torsdag den 31. december 2020

New Year, New Things :: Nytår, nye ting

Nok engang har jeg forlystet mig med Jennifer Fulwilers helgengenerator. I år er årets helgener:

As most years I choose a saint, or rather two via the Saints' Names Generator made by Jennifer Fulwiler. My saints of the years are:





Den gode Jennifer har også lavet en årets ord-generator. Den måtte jeg prøve - og fik ordene: Modig og Nyd. Det lyder da godt :)

Jennifer has also made a word of the year generator. I just had to try and got: Bold and Enjoy. Well, that sounds great to me.
   Her har jeg skrevet ordene i Pantones Årets farver for 2021. De hedder Ultimate Grey og Illuminate. Jeg ved ikke rigtig, hvad jeg synes om den. men derfor skal de da vises frem alligevel.
(Farvekoder: 147 - 149 - 161 og 246 - 223 - 77).

Here the words are written in the colours of the year from Pantone's homepage. They are Ultimate Grey and Illuminate. I'm not totally sure how I like them as yet, but anyway I wanted to show them. (Colourcodes: 147 - 149 - 161 and 246 - 223 - 77).

TUSAL 2021 - UPDATED

Daffycat is back! YAY I'm so going to post here and comment on her blog each New Moon!!!

I would like to give a link to Daffycat's original post on WHAT IS TUSAL when she took up the challenge.  Here below is a re-worked description:

TUSAL means Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long. The idea is to save all our ORTs and show them off every time the Moon is new.

What are ORTs?
  ORT or ort ~ Capitalized, it stands for Old Ratty Threads. These are the cast-off thread ends a needleworker, knitter, crocheter and other with yarny endeavours cut away. These ends are sometimes saved in clear jars as a decorative object.
  The word, "ort" does appear in the dictionary, meaning: a bit of something left over; usually concerning food.

Why would you save your ORTs and why on earth post a picture on your blog?
   Just for fun!  If you would like to join this Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long, please go to Daffycat's blog. We also still have the TUSAL Facebook group.

How and what to post?
  1. Get a glass jar or other container and save your thread clippings. You may also include fabric trimmings, thread bands, empty spools, broken needles (take care), or any other cast-offs gathered along the way.
  2. You may continue filling this jar throughout the year OR you may empty the jar and start over each month ~ no firm rules here!
  3. On (or about) each New Moon take a picture of the ORTs in your jar and post it to your blog and/or the Facebook Page. This is a blog/Facebook game so YES, you MUST have either a blog or be on Facebook to participate.
  4. You can use your current ORT jar or jars. This is not a contest! There's no prize, it's just for fun.
  5. You should post a picture each New Moon, even if there has been no "progress" to show. We are aiming for "once a month" here ... no whippings for being late, early or absent!
  6. When you have posted the picture of your ORTs visit my blog and comment on my ORT report for that month's TUSAL.

When to post?
  We follow the Lunar Cycle so every year these dates change! Some years they are very evenly spaced, one New Moon each month and some years have 2 New Moons one month and skip a calendar month altogether!
  2021 is a nice year. One new Moon to each month.
The New Moon dates for 2021 are:
January 13
February 11
March 13
April 12
May 11
June 10
July 10
August 8
September 7
October 6
November 4
December 4

onsdag den 30. december 2020

The Prompts for Words for Wednesday 2021

  Of course there will be Words for Wednesday in 2021 as well.
  Elephant's Child has been doing a great work trying to get as many as possible to supply us with prompts for one month.
  Here's the list as it looks now. A compact version has already appeared some days ago in my left sidebar.



--  WfW  --  WfW  --  WfW  --


January: MotherOwl (me) will provide the prompts on my blog.. They'll appear here.

February: Alex J. Cavanaugh will provide the prompts. They will appear at Elephant's Child's blog.

March: Hilary Melton-Butcher will provide the prompts. They will appear at Elephant's Child's blog.

April: WiseWebWoman will provide the prompts on her blog.

May: MessyMimi will provide the prompts on her blog.

June: River will provide the prompts on her blog.

July: Lissa will provide the prompts on her blog.

August: David M. Gascoigne will provide the prompts. They will appear at Elephant's Child's blog.

