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?
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!
A single clivia with the sun shining on its front blossoms
Picture caption: Two clivia with the sun creating dappled patters on some blossoms
A single clivia in full sunshine
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’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 in BrusselsPaul’s in BrusselsA display of sweet treats in BrugesShop window in Brussels with a delightful display of mice families toys
Amsterdam
A street lined with shops in Amsterdam
The window of an art gallery in Amsterdam. I took the picture because I liked the artwork.
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
Borough Market, London
People shopping at Borough Market
I took this photograph as I walked into Borough Market
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Picture caption: Yellow Banks Roses – I love thesePicture caption: Jasmine buds and blooms. They smell delightful. Picture caption: White plum blossom against a blue skyPicture caption: I like this photograph of a single spray of white plum blossom against a blue sky
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.
I wrote this poem today after sorting through my work week in my head. It was a good week. I got a lot done. My young colleague told me on Thursday afternoon just before I left for the week that she was exhausted. She also got a lot done because I give delivery dates for work that I then review. I think its a good thing the team has Friday’s to recover from my tyranny – haha! I am getting a 40 hour week’s worth of work done in 24 hours and that takes drive and determination.
Thursday Doors and The Flower Hour
Terri decided to suggest flowers in planters for The Flower Hour this week. Eeek! I don’t take many photographs of plants in planters. Then, I remembered the indoor conservatory in the delightful hotel TC and I stayed in in Paris. It is called Hotel Keppler and was very old fashioned and delightful. I also took photographs of some of the doors in the hotel so this is a double whammy for Dan’s Thursday Doors too.
Picture caption: Bonjour TC. I like the red seater he’s wearing. I chose it!
Please take a seat in the guest lounge while we complete your check in. (Well, I got to sit, he had to stand at the desk and fill in forms.)
Picture caption: Guest lounge with double glass doors onto a small courtyard
Picture caption: tables and chairs on the other side of the guest lounge where you could order alcoholic drinks or, if you are me and brazen, Earl Grey tea in a teapot. The same double glass doors are in the background.
Two slightly different photographs of the indoor conservatory in the dining room of the Hotel Keppler. It was very pretty with lots of greenery and lovely flowers. The food was very good too.
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.
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.
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.
