Esther Chilton’s challenge word for this week is edge. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/10/29/word-prompts/

Mining for Clay (shadorma prose)

When I was nine, my family moved to George in the Western Cape for the first time. It was supposed to be a permanent move, but my father hated the year-round rain, so we only stayed in this town for six weeks before moving on to Cape Town. Mom was due to give birth to our youngest sister, Laura, so Cath, Hayley and I were sent ahead to live with our grandparents. Granddad Jack came to fetch us three girls in his old hatchback, but I don’t remember anything about the journey.

When we arrived, Granny Joan was entirely consumed with looking after Hayley who was only thirteen-months old. She was a difficult toddler and refused to eat, a terrible problem for Granny who believed in stuffing children with food all day long. Good food was necessary for children to grow up strong and able to fight off illness and diseases. Cath and I were happy as we got to run wild and get up to whatever mischief I thought up.

One of my grand ideas was to mine for clay in the ditches that ran along the edges of all the dirt roads leading out of the town. Granny and Granddad’s home was reached by one of these dirt roads at that time because they lived close to the start of the forest.

On the afternoon of the great clay mining, Cath and I spent the entire afternoon digging clay out of the ditches with sharp sticks. We stored it in a plastic shopping bag I’d ‘borrowed’ for this purpose. We had to be home by 5pm and when we arrived, Granny took one look at us and started shouting. We were filthy. We had clay all over our dresses, in our hair, and all over our arms legs and faces. Fortunately, I’d seen fit to climb into the ditches shoeless, so our shoes were not full of mud. We were instructed to go to the bottom of the garden and wash ourselves, our clothes and our hair with cold water from the hosepipe. I’ll never forget, five-year-old, Cath, shrieking with displeasure at being squirted down with cold water.

Despite being in trouble over letting my little sister get so dirty and wet, I was thrilled with the clay we had gathered. Cath and I, with Granny’s permission and Granddad’s supervision, spent every afternoon for the next few weeks creating an assortment of ‘ceramic’ goods from this clay. We made baskets filled with fruit, plates, cups, a teapot, and several other interesting figures and creations. Granddad told us to line our artworks up on the step so they could dry in the sun. Once dried, he provided us with some paints and paintbrushes so we could decorate them in vivid colours.

I think Granny was pleased to have us gainfully occupied in the backyard for this time and not running amok ‘looking for trouble’.

young artists

creating artworks from clay

gleefully mined

from ditches

poor Granny had her hands full

looking after us

d’Verse

De Jackson’s d’Verse prompt is to use whirl in a quadrille poem of exactly 44 words. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/11/03/quadrille-235-take-your-poem-for-a-whirl-around-the-block/

Spring Cryoconite

sidewalks and streets filled with purple

swirling and whirling in strong, spring winds

fat blossoms pop loudly under feet and tyres

treacherous November brings heavy rains

beauty transforms into saturated mounds

colour metamorphosizing to a purple so dark

it could almost pass as cryoconite 1

1 cryoconite is the name for black snow falling on land that is composed of dust and soot caused by forest fires and man-made global warming factors

The Flower Hour

Terri is hosting a Flower Hour challenge which you can join in here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2025/10/28/the-flower-hour-sunflowers-fade-to-black/

Hi everyone, it’s Robbie Cheadle with you today and I’m introducing my new series called Artforms and Artists from Around the World.

I am inviting all artists who engage in any and all forms of art to share your world with LatinosUSA. To schedule an artforms interview, you can email me, Robbie Cheadle, at cheadlerobbie@gmail.com. You need to title your email Artforms and Artists from Around the World. LatinosUSA only accepts art and artforms created by humans so no AI generated artworks please.

As this is the inaugural post for this series, I am sharing about myself and my cake and fondant artworks.

Robbie Cheadle, the Baker and Cake Artist

I have always been artistic and as a young girl I led my three sisters and my friends in artist endeavors. These took numerous forms including a memorable dolls house made from a wooden tomato box, paper dolls and a wardrobe, a Christmas tree decorated with homemade decorations, T-shirts painted by hand, and a few books illustrated by my sisters and myself.

As a young mother, my art took the form of cake and fondant art. I made numerous cakes in a large variety of themes for numerous occasions, some special and some just for fun.

I am going to share three of my favourite cake artworks with you today.

Continue reading here: https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/artforms-and-artists-from-around-the-world-introduction-to-robbie-cheadle-art-cakeart-fondantart-southafrica/

I’ve closed comments here so please comment on LatinosUSA. Thank you.

Thank you to Nolcha Fox of Chewers by Masticadores for sharing episode 4 of Chapter 1 of my story, The Soldier and the Radium Girl.

