Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, d’Verse, CFFC & Thursday Doors, The Flower Hour & Sunday Stills

Today, I’m participating in six challenges. I think that is a record for me. Between the new job, my parents and their medical and other needs, and my painting, I run out of time every single week. I do write three articles a week for LatinosUSA and two a month for Writing to be Read and those are of my own crafting, so I don’t feel to bad about not posting personal blog posts as often. There are only so many hours in a week. I have also been experimenting with cakes for my parent’s wedding anniversary celebration next week. My new firm closes on 15 December. I am very excited as I think I’ll be able to create a gingerbread house this year. I need about a week pre-Christmas to do that.

Anyhow, on with this week’s poems and photographs. PS, I am having trouble with WP which is flipping all my portrait photographs landscape if I use a slideshow or gallery format. Is anyone else having this problem?

Tanka Tuesday

Yvette asked poet’s to write about heritage. Sometimes I feel as if our modern society is sadly lacking is respect for elders and manners. The muse brought this poem which is an American cinquain. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/09/15/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-82-celebrating-heritage-9-15-26/

Inheritance

often

I tell my sons

‘manners maketh the man’

keep your social inheritence

intact

d’Verse

Kim’s beautiful challenge is Adagio for Strings. I had a tough week trying to solve some complex accounting problems. The muse was stubborn and only brought this when I listened to the beautiful music Kim provided for inspiration. Bad muse!

You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/09/15/poetics-adagio-for-strings/

Thank you for the music but …

music rises

like flames

licking at the edges

of my tired mind

trying

to strike a spark

that could smoulder

burst into flame

fanned by the winds

of enthusiastic

consumption

but

I’m too tired

the spark splutters

then dies

I just can’t

ride the waves

tonight

The Flower Hour & Sunday Stills

Terri’s Sunday Still’s challenge is orange, you can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/13/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-orange-you-glad-its-apricot/

Terri’s The Flower Hour challenge can be found here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/08/the-flower-hour-47-can-you-ever-get-enough-sunflowers/

Our clivias put on a magnificent show this year.

A single clivia with the sun shining on its front blossoms

Picture caption: Two clivia with the sun creating dappled patters on some blossoms

Picture caption: Lion Scream – a protest cake that was based on The Scream painting by Edvard Munch. The burning volcano in the background and the river of blood represent the Sixth Mass Extinction that is currently underway. This one is manmade and not a circumstance of nature …

CFFC & Thursday Doors

These two challenges, hosted by Dan Antion, just went together this week.

Dan has a new Rascal book out so you can read all about it while you are visiting here: http://nofacilities.com/2026/09/17/rascals-research-begins/

Dan’s CFFC theme is where/when/how we shop. I decided to take you on a shopping tour of a few places in Brussels, Bruges, Bath, and Borough Market, UK (but not shopped at as I don’t like shopping). You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/09/14/where-what-when-we-shop-cffc/

Bruges and Brussels

Chocolate shop with a lot of chocolate on display and a chocolate rendition of Mannekin Pis — Chocolate shop in Brussels

Shop window of Paul's in Brussels showing a big display of confectionary and baked goods. — Chocolate shop in Brussels

Shop window in Brussels with a delightful display of mice families toys and houses — Shop window in Brussels with a delightful display of mice families toys

Amsterdam

Entrance of the van Gogh Museum shop in Amsterdam. I like how van Gogh's self portrait is displayed on the door. — Entrance of the van Gogh Museum shop in Amsterdam. I like how van Gogh’s self portrait is displayed on the door.

Bath, UK

People queueing in Bath to go into Sally Lunn's bakery — People queueing in Bath to go into Sally Lunn’s bakery

Borough Market, London

I took this photograph as I walked into Borough Market

Roberta Writes – d’Verse, Bird of the Week, Tanka Tuesday, Thursday Doors, The Flower Hour

d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, and Bird of the Week

Melissa’s challenge word for Quadrille Monday was xonolith. I incorporated it into my Bird of the Week poem, a chain shadorma (with some difficulty due to syllabic count and word count). You can join in d’Verse here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/09/07/quadrille-255-x-marks-the-spot/. Melissa is also the host of Tanka Tuesday where she challenged poets to write a seasonal pi-ku. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/09/08/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-81-pi-ku-9-8-26/. I added mine to the end of my bird poem.

