Sunday Selection ~ Sændagsbilleder & Crazy Wordle

Today I took all the 5-letter words in Words for Wednesday and entered them in today's Wordle:
Ferry, First, Avoid, and Paste.
Not necessarily in that order.
It looked like this.

Wordle 1.478 5/6
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Again the solution is a word, I did not know, but could guess at. The solution with letters are down below.
Wordle tells me that Today’s average difficulty is 5.3 guesses out of 6, or very challenging. typing in random words for the first four and then combining seems to be just as great a solving strategy.

--  A  --  B  --  C  --

Billeder fra den forgangne uge:
Now some photos from this past week:

While hunting for wild strawberries I found this guest ~ Fine gæster. Jeg ledte egentlig efter skovjordbær

Cikorieblomster - jeg elsker blå!  ~  Chicory - I love blue!

Klinte, et bibelsk ukrudt, men smukt ~ Corncockle, a pretty. biblical weed.

Redcurrants after the doves and blackbirds took their share
~
Vores ribs efter at duer og solsorte havde været der.

Brunelle, den er ikke ret stor, men fin ~ Prunella, small but pretty

Skovjordbær ~ Wild strawberries

En aggressiv blishøne - den tror den er meget farlig ~ An aggressive coot, it thinks that it's very scary

Vores udhus bliver bygget ~ the start of our shed, a black box

Og endelig et ikke-mislykket billede af de to svaner ~ And finally not a photo fail of the two swans

And the Wordle


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* * *

* *

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Trying to use the Words for Wednesday ~ Part 2

Ferry
Determined
Box
Convey
Paste
First
    And/or
Family
Astonish
Obtain
Avoid
Magnificent

Even if those are my own words, I do not feel inspired by them.
I had some small, crazy stories from the last week or so to tell, and I did fit some of the words in.

But ater my crazy stories, I was still missing Ferry, Paste and Obtain.

The bike ride to and fro town did not give me any new ideas how to use these three words, but reminded me of a crazy bike ride some years ago.

The Dangers of the Woods
It was a Friday in December, or maybe January some years ago. I had an appointment in the bigger city about 20 km from home. I biked to the station in my normal small town, took my bike with me in the train and once arrived biked to my appointment.
  Everything went fine, but I had forgotten two things. My bike lamp, and the short winter days. Coming out from the appointment, dusk was already settling. Now what? I walked to the station, walking by bike, pondering my possibilities. I could leave my bike on my station, not a good idea on a Friday night, it would almost certainly be stolen or broken during the night. I could take the bike with me home by bus, then an expensive and burdensome endeavour, as buses were not easy to get into and some bus drivers said plain no to having a bike on board. Still pondering I passed the Danish equivalent of a Dollar store. I hurried in there and obtained a flash light, a very cheap, big one, using those big C-type batteries.
  All the way during the train ride back I debated with my inner self. Mildly put I did not look forward to the ride through the dark forest. I was afraid. On the other hand there was nothing to be afraid of. I knew from my many rides in new snow and daylight that almost nobody ever entered that wood. One person at each entry point, walking a dog, turning around not far in and leaving the way they had come was what I normally saw. And I had seen the very same thing biking through the woods on my way to the station.
  One look at the bus and its driver made up my mind for me. He was of the no-saying variety - and the bus an old model with three steps up in the middle. I mounted my bike and headed for the woods. The lamp was nothing special, actually quite bad, but I could find my way, and see that the morning's person walking the dog had been there again, one more set of paw-prints and footprints entered the wood and came put again. They had made it a bit farther in than in the morning.
   I had no problems following the paths, and even enjoyed the long descent to the small brook. I had just crossed the brook and begun the climb on thee other side, when I heard the most blood curling scream slightly in front of me and to the left. It sounded as if someone was being killed. I stopped, turned off the torch and froze. I thought to myself: "If there's a killer on the lose he did not hear me arriving over those screams. I am below him, no mater from where he'll arrive, I'll see him silhouetted against the sky before he can see me. I have a torch. I can blind him with it and get the hell out of here on my bike before he catches up with me. I can get out of the woods faster on my bike then he can run, and there's houses just outside at either end."
  I hefted the torch, it was heavy and could serve as a weapon if needs arose. I strained my eyes to penetrate the darkness. I listened. Everything was quiet. Then the scream returned. From the left, in front of me ... and from the highest of treetops.
   Rationality set in. Whatever was screaming was sitting high up in a treetop. It was in no way big and heavy enough to hurt me. Some bird, maybe. Maybe its prey screaming out its last in its claws. The biggest birds in these woods are buzzards - maybe a heron or a crane, but none of these are known to attack humans, and even then, if one attacked me, they would be able to peck and scratch me, but surely not harm me seriously - I was dressed in thick winter clothing, with a muffler round my neck. I also wore my biking helmet. I waited a bit longer. The scream, still murderous and very loud was heard again from the very same place. Now I was sure it was nothing dangerous. I lit the torch and biked home.
   I have heard this screaming several more times since then biking through the woods. Always in the same place, always in the tallest treetops.

