Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/05/05/cheney-brothers-houses/

Fellow poet, Miriam Hurdle, and I visited Dan at his bar last Saturday. We had a great time talking about our poetry and its inspiration. If you missed it, you can read it here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/04/30/miriam-robbie-visit-the-bar-socs/

Last week, I told you about our visit to the Ukutula Conservation Centre and I shared some pictures from the lodge and a few of the rescue animals. Today, I am sharing pictures of our visit to the research centre and watching lions from a small deck in the middle of the veld.

We passed through this protective gate and entered Lion World.

First, we visited the cubs:

Meet the lion cubs here:

Meet the dads. You don’t want to be up close to the moms – they are the hunters.

Have you ever seen a lion swimming?

You can watch one here:

Have you ever seen a lion in a tree?

You can watch one here:

I wrote another 99-syllable animal poem. It has absolutely nothing to do with lions.

Handbags and shoes

Stagnant, muddy water
Obscures it’s presence
Are those rocks? Look closer; see the baleful eyes
Unmoving it wallows
Waiting patiently

Thirst overwhelming sense
Monkey bounds forward
A single snapping crunch; the crocodile sinks
Its prize will slowly rot
beneath the surface

An unnatural hunter
Squeezes the trigger
Deadly gun terminates the cycle of life
The man smiles toothily
He sees bags and shoes

The void of unreciprocated energy

Drip

Caring actions

Drip

Supportive words

Drip

A listing ear

Drip

A helping hand

Drip

Drip

Drip

Into the black void

Of unreciprocated energy

Thoughts from your mind

Disappearing

Down, down

Chunks from your heart

Swirling

Around, around

Pieces from your soul

Swilling

Into darkness

There is no counterflow

From this churning spiral

Nothing is returned

From this infinite chasm

of take, take, take

Until the relentless pit

Has sucked in

everything

Leaving behind

a dispirited husk

No longer capable

Of giving

by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

My second poem was inspired by a recital, by Rebecca Budd, of a poem called the Crystal Gazer by Sara Teasdale. You can listen to Rebecca’s rendition here: https://ladybudd.com/2022/04/08/the-crystal-gazer-by-sara-teasdale/

My poem, called The Relentlessness of Life was my poetic response. You can listen to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df9Di9UlCI0

I have poems in a new WordCrafter anthology which also features poetry by Arthur Rosch, Elizabeth Merry, D Avery, Harmony Kent, Lauren Scott, Julespaige, Leon Stevens, Colleen M. Chesebro, Miriam Hurdle, Marjorie Mallon, and Lynda McKinney Lambert.

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/04/28/cheney-brothers-silk-mill-1/

Last weekend, my family took a short mini-break to Ukutula Conservation Centre in Brits, North West Province. At this centre they do research relating mainly lions and cheetahs in order to ensure the preservation of these wonderful animals going forward. The centre is doing artificial insemination of lionesses using sperm from African lions all over the world. This is to ensure a diversified gene pool and prevent genetic physical defects resulting from inbreeding. There is also a facility at the centre to store eggs and sperm from lions and other wild cats.

There are only 20,000 lions left in the wild in Africa and 50,000 is considered to be the minimum number to ensure the survival of a species. To add to the threats posed to lions in the wild from loss of habitat and poaching, the lion population in South Africa’s Kruger National Park is being further impacted by rising cases of tuberculosis. There is currently no cure and no preventative vaccination and Ukutula is one of the research centres working hard to change this position and protect our lion populations. You can read more about tuberculosis among lions here: https://www.awf.org/news/tuberculosis-imperils-lions-kruger-park

Here are a few pictures of some of the doors at the lodge.

It looks peaceful, but it isn’t.

You can hear the sounds of the bush here – Lion melody

As I mentioned, the centre is mainly for lions and cheetahs, but it also has a lot of rescue animals. These tigers are an example of rescues. Unfortunately, the tigers have limited space, but they are not natural to Africa and they are very unpredictable and aggressive. I wrote a poem about the tigers in my favourite 99-syllable form. It was one of 7 I wrote over the weekend.

Confessions of a tiger

Africa’s not my home

I don’t belong here

I was entertainment for a wealthy man

With no common sense

Who tired of me

***

I cannot be tamed

Or made to do tricks

I’m unreliable even when trained

If my instincts kick in

I will turn on you

***

At least he realised

I would never fit

He asked the sanctuary to collect me

It sees to all my needs

And I have a mate

By Robbie Cheadle

***

I also got to walk with the baby cheetahs.

I petted one for about 3 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1qqFqMdO4hg

You can see the cheetahs walking here:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eIyqXolr7iY

We saw three rescue baby leopards. This pictures is also through the links.

I filmed a baby leopard’s first encounter with a spider, so cute:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PkeZNw15ciI

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/04/21/two-mills-then-now/

During our recent road trip, we visited the Tsitsikamma National Park.