You can join in Bird of the Week here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/javan-pond-heron-birds-of-the-week-clxxxv/

Cape Robin-chat (shadorma chain with pi-ku)

xenolith

within flycatcher

family

bright breasted

Cape robin-chat hops about

tail angled upwards

***

I observed

songbird foraging

in a tree

plucking bark

from long suffering branches

home to many birds

***

squawking its

harsh, trisyllabic

alarm call

WA-dur-da

it departed speedily

tail stiff with distress

***

spring influx

birds

fill my garden

Well, that was enough poetic suffering, oops I mean creativity, for this week. Now on to some photographs …

Thursday Doors

These are some doors photographs from my trip to Paris in April. These photographs are of the Pont des Arts, Institut de France is located at one entry point of the bridge in Paris which crosses the River Seine. You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/09/10/bbq-dam-lock-tour/

The Flower Hour

More beautiful wisteria photographs from this past week. They are starting to go off now so this will be the last of them. The purple irises benefited from the rain early this week and are plentiful and vivid.

You can join in The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/08/the-flower-hour-47-can-you-ever-get-enough-sunflowers/

Roberta Writes: d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, W3, Sunday Stills & The Flower Hour

This poem is for last week’s d’Verse challenge hosted by Melissa Lemay. You can read other poet’s contributions here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/08/25/35510/

it is also for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday challenge from last week which you can see here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/08/25/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-79-color-as-a-metaphor-8-25-26/

Transformation (tanka)

ordinary boats

undergo transformation

dipped in molten gold

poured from slowly setting sun

reflections shimmer in bronze

Picture caption: a beautiful painting of boats on the water at sunset called **Egon Schiele, *Harbor of Trieste* (1907)**

W3

This is my poem for last week’s W3 challenge hosted by Michelle Ayon Navajas. You can view the challenge here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/08/26/w3-prompt-226-weave-written-weekly/

Learnings (Tanaga)

I’ve learned to watch skies and clouds

dissolving obstructive shrouds

that obscure contentment’s waves

turning thoughts to anxious slaves

Sunday Stills

Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge is beach scenes. You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/30/sunday-stills-its-national-beach-day-lets-go-to-the-beach/

Terri’s challenge is beach views. At first I couldn’t think of any beach pictures as I’m not a beach lover, but then I remembered the ones I took in January at St Lucia when I went to Cape Vidal at night to see the loggerhead turtle.

The Flower Hour

These wisteria flowers are my contribution to Terri’s The Flower Hour which you can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/09/01/the-flower-hour-46-floral-abcs-featuring-pq-and-r/

Last year I got no flowers at all. So this late July I started tending the vine. I watered it and fed it with fertiliser. This spring I have been rewarded with several lovely flowers.

Picture caption: A cluster of four wisteria flowers against the garden wall.
A close up of a single wisteria flower. Its petals are white and purple.

Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, The Flower Hour, and Sunday Stills

Tanka Tuesday

Yvette’s Tanka Tuesday challenge is Tread with Trepidation. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/08/18/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-78-tread-with-trepidation-8-18-26/

This is what the muse brought!

Walking on Egg Shells (American cinquain chain)

I try

to understand

how thought processes work

when they differ so much from mine

I fail

***

My mind

can’t unravel

reluctance to face change

accept and adapt to its flow

move on

***

So I

speak with caution

couch words in cotton wool

walk on proverbial eggshells

slow down

Sunday Stills

Terri has been having a scary time with the wild fires. You can read her story here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/16/sunday-stills-tears-and-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes/

We haven’t had wildfires in Johanneburg but I have had scary experiences with wildfires during my lifetime so Terri’s story is close to my heart. I didn’t think I had any photographs to contribute for this topic but then I remembered a couple of photographs I took when we travelled out of Joburg early in the morning a few week ago. The sky was full of pollution from the winter fires people light to keep warm. The pollution in Joburg has become so bad we are planning to retire to the coast. I’m worried about the health effects as we all suffer with coughs, burning eyes and other air pollution nasties.

