søndag den 31. juli 2022

Sunday Selection -- Zoo Edition

Once again - almost two years to the date - we were back at the Zoo.
We saw many of the same animals and some new ones. The tropical places, housing bats, spiders  giant butterflies and tiny birds were finally opened for the public once again.
The baby elephants had grown, but were still visibly smaller than their parents.

Not many more words, just photos - warning, snakes, spiders, bats and bugs will be in the pictures.




Sculpture ...

... and live model.

Can you see it?

Here is a wooden replica - a Red panda.


No, there's not 2 of them. One is a moult.



Can you see the animals?

Here's one more.


Not underwater, only semi-dark.


Almost all transparent!



A play-statue, there were more wooden animals of different kinds in the Zoo.

It was dark in here!


An old enclosure, now a playground. Be brave, CLIMB UP! is writen in the wall. The sand-coloured ground is a giant safe fall mat.

Young, new, very active, bull Rhino.
He was put in his own enclosure every day at noon, to give the rhino cows some time off.


onsdag den 27. juli 2022

Words for Wednesday -- July 27

The words appeared  on  Elephant's  Child's blog, yesterday. They are given by Hilary Melton-Butcher - as every Wednesday in July.

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.
  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.


 - - - - -

I am - once again -  continuing the story of the mysterious examination in transformation and using the words in the order they were given. 
I'm still not satisfied with the story or my writing skills. But I want to tell this story! Bits and pieces are missing. This whole chapter is in for a solid re-write before making it into the book. But I still want to tell it, so here we go. But first, the Words:


Jubilant
Ginger
Shimmering
Beachcombing
Smudge
Rosetta Stone

    And/or
Charcoal
Wool
Toga
Abyss
Coffee
Leaves



"It fits!" Knud was jubilant. His transformed puzzle piece featuring Ayer's Rock fit perfectly into the surrounding pieces.
"Well done!"Jon said. All the other apprentices were already done with their test and were now crowding into the green room, cheering on the green team in their ordeal. Susan could see My's ginger locks above the rows behind, she mus be using the floating spell to see anything a all.
Rósa had picked up the boomerang and it's edges caught the sun. "I'm next," she said, "but I need to shrink, and then transform this to make it fit - even more so than Knud."
"Come on, you can do it!" they cheered her on,and Rósa closed her eyes in concentration, opened them again, looked at the boomerang, swung her wand and murmured: "Minnka þu!"  The boomerang  shrank somewhat, but it was still too big to comfortably fit in.
"Once again, Rósa!" Veronika said, "and Kalle and Anna, pull back a little, you're crowding her." Anna and Kalle obeyed and Rósa, now given space to swing her wand freely, shrunk the boomerang. "Phew," she said. "And now for the transforming part. Let me see, blanks on top, and to the left, and tabs bottom and right to fit the hole there. Sandy background, as we're in a desert: "Boomerang, vertu að bita púsluspils!" The boomerang shifted, shimmered and finally turned into a jigsaw piece.
"Yes!" Kalle cheered. "You did it!"
Rósa sank to the nearest chair, spent, and greedily gulped the water someone handed her.

"Now you," Hilde said and pointed at Susan. "your platypus should fit in there, next to those beachcombing aboriginals. You can see its nest."
"Yes, Hilde," Susan said with a sigh. "We agreed that this is where it would fit. But I still think that  changing the stamp from my letter would be easier. It's roughly the right size, and admitted, I'd be sad to transform that small figurine."
"Have you forgotten that they will eventually change back, maybe?" Hilde asked, the triumph clear from stance and voice.
"Yes I forgot," Susan said. "But still the stamp would be the easier way." Susan continued, now a bit stubborn.
"It would," Jon said, "but the easiest solution is not always the best."
Confronted with these words from Jon, Susan had no choice left. She looked at the hole, and looked once again. "Oh," she said, "but there's two empty spaces next to one another down there. Not only one. I'll need to transform both."
She then took the small, beautifully carved wooden platypus in her hand, swung the wand just so and imagining a piece fitting half the hole and blending into the surrounding pieces, and said the words. She felt more than saw the figurine transform and placed it into the left part of the hole. The she freed the stamp from the envelope, leaving behind a smudge of glue. I was easier this time. Susan was happy over all the hours spent together with Heidi and the twins practising transformation, they paid off now. The incident with the clothes peg and the swallow had been a key experience for her, what Gilvi called her Rosetta moment.

In rapid succession Hilde, then Kirstin, Josta, Kalle and Anna did their transformations, pieces with charcoal shadows, emerald green grasses and woollen sheep filled the holes in the puzzle. Marja had some trouble transforming the flowers into a piece, she had to be told that 'a toga' was a Roman dress and  'taiga' the Russian word for steppes before finally hitting the right wording for her spell.
"You need to be more attentive in the Icelandic lessons," Jon admonished her. "I know it's harder for you, coming from Finland, as Icelandic and Finnish are two different language families. But don't make a hole into an abyss. You can learn!"
"I will," Marja said. "But, oh, how I wish I could do my magic in Finnish as Tähti and Taavi do."

