to the dolls. I didn’t have one of these packs, and I didn’t ask for one, but somehow, Granny Joan knew I wanted paper dolls. Granny was an artist, and she kindly turned her drawing hand to sketching me a series of beautiful figures along the lines of Betty and Veronica from the Archie comics. She cut these figures out of firm cardboard and even made stands for them. She then drew several outfits for the dolls with tags, and I spent many happy hours colouring them in with felt tipped pens. I treasured these dolls and kept them for months before they eventually became too wobbly and bent to play with anymore. The creation and subsequent playing with these dolls are some of my favourite memories with Granny.

paper dolls

dressed in smart outfits

attached with

folded tags

providing hours of pleasure

for reserved girl child

Sunday Stills – Pretty in Pink

Terri’s prompt for Sunday Stills is pink in nature. These are pictures of pink flowers from my summer garden (it is now winter). You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2025/06/08/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-shades-of-pink-in-the-great-outdoors/

Thank you to Thomas Wikman for this lovely review of Burning Butterflies. Thomas has a wonderful appreciation of nature and wildlife which shines through in his review.

If you don’t know Thomas, his has a lovely blog where he writes about Leonberger and other dogs as well as book reviews and other interesting dog and book related articles. Do take a look around while you are there.

Review of Burning Butterflies

Lillian’s challenge is to write a quadrille using the word sunrise. You can read other contributions here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/06/02/the-sunll-come-up/

Dan’s Thursday Doors Writing Challenge has closed, but I wanted to write for Resa’s picture below, so I’ve combined the sunrise and photograph challenges into a single poem.

You can read all the contributions to Dan’s Thursday Doors Writing Challenge here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2025/

You can find Resa’s wonderful blog here: https://graffitiluxandmurals.com/2025/06/01/butterfly-poetess/

Contrasts

Outside, heavy rain fell in sheets

the thick darkness of the night

complementing the ebony shelves

and heavy leather-bound books

comprising the men’s library

Soft music reminiscent of sunrise

on a hot summer’s morning

crept through the drapes

causing the grey readers to smile

I entered these three photographs in a B&W photograph competition. Do you like any of them?

What Amazon says

It’s the summer of 1992. Clara Jane is an alternative music-loving graduate from a broadcast school in Detroit. She lands her first job at a small market station in northern Michigan in a one-stoplight town called Saturn.

The hyper-local programming (featuring lost farm animal reports and radio obits) and its mix of light hits and great oldies is a far cry from the rock star glamour she hoped to achieve with a radio career.

But Clara finds a home with an eccentric cast of characters, especially the recently-divorced morning man Seth Jones. As Clara and Seth bond over their shared sense of humor and a mutual love of different genres of music, the station is sold and staff members start to be replaced by automation. Will Clara find the radio stardom she craves before the station goes completely robotic?

My review

I reviewed this book in my capacity as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. If you would like your book reviewed, you can contact Rosie Amber here: http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/.

I must say upfront that I really appreciated the time and setting of this book. I enjoyed learning about how a radio station, and the DJ’s who worked at them, operated during the early 1990s which was when I was listening to radio stations and top music hits the most. I also appreciated the insights into life for a female DJ at a time when women were just starting to come into that market. The commentary around the ‘boss’ expectations of what a working woman should look like and how she should dress took me right back in time to when I first started working in 1997. There was no equality between men and women in the workplace, and it’s still difficult in many countries and work situations.

The intricate details about the working of the equipment, the chats and impromptu conversations between the morning team, and the selection of music for the audience was all fascinating to me. And then there were the characters.

Carla is a young woman who has pushed back against her parents’ expectations for her and followed her own path. She is on a journey of discovery and soon learns that many obstacles are placed in the path of working women in male dominated jobs. The exploitation of Carla and her ambitions by the new boss were frustrating, sad, and very relatable. Carla, of course, needs to learn what life is all about and she makes a judgement error that almost leads to disaster. Walking Carla’s path of discovery reminded me of my own and I found it riveting. This is not a thriller or an adventure, it is a coming-of-age story with a romance element.

Seth is an appealing character, dreamy and fun, but also idealistic, unrealistic, and recovering from a failed and disappointing relationship. I found myself routing from him throughout this slow burn romance. Rad is the opposite of Seth, ambitious, self-absorbed and competitive, he doesn’t come across particularly well, but he is on his own coming-of-age journey and improves dramatically over time as he too starts learning about change and needing to constantly evolve as a career person.