Picture of a dull gold disc rising above a red, smoke filled sky.

A more distant picture of the dull golden disc of the sun rising into a red, smoke filled sky. you can see the traffic on the road. — Picture of a dull gold disc rising above a red, smoke filled sky.

I had a crazy week and ended up working until 9pm on Thursday which through my week off. I also had to take Dad to the hospital for lung functioning tests. The doctor says there is no deterioration but he’s turned into an old man and is shuffling around using a walking stick. No-one seems to have an answer for his problems. I think its long Covid.

The Flower Hour

These are the blossoms in my spring garden. I didn’t do the alphabet challenge. You can join in The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/08/18/the-flower-hour-44-floral-abcs-focusing-on-the-letters-m-n-o/

Picture caption: Yellow Banks Roses – I love these

Reminder: Sunflower Tanka Anthology submissions are open until 31 August

Picture caption: Beautiful yellow sunflowers

Submissions to the Sunflower Tanka syllabic poetry anthology are open until Monday, 31 August.

Colleen and I look forward to reading your submissions. I am starting to work on the anthology tomorrow.

Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, CFFC, The Flower Hour and Bird of the Week

Tanka Tuesday

This week, Yvette is the host of Tanka Tuesday. You can read her prompt and participate here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/07/21/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-74-oh-to-dream-7-21-26/

Cotton Candy Dreams

cotton candy dreams

puffy clouds of nothingness

idealistic wisps

of leftover childhood hopes

packaged in lulling sweetness

***

casually consumed

around the boardroom table

ingested in bites

by competitive colleagues

and never-ending deadlines

***

tsunami of life

dissolving spun sugar strands

shrinking floss right down

into a messy syrup

ready to be wiped away

CFFC, The Flower Hour & Bird of the Week

Dan’s CFFC challenge this week is purple. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/07/20/the-crayola-box-of-8-purple-cffc/

My poem and pictures of the lilac-breasted roller are for Bird of the Week which you can join in here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/yellow-legged-gull-birds-of-the-week-invitation-clxxviii/

Picture caption: Close up of a lilac-breasted roller sitting on a slender branch of a tree in the Madikwe Game Reserve. Photograph by Robbie Cheadle.

lilac-breasted roller (shadorma)

violet

flash against azure

swooping and

swan diving

uttering discordant cries

breeding season dance

This is my watercolour painting of a lilac-breasted roller.

Water colour painting of a lilac-breasted roller on a branch by Robbie Cheadle.

My purple iris and jacaranda tree in blossom are for Terri’s The Flower Hour here: http://secondwindleisure.com/2026/07/21/the-flower-hour-40-floral-abcs-focusing-on-ghi/

Purple iris against a background of green foliage. — Picture caption: Purple iris. Photograph by Robbie Chealdle

This is my acrylic painting of a jacaranda tree. I particularly like it because when placed in the sunshine, the purples change colour and shades of pink, blue and purple become evident.

Acrylic jacaranda tree painting in the sun and glowing with pink and pale purple highlights.

Acrylic jacaranda tree painting demonstrating lighter and darker shares of purple with pinkish undertones.

Acrylic jacaranda tree showing shares of white and very pale purple amid the darker purples.

Roberta Writes – d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, W3, The Flower Hour and Thursday Doors

Two ladies in costumes from the cast. They saw my taking photographs and posed for the camera.

Today is Friday at last and I do have it off. My work hours are under severe threat and I’m going to have to increase them for three months as I have a big project on the go. There is no use in working the hours and not getting paid for them. Anyhow, onwards and upwards.

d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday and W3

I’ve used the d’Verse theme of night provided by the wonderful Dora for both my Tanka Tuesday and my W3 offerings this week.