September: Cindi will provide the prompts on her blog.

October: Elephant's Child will provide the prompts on her blog.

November: Margaret Adamson and her friends will provide the prompts. They will appear at Elephant's Child's blog.

December: Elephant's Child will provide the prompts on her blog.

Thanks to all, providers of prompts, participants and readers alike. And I want to repeat the words of  Elephant's Child:
This meme definitely falls into the 'more the merrier' category. I hope that lots of you will visit whoever is providing the prompts and play - or applaud. Commenting on other people's creations - whether they post them on the host's blog or their own, is hugely important. We ALL need encouragement. So please, take a few extra minutes to comment on the participant's creations.

WfW 30.12

   For the last time in 2020 it's Wednesday. Elephant's Child has provided the prompts, also the last time. Next Wednesday is the first of January 2021, and I'll provide the prompts. They'll appear here Tuesday at noon my time, (Greenwich +1) when that is in Australia, Canada and the USA I'll let you figure out.
  For today EC has given us:


Diverse
Universe
Reverse
Terse
Nurse
Rehearse

and this wonderful photo:



  The words begged to be turned into a verse, and I obliged. I have not made any New Years resolutions, but Christmas holiday resolutions, you might call them, or December-resolutions, as I began weaving then in my tired brain as morning got so short that we arose by lamplight in the beginning of December.

For reasons ever more diverse.
I have decided to rehearse,
The signs of ageing to reverse
And to embrace the universe
And not be visiting a nurse.
To study Japanese and verse.
You see my matters are not terse.
A morning new is every day
I want to fight and not to stay
In shadows, murk and grey.
If I have anything to say,
I now stake out a brighter way
I see the light - at least a ray!

mandag den 28. december 2020

Poetry Monday :: Resolves

It seems Resolve is one of those words that can mean almost anything but football as an old teacher of ours once put it. After having read my poem, you can see what I copied from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, and see if it fits the bill. I have given my Resolves down below 🌝 🌝


I resolve not to resolve come summer and heat.
I resolve not to resolve when solutions sound neat.
I resolve not to resolve sheet music or a fret.
I resolve not to resolve quite anything yet.

My resolve is to meet any day new and fresh.
To resolve not a thing till it has stood its test.
With great resolve I stand up to the year '21
May it resolve to be better than the one that is gone…

And next Mondays theme: SPAGHETTI!


Definitions of resolve

1. Transitive verb

1a : to deal with successfully : clear up resolve doubts resolve a dispute.
     b : to find an answer to.
     c : to make clear or understandable.
     d : to find a mathematical solution of.
     e : to split up into two or more components especially in assigned directions resolve a vector.
2 : to reach a firm decision about resolve to get more sleep. Resolve disputed points in a text.
3a : to declare or decide by a formal resolution and vote.
     b : to change by resolution or formal vote the house resolved itself into a committee.
4a : break up, separate the prism resolved the light into a play of color also : to change by disintegration.
     b : to reduce by analysis resolve the problem into simple elements.
     c : to distinguish between or make independently visible adjacent parts of.
     d : to separate (a racemic compound or mixture) into the two components.
5 : to make (something, such as one or more voice parts or the total musical harmony) progress from dissonance to consonance.
6 : to work out the resolution of (something, such as a play).
7 : to cause resolution of (a pathological state).
8 : obsolete : dissolve, melt.

2. Intransitive verb
1 : to become separated into component parts also : to become reduced by dissolving or analysis.
2 : to form a resolution : determine.
3 : consult, deliberate.
4 : to progress from dissonance to consonance.

3. Noun
1 : fixity of purpose : resoluteness.
2 : something that is resolved.
3 : a legal or official determination especially : a formal resolution.