In summary, a most entertaining and interesting book that shares much about life as a DJ in the USA in the early 1990s and which is populated with relatable and interesting characters.

Saturn’s Favorite Music is available from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Saturns-Favorite-Music-Laura-Lee/dp/0965734552

Dan’s Thursday Doors challenge closes today. With these two final entries, I have written twelves poems for twelve different contributions. Today’s photographs were contributed by, in order, Miriam Hurdle and Teagan Riordain Geneviene.

Thank you to Dan and all the photograph contributors for making this such a wonderful challenge.

You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2025/

It floats (shadorma)

happiness

floats just beyond reach

beckoning

enticing

our lack of understanding

leads to wrong choices

Beguiling (shadorma)

life presents

opportunities

lockless doors

just waiting

without signs or directions

for our decisions

Thank you to those of you who wrote for my photograph contributions. I am delighted my pictures inspired you. You can read these entries here:

 Mother Magic (Thursday Doors Writing Challenge)

Robbie’s Inspiration – Thursday Doors Writing Challenge – The Spider #poetry #photography

One Door leads to the Other

Gratitude at the Door, #BookReviews, #TDWC, & Whatnot

29 May 2025 Steffie Does Art

Yearning for Yesterday

Yearning for Yesterday: On to Tibet

Punam’s challenge for Poetics Tuesday is: For today’s poetics challenge, I would like you to write a poem about any pivotal moment in your life that left you with gnawing regrets or you could cover the entire gamut from anger to forgiveness and reconciliation. In short, you will be writing about a krisis in your personal life. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/05/27/poetics-tuesday-regrets-and-more/

Punam’s challenge fit nicely with Esther Chilton’s writing prompt of test so I’ve created one poem for both challenges. You can join in Esther’s challenge here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/05/28/writing-prompts-67/

Path of Fire

Quiet, reserved, and introspective

as a young girl; always absorbed

in a book or three; easy to please

Who knew I’d have to walk

a path of fire. In the beginning

I asked myself why me?

Have I done something wrong?

Why am I being constantly tested?

Was I Hitler in a previous life?

Did I miss my calling in life?

Was I supposed to be a doctor?

The coals burned – creating scars

on the bottoms of my bare feet

My heart bled, splintering each time

into a thousand pieces

I learned about hypospadias,

Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans,

brittle asthma, superbugs,

biofilms, pulmonary embolisms,

and venal sinal thrombosis

Each time I sat in a hospital

I saw other patients –

people with family members

whose prognosis was poor:

babies with cystic fibrosis

toddlers with leukemia

teenagers with chronic epilepsy

young victims of car accidents

mothers with ovarian cancer

fathers with brain embolisms

elderly people who’ve lost much:

their speech, mobility, even their minds

Slowly, as time passed; I learned

to accept the unstoppable flow of life

in all its natural unpredictability

The scars on my feet healed

forming tougher, protective layers

to carry me through periods of pain

My heart reformed, learned to release

my dependencies on others

and love in the moment

My brain relaxed its need

to plan relentlessly for the future

and to live in the present

My life path has taught me gratitude,

acceptance, and positivity

By not fighting the river of life

I have found peace

and an ability to live

without regrets and remorse

Photography

Those of you who follow my Facebook know I’ve been entering a number of photography challenges recently. I like them as I’m learning a lot from viewing the entries and winning pictures. There are thousands of photographs entered for each competition. I have achieved several Merit awards for photographs and this week I managed to achieve four Commended’s which are one up from Merit’s. I am pleased and these are the four Commended pictures:

Thank you to Kaye Lynne Booth for hosting this post which includes my own photographs and videos of cheetah cubs in the wild in South Africa.

In Touch With Nature – Cheetah cubs and the numerous challenges they face #Cheetahs #cubs #photographs

It’s been a crazy day. TC’s having some tests in hospital and the admittance took hours and hours (okay five hours but my goodness!). And then, there is work …

On a much happier and more interesting note, here is my review for book 3, A Peril in the Vines, of Teagan Geneviene’s fantastic A Medium’s Peril series.

