Hi everyone, it’s Robbie Cheadle here with you today with my December post in the Nature Photography section on LatinosUSA – English Edition.
Next week, I am featuring photographs of Buildings and Architecture.
If you have a photograph to share in the Buildings and Architecture section, please email me at cheadlerobbie@gmail.com and use the title Photography – Buildings and Architecture. Please also include a short write up about your photograph.
Egret at the Beach by Darlene Foster
This beautiful photograph was contributed by children’s author, Darlene Foster. You can find out more about Darlene and her exciting Amanda books on her blog here: https://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/
Egrets are a type of heron, a long-legged, long-necked, wading bird. They live in freshwater and saltwater habitats, such as marshes and wetlands, where they spend their day wading in shallow water, catching fish and other creatures. Most species form lifelong pair bonds with their mates and nest and roost in mixed species groups. Although they are found on most continents, Egrets avoid the coldest regions, high mountains, and deserts. They nest in tall trees over water with 10 to 30 other pairs. Most species are relatively vocal, making harsh croaking sounds and squeals. They feed in flocks, waiting in shallow water for fish to swim by before thrusting their beaks to catch their prey. Most animals don’t mess with these large birds; they find safety in numbers by staying in large communities. We often see them here in Spain in orchards, on golf courses and by the beaches.
Hi everyone, it’s Robbie Cheadle with you today and I’m sharing my review of A Homemade Christmas by Carol Ann Taylor. Carol has also contributed one of the delicious recipes from this book. Thank you, Carol!
My review of A Homemade Christmas by Carol Ann Taylor
A Homemade Christmas is a delightful collection of recipes from an excellent cook and baker. This book is a treasure trove of delicious traditional recipes from the supporting dishes like garlic buttered peas, cranberry sauce, three kinds of gravy, and sage and onion stuffing, to the main event which could be turkey, ham or roast pork. For the more adventurous, there are a few recipes with an Asian flair to spice things up such as beef brisket with an Asian twist and Thai fried peanuts with basil leaves.
Well known Christmas snacks including pigs in blankets, sweet mincemeat, and sausage rolls make an appearance, together with recipes for traditional Christmas cake and homemade marzipan, Christmas pudding and fruit salad, for those watching their calory count.
Today, I am delighted to welcome author, Yvette, M. Calleiro, to Roberta Writes with a guest post about her latest book, the last in the Chronicles of the Diasodz series, The One Redeemed.
Picture caption: Cover of The One Redeemed featuring a green eye with a lava flow in the middle
Who are the Diasodz?
The Diasodz are special beings created by the Goddess to heal and protect humans. There are two classes: Altorus (the warriors) and Curatus (the healers). Diasodz live the first eighteen years of their lives as humans. Around their 18th birthday, they experience a “death day,” where the human part of them dies and the Diasodz part takes over. Not every Diasodz survives their death day. Most Altorus receive a tattoo with their weapon-to-call after their death day occurs. The tattoo awakens when danger is around. When the Diasodz touches his/her tattoo (or its area), the weapon appears in his/her hands, ready for use.
With Lucifer’s influence, a faction divided from the Diasodz and became known as the Raizyns. While there are many characters throughout the series, I want to introduce you to some of those who play an integral part in Drake’s journey. (All images are generated by AI.)
Drake is our main character of The One Redeemed. He is the Raizyn king and the catalyst that sets all other events in motion. He is obsessed with Valerie, Nolan’s wife, and tries unsuccessfully many times to make her his. Because of his actions, chaos ensues and families are torn apart.
Drake has the power to inflict pain and create paralysis through touch. He can control lava and earthquakes and can bring darkness, sadness, grief, despair, and anger to others. His weapon-to-call comes from a tattoo of a flail with three maces hanging from the tip. His tattoo is located on his upper right butt cheek.
Damiana is the Raizyn queen. As much as Drake is obsessed with Valerie, Damiana is obsessed with Drake. She is even willing to kill to make sure he remains hers. Her jealousy and need for total dominance drives her.
Damiana has the power to cause pain physically and mentally. She can create electricity through her fingertips. She also can seduce others through touch, making her irresistible.