--  A  --  B  --  C  --

And today's Wordle. I did not know the word, but had no problem figuring out what it was ;)
Wordle 1.477 4/6
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Today’s average difficulty is 5 guesses out of 6, or moderately challenging

Words for Wednesday ~Trying to use them

Ferry
Determined
Box
Convey
Paste
First
    And/or
Family
Astonish
Obtain
Avoid
Magnificent

Even if those are my own words, I do not feel inspired by them.
I have some small, crazy stories from the last week or so to tell, Maybe some of the words can fit into these.

Biking again
I am determined to get in better shape. Since having my gall bladder removed in January '24, all sorts of family related things happened, including, but not limited to the death of the Walrus (Granddad) and GrannyOwl (Grandma). The OwlBody was flabby and swollen, and running to the bus stop - 200 metres - left me panting for breath. My pants were too tight, bothering legs and tummy, my shoes and socks left deep marks when I took them off. Eww.
My weapon of choice is -- as long time readers might know -- my bike. Since May 30 I've been on my bike every day except three, spending hours biking around my little village, to and from shopping, and other appointments. And yesterday, for the first time my toes again felt like separate entities, I could hurry home - and avoid being drenched from the rain showers once again chasing my tail-feathers. This seems to be a recurring theme to my July biking.

A strange Dog
Some days ago, July 2, it was hot, 30 degrees.
Today it's half that and rain. Between these extremes we've had sunshine, clouds, showers and wind, always wind. The days since I began biking with winds in the daytime blowing less than 5m/s can be counted on one hand. This leads to me choosing my route after the direction of the wind to avoid headwinds going home - except for appointments where I cannot choose of course.
On that hot day, I was on my way to town with a strong wind against, I held my head a bit turned away from the wind, but not more so than I was still able to see the road. One of the dangers in the nearby woods are dogs. Dogs on long retractable leashes with deaf owners, or owners with earbuds.
That day, still on the tarmac road, I noticed a big, brown dog snuffing the leaves in the ditch. I could not see the owner, but the path through the woods was less than a fully unrolled leash away. I slowed down, ready to stop. As I came closer, I thought that it was a strange dog, and still no owner to be seen. Then with a start the "dog" leapt from the ditch where it had been drinking and into the woods, not a dog at all, but a doe, either a fallow deer, or more probable a roe deer. We have both in the woods, together with the magnificent red deer.

An Unexpected Thunderstorm
Before I left home, I had consulted the precipitation warning. No precipitation foreseen until thunder and violent showers in the evening. It was around eleven o'clock. But as I came out from the first supermarket, black clouds were gathering already filling up a bit of the sky. The forecast had told of no rain so I debated with myself if the clouds were just passing by. But when I came out from the second, of three, supermarkets almost the whole sky was covered in clouds. Astonished over the lack of precision in the forecast, I hurried into and out of the third place, and hurriedly biked home. All the while the thunder rolled and just a few minutes after I had arrived, and carried inside all the groceries - partly in paper bags, the rain came pouring down. Not for long, but I would have been drenched, and my groceries as well, had I been just a little slower.

Building
We had a big garage on our lot. It had been used by the previous owner for two lorries, but it was a rather useless building. It was big, like 56 square metres, unheated, draughty, with a roof made from coorugated  fibre cement sheets containing asbestos. After January 1st, 2025 it would become very expensive to get rid of this roof, so all of December we worked on and off on getting the sheets off and conveyed to the local recycling centre. Now local  builders are slowly building a smaller, more weather worthy construction. So far it looks more like a black box than a shed for bikes and things, but that'll change in weeks to come. 

