Words for Wednesday - April 13

As I told Wednesday, this months prompts are given by Messymimi at her Meanderings.
This week she told us: 

It's my month to provide the prompts for Words for Wednesday.  Since it becomes Wednesday in some parts of the world while it is still Tuesday here, i am providing the prompts today, so you can work on them and post them when it's Wednesday where you are.

This week the prompts are the following words

prize
conversation
smell
citizen
vegetable
fail

and/or the following phrases

mountain out of a molehill (to make a big deal out of nothing)
a cut below (something inferior to the surrounding others)
a cold fish (someone who lacks empathy or emotion)

Please use these as a springboard, not a chain, and if you write a story, leave a link in the comments today or tomorrow so we can all come visit.

I went back in time to the first summer at Unicorn  Farm, to the everyday teaching and getting to know the apprentices, which is necessary for the story. I did not use all the prompts, citizen just did not fit in. I  know what to use the last two for, but this will make the story tooo long. Maybe in the coming days.

***

The transformation prize was the talk of the day for the apprentices. Jon and Taavi had gathered them all in the yellow room under the roof. Then they had announced the transformation test - with a prize. The apprentices stood in small groups in the yard, trying to find out more about the test. Heidi was unperturbed. "I'm sure you're going to win," Susan said, "Or are we competing free for all, it seems a bit unfair. Some of the older Icelandic apprentices have been using their magic for so much longer than the rest of us. And the older ones like Tage and Lis, too, It's kind of unfair."
"Tage and Lis are actually only one year older than you," Heidi said, defending her elder siblings, "But Sif and Elvin, they're old."
"And Helge and Harald, the two Swedes!" Susan said.
"Yes, but they're not in the purple group either," Heidi said. "My worst competitor will be Ingrid, she's good and have lots of practise. She's more than half Saami, and almost as old as Sif and Elvin. Even if they're Icelandic both of them, they are not that good at transformation."

The smell of delicious food reached them and the lunch-bell rang. All apprentices streamed into the barn and waited for the professors to come along.
For some time only munching and soft whispers asking for this and that was heard. Magic was hungry work and the Nisser were great cooks all of them. But as appetites were stilled, the transformation test once again surfaced.
"Are vegetables still alive, when they're not growing any more?" Susan asked, looking at the left over lettuce leaf on her plate. "I mean could we be asked to transform a lettuce leaf like this one into say a match or a paper umbrella."
"I'm sure we could,"Lis answered, while Tage, still chewing, just nodded.
"I'm sure I'm going to fail the test," Susan said despondently.
"So am I" Veronika said. "It would be easier to find a paper umbrella than transforming one."
"Yes, and even easier to call a mouse or two to then eat that lettuce leaf for me," Susan added.
"You're making a mountain out of a molehill," Lis said. "the test is not a big issue, even if I would be happy to win, of course."
"What is the prize?" Fiona asked. "Does anybody know?"
Nobody did and Jon rose and clapped his hands.

J for Japansk

     Hver dag klokken 12 (undtagen søndag) kommer dagens A-Z indlæg hvis der altså kommer et.
     Temaet for i år er Drømme - dobbelthed, så lad os se, hvad der falder mig ind til det tema.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

  Every day at noon (except Sundays) a new A-Z post goes live - or no post today.
  The theme for this year, is Dream - Duality. let's see what crosses my mind on this theme.

J for Japansk /Japanese

    Langsomt er der opstået et nyt koncept. De dage, jeg ikke allerede har et ord, tager jeg en random ord-generator til hjælp. I dag fik jeg: Japansk.
    Jeg blev nemlig enig med mig selv om at fortsætte hvor jeg slap, så kan jeg altid springe nogle af de væmmelige bogstaver sidst i alfabetet over 😇

Ⓙ

  Slowly a new concept has emerged for the A-Z Challenge. For those days, where I do not already have a word, I consult a Random Word Generator. Today I had: Japanese.
  I did finally resolve to carry on where I left off. That way I might have to skip some of the problematic letters at the end of the alphabet 😇.

    Her står der Japansk på japansk  日本語  means Japanese in Japanese.

     Uglemor har studeret japansk i mange år. Det er næsten fem år siden, hun glad fortalte om at læse første side i en læsebog for 1. klasse.  Jeg er nået en lille smule videre i dag, men normal samtale eller bare en bog er stadig en utopi. Her, som på så mange andre områder er der brug for en indsats.

Ⓙ

MotherOwl has been studying Japanese for many years. Almost five years ago I jubilantly told of reading the very first page in a first form reader. I am a bit further along now, but general conversation or a normal book is still beyond my level.  I am a work in progress here as in so many other areas.

Words for Wednesday - The Words

This month Messymimi is providing the prompts on her Meanderings.
She tells us:

It's my month to provide the prompts for Words for Wednesday.  Since it becomes Wednesday in some parts of the world while it is still Tuesday here, i am providing the prompts today, so you can work on them and post them when it's Wednesday where you are.

This week the prompts are the following words

prize
conversation
smell
citizen
vegetable
fail

and/or the following phrases

mountain out of a molehill (to make a big deal out of nothing)
a cut below (something inferior to the surrounding others)
a cold fish (someone who lacks empathy or emotion)

Please use these as a springboard, not a chain, and if you write a story, leave a link in the comments today or tomorrow so we can all come visit.