Valerie is happily married to Nolan. Valerie was courted by both Drake and Nolan and chose Nolan. Drake never accepted the loss. Valerie endured great heartache because of Drake’s actions, but she never wavered from her love for Nolan and her loyalty to her family.
Valerie has the ability to heal minor injuries. She can also provide temporary strength to others. Her weapon-to-call is a bow and arrow. Her tattoo is located above her left breast.
Nolan is wholeheartedly in love with Valerie. He is loyal to his family and will defend them at all costs. He is just as comfortable fighting battles against the demons and deminions as he is staying home and spending time with family.
He has the power to manipulate objects and make items disappear and reappear. He can transport himself from one place to another. He can also transport an embryo from one womb to another. His weapon-to-call is two blades that come from the tattoo of blades on his wrists.
Liana is a Curatas, which means she does not have a weapon-to-call or have any powers. She is meant to heal others through herbs and the energy nature shares with her. Infatuated with Nolan, Liana is used by Drake to create chaos in Nolan’s life. Liana later plays a role in Damiana’s plot to hurt Valerie, but in the end, it is Liana who has the most influence on Sofia’s choices.
Sofia is the one believed to be the savior. She was raised on Earth with Liana. Sofia is human for most of the series. Her powers come to her before her death day. She controls fire. She can also combine other Diasodz’s powers to fight darkness and evil.
Rafe is believed to be Damiana’s son. He is raised as a human and knows nothing of the Diasodz world until his death day. He has the power to manipulate the earth and trees. He can make someone faint if he touches them. His weapon-to-call is an ax that is located in his tattoo behind his ear.
Angel is Liana and Nolan’s son. He is raised by Nolan and Valerie to give him the opportunity to be born into the Altorus class. He has the ability to manipulate emotions. He can control all forms of water. His weapon-to-call is a dagger that he can pull from his tattoo which consists of three daggers forming a ‘y’ at the bottom of the back of his neck.
Ar’ch is the son of Valerie and Nolan. He is in love with Sofia. He has the power to read minds and communicate through thoughts. He can enter dreams and compel others. He controls air, can make objects fly, and can create storms and clouds. His weapon-to-call comes from tattoos of swords on each hip bone.
Kamali is our newest character. She is appointed by the Goddess to help Drake on his journey through the afterlife. She is able to read Drake’s thoughts. She also has the power to transform into other people by borrowing some of their essence.
I hope this introduction helps you to visualize the characters as you read about their roles in Drake’s story.
Blurb
Drake had been an agent for chaos, a tyrant who focused only on his desires, even when they hurt those he claimed to love the most. Would dying to protect his daughter redeem him? Or would he spend an eternity reliving his biggest regrets?
Electrifying pain coursed through Drake’s veins as he sacrificed his life to save his daughter. When he becomes conscious again, reality sets in. He is dead. While he is overcome with grief, his mortal enemy, Goddess, offers him a path to redemption. In order to find his way back to his children, he must first revisit his past and atone for his choices. The journey will be brutal, and his outcome is not guaranteed.
Failure is not an option for Drake. He will do anything to get back to his children to make amends for his actions, even if it means sacrificing himself all over again.
Picture caption: Yvette M. Calleiro author photograph
Yvette M. Calleiro is the author of the Chronicles of the Diasodz fantasy series, HYPE, and a couple of short stories. As a heavily addicted reader of both young adult and adult novels, she spends most of her time pseudo-living in paranormal worlds with her fictional friends (and boyfriends).
When she’s living among real people, Yvette M. Calleiro is a middle school Reading and Language Arts teacher. She’s been sharing her love of literature with her students for over twenty years. Besides writing about the various characters that whisper (and sometimes scream) in her head, she enjoys traveling, watching movies, spending quality time with family and friends, and enjoying the beauty of the ocean.
Although an avid traveler, Yvette lives in Miami, Florida, with her incredible son who has embraced her love for paranormal and adventurous stories. She also shares her space with an assortment of crazy saltwater animals in her 300-gallon tank.
