Month: March 2014
The Crescent Moon Bear Says No
Julia’s 100 word challenge this week is to take a fairy story and re-write the ending. I’ve chosen a Japanese folk tale that I love,
The Crescent Moon Bear
‘But the wise woman told me to bring a hair from your throat,’ said Harumi, shaking with fear.
‘She always does,’ the Crescent Moon Bear roared, ‘now clear off.’
‘My husband will die, he’s been fighting wars for years and he’s . . .
‘Traumatised, yes, I’ve heard it a thousand times.’
‘So you’ll help, please? I’ve brought food.’
‘Look, plucking my hair hurts, I know you’ve been through hell to get here, it’s a test. Just be patient and loving. Eventually your husband will get better. GO!’ he shouted so loud that Harumi jumped, ‘leave my food behind, or I’ll eat you.’
In the original, the bear gives the woman a hair from the crescent moon on his throat. When she arrives back down the mountain the wise woman throws it away and tells her to be patient with her husband.
Join in at http://jfb57.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week124/
International Women’s Day, Going to Extremes
She has a £300 head of woven on Russian hair
She has her head shaven in mourning
Her clothes are designer disposed of when the colour is last seasons
Her clothes are shabby raggy charity shop rejects
She steps out in killer heels feet pampered pedicured and painted
She has heels and soles like elephant hide hardened from a shoeless life
Her house has six air conditioned bedrooms one for each child and three spare
Her six children sleep on the grass covered mud floor
She luxuriates in a bath tub fragranced with jasmine
She walks three miles at dawn to carry home cloudy water
Her family lunch at pizza palace leaving the excess food grabbed in greed
Her children wait twelve hours to share the same maize pap as breakfast
She drives to the shops in a gas guzzling monster
The cost of which would build a clinic and school
She labours in scorched fields ravaged by war and rife with danger
For a dollar day if she’s spared
Just a little piece to mark International Women’s Day.
Hey, come on be nice . . .
. . . you stubborn mare 
this old woman just wants a photo of us
I dunno, she gets grumpier every day
Sorry, once she digs her hooves in there’s no budging her, anyway how about this for a different perspective?
Where you going, I’m here now?
Too late, I’m off to get my oats. Shame, it might have been a good portrait.
With you in it? Who you calling grumpy anyway?
The Weekly Photo Challenge can be found here, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/photo-challenge-perspective/ and the theme this week is perspective if you’d like to join in.
Lazy Poets Thursday Haiku
Catkins
Bent and naked tree
waiting for its summer gown
katkin petticoat
I could disappear at any minute
but if I do please forgive me and hang in there, I will be back!
For a couple of months my PC has been very poorly, you wouldn’t believe the number of hours I’ve spent fixing it, in fact I’ve lost whole days that I really can’t spare. The problem is that it’s just aging and I’m trying to make it last a little longer – because I’m poor!
I’m a very heavy computer user, it goes on with the kettle as soon as I’m out of bed and most evenings it goes off just before my bedside light.
I’ve been looking at possible replacements and can’t make up my mind whether it will be another desktop – I read recently that they are going to be extinct soon, or a laptop. I spotted a very gorgeous HP laptop, available in purple and affordable but I’m not convinced that a lappy is heavy duty enough for my writing and photo editing etc. It would be nice to free up desk space and to stroke the luscious little beastie though!
Also a friend has recently bought a laptop with windows 8 and has struggled getting used to the changes, I’m using vista on my PC and windows 7 on a rarely used netbook. The other issue is the time involved in getting set up again, transferring files and programs, and I’ll have to buy a new version of office. That means decisions about cloud storage, paying an annual subscription, do I want to send my hard written documents off into the ether?
I’m intrigued to know what device YOU use for blogging, laptop or PC? phone or tablet?
Any comments or thought would be welcome, I actually can’t decide what would be best.
I also have a tablet, it’s a great toy and if my PC dies I’ll be using it to pop in to visit you as much as I can. I do find it limiting though, great for quick answers but nothing too serious.
Hope to see you soon 🙂
Wordless Wednesday
Estuary
Estuary
a liminal waterscape endlessly dynamic
with the twice daily ebb and flow of the tide
where sometimes a lost soul will wash up
or a golden coin from five centuries past
a giant seed pod carried by the Gulf Stream
from five thousand miles away
the bones of a fish sucked white by an albatross
or thrashed by the brutal oceans swell
human detritus of sanitary wear
once flushed through some distant drain
tangled in plastic that surrounded well water
bottled in Delhi sold to an unsuspecting
ill prepared golden triangle tourist
tide so low that the other side may be walked to
if only you’re aware of bottomless mud sink
if not cursed to be the next being
nibbled by crabs, inhabited by barnacles
and gowned in kelp to wash up like a lost soul
Dawlish trainline, checking for progress
For the 100 word challenge for grown ups this week I wrote about the storm damage to the trainline at Dawlish. I’ve since been to see how things are going, but it was no surprise that I couldn’t get very close. Here are some phone pics.
The damaged line closed for now
The walkway under the bridge is too dangerous, see the ruined sea wall.
Each concrete section weighs about 4 tons
Concrete sections to repair the sea wall
Looking west, work is taking place 24-7
Dawlish is a quaint little seaside town ful of old -fashioned charm.
The river runs through the town, the place to feed teh ducks and black swans
The home of the famous black swans – Fifi probably came from here!
Cream tea, ice cream, pasties and cakes!
Real ice cream with a dollop of Devon clotted cream on top!
The train journey west continues to Teignmouth and from there you can get a ferry to Shaldon. I ‘ve posted about both in the past.
https://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/teignmouth-my-last-day-off/
https://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/starting-and-finishing-with-boats/
The workmen at Dawlish told me that the completion date for repair of the train track and sea wall is just before Easter, good news for locals and visitors alike.
Lucid Gypsy 