This is how Trip Advisor describes this wonderful national treasure:

Trails, waterfalls, and wildlife draw visitors to lush Tsitsikamma National Park. Set along South Africa’s scenic Garden Route and spanning 50 miles (80 kilometers) of coastline, the park stretches from the mouth of the Storms River to Nature’s Valley. Embark on various adventures here, from a multi-day hike along the Otter Trail to one of the world’s highest bungee jumps.

You can read a little more about it here: https://www.viator.com/Garden-Route-attractions/Tsitsikamma-National-Park/overview/d5613-a17271#overview

The pictures below are of the scenery on our walk to the suspension bridge across Storms River Mouth.

Here are a few pictures of the suspension bridge across Storms River Mouth.

This week’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry challenge explores Ekphrastic poetry, inspired by visual art or photographs. You can join in here: https://wordcraftpoetry.com/2022/04/19/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-270-photoprompt/

This photograph of dolphins seemed to go with my ocean pictures:

Dolphin dues

From the glittering depths

Of the great ocean

Sleek, grey dolphins launch themselves into the air

do a backflip, then slide

down beneath the waves

***

Know for their friendliness

and permanent smiles

These graceful creatures extend help to others

The members of their pod

and even humans

***

What help can we extend

to balance the scales

Dolphins are susceptible to pollution

Reduce your plastic waste

Keep our oceans clean

I will be on a mini road trip until Tuesday so I won’t be around as much as usual.

I love reading about war. Any war is interesting to me and I have read a number of famous war novels over the fast two years including All Quiet on the Western Front, Testament of Youth, A Farewell to Arms, Regeneration, and To The Last Man (WW1), The Red Badge of Courage and Gone with the Wind (American Civil War), A Gentleman in Moscow (Russian Revolution), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Spanish Revolution). I have over half way through War and Peace but Natasha’s story started irritating me so I put it aside. I will go back to it as I must know what happens when Napoleon attacks Moscow. I am currently reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (WW2). I have, of course, read many books about WW2 and I’ve even written one, but that was not in the past two years. I have also read a few books about South African Wars but most of those are non-fiction.

Anyhow, I was reflecting on war recently, possibly because of the war in Ukraine, and thinking that many of our modern battles are not against other nations but rather against more insidious and creeping problems like overpopulation, pollution and global warming both contributed to be consumerism and ultimately greed. I decided it would be interesting to share two poems, one that highlights the horror of battle during WW1 and one that reflects on this creeping change that haunts our modern society.

Here is my recital of The Anxious Dead by John McCrae:

The next poem, is one of my own from my poetry collection, co-authored with Kim Blades, called Open a new door. It’s called The Corporate Giant:

Our modern battles don’t seem so obviously harmful, but given the heat waves, heat domes, cold waves, firestorms, and flooding the world has been experiencing over the past two years, I’m becoming less convinced we are not heading for a situation that is equally devastating.

I have six poems in a new poetry anthology called Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships.

Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Treasures-Kaye-Lynne-Booth-ebook/dp/B09XJ76MHV

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in Thursday Doors here:

Tomorrow is Good Friday which is an important religious holiday for Christians around the world. Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday, a day of celebration and joy.

In celebration of Easter, I am sharing my chocolate Easter Swiss Chalet. Please note, it has a door, actually, it has two as there is a similar door at the back of the structure.

If you are interested in enjoying a sweet Easter tale that showcases my fondant and cake artwork, you can read Sir Chocolate Saves Easter here: https://writingtoberead.com/2022/04/13/growing-bookworms-sir-chocolate-saves-easter-sirchocolatestory-childrensfiction/

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Today I am combining to weekly challenges, namely, Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/04/07/random-hartford-doors/ and Word Craft Poetry #TankaTuesday here: https://wordcraftpoetry.com/2022/04/05/tankatuesday-weekly-poetry-challenge-no-268-4-5-22-tastetherainbow-color-poetry/

During our recent road trip, we visited the Birds of Eden bird sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay. This is what the website says about the bird sanctuary:

“Birds of Eden’s unique two hectare dome (the world’s largest) spans over a gorge of indigenous forest. Currently it is home to over 3,500 birds from over 220 species, with the main focus being African birds.”

You can learn more about Birds of Eden here: https://www.birdsofeden.co.za/

We saw some amazing birds. Here are a few:

This waddling goose made me laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9MafLaAw36s

Red Ibis at birds of Eden:

Taste the Rainbow poetry challenge

Taste the Rainbow refers to colors. You do not have to write about a rainbow in your poem. Just include a color in your poem. 

My tanka is a little sad but it ends on a positive note.

How tragic the youth

Moulded by chronic ill health

Tinged purple by pain

Shadowed by anxiety

Still, his silver lining shines

by Robbie Cheadle