The definitions, I used:
Declare - Melt/dissolve
Decide - settle
Declare - to make music progress from dissonance to consonance
Conclude - answer

Decision
Judge
Firmness
Decide

torsdag den 24. december 2020

GLÆDELIG JUL -- MERRY CHRISTMAS -- FROHE WEIHNACHTEN -- FELIZ NAVIDAD -- HYVÄÄ JOULUA -- WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT


GLÆDELIG JUL TIL ALLE
Dette er et "automatisk" indlæg. Medens det udgiver sig selv, nyder Uglemor julemiddagen sammen med alle Ugleboets indbyggere, Uglemormor, Hvalrossen, Storebror og Trolden, der alle er kommet hjem til jul. 
Vi ser frem til juletræ og gaver, og til at finde barnet i krybben. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY
This is an auto-post. While it is posting itself, MotherOwl is eating Christmas dinner with the other inhabitants of the Owlery, GrannyOwl, the Walrus, BigBrother and Trolli who have all come to the Owlery for Christmas.  
We look forward to our christmas tree and all the gifts and to see the baby in the manger.

onsdag den 23. december 2020

WfW - 23.12

Today is the day before Christmas Eve - where we celebrate in Denmark. We're far too impatient to wait for Christmas morning - But it is also Wednesday, and Elephant's Child has given us two times six words and a bonus. I cite her:
This week's prompts are:

Celebration,
Birth
Bells
Majesty
Small
Forgotten
     And/or
Bay
Half
Hope
Sister
Book
Hunt

And another (as always optional addition). In memory of Jo Wake, I would love it if you could include the word dragon in your stories.

As I too am a dragon lover I'd like to do this. I liked Jo's stories of  the dragon and his witch. I regret that she never got to the ending of it. And this made me think of the mini-series Here There be Dragons, that I wrote in April and Jo's encouraging words upon reading it. I want to take up the thread from that story.

The bells in the small belfry on top of the Unicorn Farm could faintly be heard tolling three times as Susan, Heidi, Lis, Tage and their parents Sandra and Kai arrived at the small bay.
"I feel like I've been here before," Sandra said all of a sudden.
"So do I," Heidi said. "But it feels blurry, remote, like a half forgotten dream."
Her sister smiled, "I feel the same way."
"Well," Tage said. "The only thing I feel, is hungry. How about spreading out our stuff here. This place looks nice enough for our lunch al fresco."
Susan smiled. You were never bored in the company of Heidi and her family.
After the ample and tasty lunch they just sat or lay in the grass enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the beauty of the scenery. Susan was nodding over her book, when Kai looked up: "Don't move!" he said softly. "We have a visitor!"
"Good day, tiny mortals!" the dragon said. It's voice was deep and melodious, like a giant silver bell. "You have returned."
"Returned?" Tage said.
"Sorry, what!" Kai added. "As far as I remember, I was never here before."
"Your wife and daughters seem to disagree," the dragon said.
Meanwhile Susan was admiring the dragon. Its belly was midnight blue, and its wings were shimmering  in all the colours of the rainbow. She had never seen anything as beautiful.
"Puny mortals," the dragon said. "You are trespassing once again on  our premises. But this time you will not be roared into oblivion."
A memory emerged and unfolded inside Susan's mind. She saw this beautiful dragon aloft, soaring over a sand-coloured mate, nesting around some eggs. Somewhere near here, maybe. .. It was still dream like, but becoming more and more focused each second.
"Today," the dragon continued, "we hold a celebration in honour of the birth of our offspring."
The eggs had hatched, maybe today or the day before, Susan realized. She felt happy. Fulfilled.
"Today is an auspicious day. You are invited, no  called to witness the naming of our offspring. Follow me."
As spellbound the five humans followed the wonderful dragon down to the rivulet, over it and into a clearing on the other side of it. There the lady dragon sat, her colouring now resembled that of her mate, only a lighter blue hue on belly and wing undersides. She was bigger by at least a handspan, and her head shot up at the noise of their arrival. In front of her sat five perfect miniature dragons, each not bigger than a big dog.
Kai bowed deeply, and the rest of them did their very best to salute the dragons in the same way.
"Your majesty," Kai said, getting up from the bow. "We are very pleased to be here on this propitious day. We bring with us nothing to give you but our hope for an fair future for all of us, and we feel ashamed for our emptyhandedness.
"Your words are as sincere as your hearts, I see" the lady dragon spoke. Her voice too was deep and melodious. The tiny dragonets at her feet all looked at the five humans.
Their mother spoke to them in a high pitched, chirping language. Beautiful, but very strange.  Even though they could not understand Dragon, the meaning was clear. She warned the tiny dragons against people.
"And now to the naming." The lady dragon said. "It is very simple, really. You just repeat the names as I say them."
She gently picked up the tiniest dragonet: "By stone and fire, by earth and water. Be known to the world as Shayla!"
"Shayla!" repeated the five humans along with the male dragon. Then the female dragon put the dragonet down, and picked up the next one: "By water and earth, by fire and  stone. Be known to the world as Mathys!"
"Mathys!" They said in unison.
And again a new dragonet was raised to the sky: "By water and earth, by fire and  stone. Be known to the world as Tarquil!"
"Tarquil!" they echoed.
The next to last dragonet was encased in her mothers claws and raised to the skies: "By stone and fire, by earth and water. Be known to the world as Tatsu!"
"Tatsu!" They all repeated, Susan recognized the word from Kensuke's Japanese books, something to do with water, she thought.
And as the last dragonet was enclosed in the motherly claws it raise its tiny head and roared. A tiny, defiant sound.
The dragons raised their heads a bit more, Susan would have said thy smiled.
"We've better get this one named," the female dragon said. "By water and earth, by fire and  stone. Be known to the world as Alcalador!"
"Alcalador!" they repeated.