Teagan also has a fabulous blog where she shares lots of writing and digital art creativity. You can find her latest post here: https://teagansbooks.com/2025/05/23/dance-of-discord-6-a-cipher-double-poets-tdwc-writing-challenge/

What Amazon says

1920s psychic medium, Daphne Moultrie and her friends Clover and Phineas visit a small Louisiana town where they encounter strange events that center on an Armenian refugee girl. Psychic visions, ancient mystical forces, and Romani myths collide with the lust for power as the friends try to avert catastrophe.
.
Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene’s 1920s paranormal series, A Medium’s Peril continues with the novella, A Peril in the Vines. In the quaint village of Joumou Hills, not too far from New Orleans, Daphne, Clover, and Phineas encounter a chilling mystery. There, Daphne believes she will also find the answer to a gruesome vision she had in New Orleans. At a lavish party, a historian describes a massacre that matches her vision. Did a young girl cause such devastation? At their cottage, vines move of their own accord. A handsome but intense doctor may be up to no good. Does evil lurk in darkness? Does it come as a shining light? Or is it hidden in the vines?

My review

This book can be read on a standalone basis with few references to the previous book in the series except for the fact that Daphne and her friends are visiting an annual pumpkin festival held in a small town in Louisiana as part of their recovery from their previous adventure in book 2.

This story kicks off quickly a prologue set in December, 1914 that introduces a new character called Lousaper. This young girl witnesses the deaths of both her gypsy parents by strange, gun bearing men.

The book then moves to the present day where Daphne is having an awful nightmare vision that involves creeping vines and pumpkins that turn into fearsome Jack-o-lanterns. This nightmare appears to set off a series of seemingly random mentions of pumpkins that culminates in the foursome travelling to Louisiana to attend the annual pumpkin festival. When the group arrive at their booked accommodation, Daphne discovered that the guest house had once hosted a group of refugees during the Armenian genocide. As more information about the refugees gradually unfolds, the link between Lousaper, the pumpkins, and Daphne’s nightmare vision becomes apparent, leading to some interesting and frightening events.

Daphne is always an interesting character, and I enjoy her sharp mind and keen eye for details. She is the perfect heroine for a supernatural adventure. The character of Clover, a favourite of mine, continues to grow and develop as she learns to overcome her anxiety and self-depreciation. In this story, Clover comes more to the forefront and undertakes some investigatory actions of her own. I enjoyed the details about the world of mystics that were explored during this part of the story.

This is a fast paced and entertaining story with lots of imagination interwoven with well researched historical and mythical information.

Purchase A Peril in the Vines from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DS4G7RSD

These are the Universal Purchase Links

A Peril in the Vines

e-book:  relinks.me/B0DS4G7RSD

Paperback:  relinks.me/B0DS69GJDV

A Medium’s Peril full series link: relinks.me/B0CG2SXX24

You can find all of Teagan’s entertaining books under her Amazon Author Profile here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/author/B00HHDXHVM

Esther Chilton’s writing challenge for this week is Treasure. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/05/21/writing-prompts-66/

One Man’s Treasure

When I was a girl of eight years old and my sister, Cath, was five years old, we moved into a new house in a suburb in Cape Town. The house was newly built, so it had no garden whatsoever. My father, a landscaper, took on the project of creating a garden and building a swimming pool in his spare time. To this end, he had a huge pile of sand delivered which was dumped unceremoniously in the front yard. I was thrilled with this sand pile and quickly learned that if I soaked the sand with the hosepipe, I could create castles, houses, tunnels and all sorts of other buildings from wet sand.

My parents befriended the family next door, and this led to my mother inviting them to our house one evening for a braai. A braai is a traditional outdoor meat cooking method in South Africa which makes use of an open wood or charcoal fire and seasoning. South African men all have their own ‘secret’ seasoning and take great pride in producing it at braais to stun all the guests with their culinary expertise. My dad was no exception, and he had a large glass jar of his special recipe, much treasured yellow braai meat seasoning. To me, castle constructor extraordinaire, that yellow powder was gun powder. And so, I borrowed the jar after my father had finished using the seasoning.

That evening, I led my sister and the two neighbouring children in a huge war construction project. Each child had their own castle with a walled moat, a drawbridge, towers, and a dungeon. Each castle also had gunpowder deposits. Large ones, with big staches of yellow gun powder.

My dad didn’t notice the missing jar until the following morning. The lidless and empty jar caught his eye when he was meticulously cleaning his braai. He was livid and demanded to know what I had done with the contents. I did manage to find most of the gun powder deposits in the sand pile. Sadly, however, the gun powder had mixed with the sand and was rendered quite inedible.

one man’s seasoning

is another’s gun powder

imagination

has the power to transform

simple into amazing

Botanical Art Exhibition

On Saturday, I took Michael and his friend to a Botanical Art Exhibition. The art works were watercolours of mainly local flora and were amazingly detailed. It was quite different from the style of watercolours I am learning at the monthly workshops I attend.

The following three photographs are of my favourite art works in the exhibition: