Words for Wednesday September 9 :: June, the Solitary Hero - 2

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of coordinator.
Now, after Sue's demise, River has taken the mantle of coordinator upon her shoulders.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

This month the words are given by River at Drifting through Life

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

And for today we were given:
Klutz 
Cream cheese 
Twilight/gloaming 
Buzzing 
Trouble 
Dominoes
     and/or:
Her/My house has many rooms, some are less immaculate than others.

I had to continue the story about June, my solitary hero from last week. I do not know yet if anything will ever come off it, but it's fun trying to write about a hero relying only on her own powers. I never did that before, there's always been friends, family an allies for even my most "alone" heroes, even the time-travelling Peter had allies almost from day one. I have to continually stop myself from letting her befriend somebody, find an unexpected ally and so on ... I suppose this exercise will do me good, but will it make for a good story? Only time will tell. 

I continue from here:
June, the Solitary Hero ~  Part 1

And I can use the sentence: Her house has many rooms, some are less immaculate than others as a motto for this tale. I used none of the other words, maybe later this week.

* * *

Next morning June woke up quite late. For the first time in years, she had slept through the night. After she had taped the shutters fast with the green tape, the night had been dark and silent. It was a whole new feeling. She felt rested and energetic. After a leisurely breakfast of freshly picked blackberries sprinkled upon the yoghurt-and-granola that was her staple, and a nice cup of steaming hot tea she was ready for anything.
    First on the list were the gutters. The real estate agent had warned her that the house while totally healthy, was sorely neglected as it had not been tended to for almost three years.
    Cleaning the windows, discarding dead plants, and scrubbing kitchen and bathroom had taken up the first day in her new house, and cleaning and rearranging the bedroom all of the second. But today the sun was out in splendour, it was time to do some outdoor works before autumn and the rains came.
    She found the ladder on its hooks behind the shed. She had taken over practically everything from the former owner, a retired accountant with no known relatives. She had thrown out beddings, mattresses, personal items, and most of the clothes, but kept almost anything else. The retiree had obviously been a tidy person but gone quickly downhill before his demise. All the heavy stuff was where it was supposed to be, but lighter items like plates, pots and pans, kitchen and work utensils from the house were often misplaced.
    She leaned the ladder against the wall and climbed up. The gutters sure needed a cleaning. She threw big flakes of blackish muck to the ground, and using a garden trowel she was scraping out the last of the debris from the sunwards sprout when she heard the gate to the road open ... it could do with an oiling. Dressed as she was in one of the former inhabitant's worn shirts and with her hair tied back under an old straw hat, she obviously looked enough like him to deceive the mail-man. He started and hailed her with the former occupant's name: "Hey Charles, I see that the rumours of your death were greatly exaggerated."
    She turned around, and the mail-man realised his blunder: "Sorry, Ma'am. Are you the new owner?"
    "Yes," she said. "I'm June Cullen, How do you do?"
    "Nice to meet you, Ms. Cullen. I have a letter for you and some for Charles ... what'll I do with them, now?"
    "I have the address of his lawyer if you want to take care of it. Or you can leave them in the big envelope on the dresser in the hall. Then I'll deliver them to him when I next go to town."
    "You'd better take them and better take a look at some of them. There's bills too, and maybe you should do something about them. I'll put them into the big envelope for you."
    "Thanks," June said, "I'm neither fit for company, nor letters today, I promise better next time."
    The mail-man looked at her and sent her a lopsided smile: "You could have done better. See you in a week's time."
    June finished her job by pouring a pail of water into the gutters. It cleaned away the last of the muck and drained nicely down the spout. Satisfied she climbed down.
    Entering the house, she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and had to laugh. The mail-man was right. She could surely have done better. Her face was striped and splotched with black muck from the gutters, same as her shirt and hands. The straw hat sat askew, and her trousers were wet and torn. She could do with a bath.
    "I did not even ask him his name," June thought to herself. "Next Wednesday I'll have a cup of coffee and a cake ready for him. I really was impolite today. I have much to learn."

... to be continued, maybe

Poetry Monday :: My Culture ~ Not my Poem

Poetry Monday is a blogging challenge started by Diane @ On the Border in February 2017; later it was picked up by Delores @ Mumblings and Jenny @ Procrastinating Donkey.
    Then Dolores took over the hosting duties; but when Dolores left the internet, Diane returned and took over hosting duty again with her and Jenny taking turns suggesting a topic.
    Now Mimi @ Messymimi's Meanderings and I have taken over, as Diane seems disinclined to take up Poetry Monday again.

The prompts are now taken from 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group. This is a Facebook group with a (drawing) prompt for each day of the year, but no worries, the prompts will still be here and at Mimi's blog. And they mostly lend themselves perfectly for poeming as well. 

  I have something to ask of you: If you read this and the poetry of others via the links, would you please leave a comment.
  Half - if not more - the fun of these challenges is receiving the responses of others.

Today the prompt is  My Culture which by I do not know which strange byways made me think of My Conviction from Hair. This is at least a big part of my cultural background. Even if the lyrics were hard to understand, the messages in this musical crept under our skin.
As we're allowed to post other people'e poetry as well here we go - I do excuse for the earworm

I would just like to say that it is my conviction
That longer hair and other flamboyant affectations
Of appearance are nothing more
Than the male's emergence from his drab camoflage
Into the gaudy plumage
Which is the birthright of his sex

There is a peculiar notion that elegant plumage
And fine feathers are not proper for the man
When ac---tually
That is the way things are
In most species

I still can add and imbed YouTube videos, I hope this plays.

Sunday Selection :: Colour26 Taknemmelig ~ Thankful

Her er månedens farve. Det er ikke en farve, jeg holder af, og derfor der der ikke mange ting omkring mig, der har den farve. Jeg var barn og ung i 1970erne, hvor alt jo skulle være orange eller brunt. Jeg afskyede de farver dengang, med tiden er jeg blevet mere tolerant, men det bliver aldrig en farve, jeg vælger frivilligt.
    Jeg har dog én elsket ting, der har netop denne farve. Det er praktisk, for så er den nemmere at finde, når jeg forlægger den, hvilket sker hyppigt.

 -- 🔸🔶🔸 --

That's the colour of the Month. It is so not my colour. I was a child in the 1970es, where everything was either orange or brown. I detested orange back then. Since then I've become a bit more tolerant. But it's still very far from a colour I ever would buy.

I have however one beloved item in this exact colour. It's practical and it makes it far easier to me to find this item when I misplace it. A frequently happening thing.

Den der hobbykniv. Jeg har haft den i mindst 30 år. Af og til har den været væk i lange perioder, men jeg har altid fundet den igen. Den er meget solid og god. Jeg tror, den holder mit liv ud hvis jeg ikke får smidt den helt væk.

 -- 🔸🔶🔸 --

This here utility knife. I've had for around 30 years. Now and then I've misplaced it. Often for long periods, but it has always returned. It's handy and durable. I think it'll last as long as I do - if I don't seriously misplace it.

 -- 🔸🔶🔸 --

Og så er jeg mega-taknemmelig. Skribenten blev væltet af et æsel, da han var på vej hjem på cykel. Han slap med en brækket arm!

 -- 🔸🔶🔸 --

And a HUGE thankful. Hubby was run down by a donkey while biking home today. Luckily he only broke an arm.

Fredagsfrustration :: Digital tvang og fusk Friday Frustration :: Digitalization and Cheating

Her i Uglebo, Helsinge og omegn udkommer der en lokalavis, Ugeposten. Der har været et evigt bøvl med den. På skift fik vi enten ingen avis eller to eksemplarer. Eller en avis og alle reklamer, selvom vi har været tilmeldt Nej Tak siden det blev indført.  Efter at jeg opgav at brokke mig sidste efterår har vi ikke fået avisen. Så pludselig har vi fået den igen de sidste fire-fem uger, hver uge, til tiden og endog uden reklamer. Jeg undrede mig. Og der var da også en skummel bagtanke, for i sidste uge fik vi denne henvendelse sammen med avisen.

--  @ --

Here in the Owlery and the surrounding area, we have a local newspaper called Ugeposten. I've had an epic fight with them these last couple of year. We’d either get no paper at all or two copies for a couple of weeks. Then we had one paper, but also all the ads for local shops and so on - a thing you can opt out from, which we did and a sticker on our mailbox clearly states this. Then we had the paper for a couple of weeks, then no more and then I gave up complaining.
    After I gave up complaining last autumn, we haven’t received it at all. Then suddenly it was in the mailbox, regularly, on time, and even without any ads. I was puzzled. And there was indeed a hidden agenda, because last week we received this letter along with the paper.

If you want the local paper from now on, you'll have to opt in for ads.
At least five a week.

Prøv lige at se bare lidt grundigere på valgmulighederne:

• Hvis man ikke gør noget, bliver man tilmeldt alle reklamer osv.
• Hvis man vil modtage udvalgte reklamer, er der en QR kode og en netadresse, man kan bruge.
  
• Hvis man vil melde fra, er der kun en QR kode
  

... det er dæleme smart. Alle dem, der ikke har en SmartPhone, eller bare ikke kan finde ud af at scanne en QR-kode, bliver nu automatisk tilmeldt alle reklamer.