You can join in Dora’s d’Verse challenge here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/07/14/my-god-its-full-of-stars/

Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday challenge is to write a bussokuseki. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/07/14/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-73-bussokuseki-7-13-26/

This first poem is a bussokuseki about the African bush at night.

Night in the Bush

darkness in the bush

shines like polished black marble

healthy and glossy

splattered with bright, sparkling stars

by comparison, town dark

appears anemic and pale

Jaideep’s challenge is to write a three line poem merging a cultural tradition and modern technology. You can join in W3 here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/07/15/w3-prompt-220-weave-written-weekly/

I selected the tradition of using the Southern Cross constellation as a directional guide combined with working on a computer.

My Artificial Life

Dark night of my computer screen

loads itself into start mode.

Logon criteria flash,

artificial Southern Cross.

Guiding my entrance into

another working day.

The Flower Hour

Last week I mentioned that I’d attended a partner conference in my new job. These photographs are of the gorgeous pincushion protea flower arrangements that graced the lunch tables.

You can join in Terri’s The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/07/14/the-flower-hour-39-something-about-orange-flowers/

Flower arrangement featuring three pincushion proteas in red, orange, and yellow.
Close up of a single pincushion protea. The red tipped orange petals are narrow and curve inwards above its yellow centre hence its name – pincushion protea.
A slightly more distanced shot of the three pincushion proteas flower arrangement.

Thursday Doors

On Sunday past, my family attended the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Monte Casinos Pieter Torien theatre. It’s been more years than I’m going to tell you since TC and I last saw this show and I’d forgotten how graphic it is. I was a bit worried about Michael’s friend, Jenna, but she took it in her stride and enjoyed it.

You can join in Dan’s challenge here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/07/16/korean-heritage-room/

These are some beautiful doors from outside the theatre.

Doors painted with an Italian street scene during summer from a distance.
Close up of doors painted with an Italian summer street scene featuring lots of greenery.

These photographs are of the stage:

The closed curtains on the stage lit up with blue and pink.
Two ladies in costumes from the cast. They saw my taking photographs and posed for the camera.
One of the set doors on the stage in the form of a balcony to the side.

Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, W3, Bird of the Week & Thursday Doors

It’s been a crazy week! Is there any other kind of week, I wonder. I attended New Partner Induction on Monday and Tuesday and a Partner Conference from Wednesday to Friday. So many new ideas and new people. My coping mechanism is to draw and paint and write poems so I have three poems to share with you today. I have also started a new art project – my biggest to date and perhaps my most ambitious. Michael thinks its ambitious but I just think its just bigger. All my art projects are very ambitious at the time of initiation. I push myself further with each new painting.

Tanka Tuesday

Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday challege this week is to write a tanka Puente poem with the theme of light vs dark.

Colleen has also announced the submission dates to the new Sunflower Tanka anthology 2027. I would love it if you participated and submitted your syllabic poems. You can find out more by reading Colleen’s post here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/07/07/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-72-tanka-puente-7-7-26/

Something New, something older

room of new partners

most young – bright eyed and bushy tailed

full of excitement

ready to take on the world

determined to make their mark

AI won’t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace those who don’t—Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

sprinkling of old hands

pockmarks on golden surface

engaged yet cautious

veterans of corporate wars

survivors of constant flux

More excitement with Sunflower Tanka! Colleen and I are running a new series to promote the anthologies. You can read the first post here: https://sunflowertankaanthology.com/2026/07/10/introduction-to-contributor-chris-hall-her-review-of-sunflower-tanka-an-anthology-of-tanka-tanka-prose-experimental-tanka/

W3

Jodi’s prompt is “For this prompt, write a poem in which every line is a lie — except one.“

No, I didn’t write about AI – hehe! You can decide if what is a lie, if anything. Lies in this poem are in the eyes of the beholder.

