Posted in Photo, Poems

Haiku with photo: Girl In Light

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in winter’s embrace

to gently unwrap cold claws

and reach for the sun

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Photo: Nice Day
Text © Marion

Posted in Humour, Inspiration, Personal, Writing

My 7 Links

My sweet friend and writer Marian Allen – author of Eel’s Reverence – nominated me for participation in My 7 Links. THANKS Marian! We met online last year and have been in touch ever since.

Here are the rules, and here is list of the already nominated bloggers. At least most of them.

Are you ready? If not, I’ll continue anyway 😛 Here are my seven links:

  1. They Will Become A Memory In The Future for me is my most beautiful post. In this letter I express the things I have learned in the last ten years and then send it to myself. This post made me look back and relive the pain after my divorce, only to emerge stronger.
  2. My most popular post would be Padaung, the Long-Neck Women, a post I wrote in my developing series on the things people do and have done through the ages, for the sake of beauty only.
  3. The most controversial post would be Mother Nature. She Gives And She Takes. One minute I was admiring nature’s treasures in my garden, the next this same nature was shaking the world in an awful earthquake in Japan. Suddenly things were massively out of control, many lives (human, animal and plant) were in danger. This controversy was just incomprehensible.
  4. Death, Harsh Master, is my most helpful post, expressing my sadness and unbelief when colleague and fellow columnist Ab Bobbink died of a heart attack. Many people reacted to this poem, talking to me about their feelings, how they miss Ab. It helped them unload.
  5. A post whose success surprised me is Amazing Pictures. Sometimes it’s not the text that counts, but the images.
  6. Four rings to rule them all is a post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved.  For others, this is just jewelry. For me these rings symbolize very important daily aspects of my life. And each and every time I slide these rings onto my fingers in the morning, I am aware of their meaning.
  7. The post that I am most proud of is The Second Room On The Right. This is the way I want to write, totally lost in the images in my head and typing with my eyes closed. To catch this state of mind again is what I strive for in my writing.

Now enough about me! We came here through Marian Allen, and it is time to move on to other blogs. My five choices:

  1. Sarah May is a delightful and spirited young woman who writes with humor and heart on  Sarsm’s Blog. She often makes me spit my tea all over the screen with her witty posts. Sarah, you rock girl!
  2. In These Are Days, Terri writes about her life, her children and husband, about Lucy (their new dog) and about life in general. She does this in a kind and compassionate way and I love sharing a bit of her life.
  3. Nandini Dhiman publishes breath taking photos on Life just is. Take your time to wander through her images and beautiful poems.
  4. Gil Gonzales, by Gil, of course. Thoughtful posts on various subjects, offering me a glimpse in the male point of view on things 😉 Exchanging comments is a joy.
  5. Life in the Boomer Lane, where Renee Fisher shares her point of view on life in an open and expressive way. A delight to read and think about.

Thank you all for broadening my horizon. And please pass on the torch! 

~Mar

Posted in Movies, Six Word Saturday, Technology

Decommercialato!

Six Word Saturday:

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Christmas TV. Commercial Overload. Shutting down.

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It’s Christmas Eve. Christmas movies!

But watching TV isn’t about watching a movie anymore. It’s about watching bits and pieces, only to be bothered by commercials. Repeatedly.

And though I love to see George Clooney, the Nespresso ‘Swamp’ commercial turned up about six time in one evening. Too much Volluto, and not enough Decommercialato!

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Want to play along? All that’s necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, read this. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. 

Click    for more Six Word Saturday.

Happy Holidays 😀

Posted in Animals, Culture/History, Humour, Inspiration, Poems

Silly Poem: Reindeer Christmas

Though there’s no snow on winter’s night

Still unseen stars are twinkling bright

And when the grayish days set in

You wonder how it should have been

Where is the whiteness that we need

The frosty coldness we must heed

Go sleighing, skating, taking walks

In comfort of thick cuddly socks

And curl up by the fire place

Joyously stuck at your home base

But none of this is happening here

This Christmas it is just Rain Dear

A very merry Christmas,

and all the best for 2012!

~Marion

Text © Marion
Posted in Animals, Culture/History, Nature, Photo

Winter Solstice! We’re on our way to Spring!

Would you believe me if I told you today is the shortest day of the year? YES! This dark cold freezing wet day is our ticket into spring my friends. SPRING. I can’t wait for the sun to grow stronger, to warm and caress us.

From Wikipedia:
The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the winter solstice usually occurs on December 21 to 23 each year in the Northern Hemisphere, and June 20 to 23 in the Southern Hemisphere.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.

Right, it is time for celebrations.

I would like to introduce you to Katie Johnson, who is also celebrating Winter Solstice today. She does that in a very special way. Each day Katie publishes a photo she shoots herself. And each and every photo is a beauty, whether architecture, abstract, flowers, nature or animal. Of course I prefer nature and animals 😉

Let me show you an example:

Special huh?

Today’s photo is titled Happy Winter Solstice.

Katie Johnson is a professional photographer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her website: Katie’s Camera Blog.

Happy Winter Solstice! Let’s celebrate this special day, made for us by nature. For free.

~Mar

Posted in Humour, Photo

Photo: Liquor

Craving for liquor finally explained:

Well, would YOU want to kiss these sour-looking women? 😉

And here is additional information on the subject, provided by friend and teacher Michael:

Amanns Saloon, New Ulm, Minnesota.

Perhaps you might want to take a look at Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (November 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911). She was a member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition America. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. On many occasions Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet. She has been the topic of numerous books, articles and even an opera. Continue in Carrie Nation.

Posted in Biker Witch, Movies, Six Word Saturday

Up!

Six Word Saturday:

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Christmas dinner: Mushroom Soup and Up

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Yesterday evening was the big event: the Harley Christmas Dinner. Each year the organization devotes a lot of time and effort to this event. And the food… mmm. Needless to say we were looking forward to it. Even my brand new dress was eager.

But my body decided otherwise. The glands in my neck were playing ball, my throat was on fire and muscles changed miraculously into jelly. And my back, oh my back and abdomen. Standing up straight was impossible.

While Vman was painting the corridor wall English red – first my bedroom, now the hallway… my whole house will end up red 😉 – I hobbled upstairs and crawled straight into bed, where I stayed the next couple of hours. Tossing was no option, turning was, very slowly with my teeth firmly locked against the pain and the shivering.

The time of our departure was getting near, but when I got up, I had to admit it was impossible for me to attend the Christmas dinner. I waved goodbye to Vman – who was ordered to join the fun and eat for two – and lay down under the blanket on the couch again. What to do. Ah yes, sleep!

Around seven it was time for Christmas Dinner. And I joined my friends – at a distance – with a cup of mushroom soup. And bread sticks! As long as I didn’t move, the pain was bearable so a movie would be nice. Up! was on,

By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

But even this great animation couldn’t dull the thrumming in my back. So I went up at 9 pm. To bed. And got up again and again during the night.

What’s up oh body mine? Behave, will ya?!

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Want to play along? All that’s necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, read this. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. 

Click    for more Six Word Saturday.

Posted in Animals, Inspiration, Nature

A Must-See

If this doesn’t melt your heart straight away, nothing can. Truly beautiful!

David Attenborough’s Wonderful World

 

Posted in Animals, Movies, Music, Nature

Feel Good!

Two films I’d love to share with you all today:

 

The first one is about a humpback whale, caught in fishing nets. And after he has been freed, he gives his saviors an amazing show of gratitude. (Thank you Gil!)


Second, a song by The Piano Guys. I have shared their music before, but this one is for Christmas. With an endearing extra artist near the end.