Thanks to my great blogging friend, Teagan Riordain Geneviene for creating this delightful banner for me:

Jake Tanner

Letter from Private Jake Tanner to his fiancée, Kate Henderson 25 July 1917

My dearest Kate

I hope you had a lovely birthday on the 23^rd. I thought of you all day, and wished I was with you. I am sure your ma made one of her amazing chocolate cakes to celebrate the occasion, and I am envious. The food here isn’t bad and there’s plenty of it, but it’s not a patch on home cooking.

Your news about Charlotte’s new job at the Radium Luminous Material Corporation in Orange is exciting. Dial painting sounds like decent, well-paid work, and it helps the war effort too.

Sarge was one of the first men here at Camp Keyes to get a watch. He showed it to us last night, and we were amazed at how brightly the numbers and hands glowed in the dark. We’re all hoping to get one.

Continue reading here: https://chewersmasticadores.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/the-soldier-and-the-radium-girl-part-1-the-bloom-of-youth-chapter-1-enlist-in-haste-repent-at-leisure-cont-3-by-roberta-eaton-cheadle/

Frank has given d’Verse poets Halloween as his Haibun Monday challenge. You can read other poets work here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/10/27/haibun-monday-10-27-25-halloween/

By way of background to this haibun, erosion in the Inxu Valley, Eastern Cape of South Africa, is a significant environmental problem, primarily in the form of widespread and severe gully erosion. There are many physical factors that have resulted in this situation. This haibun is, however, about a local myth that attributes this extensive erosion to the cure of Nonqaba.

The Curse of Nonqaba (haibun)

2,000 Years ago, the Bantu-speaking Mpondomise people arrived in the Inxu Valley of the Eastern Cape. Here, they encountered a strange and elusive people comprising of scattered families. These people are now known as the San (previously Bushmen), and they were traditionally hunter-gatherers. The Mpondomise had good relations with the San until the early 1940s and there was a lot of integration between the two groups. There were, however, San people who loved nature, lived in rock shelters, and could live entirely off the land. These independent San were regarded as the masters of mysterious powers by the Mpondomise who were dependent upon their crops and domestic animals for their survival.

The Mpondomise recognised the San as the first owners of the land and provided them gifts of grain and livestock. The San were also regarded as ‘rainmakers’. During times of extreme drought, the Mpondomise elders would send a deputation to the San respectfully requesting them to make rain for the people. This relationship between the San and the Mpondomise based on rain-making and reciprocity continued for centuries until the 1940s.

By 1943, missionaries had brought Christianity to this area and conflict arose between the Christianised Mpondomise who preferred to pray for rain in a church and traditionalists who still made use of the San rainmakers. When the chief of the Mpondomise died, his second-eldest son, Lushetu, was appointed acting chief while his older brother was being educated by the missionaries in London. Lushetu felt threatened by the rainmakers’ powers and was jealous of their popularity. During a large beer festival held in the Inxu Valley, Lutshetu approached the rainmaker, Nonqaba, aggressively demanded rain from him and then proceeded to beat him up.

Subsequent to this public disgrace, Nonqaba called all the San in the area together and recommended they leave the Mpondomise as a group. Before they left, however, the San cursed the land of the Mpondomise.

Following the disappearance of the San, it ceased to rain in the Inxu Valley region for three years. Gradually, all the lush vegetation disappeared and the Mpondomise’s cattle died of starvation. This terrible period of extreme drought was followed by tremendous downpours of rain which washed away the topsoil for hundreds of kilometres, depositing it in the ocean. Sheet and donga erosion set in and the once fertile valley was transformed into a desert. Many Mpondomise people were forced to leave their traditional homeland and travel to the cities in search of work. The curse of Nonqaba is stilled blamed for the devastation of this area.

worst of emotions

jealousy of your neighbour

true green-eyed monster

Thursday Doors

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/10/30/hartford-doors-and-street-art/

These are a few pictures of the lighthouse we saw on our day visit to the Brighton area in the UK. My phone tells me this is Eastborne – Beachy Head.

This is my Youtube video of this area:

Naturally, this setting called to be painted. I gifted this painting to my mother for her birthday.

This is my Youtube video of the above painting:

My bird of the week is the brown snake eagle. I have combined my freestyle poem, followed by a micro poem, to include Esther Chilton’s writing prompt of leaves which you can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/10/22/writing-prompts-88/ and Don’t Hold Your Breath’s bird of the week challenge which you can join in here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/barn-swallow-birds-of-the-week-invitation-cxl/

Brown Snake Eagle in a Tree

bone-like fingers spread

in earnest supplication

acknowledging power

of feathered predator

rising out of the leaves

a commanding king

beware all snakes

whether harmless or

venomous; large or small

this king is indiscriminate

views each and all as prey

biting and spitting

quite irrelevant

from boomslang to

adult black mambas

measuring up to 2.8 metres

in spectacular length

none are spared

this superb hunter’s

vicious talons and

ferocious beak which

decapitates its quarry

swiftly and mercilessly

before decimating the body

consuming its meal

in delicious, large chunks

***

sap green leaves rustle

complimenting brown feathers

of predator king

Thank you to Sally Cronin for her wonderful Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight on my latest art, poetry, and baking medley, Something Fancy, A Winter Wonderland Celebration Book One.