tirsdag den 22. december 2020

The Day after Winter Solstice

   Even if it's by ZERO minutes, the day has gotten longer! The green word tiltaget means augmented -  in opposition to yesterdays aftaget, which meant diminished.
DagensLængde

  MotherOwl is happy - even though she knows, that the longest, dreariest part of winter still lies ahead. An old farmers' wisdom says that at Candlemass winter is half done. This means that if you have not got half your hay and other fodder left for the animals at Candlemass it is the time for slaughter, as it will last the same time from Candlemass until you can put the animals back in the pasture, as the time elapsed from when you took them in to Candlemass.
  I do not know whether this still holds true, what with global warming and such, but it still means that we have at least 3 months ahead of us without greenery outside.
  The days are getting longer though, for which I am very grateful.

Look at the weather forecast for Christmas 2020:
I don't know why I'm writing this except to complain and be happy at the same time. I'm just venting my frustration I think, as this

Photo taken december 2012.
is what we were promised. While this:

Photo taken yesterday at a quarter to one.
is what we get most years.


mandag den 21. december 2020

Poetry Monday :: Winter Solstíce

   Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and Diane of On the Border are taking turns supplying us with a topic for this weekly endeavour, sometimes SpikesBestMate is helping too. They also both write wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious or  honestly well written verse. Go and read.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is taking a break due to her husband's health issue. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers their way as her latest update
unfortunately does not bring good news.
 
  I have something more to ask of you: If you read this and the poetry of others, would you please leave a comment. Half - if not more - the fun of these challenges is receiving the responses of others
.

-- ☃ --

For længe siden  citerede og oversatte jeg forårsverset fra et digt om de fire årstider. Nu er det vist tid for vinter-verset.
-- ☃ --

  Long ago I wrote a poem about the Danish seasons. I told about it here, and cited and translated the first verse. The Spring one. Now it's time for the fourth one, the Winter one:


Dagen er dunkel, nætterne lange.
Hemmeligheder, hjerternes tid.
Kager i ovnen, unger der plager.
Kom ud i parken, sneen er hvid!

All days are gloomy, all nights are long now
It's time for secrets, candles shine bright
Cookies are baking, children are playing
Get out of doors now, the snow is white.

-- ☃ --

Verset er en del af en tekst, Uglemor skrev til en konkurrence med temaet tema "Årets gang i Danmark" (Spil dansk dagen 2008). Men da der ikke er nogen politisk korrekte statements i versene, havde sangen ikke en chance.
-- ☃ --

The verse is one of four describing the Danish seasons, I wrote for a competition years ago. But as the verses describe the Danish seasons only (the theme) and do not mention any politically correct matters, it was not even among the runners up.

-- ☃ --

Kilde - Source

I think this is not in need of an explanation - we need more light NOW please.