Some Days

Some days the sun does not rise

Golden horses do not pull the fiery ball

across the blue washed sky

Cotton tailed clouds do not gambol and play

Flowers do not bloom

do not expose fragrant centres

to buzzing bees and butterflies

the day does not progress

all remains in darkness

Other days

the sun leaps into the sky

washing the world

in golden light

Bird of the Week

You can join in Bird of the Week here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/bird-of-the-week-invitation/ and read the latest post here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/common-gull-birds-of-the-week-clxxvi/

Racing or The World’s Dumbest Bird

Kori bustards are Africa's largest bird that can fly. They have grey and white feathers on their longish necks, small heads with a black feather 'cap' on top, brown body feathers and long slim legs

Two kori bustards

racing down the road

are they trying to escape

our slow paced vehicle

(perhaps its TC’s purple jersey

I hate it too)

is the male chasing the female

male kori bustards

have a bad reputation

for playing the field

attempting to breed

with as many females as possible

but taking no responsibility

for the resultant off spring

(Hey! that sounds familiar …)

One goes left

the other right

they appear the same size

more or less

but males are up to 40% larger

my perception must be wrong

(what about yours?)

Mr Right looks confused

(there’s a surprise!)

glancing over his shoulder

as I hang out of my window

(you’re not supposed to do this!

what if I fell out

got eaten by a lion

or worse yet

kidnapped by a baboon)

snap! snap! snap!

As we slowly pass

Mr Right warms up to the idea

of posing for the camera

gives me his best side

(can you see his smile?)

Picture caption: kori bustard posing for the camera

Thursday Doors

My blogging friend, Brian, featured a photograph of the gargoyles of Notre Dame pre the fire. You can read his post here: https://equinoxio21.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/random-travels-umpteen/. I am sharing a few pictures I took of Notre Dame and its gargoyles so Brian can rest assured they are thriving. My shots aren’t as good as his!

The doors are for Dan’s Thursday Doors challenge which you can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/07/09/old-sturbridge-village-6-26/

First Notre Dame and its doors:

Notre Dame from the front with its ornate front door and two towers
The ornately carved entrance and doors of Notre Dame (front doors)
Another door into Notre Dame. This entrance was closed so the shot didn’t have people in it.

These are the gargoyles. My friend, Chris, also likes gargoyles. You can find Chris’ blog here: https://lunas-online.com/2026/07/10/a-spaceship/

A row of gargoyles on the roof of Notre Dame. The front one has horns.
The silhouette of a gargoyle on the roof of Notre Dame. He has wings but no horns.
A long row of gargoyles along the side of Notre Dame. There is scaffolding in the background.

Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, CFFC, and The Flower Hour

I’m late this week. I had planned to post this last night but I had a three-hour art class in the morning and then I had to take Mom back to the optometrist for more tests and to chose new frames for her two new pairs of glasses. My mother loves shopping and she can not be hurried, and shouldn’t be because she enjoys it so much, so she tried on just about every frame in the shop. We chose two really lovely frames and she is very happy. I was exhausted when we got home at 4pm as I learned a new technique at art which was quite difficult to implement initially (I’ve got the hang of it now) and then all the traffic and stress of the tests. The good news is the technique looks really good on my current painting and Mom’s eyes are doing a lot better.

Tanka Tuesday

Willow asked poets to write a tanka poem about a photograph that brings to mind a particular memory. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/06/30/tanka-tuesday-challenge-71-photo-tanka-photo-tanka-6-30-26/

This photograph of a gold roses cake I made for my mother’s birthday some years ago is the inspiration for this poem.