To follow along with the rest of this tour, please visit the author’s blog. Thanks for supporting Yvette M Calleiro and her work!
Brieuc Martin-Onraet from Equinoxio, A blog about magic, fiction, and art, kindly allowed me to share this post. You can find Brieuc’s (aka Brian) latest blog post here: https://equinoxio21.wordpress.com/
Brieuc is also a contributor to This Is How We Work: Stories, Memoirs and Poems about Social Dimensions of Work anthology compiled by contributing editor, Yvette Prior. You can find my review of this meaningful collection on Amazon USA here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2VAZFX1HLTANS
Argentina had only one god: his name was Maradona.
Thank you to Nolcha Fox for sharing Part 8 of my WIP, The Soldier and the Radium Girl.
Jake Tanner
9 October 1917
For seven days after leaving Halifax, the convoy traversed the continuously heaving ocean. Aside from twenty short minutes a day stretching their legs and taking the air on deck, the men passed the time playing cards in cramped, confined conditions.
Throughout this time, the confinement chaffed at Jake. Being below deck was like being jailed in a mausoleum with no natural light, airflow, or freedom of movement.
From time to time, a terrible yearning to get out of this horrible place rose within him, making swallowing difficult and constricting his airways. Sometimes a scream fought to escape, and he clamped his jaw tightly shut, holding it back. If he started screaming, he might never stop.
Stormy weather struck two days out of Halifax, and the ship had rolled and lurched ever since. Many men were struck down by seasickness, but, thankfully, neither he nor Joe was affected. Mike took to his bed early on, and they took him water and food at mealtimes.
“No soup.” He pushed his lunch away again today. “The smell makes me sick.”
His hand trembled as he pointed at a small basin. Jake held it under his chin as he retched weakly.
“Water,” he whispered. Jake held the cup to his mouth, and he drank a few sips before sinking back onto the lumpy pillow.
“I’ll eat his soup,” Joe took the bowl and started shoving spoonsful into his mouth. “You’re lucky to get this,” he said to Mike. “You should see the swill we get. Boiled pork and worse yet, boiled rabbit. English food!”
“The foods not the worse part,” Jake added. “The British and French officers are the most stuffy and pompous assholes I’ve ever met.”
“How’s the voyage going?” Mike’s papery voice was reedy.
I’m a bit late with this post but it’s been a tough week. My big transaction went live at 5.08pm tonight after four days of manic rushing about tying up loose ends and getting all the deliverables ready. This is the end of 10 weeks of hard work and I’m glad it’s done. I have another three on the go but those are smaller and more manageable.
Anyhow, on to the writing challenge. Esther’s prompt was angel. I had an idea last week which I didn’t manage to write up. Then I read Freya’s final post in her Dragon Scales poetry style series, and the following poem came all at once. So, this poem is for Esther’s challenge and is my first Dragon Scales poem. I’m not sure I got it quite right per Freya’s directions, but I’m pleased with the result. You can read Freya’s poem here: https://freyanrites.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/hollowness-verse-7/
When I was five, we moved into a house in Blairgowrie in Johannesburg. At the time, it was a typical suburban house with a low wall separating the front garden from the grassed pavement. Mom was very busy with my sister, Cath, you was only one and I spent a lot of time playing by myself.
That Christmas, Mom gifted me some old tinsel which was bald in patches. I could play with it and even cut it up into smaller pieces to use for my creative projects. I made one piece into an angel halo.
I was a good singer and was already singing in the school choir by the end of my first school year. I took it into my head to dress up as an angel and sing Christmas carols on the pavement outside my house.
I remember wearing a long white nightdress and borrowing one of my mom’s glittery evening shawls for wings. I put the halo on my head and took up a position on the pavement on my knees. Mom found me there several songs later, entertaining a gathering of pedestrians who had stopped to watch my show.
Mom was not pleased with me making an exhibition of myself.
These pictures are of the reception main door at Champagne Sports Resort Hotel where my family spent three days in early January this year. The Christmas lights and decorations were still up at that time.
The picture below is of the hotel rooms where we stayed. Ours were the bottom units.