Næste uges tema - The theme for next Monday: RESOLVES

søndag den 20. december 2020

New Blogger - a Rant

Now we've had New Blogger rolled out for some time, and even though some things has been improved, corrected and so on - prominent among those the labelling system. Thanks! - There's still room for improvement, lots of it in fact. Here's what bothers me most:

  I currently send in two or three reports per blog post I write.
The newest one I discovered is: Centering a text, then right or left aligning one or more of the centered lines insert irremovable Paragraph-formatting. Sigh!
  I get so very frustrated when trying to make my blog posts look how I envisioned them - instead of how Blogger wants them to look - takes me more time than composing, writing, photo-editing and proof reading together!

And as Adam writes: Selecting multiple photos for upload still adds these images to the Album Archive
However, Blogger no longer "remembers" recent uploads in the upload window.
This is profoundly unhandy, especially since there are problems repositioning photos as well.

-- 😠 --

And I can use this blog post as an example of my troubles. At least some of them. I copy pasted the texts, my text on top, and Adam's text below from two separate places. It looked awful:
Lots of extra space on top (Yellow)
Adam's citation in double line spacing and empty lines below (Green).

This is the HTML behind it:


  Yellow - the mysterious code bit Blogger inserts into every blog posts, making an empty space before the first line and making every Enter a double line spacing.
  Removing it helps - until you forget holding down Shift while hitting Enter, or until you insert a photo, a text, or until you decide align the text other ways than left aligned.  ... and probably a lot  more, that I forgot right now ... that makes double line spacing (also known as paragraph formatting) return.
  Green - All the code it pleased Blogger to insert with my text bits.
  In need of cleaning it is, master Yoda!

And this is how it looks now, after my cleaning:
With the link to Adam's blog and the new lines (<br />) being the only code (golden orange).


Today, Sunday I found a new one when working at my Poetry Monday post: Copy-pasting a line with code in it in the text-editing mode makes crazy Paragraph code. It works like this:

I copied:
-- ☃ --

  In code this is: <div style="text-align: center;"> -- ☃ -- <br /></div>
It might look like gibberish, but it is quite simple. Let me show you how to read this:
- The first part <div style="text-align: center;"> is an order to centre text from here onwards.
-- ☃ -- is the text, I want centered.
<br /> means single-space new line here (Carriage return for us old enough to have used a typewriter).
- And finally </div> means stop centering text from here onwards.
All very neat and simple. Doing what I ask for, no more, no less.

  But when I paste this, it turns into: </p><p style="text-align: center;">-- ☃ --<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"> which gives me double line spacing without the possibility of correction as the <p style part integrates the Paragraph formatting in the "Center this line" order. GRRR. Copy-pasting in HTML is a major pain in the posterior as it is so fiddly.
  Or I do it it by going to the HTML editor, delete all p and type in div instead and then delete all the superfluous </p> thingies. So much work for something so simple!

  I am at the point of yelling at or shaking my monitor or biting my keyboard from sheer frustration sometimes.

lørdag den 19. december 2020

Behind the ORTs

All Decembers ORTs which I showed off yesterday, come from somewhere. Most of them came from circular knitting. But of course I also have had other ideas:
1st row. Left to right:
Testing. It turned into an orange for the sink - Mittens for the Writer. Statistrikk's good pattern (without the statement) - A watermelon, given away.

2nd row. Left to right:
Blue cornflower under a lamp - Testing of watermelon, for the sink - Lemon for an orange jug.

3rd row. Left to right
Testing lime fruit, for the sink - Crocheting corona virus. Pattern: Statistrikk (Pearls to follow when they show up)  - Blue orange ;) Testing, for the sink.


... and on another note. I have spent at least three times as long as the writing and picture formatting took me editing HTML code to make this post look somewhat like I wanted it to look, and not as DNBlogger wanted. It's a huge P.I.T.A.

fredag den 18. december 2020

Tusal December 2020

For long I have not participated in the monthly TUSAL - Totally Useless Stitch ALong - originally hosted by Daffycat, but now migrated to Facebook. And that's the reason why I have not participated. I don't do Facebook much these days, and I most certainly do not go to my newsfeed which is one big mess because the neat RevertSite does only work on groups etc. not on the newsfeed any longer.