Picture caption: Gold roses chocolate cake

The Invastion (double tanka prose)

Whenever I see a shoebox, I am reminded of cockroaches. During the height of my cake making phase, I used to make a lot of fondant flowers. To create the cupped shape of the various flowers, I moulded tinfoil into a bowl shape of the correct size for the flower and carefully arranged the flower inside. I then placed the flowers inside a shoebox and left them to dry for at least a week. Some layered flowers, like roses, took me three weeks to a month to make as I gradually added additional petal layers week by week. I kept a collection of empty shoe boxes in my pantry and used them when I needed them. There were at least ten piled up on a shelf at any given time. Early one summer, I noticed we had several cockroaches in the kitchen. I set some cockroach traps around the room but the problem continued to escalate. A few weeks later, I decided to clear out the entire pantry in an attempt to get rid of the cockroaches. When I brought down the shoeboxes, I discovered they had been adopted as cockroach nests and the boxes were full of these nasty, little creatures. The boxes were disposed of, the pantry cleaned from top to toe, and cockroach traps set just about everywhere. This did bring an end to the invasion but I have never recovered from the horror of discovering all those revolving insects inside those shoeboxes. I no longer collect shoeboxes and am paranoid about cleaning under the fridges and stoves to ensure no unwanted visitors gain a foothold in my kitchen.

peaceful neighbourhood

twenty-four hour food service

attracts cockroach guests

unappealing as they are

nature always has her way

***

taking precautions

to keep insect world in check

part of normal life

should these creatures disappear

world as we know it would end

CFFC

Dan’s CFFC challenge this week is brown. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/06/29/the-crayola-box-of-8-brown-cffc/

Picture caption: Young male nyala antelope

Terri’s Flower Hour

When I went shopping this morning I saw this gorgeous King Protea flower. I bought it to photograph with a view to paining it. Terri’s The Flower Hour prompt is patriotic florals. The Giant or King protea is the national flower of South Africa.

You can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/06/30/the-flower-hour-37-patriotic-florals/

Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday, CFFC, Thursday Doors & Sunday Stills

It doesn’t rain in Johannesburg during the winter. At least it never did until this year. This week, after the winter solstice, we got rain and a heavy mist. While in the traffic on my way into the office, I wrote this poem and took the accompanying photograph. Unusual for my home city.

This poem is a lai comprising of nine lines for Melissa’s Tanka Tuesday challenge. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/06/23/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-70-the-lai-6-23-26/

Slish! Splosh! Splash!

grey cloud hovers low

golden headlights glow

splish splosh

car snake ultra slow

drizzle impacts flow

my gosh

large puddle – oh no!

mud streaks quite a blow

must wash

Picture caption: A picture of two cranes in Sandton on my drive to work. They are obscured by mist and look rather ghostly and ethereal

Thursday Doors, CFFC, and Sunday Stills

Dan’s CFFC challenge is blue. I have found blue pictures for Dan’s Thursday Doors challenge and Terri’s Sunday Stills wild animals challenge.

You can join in Dan’s CFFC here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/06/22/the-crayola-box-of-8-blue-cffc/

You can join in Dan’s Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/06/25/czechoslovak-room/

You can join in Terri’s Sunday Stills here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/06/21/sunday-stills-animal-of-the-month-where-the-wild-things-are/

Picture caption: I loved the doors of this building, 3 Place Denfert-Rochereau, Paris. The late evening sky turned the white of the building blue and the light glows a lovely yellow from the inside. I liked the arched shape of these large doors with the square inlay.

Click on the slideshow to view two giraffes that I saw at Welgevonden Game Reserve in the Waterkloof, South Africa. This is a series of three photographs of the heads and upper necks of two young giraffes against a bright, blue sky. In the first photograph, the two animals are close together but apart. In the second and third photograph, the two giraffes have crossed their necks at the top so that their heads are pointing in opposite directions. In the second photo, the animals are looking straight ahead while in the last photograph they are looking up with their heads angled upwards.

Picture caption: Dam at Pilanesberg Game Reserve with autumn foliage in the front and hills in the background. the predominant colour is misty blue

Roberta Writes – I’m Late for Tanka Tuesday and Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge & CFFC & The Flower Hour

Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge

Esther’s challenge for last week was to write about pets. I’m late but never mind, I’m often late. You can read other peoples work and join in Esther’s new challenge here:

Dog Tragedy (shadorma prose)

When I was a girl of twelve we lived on a plot in Honeydew, Johannesburg. It was the second time we lived in this same house as my father had returned to his dream of farming part-time. The property was large with much of the ‘garden’ comprising wild veld grass and scrub bushes. My parents bought two pedigree Great Dane dogs because my mother had always liked this breed and there was a lot of space for them to run about. They were also supposed to be guard dogs but that didn’t pan out well because Harry and Lucy were exceptionally stupid animals. They were a lovely rich light brown colour, with friendly temperaments, and slobbery mouths. I have never been a big fan of slobber but I did like this gangly pair who were always delighted to see me and full of enthusiasm for life.