Smorgasbord New Book Spotlight – #Children #Christmas #Fondant -Something Fancy A Winter Wonderland Celebration Book One by Robbie Cheadle

Thank you to Nolcha Fox for sharing the third episode in Chapter 1 of the work in progress, The Soldier and the Radium Girl.

“The Soldier and the Radium Girl Part 1: The Bloom of Youth, Chapter 1: Enlist in haste, repent at leisure (cont. 2)” by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Jake Tanner

5 July 1917

Jake spent most of the day watching train after train pulling into the station at Camp Keyes and disgorging its weary cargo of men. Staggering through the smoke and dust, the recruits formed themselves into straggling rows.

His company’s train had been the first to arrive, shuddering to a stop just as the first strokes of pink, orange, and gold stained the early morning sky with the bright tones of a child’s painting. A pall of sleepiness still lay over the station as they’d disembarked quietly and lined up ready to march.

The air had a cool freshness as the men covered the mile to the camp, but by the time they’d arrived and been allocated to their tents, the sun’s invasive rays had dried the dew on the grass and leeched the coolness from the shadows. 

The men were fed, watered, and shown around the camp, and then they were deemed ready to start working.

Continue reading here: https://chewersmasticadores.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/the-soldier-and-the-radium-girl-part-1-the-bloom-of-youth-chapter-1-enlist-in-haste-repent-at-leisure-cont-2-by-roberta-eaton-cheadle/

Thank you to Kaye Lynne Booth for hosting this month’s In Touch with Nature post which features warthogs (also now known as pumbaas – thank you, Disney).

In Touch With Nature – Meet Pumbaa the Warthog and a treat #southernafricanwildlife #intouchwithnature

Esther’s challenge is money. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/10/15/writing-prompts-87/

Funny Money (tanka prose)

When my family moved to Cape Town from George, we lived in rented homes for the first year. The first rented house was in a suburb called Kirstenhof and that was a bad experience as the carpets were full of fleas when we first moved in. Laura, a small baby at the time, and I were bitten repeatedly. I can still remember those horrible itchy bites that swelled to three times their size. I was the only one of the four of us girls whose bites swelled up. Cape Town is notorious for fleas. The bites stopped when my parents were forced to have the house fumigated.

The second cottage was in Fishhoek and was a great place to live. I have written other memories about our three months in that seaside village. Our third move was into a house my parents bought in a cul-de-sac called Seven Sleepers. The cul-de-sac ended just before a main road and had empty land on either side of the row of seven houses. Across the main road was a big shopping mall which had the attraction to me and Cath of a pot of honey to bees. All around our area, new houses were being build and Cath and I, together with a few friends of mixed ages, used to explore these half build houses over weekends when the workmen were away.

One day when we were mooching around a nearly completed house, we discovered several silver discs lying on the floor. They were the exact size of a twenty-cent piece. They had been punched out of the newly wired electricity board in the kitchen. My friend, Neil, had the inspired idea of trying out the ‘coins’ on the claw machine in the nearby mall. We all loved the machine. You dropped in a twenty-cent piece and could manipulate the claw and try to pick up a small stuffed toy. We were delighted when the machine took the fake money and we all had a few turns on the machine. We never managed to hook a toy, but it was still great fun.

The next weekend, we went back to the houses and foraged for more discs. We didn’t find a single one. The workmen had clearly taken the time to pick them up. It was most disappointing and our time on the claw machine reverted back to when one of us had a bit of pocket money to spend. In retrospect, it was a naughty thing to do and it’s just as well we didn’t win any toys, or I would have had that guilt to add to my memories.

shiny silver coins

could have led to bad trouble

luck was on our side

although we weren’t grateful then

workmen’s diligence saved us

Rebecca Budd shares a beautiful poem this week called Leaves by Sara Teasdale. You can read it here: https://rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2025/10/18/leaves-by-sarah-teasdale/

I loved it so much I decided to write my own version of this poem.

Leaves by Robbie Cheadle

an odd orange leaf

decorates my foliage

summer is ending

I feel autumn’s cooler winds

my branches creak in protest

***

across the pathway

my life partner is bedecked

in colours of red

as we grew our limbs reached out

entwining in the middle

***

seeds germinated

grew into strong, young saplings

thriving in rich soil

their tender leaves darkening

into vivid apple green

***

our givers of life

have passed through vibrant autumn

entering winter

reduced life force withers leaves

one by one they gently fall

CFFC

Dan’s CFFC prompt is retailers selling food. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/10/20/retail-food-cffc/