Blogtober

I am the densest blogger alive, I think I never heard about Blogtober until today when Lucy @ Attic24 told about it on her new blog (force-moved, since Typepad closed down). And it's already too late, I "lost" as I did not blog yesterday at all. But I'll be trying. Bear with me, with stupid, inane and colourful blogposts during Blogtober.

-- 💧 --

Er jeg mon den langsomste blogger i denne verden. Det er noget, der hedder Blogtober - blog hver dag i hele oktober - og jeg har allerede "tabt" fordi jeg ikke bloggede i går. Men jeg prøver nu alligevel, så I kommer til at trækkes med tåbelige, intetsigende og farverige indfald her på bloggen den næste måneds tid.

-- -- 💧 --💧 -- --

Dagens tema: Vejr. Vi bringer en vejrmelding - Today's theme: Weather, here's the Weather forecast:

Ja, det er på norsk, jeg bruger yr.dk ~ It's in Norwegian, as I use yr.no for my daily weather forecast.

-- 💧 --

Udenfor ser det sådan her ud ~ Looking outside it looks like this:

Men pludselig begyndte Cirkelines Regnvejrssang at køre inde i mit hoved. Så måske burde jeg bare synge og gribe chancen til hyggelige indendørssysler.

-- 💧 --

But all of a sudden I heard this happy Rainy song inside my head. So maybe it's time to enjoy the wet and storm and have a cosy Saturday filled with autumny doings. A translation might follow, but it's something like Winnie the Poo singing about snow, just this elf and rain instead ;)

Words for Wednesday ~ on a Thursday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants. When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Sue of Elephant's Child took over the role of co-ordinator. Now, after Sue's demise it is still to be discerned who will take over this role, River is doing it for the rest of 2025, but maybe Lissa will eventually be our new coordinator.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are supplied by Sean Jeating and can be found at River's blog.

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

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

So 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.

We were given these words:
Hear
Modern
Influenza
Physical
Organs
Original
Pea
Human
Rather
Size

I'm not in a nice temper in these days. It's not only Elephant's Child that died recently, others did too, touching upon my circles. On top of that I have a game leg and a toothache - grumpy is a mild word for to describe how I feel. My outpourings may be touched, just a teeny tiny bit, by all this grumpiness. Read at your own risk. 

We hear about Covid now and then, the modern influenza that impinges on our physical wellbeing, attacks our organs and make us generally miserable for days, if not weeks on end.
I think we need to focus more on the digitally transmitted diseases, that make our brain shrink to the size of a pea, and even make us forget that others are as human as we are.
I'd rather we all had old-fashioned flu that modern brain rot.

Words for Wednesday October 1st (Updated with the Words) & IWSG

For a long, long time - ever since December 2017 - I have written these words, or words to that account, on my blog almost every Wednesday:

Word for Wednesday is a challenge that was started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable event with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words provided by a number of people.

But now no longer. Never again will she give us the prompts with a gentle reminder about remembering to have fun, correct my errors, praise my tales and ask for more.

Elephant's Child is the main reason I ever made it this far with my tales about Susan, and if I ever get to publish them, she'll be having a honourable mentioning in the book!

Today the Words, provided by Sean Jeatings, should have been on her blog. But they are not.

If they show up somewhere, a story might be written, but so far - emptiness.












Elephant's Child's death leaves a big, empty space in the Blogosphere and in our lives.

UPDATE

River has, since I wrote this post, published Sean Jeatings words on her blog. They are:
Hear
Modern
Influenza
Physical
Organs
Original
Pea
Human
Rather
Size
Let me see if any writing will happen

- - A - - B - - C - - 

October 1 question - What is the most favourite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

My answer - This is a question that for me is impossible to answer. I never published anything and what I like to read - written by others or by myself - depends on my mood. But right now, still discombobulated after Elephant's Child's demise, and some private matters (non-lethal, just a royal P.I.T.A) I'd go with the piece about the naming of the dragons.

Colour25 ~ October

For at finde en farve til oktober, gik jeg på jagt i mine arkiver, og hvad kan dog være mere passende og orange end et græskar?

---  📙  ---

For the Colour of October, I repeat myself from a 4 year old blogpost, what could be better and more orange than a pumpkin?

Elephant's Child

Today I was unable to think of much else. In the end I browsed through Elephant's Child's blog.

