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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Picture caption: Young male nyala antelopePicture caption: head and shoulders of a hartebeestPicture caption: adult hippo walking down an embankmentPicture caption: head and shoulders of a dark maned lion lying in the grassPicture caption: spotted thick knee bird resting in front of the wheel of the carPicture caption: spotted thick knee bird standing in front of the wheel of the carPicture caption: close up of an adult male lion from the side
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.
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.
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 bluePicture caption: small dam on the golf course at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead. The sky is very blue and so is the water.Picture caption: Trees in autumn red and yellow at the Johannesburg Country Club. The sky is a bright blue.
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.
Picture caption: Photography submitted to Dan Antion’s TDWC26 by Yvette Prior.
I spy with my little eye …
something …
but what is it?
“A hartebeest,” says TC
“I disagree. It’s a common tsessebe.”
“A tess… a … what?“
“A tsessebe.”
“There’s no such creature!
Check on your phone.“
“Hmmm! AI says … it’s an elk.”
“What! You don’t get elk in South Africa.“
“I know that. Let me try a different picture.
“Now AI says its a mammal.”
“What kind of mammal?“
“AI doesn’t go into details. It’s just a mammal.”
“Useless AI. It’s having illusions.“
“Not really. A tsessebe is a mammal.”
The two sets of photographs below are of first a hartebeest and second a tsessebe. You can see how similar they look.
Bird of the Week
I took this photograph on Friday at Pilanesberg Game Reserve. TC and I were there for two days to celebrate his birthday which is tomorrow. It’s not the best of my photographs (TC was hogging my camera) but it was such a striking blue that I’m using it for this poem. It’s nice not having to work on a Friday in my new job. If I do have to work on a Friday, I get another day off at a later date so that is very nice for me.
My photographs of Medici Fountain and closeups of the sculptures are in the slideshow below.
Side view of the Medici Fountain
Close up of Polyphemus looking down on the lovers, Galatea and Acis
Close up of Galatea and Acis
Close up of Polyphemus with the dead bull across his back
My Youtube video of the Medici Fountain.
Fountaine de Leda (at the back)
Fontaine de Leda
hidden fountain
depicting in stone
the seduction of Aetolian princess, Leda
by sky and thunder god, Zeus
in the form of a swan
Leda holds the bird
on her knees while
water flows from its bronze beak
the pair, encircled by roses
are shot by an arrow
from Cupid, lurking in the corner
The Fountaine de Leda is at the back of the Medici Fountain and a lot of people miss it. I saw it because I walked around the back of the Medici Fountain to get photographs on the other side.
Tanka Tuesday
My prompt for this week was to use onomatopoeia in a poem. I’ve written a tautogram poem using onomatopoeia using the American cinquain form.
roberta-writes.com 