Words for Wednesday January 8 & IWSG

The Word for Wednesday challenge started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words are provided by a number of people.
The prompts for January are provided by Elephant's Child and can be found @ Elephant's Child.

The general idea of this challenge is to make us 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.

 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.

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This week's prompts are:
- the elephant in the room
- as busy as a bee
- as happy as a dog with two tails.
- chicken hearted
- a wolf in sheep's clothing
- cat got your tongue
- having a whale of a time
- ants in your pants

I'm in a poemy mood right now, probably set off by The Man in the Moon Stayed up too Late from Tolkien's birthday and the Lay of the Three Holy Kings from Poetry Monday. What ever the reason the sayings came together in a crazy rhyme inside my brain very early this morning when the roaring winds woke me up. I repeated the verses to imprint them in memory, but only the first stanza stayed with me till the alarm sounded. Maybe the rest will re-surface - or I'll invent some more - but until then, this crazy rhyme.

The elephant inside the room
is sweeping with my brand new broom.
The family, busy as a bee,
are all pretending not to see
the big and sturdy elephant
who - agile, yes and elegant -
hangs in a trapeze.

And a wolf in sheep's clothing
Is what it it loathing
The elephant tells me of when he was young
And I grow as silent as the cat got my tongue
He was having a whale of a time
in a circus he stole every dime
I get ants in my pants
When he eats all the plants
that are truly and honstly mine.

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The monthly Question from the Insecure Writers' Support Group was luckily only due today, January 8th, which is the second Monday of January. I am thankful as this have given me time to gather my flying feathers and thoughts.

January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

My answer - As a young child I was fascinated, awed and inspired by people doing "superhuman" things, ballet dancers, acrobats, inventors and mountaineers. The one I admired most was not one, but a pair.
In 2019, I wrote a verse about them, and since I'm in a poetic mood, I re-publish it here. The verse is not good, but it expresses what I want to say. Tuesday was library day in my childhood.

My childhood heroes lived inside a book
They were brave, they were fearless, they had what it took.
They climbed up a mountain so terribly tall
and then wrote a book on their brush with the wall.
I read of their merits, and all through the night
I dreamed of oxygen bottles, snow blindness, and fright.
My mother who came in to hear what I said
Heard me talking of 3000 feet and aid
She forbade me to read,
but I never agreed.
So I secretly read
of the dangers they met.
Every Tuesday I sought out a new book
About Hilary and Tenzing and the route that they took.


I have not read of them since, only from afar followed their decorations and deaths, so my opinion is still the same as that made by six-year old me: They were great!
And to forestall eventual comments on the disparity of those two: To my young eyes those two were best mates and inseparable co-heroes. I never got that one was supposed to be inferior. The unfamiliarity with either language made both names equally exotic to me ;) Norgay Tenzing was just as foreign and unusual to a 6 year old Dane as Edmund Hilary. People in my world had names like Hans Jensen, Kirsten Pedersen, Jens Westergaard, Peter Bang, Gerd Hansen,  Bente Nielsen, ... those names probably sound strange to you - just try guessing which are men and which are women.

Poetry Monday :: Epiphany or Seed :: Updated

Today is Epiphany. Time to undress the Christmas tree and put it outside - poor thing; we have sleet and 2 degrees above zero. It's time to take down the big window advent calendar. And while I do so, I'll be composing a poem for today, Poetry Monday ... at least I hope this will happen. Else you're in for a re-post from another year.

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I dag er det Hellig tre kongers dag. Tid til at afpynte juletræet og sætte det udenfor; stakkels træ, det er slud og to grader varmt og blæsende. Knapt nok vejr at jage et juletræ ud i. Det er tid til at tage den store adventskalender ned fra vinduet. Og mens jeg gør det, tænker jeg over dagens mandagsdigt. Ind til videre dette lille, kun let gnavne opstød:

Sluk det du tænder,
og tænd det du slukker.
Luk det du åbner,
og åbn det du lukker.
Læg tingene tilbage hvorfra de kom,
eller smid det ud hvis tingen den er tom.

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De hellig tre konger så hjertensglad er en herlig melodi, med sjove fødder og interessante rim. Jeg har prøvet at oversætte den til engelsk ... om det er lykkedes, ved jeg ikke, men originalen kan høres i en gammel indspilning nedenfor.

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In church yesterday we sang this tune - I don't really want to call it a hymn, because the melody is a lilting dance. I tried translating/recreating it so that it can be sung to the tune and mostly rhymes and have equivalent meaning. I hope I just somewhat succeeded. Link to an old rendering of the tune below.