"I can smell the coffee," Hilde said. "Lunch will be soon."
"You'll make it," Jon said, "only missing two pieces now, and you have ten minutes to go!"
Veronika picked up the leaves, and cheered on by the atmosphere in the room she transformed them into a piece to fill in the next to last hole in the puzzle.
"Terje, you did the whole puzzle," Jon said. "It's an honour to fill the last hole.
His confidence bolstered by Jon's kind words made Terje smile broadly while picking up the tiny white leaves. Slowly and distinctly he spoke the words enlarging them, and just as painstakingly slow he said the words and waved his wand to make them into a puzzle piece.Nobody drew a breath, nobody said a word as Terje's big hand placed the piece in the very last hole.
Then a lot of things happened at once.The puzzle glowed, shifted and turned into a big, big map of Australia with a zillion teeny tiny details. Everybody let out their breath in jubilant sounds or cheers, only a single cat-call was heard, but stopped before anyone discovered the source. The big bell in the belfry stroke one. The time was up.
"We made it!"  Susan said loudly.

Rabbit Holes

Wednesdays Words led me down a rabbit hole searching for puzzles. why should become obvious when I'm through writing. Meanwhile I'd like to share this puzzle found while searching.
Each day is now a challenge:

LINK

mandag den 25. juli 2022

Poetry Monday :: Old Joke :: WordLit

  Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who supplies us with many of the topics - are also writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read them!
  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month!
  SpikesBestMate often publishes a nice verse in the comments.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey who has been a faithful participant, is slowly returning to blogging after her husband's passing from this world. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers her way, now that her mum's health is in need of a prayer too. But still we dare hope that she will join Poetry Monday again.


-- 🟨 -- 🟩 -- ⬛ --

I am still bitten by the WordLit bug.

If you missed my post on WordLit here's  a copy/paste:
As usual I have the idea from somewhere else. Anne E.G. Nydam of Black and White has, like me and many, many other, played Wordle for some time. Now she got the idea of making the Wordle into a free-form poem, or maybe a short-short story. You can go to her blog and be inspired too.

How to play - it's  something like MasterMind, only with words:
- A grey letter is not in the solution at all
- A yellow letter is a correct letter in a wrong place
- A green letter is a correct letter in the correct place
- A letter can be used more than once.

Old Joke - this is not a joke, but a story old as time itself. Posted late so as not to be a spoilsport, as the solution is today's Wordle solution.


 - - - - -

Next Monday: Girlfriends

søndag den 24. juli 2022

Sunday Selection :: Wannabe Waterlilies and Yellow!

 Yesterday I tested the  bike path stump nearest to us. In all of its 1 ½ km long stretch.
Near the end the overflow basins between road and bike path were filled with water and a flower there caught my eyes.
  No it's not Waterlilies.


It is Water Knotweed (Persicaria amphibia) rejoicing that they finally had some water to grow in.
 

And a still-life from the garden. Falling flowers from Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) caught in a cobweb.


  Today would not be perfect without a screenshot of this man:
  Or better these men.You see Jonas Vingegaard in the yellow jersey about to cross the finishing line yesterday. And waiting for him, right, Wout van Aert.
  In a very short time, 20 minutes or so, you'll find me glued to my monitor following their journey to Paris.
  I will thoroughly enjoy it, although I sorely miss Mark Cavendish, he had deserved to win one more stage in Le Tour!

torsdag den 21. juli 2022

Words for Wednesday -- The Words

The words appeeared  on  Elephant's  Child's blog, yesterday. They are given by Hilary Melton-Butcher - as every Wednesday in July.

While I'm thinking, I want to repeat the "rules" and the words for all o hsee here as well.

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.
  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

Thread
Firebird
Insane
Wallpaper
Wilderness
Atlantic

    And/or
Earthy
Sonorous
Corn
Paste
Twig
Madeira




mandag den 18. juli 2022

Poetry Monday :: Ice Cream :: Corrected

  Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who supplies us with many of the topics - are also writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read them!
  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month!
  SpikesBestMate often publishes a nice verse in the comments.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey who has been a faithful participant, is slowly returning to blogging after her husband's passing from this world. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers her way, now that her mum's health is in need of a prayer too. But still we dare hope that she will join Poetry Monday again.


-- 🟨 -- 🟩 -- ⬛ --

I am still bitten by the WordLit bug.

If you missed my post on WordLit I copy/paste:
As usual I have the idea from somewhere else. Anne E.G. Nydam of Black and White has, like me and many, many other, played Wordle for some time. Now she got the idea of making the Wordle into a free-form poem, or maybe a short-short story. You can go to her blog and be inspired too.

How to play - it's  something like MasterMind, only with words:
- A grey letter is not in the solution at all
- A yellow letter is a correct letter in a wrong place
- A green letter is a correct letter in the correct place
- A letter can be used more than once.

Ice Cream WordLit - A Wordle wannabe made in a DTP program: Thanks to River now without errors.