Some months later, my mother was asked to take another dog. The dog’s family was immigrating and they needed to rehome her. My mother agreed and the new dog soon settled into the family. Her name was Runt and she was partly Chihuahua and partly who knows what. I took a great liking to Runt and she became my dog.

The property adjacent to ours was a working sheep farm. The sheep were even more stupid than Harry and Lucy who took great pleasure in barking madly every time a sheep came into view on the other side of the fence. The sheep never knew what to do about the barking and just stood frozen until the dogs grew bored and moved on to new entertainment. Runt, however, was a clever dog. She also had the instincts of a hunter. Runt took a great interest in the sheep over the fence.

One morning, Harry and Runt were missing when we awoke. We called and called when breakfast was served but no dogs appeared. Eventually, Harry turned up in a bad state. He had been shot in the leg and was bleeding badly. My father had to take him to the vet for treatment. Runt never came home. Later that day, the farmer came to call. Runt had discovered a hole in the fence and she and Harry had wriggled through. Runt had led Harry in an attack on one of the lambs. The farmer, hearing the commotion, had shot at the dogs, killing Runt and injuring Harry. In those days, farmers defended their livestock by shooting any predators which is part of the reason why wild dogs and leopards are so endangered now. I was devastated when I learned the news and I’ve never had another dog since. We were told the lamb had died but there was never any proof of that.

keen prey drive

mixed breed chihuahua

looked for fun

found trouble

victim of a farmer’s anger

crossed the rainbow bridge

Tanka Tuesday

Colleen’s challenge was to use variants of the word yellow in a syllabic poem. You can read other poet’s entries here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/06/04/tankatuesday-yellow-things/

Flowering Aloes (tanka)

organic gemstones

string of lemon quartz flowers

lifeblood of aloe

produced in heartwood of plant

basking in cool amber sun

CFFC – Yellow & The Flower Hour

These are the flower pictures that inspired my Tanka Tuesday poem above.

You can join in CFFC here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/06/08/the-crayola-box-of-8-yellow-cffc/

You can join in The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/06/09/the-flower-hour-34-roses-in-memoriam/

Tanka Tuesday

Inheritance

d’Verse

Thank you for the music but …

The Flower Hour & Sunday Stills

CFFC & Thursday Doors

Bruges and Brussels

Amsterdam

Bath, UK

Borough Market, London

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d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, and Bird of the Week

Cape Robin-chat (shadorma chain with pi-ku)

Thursday Doors

The Flower Hour

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Transformation (tanka)

W3

Learnings (Tanaga)

Sunday Stills

The Flower Hour

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Tanka Tuesday

Walking on Egg Shells (American cinquain chain)

Sunday Stills

The Flower Hour

Reminder: Sunflower Tanka Anthology submissions are open until 31 August

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Tanka Tuesday

Cotton Candy Dreams

CFFC, The Flower Hour & Bird of the Week

lilac-breasted roller (shadorma)

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d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday and W3

Night in the Bush

My Artificial Life

The Flower Hour

Thursday Doors

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Tanka Tuesday

Something New, something older

W3

Some Days

Bird of the Week

Racing or The World’s Dumbest Bird

Thursday Doors

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Tanka Tuesday

The Invastion (double tanka prose)

CFFC

Terri’s Flower Hour

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Slish! Splosh! Splash!

Thursday Doors, CFFC, and Sunday Stills

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Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge

Dog Tragedy (shadorma prose)

Tanka Tuesday

Flowering Aloes (tanka)

CFFC – Yellow & The Flower Hour

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