Still missing Ferry, Paste and Obtain, but my bike is waiting to take me shopping before the rain gets any worse. I might find a story to suit, even if ferry is a far cry in our landlocked town. 

Happy 4th of July

Today is the 4th of July. Independence day. In 2022 this was a Monday, and for Poetry Monday that year I wrote the following. I think it could do with a repost.

I feel attached to this day in special ways. One paternal great aunt went to America, and often came visiting, so we celebrated July 4th. This day is also celebrated in Denmark in Rebild Bakker - the largest celebration of July 4th outside of America.

For me this day also commemorate the value of human rights.
  Even if I'm not American, these sentences from the  Declaration of Independence make me go misty-eyed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
  I'm appalled at how many are ready to only let some, select individuals have these Rights. They should be for everyone; refugees, sickly, unborn, disabled ... And I feel chafed and hurt by the discrepancy between picnics,  fireworks and buntings on on side, and digital dehumanizing, shootings, abortions, neglected sufferings of refugees and elderly ... on the other

---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥🟥 ---

---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻🟥◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 ---

I am going to publish my verse, for keeping silent is just cowardly.

The 4th of July is a day of fun
We picnic, we celebrate, drowse in the sun.
But we should be re-thinking it all
Our freedom for old ones, for young and for small
The freedom to live and to play
The freedom to eat every day.

The 4th of July is a day of rest,
a day of putting our beliefs to the test.
Do we believe in justice for all
For old ones, for young ones, for even the small?
In freedom to do and to don't
In liberty also to 'won't'.

The 4th of July is a day of joy
But so far not a day to be complacent or coy.
Do we really believe that ALL folks are free
And not only those created as we?
The freedom is not ours to give
The freedom to be and to live!

Uncle Sam tells Lady Peace: "It's all right. There's no fighting. The noise you hear is just my family celebrating!" (1902 Puck cartoon - source: Wikipedia)

WordPress ~ krigen fortsætterWordPress ~ the Cold War continues

Recently, like the last five days or so, when trying to ceomment on a WordPress blog, the system asks me to log in to my WP account.

I do not have a WP account, but I had - like 10 years ago or more - on the same e-mail address I'm still using. I deleted this account for two reasons.
1) I could not wrap my head around blogging in WP.
2) it tried to take over all my commenting.
It is such a long time ago that I communicated with a real, live human being to close my account down.

Since then I have had no big problems with WP-blogs. That is, until now.

WP-help is now an AI, requiring you to log in to your account - which I do not have - or to have a paid WP account, and I'm not going to pay in order to re-close an already closed account.

Ergo to all owners of WP blogs, you'll see me commenting with an alternative e-mail address. I'm not scamming, I've not been hacked. It's only WPs latest antics.

  --  ⛈  --  💣  --  🗡  --  🔥 --

I den seneste tid, de sidste fem dage eller deromkring, har jeg mødt et sært problem, når jeg forsøger at kommentere på en WordPress-blog. Systemet beder mig om at logge ind på min WP-konto.

Jeg har ikke en WP-konto, men jeg havde en for 10 år siden eller mere på den samme e-mailadresse, som jeg stadig bruger. Jeg slettede denne konto af to grunde.
1) Jeg kunne overhocedet ikke forstå, hvordan man blogger i WP.
2) Det forsøgte at overtage alle mine kommentarer.
Det er så længe siden, at jeg kommunikerede med et rigtigt, levende menneske for at lukke min konto.
 
Siden da har jeg ikke haft de store problemer med WP-blogs. Det vil sige, indtil nu.

WPs hjælpefunktion er nu en AI, der kræver, at man logger ind på sin konto - som jeg ikke har - eller har en betalt WP-konto, og jeg har ikke tænkt mig at betale for at lukke en allerede lukket konto igen.

Ergo til alle ejere af WP-blogs: I vil se mig kommentere med en alternativ e-mailadresse. Jeg er ikke ude på numre, jeg er ikke blevet hacket. Det skyldes bare WPs seneste sære påfund.