I am not up to writing. Easter holidays have begun, and as always we're busy with family and church arrangements. Plus my neck. It's not hurting so much any more, but still making me dizzy.

My A-Z Challenge writing is also suffering ... How do you tackle this: continue where you let go - in my case with J - or the letter of the day?

Poetry Monday :: Pets & A- Z Challenge Letter I

If you want to read some better  poetry,  Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who also supplies us with topics - are writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read.

  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month - may  we hope for more!

  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 her mum needs a serious prayer too. But still we dare hope that she will join Poetry Monday again.

Today's topic is: Pets

First of all thanks for all your well-wishes last Monday. The neck is still hurting me, in spite of wishes and even a rhyme. I hope it will soon listen! The pain stems from an old accident involving me, a mini-trampoline and a stack of mattresses. Instead of turning a somersault and landing on my legs, as I had done hundreds of times before, I landed bang on my head. As a result one of the small bones in the neck is out of bias, and hurts me now and then. PE and a chiropractor helps, but right now it's just bad. Pain, tinnitus, dizzy spells ...  Urgh. End of misery and complains. Sorry.

A poem ... Pets and even A-Z Challenge commanding I as a letter. There's not many pets with I. And even not that many animals: Ibis, Iguana, Impala, Isopod, Inchworm ...  Inchworm! Gilvi, Susan's favourite teacher at the Unicorn Farm, had an Inchworm. Maybe it was not directly a pet, more like a magical tape measure, but it's the closest I come. I re-made the Inchworm poem. I'm sure you know it.

Inchworm, inchworm,
Measuring our magic wands
Come and tell me
Just how big they are.

But I'm equally sure Gilvi did not say his incantation in English when calling Lirfan, his inchworm. This chapter is not online, but  a part of my book editing process. You have met Lirfan shortly in an installment of the Broom Racing chapter, where it helps controlling the wands.
I'll give it a go in Icelandic, my magic language: 

Lirfan, Lirfan,
mæli töfrasprota okkur.
Komdu og segðu mér
hversu stór þau eru.

If anybody know Icelandic better than me (not hard, as I know hardly any) and read this and find errors (sure to be there). Do please tell me!

H for Historie

     Hver dag klokken 12 (undtagen søndag) kommer dagens A-Z indlæg hvis der altså kommer et.
     Temaet for i år er Drømme - dobbelthed, så lad os se, hvad der falder mig ind til det tema.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

  Every day at noon (except Sundays) a new A-Z post goes live - or no post today.
  The theme for this year, is Dream - Duality. let's see what crosses my mind on this theme.

H for Historie / History

    Langsomt er der opstået et nyt koncept. De dage, jeg ikke allerede har et ord, tager jeg en random ord-generator til hjælp. I dag fik jeg: Historie. På Wikipedia er der to krigsrelaterede noter i dag:
1865 - I den Amerikanske borgerkrig kapitulerer Sydstaternes general Lee til Nordstaternes general Ulysses S. Grant ved Appomattox i Virginia, og borgerkrigen finder omsider sin ende.
1940 - Kl. 04.20 om morgenen meddeler den tyske gesandt i København, Renthe-Fink, den danske udenrigsminister P. Munch at "tyske tropper netop nu overskrider grænsen". Danmark var blevet besat af Nazi-Tyskland. - Tyskland besætter Norge. Oslo, Bergen, Trondhjem, Kristiansand, Egersund og Narvik blev angrebet, og efter to måneders kamp var hele landet besat.

Hvis man kigger i den engelsksprogede udgave finder man en hel del flere krigsrelatedere årstal i dag: 
1784 - Paristraktaten, der blev ratificeret af USA's kongres den 14. januar 1784, ratificeres af kong George III i Storbritannien, hvilket afslutter den amerikanske revolutionskrig. Kopier af de ratificerede dokumenter udveksles den 12. maj 1784.
1917 - Første Verdenskrig: Slaget ved Arras: Slaget begynder med et canadisk korps, der udfører et massivt angreb på Vimy Ridge.
1918 - Første Verdenskrig: Slaget ved Lys: Det portugisiske ekspeditionskorps bliver knust af de tyske styrker under det, der kaldes forårsoffensiven i den belgiske region Flandern.
2003 - Irak-krigen: Baghdad falder til amerikanske styrker.

Hvor længe endnu før 2. verdenskrig relegeres til de samme støvede hylder som disse andre krige? Jeg havde håbet på at det var sket efter jubilæet for et par år siden. Der er ikke længere noget levende menneske, der har deltaget i den krig, og efterhånden er det også småt med folk, der virkelig kan huske den.

Ⓗ

Slowly a new concept has emerged for the A-Z Challenge. For those days, where I do not already have a word, I consult a Random Word Generator. Today I had: Historie - History. At the Danish  Wikipedia for today I find two war realted items:
1865 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
1940 – World War II: Operation Weserübung: Germany invades Denmark and Norway. (Much longer and high-strung in Danish).

At the English Wikipedia I find several more:

1784 – The Treaty of Paris, ratified by the United States Congress on January 14, 1784, is ratified by King George III of the Kingdom of Great Britain, ending the American Revolutionary War. Copies of the ratified documents are exchanged on May 12, 1784.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle begins with Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1918 – World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.
2003 – Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces.

I had hoped that the Danish high-strung interest in WWII had ended with the jubilee a few years ago. As all the people active in that war has now died, I would like it to be relegated to the same dusty shelves where all these other wars seem to be stored.