No more talk. Here's my December ORTs - only four days late:


Next years TUSAL dates:

13 January 2021
11 February 2021
13 March 2021
12 April 2021
11 May 2021
10 June 2021
10 July 2021
8 august 2021
7 September 2021
6 October 2021
4 November 2021
4 December 2021


tirsdag den 15. december 2020

WfW - 16.12 - the Prompts


Elephant's Child have given the prompts for tomorrows Words for Wednesday. I just copy / paste, what she wrote:

This week's prompts are a little different.  In an idle moment I realised that a LOT of our common idioms include animals in them.  I am going to list some of the more common (in English at least) phrases and would really like to see what you can do with them - and particularly if you can create a story which involves different common phrases and/or animals.  Feel free to mix and match - or to introduce different phrases of your own:

    Has the cat got your tongue?
    Curiosity killed the cat.
    Let the cat out of the bag.
    Dog tired.
    Sick as a dog.
    Like a dog with two tails.
    The elephant in the room.
    A one-trick pony.
    Open a can of worms.
    Busy as a bee.

Have fun.

Well, let's see where this takes me. The idioms in Danish are not the same except for very few ... 

For my story of Susan and her friends I had made a collection of idioms like these, only as a wizard-born would say them. The problem is that many of them does not exist in English. ... or at least are different.
Well here's my collection of wizarding idioms and their mundane counterparts in Danish and if necessary an explanation or the English idiom.


Let sleeping unicorns lie.  - Let sleeping dogs lie - same.
Ahh ... that's where the boggart is buried. - Where the dog is buried - same.
Living where the dragons turn back - Where the crows turn back - In the back of beyond.
Swim like a hippocamp - Swim like a dolphin - Swim like a fish

to be continued ..

mandag den 14. december 2020

Poetry Monday :: Gingerbread Houses

   Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and Diane of On the Border are taking turns supplying us with a topic for this weekly endeavour. They also both write wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious or  honestly well written verse. Go and read.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is taking a break due to her husband's health issue. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers their way as her latest update
unfortunately does not bring good news.
 
  I have something more to ask of you: If you read this and the poetry of others, would you please leave a comment. Half - if not more - the fun of these challenges is receiving the responses of others.

   Our gingerbread houses are made by Marsupilami. He's our resident baker. And store bought pieces for the house or home made, he's the one making it.
  Two different metres inside the same verse ... well, well, well. It's almost Christmas after all.


Whenever it's time for gingerbread
We have our own house maker
Come Christmas day or Summer time,
He always is the Baker.

He builds a house of gingerbread,
He places candy, white and red,
He plays with candy canes,
And follow all his plans

When it is time to eat it all,
We eat the house from floor to wall
From doors to roof and shutter,
And words of praise we utter.


Next Mondays topic is: The Winter Solstice

torsdag den 10. december 2020

Cirkelstrik. Løsningen -- Circular Knitting. The Solution

     Ja, jeg ved det godt. Jeg lovede et billede af den færdige frugt for en uge siden. Eller i sidste måned, faktisk.

Yes ... I know ... I promised the solution to this photo tomorrow ... over a week ago; well last month actually.

Her er det første billede en gang til  -- ---  Here's the photo once again.


Og her er så den færdige frugt -- -- And here's the finished fruit.
Er der nu nogen, der har et gæt? -- -- Does anyone care to guess now?


onsdag den 9. december 2020

WfW - 9.12 - No words

The Words for Wednesday for December is over at Elephant's Child. I cite a bit of what she tells us:
  It would be great if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants.  If you are posting on your own blog - let us know so that we can come along and applaud.

The words are:

Bent
Icon
Never
Quiet
Half
Hope
     And/or
Other
Mean
Particular
Little
Life
Anthem

I'm still hit by a writers' block. I have ideas, I know what I want to tell, but the words won't collaborate. So sorry.


mandag den 7. december 2020

Poetry Monday :: Festive Traditions

   Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and Diane of On the Border are taking turns supplying us with a topic for this weekly endeavour. They also both write wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious or simply honestly well written verse. Go and read.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is taking a break due to her husband's health issue. Let's continue to send warm thoughts, good energy, and lots of prayers their way.
 
  I have something to ask of you: If you read this and the poetry of others, would you please leave a comment. Half - if not more - the fun of these challenges is receiving the responses of others.