De hellig tre konger så hjertensglad fra hjemmet de droge til Betlehems stad, de toge sig for den rejse så lang at finde Jesus i krybben trang.	The holy three kings so happy at heart from home a journey so long did they start. They travelled to Betlehem far away to find a babe, in a manger he lay.
En stjerne dem viste til Jødeland og hen til den himmelske frelsermand, og barnet de fandt så dejlig og skær hos okse og asen i stalden der.	A star shone over their journey each day led them to the saviour-king in the hay And a child they did find, lovely and fair With oxes and ass in the stable there
Og ned så faldt de på deres knæ, da barnet derinde de fik at se, og røgelse, myrra og røden guld de ofred den Herre så frydefuld.	And down they finally fell to their knees, as they saw the heavenly child, King of Peace, And frankincense, myrrh and precious gold they gave to the child as was former foretold.
Så droge de hjemad til deres land og prisede Gud, deres skabermand. Lad os og falde den drot til fod, ham ofre et angerfuldt hjerte og mod!	And then they went homewards each to his realm and praised their Creator with glee overwhelmed. Let us also fall to our knees before Him And give him our heart filled with thanks to the brim!
Han er den Jakobs-stjerne klar, en kvist af Israel åbenbar, en kilde, der springer af nåde stor, en Herre over alt englekor.	He is the star of Jacob we know, a sprout of Israel that we see grow, a fountain that springs with graces for all, a Lord of angelic choirs - born in a stall.
Thi bør os stedse at være glad med frydesang udi allen stad, indtil vi hos ham, vor glæde kom fra, kan synge det evige halleluja!	For this we ought to be glad and rejoice with blissful singing and joyous noise, until we in Him - the source of our joy - eternally sing our hallelujah!
Tekst: Peder Nielsen Kjøge 1693. Melodi: Østrigsk julevise	Lilting translation by MotherOwl, Christmas 2024. Music: Christmas song from Austria

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Up and coming:
January 6: Seed / Epiphany (today)
January 13: Fiction  
January 20: Sheep
January 27: Silver

Sunday Selections & Colour25

Today, for the first time, I get to use the optimistic colour for January.
It was surprisingly hard to find anything at all in this colourway. 
I did my best.

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I dag kan jeg for første gang bruge januars optimistiske farve.
Det var overraskende svært at finde noget med den farve. Jeg forsøgte virkelig.

Ornament fra vores vindues-adventskalender. Den er altid i posen til Luciadag. Den gule farve symboliserer lyset.

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An ornament from our window-advent-calendar. It belongs to Saint Lucy's day as every year. The yellow is supposed to symbolise the light

Mit thekrus og næbbet på thehætteuglen er også cirka den gule. Ja, vi skal have en ny thehætte, men symaskinen skal lige repareres først.

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My mug and the beak on the tea cosy owl do also spout approximately this yellow.Yes, we need a new tea cosy - but the sewing machine needs repairs first.

En julekugle. Jeg elsker bling og glitter, så denne er en af omkring 20, der kom med hjem for en tre-fire  år siden. Godkendt af Storesøster.

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I love glitter and colours, this bauble is one of approximately 20, I brought home 3 or 4 years ago. Approved by BigSis.

The Second Oopsie-Moment of the Day

And one more Oopsie, MotherOwl. Among your Keepers You had:

Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.

and yesterday, Friday, January third, was the 133rd birthday of one of my favourite writers: J.R.R. Tolkien! MotherOwl! You had ONE JOB!

I am as I may have told, still trying t improve my drawing skills by drawing the prompts from the Facebook-based group 365 Days of Drawing Prompts. The prompts for Thursday and Friday were Best Memory and Creativity. I let out the "Best" part and combined them to show some good blogging / creativity memories, that I miss: The TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) challenge hosted by Daffycat every New moon (More explanation here). But since May 2021 no more TUSAL posts were posted on her blog, everything went over to Facebook. And as I am not a big fan of things happening on Facebook, sadly and reluctantly I stopped my participation in this fun Stitch-A-Long. I still miss this challenge - and many more of the same sort from when the blogosphere was more of a a place for lighthearted stuff and fun challenges than it is today.

Yesterday I drew a New moon with a ball of yarn hanging from its upper horn, and an ORTs jar half hidden behind the lower ... Well, why not just show you?

And all this a very long detour to tell why I choose The Man in the Moon Stayed up too Late for this year's belated celebration of Tolkien's birthday.


The Man in the Moon Stayed up too Late
There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
and there they brew a beer so brown
that the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
now squeaking high, now purring low,
now sawing in the middle.

The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there's good cheer among the guests,
he cocks an ear at all the jests
and laughs until he chokes.

They also keep a horned cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
and makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.

And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday there's a special pair,
and these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.

The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
the cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.

The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and then rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.

Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat;
"The white horses of the Moon,
they neigh and champ their silver bits;
but their master's been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun'll be rising soon!"

So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
while the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
"It's after three!" he said.

They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
while the horses galloped up in rear,
and the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with a spoon.

Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
the cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.

With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
and the little dog laughed to see such fun,
and the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.

The round Moon rolled behind the hill,
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes:
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!

IWSG and Words for Wednesday ~ Sorry!

Oops, MotherOwl. Among your Keepers You had:

Words for Wednesday - Link - hosted by Elephant's Child, and a perfectly enjoyable writing Challenge.

and

IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Link - A question to answer every first Wednesday - can do!

MotherOwl! You had ONE JOB! Wednesday January first came and left without a Word or IWSG from you ...

At the very least I can bring the Words for Wednesday for January 1st:
Beginning
Masquerade
Towel
Shadow
Life
     and/or
Ending
Spring
Journey
Forager
High
Brougt to us and thought out by Elephant's Child.

I've added a new label to my collection today: OnlyTheWords.

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The monthly Question from the Insecure Writers' Support Group is luckily not due until January 8th. Thanks to an understanding crew giving a poor MotherOwl some time to gather her flying feathers.


January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?