--  @ --

Let's take a closer look at the options we're given:
    If you do nothing, you’ll be signed up for all ads, papers and what else.
    If you want to receive five selected adverts and the newspaper, there’s a QR code and a web address you can use.
    If you want to opt out, there’s only a QR code

... that’s bloody clever. Anyone who doesn’t own a smartphone, or can’t find out how to scan a QR code, will now automatically be signed up for the whole caboodle.

 --  📰  --

Jeg skrev til den e-posadresse, der er angivet nederst i henvendelsen - lokalavisplus@afk.dk - og fik besked fra Mailsystemet: Mailadressen blev ikke fundet.

Her går det godt. Jeg må finde ud af, hvordan man så afmelder sig. Der er reklamer nok i den lokalavis. Vi behøver ikke flere, og lever også fint uden avisen, som vi som sagt heller ikke har fået i lange perioder det seneste år ... den kan også hentes gratis mange steder i omegnens supermarkeder.

 --  📰  --

I wrote to the email address given at the bottom of the notice – lokalavisplus@afk.dk – and received a message from the email system: ‘Email address not found’.

Things are really fine ... or maybe not
    I’ll have to find out how to unsubscribe. There’s enough advertising in that local paper as it is. We don’t need any more, and we’re getting by just fine without the paper, which, as I said, we haven’t received for long periods up until now, and I can pick it up in many of the local supermarkets when I go shopping anyway.

 --  📰  --

En e-mail korrespondance med en åleglat fyr fra Lokalavisplus gav mig den ønskede netadresse:
Nej tak til det hele
Mit spørgsmål om hvorfor det ikke stod i brevet, fik jeg aldrig svar på.

--  @ --

An email exchange with a slick guy from Lokalavísplus gave me the web address I wanted:
No thanks to all of it
I never received a reply to my question as to why this wasn’t mentioned in the letter in the first place.

 --  📰  --

Så var jeg nysgerrig nok til at gå ind og se på det sted, hvor man kunne tilmelde sig fem reklamer for at få Ugeposten fremover (mit postnummer er 3200). Det er rigtig smart sat op. Se bare her. Først er der alle de mestendels lokale supermarkeder. Let og overskueligt. Og man skal naturligvis klikke på alle dem, man ikke vil have for at fravælge dem.

--  @ --

Curious me looked at the "choose five ads" site as well. It's very cleverly made. If you want to try, my Zip-code is 3200. First there's the mostly local supermarkets, nice and easy. Note that you have to deselect the not wanted ones.

Nedenunder endnu en grå boks kommer så alle de andre dryssende, det er ikke særligt overskueligt, og heller ikke særligt lokalt.

--  @ --

Under this grey box all the other shops are spread out, not very clear, and not very local either.

Fremover skal avisbudet så huske at springe min postkasse over. Nu får vi se hvordan det går.

--  @ --

From now on they'll have to pass my letterbox without putting anything into it. I wonder what will happen.

Så er det nok! ~ Enough is Enough!

Efter en meget tør sommer har vi nu fået nok. Vi har haft "næsten-skybrud" et par gange, altså 14 mm på en halv time. Markerne er fulde af regn, naboens ridebane kan vist kun bruges af søheste, vasketøjet tørrer aldrig og vores frøsø løber over. 
     Jeg tror det er tid at bringe mit "Så har vi altså fået nok regn"-digt. Det er desværre kun på engelsk, og det har været bragt her på bloggen i let forskellige versioner 10. august 2020, 25. januar 2021, 29. august 2022 og 15. januar 2023. I dag er en god dag til at holde traditionen i hævd.

- 💧 ☔ 💧 -

After a very dry summer, we've now had enough rain!  We’ve had a couple of ‘near-cloudburst’ - that is, we've had 14 mm in half an hour where the official limit is 15 mm. The fields are saturated, the neighbour’s riding arena is only suitable for sea horses, the clothes on my clotheslines just never dries, and our small pond is overflowing.
    I think it's time for a re-post of my "Enough of this rain"-poem.
 I originally published this poem 13 August 2018. But I have published it almost every year since then - today is the right day to keep up this tradition:

Rain!
It was rainy all day. I could hear it all night, as I lay in my bed.
Now everything's dripping and drooping, and dreary and wet.
The brooks are all leaping, the rivers all run.
Every field had its water, every straw had its drink.
But there's apples still ripening and berries, I think.
So please, pretty please, can I have back the Sun!

(also published in slightly varying versions August 10 2020,
January 25 2021, August 29, 2022, and January 15, 2023)

But look at the Forecast. It's even (almost all) in English - more rain to come!
Sunday will be halfway decent, then the rains return.