  Our Christmas traditions mostly begin on Christmas evening.
  I have written - and grumbled - extensively about our Advent Window, the Jesse Tree and rants about non-Christmassy celebrations, santas and more. I do not feel up to putting all this into poems.
  I am taking my refuge to publishing older works. Going back to before the Internet was a thing and I sat late evenings and well into the night writing for myself.
  Way back then I discovered a Dutch nun from Zusters van de Goddelijke Voorzienigheid - Sisters of the Divine Providence, and translated several many of her poems; and I even had one or two of them pringted in a small Cattholic magazine. I think no harm will be done in publishing them here. Her book was called Een mens van vier seizoenen - A Human of Four Seasons. With the subtitle: Bloemlezing uit: gedichten, brieven en het dagboek van: Zuster Antoine Frayman.  Samengesteld en uitgegeven na haar overlijden 1979 - Selections from her poems, letters and diary of sr. Antouíne Frayman. Edited and published after her death 1979).
Oops, but I did not think this through. Of course I translated the poems into Danish! Urgh. I like the poems very much, so here ywe go. Dutch original and Danish translation. 2nd Sunday of Advent.

  2de Zondag van de Advent
Zonne - Zonne - klare Bronne
Van het Goddelijk Lichtfestijn.
Maged reine - Gij zo kleine,
Mocht Gods eigen Moeder zijn.
Blauw zijn onze Adventsdagen
Omdat zij Uwe weelde dragen.
Donker wel, door onze schuld
Maar door U in 't blauw gehuld.
U alleen was altijd trouw,
Reine - sterke - lieve Vrouw.
O, ons hart dat kan weer zingen,
Van de allerschoonste dingen.
Van Uw reine heerlijkheid,
Troost en hoop van al wie strijdt.
Klare Zonne - reine Bronne.
Vol van Leven - Licht en Pracht,
Gij de Wone van Gods Zone
Hebt Hem ons zo graag gebracht.
O, Uw troostend, lichtend leven
Kan alleen maar schoonheid geven,
Maak ons allen vol van 't Licht;
Dat tintelt op Uw aangezicht.
Moeder, Moeder, wil ons dragen
Met Uw Jezus in deez' dagen.
Laat ons hart in 't Uwe zijn
Op het komend Kerstfestijn.

  2. Søndag i advent
Kilde ren er du, vor moder,
for Guds søn - vort lys og broder -
Jomfru milde, Åndens kar.
Dystre er vor adventsdage,
hvis du ind hos os vil drage.
Bli'r de blå som Himlen klar.

Vore hjerter atter nynner
på det skønne, du forkynder,
fuld af liv, af lys og pragt.
Du, som lever ved Guds trone,
din sang har den rette tone,
lær vort hjerte himmel-takt.

Du, som verdens frelser bærer,
os du også gerne nærer
med din tro i adventstid.
Lad vort hjerte som dit brænde,
lær os glædens fest at kende,
Julens gæst du bringe hid.


Next Mondays theme: Houses out of Gingerbread

søndag den 6. december 2020

Advent Window - Sunday Selections - Thanks

We're are as usual hanging ornaments in out advent window.


But look closer. Yes empty hooks. Marsupilami is self isolating. He had a group exercise together with a boy who tested positive for Covid19. Now we're waiting for the test results.




And the result arrived ...
And an ornament was hung up. Hooray!


onsdag den 2. december 2020

WfW - 2.12 - Updated

   I can make a repeat of my writing last Wednesday: I have done this, I have finished that, in short there's no excuse for me not to sit myself down and write a chapter or two with this Wednesday's Words. But I might be suffering from writer's block or something. I feel like I'm just repeating myself when I try to write. I hope for an inspiration ... sigh.
  Well at least I can post the prompts, they might inspire somebody else.

  The words are provided by Elephant's Child on her blog. Today we were given:


alias
garden
rivers
enjoy
little
you

 
And/or

unusual
life
walls
serenity
mapped
madness


I don't know what happened, but this mysterious poem appeared in my poor head: I miss mapped.

If I had an alias, I would enjoy what little privacy it would give me.
I would walk through the garden, unknown by my enemy.
I could sail a river, climb a tree,
But my unusual name has marked me for life.
No walls can keep me hidden, no locks preserve my serenity.
You have given me nothing but madness and strife.