Then I decided to steal one photo from each February from her blog - with links - as I think she and her blog both had their birthdays in February - at least she began blogging in February 2011.

-- 🐘 --

From her very first blogpost, February 7, 2011. A reply.

Like the Elephant's Child I still suffer from insatiable curiosity.

In February 2012 she visited a Japanese garden in the vicinity with her Skinny Portion (husband) - even though she knew that the visit would make her suffer, she brought beauty to all of us:

2013, her Skinny Portion was hospitalized, and she pilfered Toxic waste bags for her used cat litter


February 2014. Once again Skinny Portion is having surgery, but they visit museums anyway, and inside the National Library to see 'Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia.' her first find was a fridge magnet.


February 2015 seemed a bitch, but as always she had an eye for the beauty around - and shared her fishies with us:


Somewhen in 2015 (probably October) Elephant's Child took over the Words for Wednesday, This was how I stumbled over her blog.

February 2016 EC was hosting Words for Wednesday and supplied this wonder from her garden and mind

In her contribution she tells of her dual mind:

My mind is both a treacherous and a dangerous place. Crowded, but ambivalent (on a rare good day) about the directions it will let me go.
There is beauty there. Lots of it. Kaleidoscopes of colour and whimsy. If that side was given its head I could live in a terrific, exquisite and exciting world. I could be bold, take chances, and life would be an adventure.
Then there is the other side. A side which focuses on detail, and denies colour. The zombie side. Meticulous. Boring. Grey. Grim. The nitpicking, pedantic side. The side which smears grease over new ideas, over vibrancy, over anything worth having...
That side is strong. That side is fiendish and very, very successful. If the lighter side gives tongue to ideas which hint at furry, purry joy, at sunshine, at rainbows or at hope they are immediately stifled. Smothered in routine, in habit and in fear. Suffocated.
We are told that our minds are adaptive, that they can learn and grow. I wish. I am angriest at the realisation that my mind is stagnant. There will be no evolution. Grey and gloomy triumphs. Again.

We were lucky to have Elelphant's Child around, and no blog recapitulation of hers would be even close to perfect without a 'roo fix.

And as Elephant's Child did not post in February 2017 at all, but needed a 'roo fix, it's what we'll get too


Once again Elephant's Child had one of her blog breaks due to the summer heat in February 2018, but she visited the colourful Enlighten festival and told about it in March as she returned

Where she also enjoyed these quirky squids.


In February 2019 she found and bought Rainbow chrysanthemums, wondering if the colours were natural, I do too

But these were real:


February 2020, wildfires were raging, but even in those Elephant's Child found beauty


Elephant's Child's birthday was in February as well (I now know it was January 18 - but often she seemed to celebrate later on). In 2021 she celebrated by going to her 'roo fix lake and saw this funny pair. I loved that she showed photos of the - for me - exotic anmals in her surroundings, and once I posted a fox, she told me that it was an exotic animal for her. She showed me how big the world is.


In February 2022 during a visit to the National Museum of Australia and Elephant's Child celebrated her love for the  native fauna.


February 2023 Elephant's Child's One night wonder was flowering, and I was humbled and happy that she joined the Colour a monthly challenge, I had adapted after another blogger discontinued it.


In 2024 Elephant's Child took an extended summer break in February, but returned in March to show us the Balloon Spectacular  


In 2025 again Elephant's Child had a summer blog break in February, but in January she showed us this wonderful mural:

All Australian, all her.

-- 🐘 --

Now I miss two items, that can't be had in Australia in February. Frozen bubbles:


and the Walk Out of the Shadows, Into the Light

This is from her very last walk, September 10, 2025. She knew the end was near, and tried to tell us, but we would not listen, and she offered comfort and support.

Charlotte (MotherOwl) 11 September 2025 at 07:03

Heavy matter made even heavier by your words: "This may be my last year so of course I went." ... Words elude me ...

Elephant's Child 11 September 2025 at 08:24

Charlotte (MotherOwl): I am sorry to add to your emotional burden - and do hope that I can do this walk again next year... and the year after.

Never more will we be asked to Come walk with me, around the garden, into the dawn, or anywhere else.

Elephant's Child, I hope you are now in a place where beauty, flowers, wildlife and frozen bubbles abound.

From her last Sunday Selelction - with the impressing number of 833.