Today, I am highlighting Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans written by Kaye Lynne Booth and illustrated by me.
What prompted you to write a book for children?
Since living in the Colorado mountains, I’ve become somewhat of a birdwatcher. The birds and animals which visited my yard inspired me to write Charlie Chickadee Finds a New Home with a true incident which occurred when a family of chickadees were chased out of the nest they had built in a tree in my yard. The Heather Hummingbird and Timothy Turtle characters were inspired by watching live hummingbirds and an incident which occurred with a live turtle, although the events in their stories are fictional.
Which writers of children’s fiction influenced you as a child and as an adult?
As a child, my favorite book was Little Bear’s Visit, by Else Holmelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. I always laughed when Little Bear gets scared and runs away from his own shoes, and the tale about how Momma Bear found the injured bird always touched my heart.I also enjoyed humorous books like “Stand Back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m Going to Sneeze”, by Patricia Thomas and Wallace Tripp. But, Dr. Suess was probably my favorite author. His books and those of Shell Silverstein were heavy influences in my poetry, and perhaps in my children’s books as well. I have always been a sucker for rhyming and alliteration.
As an adult, I read all those same books to my children, but I think our favorite was Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. My kids and I had the words memorized and they would help in the reading of the story. We even told that story camping, without the assistance of the book. I love words. I love playing with words and sounds. Writing children’s stories and poetry are my outlets for that sense of playfulness and humor, as well as my love for rhyming and alliteration. Those don’t always sit well in adult literature.
My review of Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans
Picture caption: cover of Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans
Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans is a delightful story about animals that could inhabit a child’s backyard. Timothy the turtle discovers a collection of colourful sweeties that a young girl has discarded as they are too sweet for her. The girl’s cat, Katy, warns Timothy that these sweets gave the girl a tummy ache, but he proceeds to eat the sweet treats anyway. There is a lesson to be learned by Timothy, but he has lots of helpful friends to aid him in his distress. This book includes a subtle message about the benefits of healthy eating.
The book also introduces young readers to beavers and nuthatches and includes realistic drawings and paintings of these creatures.
I enjoyed this delightful and well written story for children.
My illustrations
I had only been drawing for about a year when Kaye approached me about illustrating these three books. I was still finding my feet as an artist and trying out different mediums. This book includes some drawings and also some of my first paintings as I discovered what has become my favourite art medium.
Picture caption: This is one of my favourite drawings. I love the turtle I managed to create and the colours of the background and jellybeans.Picture caption: This is one of my first watercolour paintings ever. I really loved how it came out. A delightful Becky the Beaver.
Discounted pricing
Kaye’s My Backyard Friends books are available at discounted prices from 1 to 25 December at the links below.
Kaye Lynne Booth is a multi-genre author who has had a whole collection of children’s stories just waiting for the right illustrator.
The books in the My Backyard Friends series are inspired by the birds and animals that visit author Kaye Lynne Booth’s mountain home. The first three books in the series are Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend, Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home, and Timothy Turtle Discovers Jelly Beans.
Author poet and illustrator Robbie Cheadle does the beautiful illustrations that bring this series to life.
About Robbie Cheadle
Picture caption: Robbie Cheadle profile picture
South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.
Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.
This week’s challenge by Melissa, is to write a Double Ennead poem on the theme of gratitude. The syllabic count for a Double Ennead poem is 3 x 3 verses of 6/5/11/6/5.
I am late with last week’s CFFC and Thursday Doors post so I’m including it here with this week’s CFFC post.
The four photographs below are of the wharf at Westminster Bridge in London. This is where tourists leave for tours of the River Thames. You can see the London Eye in the background. These are for Dan’s Travel Hubs challenge which you can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/12/01/travel-hubs-cffc/
Last week’s CFFC challenge was Places where people work. I have a selection of doors from my trip to London.
The slideshow below is of the entrance and door of a bank in Westminster, London. I thought the door was beautiful.
Picture caption: Entrance to The Institute of Civil Engineers in LondonPicture caption: Entrance to The Royal Courts of Justice, London
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