 - - - - -

Next Monday: Old Jokes

torsdag den 14. juli 2022

Wordle Free Form Poems -- Wordlit -- Updated!

As usual I have the idea from somewhere else. Anne E.G. Nydam of Black and White has, like me and many, many other, played Wordle for some time. Now she got the idea of making the Wordle into a free-form poem, or maybe a short-short story. You can go to her blog and be inspired too. I did, and then made this mock-up.

How to play - it's  something like MasterMind, only with words. I can't explain it better than Worlde does:
And one rule, they do not tell here: A letter CAN be used more than once!


And this one is cheating - made in a DTP program:

  If you knew the Wordle solution beforehand, you could make those poems for real, but this would of course defeat the purpose of Wordle. 
  Anne E.G. Nydam calls these shorties Wordlits - a portmanteaux of Wordle and literature.

  And I found a new way of doing exactly this. Open Wordle in another browser.
  I could not make a poem, Shortie or Wordlit out of today's solution, so I made a riddle.

Guess a song:
My solution will be in the comments tomorrow as I post this one minute to midnight, which is also one minute before the new Wordle will go live according to the countdown on the page.


You can also click "Share" once you've solved today's Wordle and get a pattern with the letters removed to share on social media. My Wordle today looks like this:

It is Wordle number 391 ever and I solved it in 5 out of 6 tries. The two yellow and the one green square shows the letters I've found. 3 different, yet the solution was 98% guesswork 1% luck and 1% inspiration. I don't know if today's solution will lend itself to a Wordlit.

Words for Wednesday -- July 13 -- Shortie -- Updated

 I already posted this on Elephant's  Child's blog, where the prompts - given by Hilary Melton-Butcher - will be posted every Wednesday in July.

 Synthetic
Aquamarine
Clock
Ring
Curious
Structure
     And/or
Nuance
Blessed
Abalone
Blanket
Puff-pastry
Sea Silk

Some of the prticipants in WfW has taken upon them to write Shorties. Using all the given words with as few added words as possible to tell a story. This inspired me this time around. It's not as well done as many of those on ECs blog. But as usual I also used the words in the order they were given.

"We make synthetic aquamarines almost around the clock, and yet  this ring has a curious structure. How come?" the boss asked Elena in a voice the nuance of which let not a bit of her temper hidden.
"We  were blessed with some abalone shells, the real McCoy," Helena answered frankly. She wrapped the blanket even closer around her slender frame, eating yet another or the delicious puff-pastries. She was looking forward to telling her chef about the sea silk.

mandag den 11. juli 2022

Poetry Monday :: Loneliness

Today is Poetry Monday.  Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who supplies us with many of the topics - are also writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read them!
  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month!
  SpikesBestMate often publishes a nice verse in the comments.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey who has been a faithful participant, is slowly returning to blogging after her husband's passing from this world. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers her way, now that her mum's health is in need of a prayer too. But still we dare hope that she will join Poetry Monday again.

  Today is Monday. The weather here was fine, not too windy, not to cold, so I have been weeding in the garden all day. We have lots and lots of weeds, bindweed, stinging nettles, thistles, ground elder - pretty flowers, but too good at growing - and many many more. The chicken are happily munching, and
I am scratched, burnt, stung, torn, sweaty, hungry and dirty. Most of this will pass fast enough with dinner and a soak, the stinging sensations in my fingers will persist for some days ... we had MANY Nettles!
  I'm not really in the mood for poeming, and today's  topic: loneliness is sometimes a coveted state for me .. mom of 6, happily married, living in a small town and so on. I think I'll just repeat my poem from last year.
  I'll be back reading your poems after making     jams and jellies from  all the picked berries. It might not happen today.


When you're lonely you can go to the loo.
No discussions of texture and hue
of your favourite chair

When you're lonely you don't have to look
for your glasses, your pen and your book
they're right there.

When you're lonely, you decide what to cook,
Where to sit, where to go, where to look.
How to share.

When you're lonely in short, you're the boss.
You decide on which rivers to cross
to get where.

 - - - - -

Next Monday: Ice Cream

søndag den 10. juli 2022

Sunday Selections - Summer Holidays

This Sunday I will as usual look back on the past week.

We visited Hundested with the sand sculptures, a recurring event. This year the theme is Time Travels. The sculptures are as usual fabulous, but I had a hard time seeing how some of them fit in with the theme.

Giant hens greeting their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent



This guy is a survivor. He has been there from the start, I think.

This one too is old.

I like the painting skills  here - only the sign is real.

Then some soaping happened. I had a botched batch of Woodruff soap ready for a re-batching
Bees' wax

Sweet  woodruff tea

NaOH

Fats, oils, bees' wax and honey, melting

The botched batch, grated.

And the new soap in the moulds

Now for a visit to my wild garden. It's always harbouring some  surprises
The flax is coming along nicely, standing their ground from the weeds surrounding it, and even about to flower.

Eggs in a pattern.
Elderberry flowers
Blueberries, as yet unripe
Duckweed
Unripe walnuts




My patch of Stinging nettles for fibre.

And that's all for today