Can you think of a once strongly held conviction, belief or ideology on which you have completely changed your position?
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Five favourites from this week’s photo challenge from The Daily Post.
Balancing
Image via http://www.sxc.hu
The upside of the downside is creativity,
downside of the downside – survivability,
upside of the upside,
anxiety-free,
downside of the upside…
..dearth of poetry.
‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see’
Theodore Roethke
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Someone who’s definitely not suffering from a dearth of inspiration at the moment is artist (and hidden poet) Bénédicte Delachanal.
Check out her wonderfully humorous marriage of art and words as she tackles this month’s NaPoWriMo challenge. C’est une joie. 😀
Weekly Photo Challenge: Colour
Skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, lip colour – of what consequence?
It’s the colour of the heart that matters.
I usually post links to my five favourites from the the Weekly Photo Challenge, but, this week, Allen Shores bewitched me with starlight…
Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in My Life
This was today – catching up on university stuff – which I enjoyed, but it doesn’t make for a terribly exciting photo subject.
Never mind – it’s nearly champagne o’clock Downunder, and tomorrow’s another holiday (and golf). 😀
For more inspired entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
I particularly enjoyed these five:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense
Lady Pen‘s poem Pennies from Heaven gave me the inspiration for my belated contribution to last week’s Weekly Photo Challenge.
We consume a lot of olives in our household and because it seems a shame to throw all the olive jars into the recycling, we have converted a few into repositories around the house for any stray silver coins – a fund for future weekends away.
Thanks, Pen! 😀
Search Engine Poetry: Search me…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime
Five favourites from this week:
Weekly Photo Challenge: My Neighbourhood
I am hopeless at taking photos with my iPhone. I’m one of those Luddites who prefers to use my phone as only that, so make no apology for the quality of my entry to this week’s (actually, last week’s) photo challenge, which required us to do some phoneography.
I live in the ‘burbs, and a cacophony of cultivation culling machines pretty much characterizes my neighbourhood on a Saturday morning.
Power of poetry penned by survivors of 3/11 is showcased by ASIJ project | The Japan Times
Power of poetry penned by survivors of 3/11 is showcased by ASIJ project | The Japan Times.
Voices from Japan – PDF of Japanese Tanka from survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Unsung Heroes
Vilakazi,
in the riots of ’76,
Henderson,
in the shadows of ’77,
Bailey,
through the dark and bitter end:
Not sacrificing themselves
for a cause,
these ordinary men,
just rescuing
our hopes,
one act at a time.
Photo by RIP – © beeblu
Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details
Cicada – Melbourne Museum
Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward
What emotion does this sculpture – Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch: Batman, Swanston And Hoddle – by Alison Weaver evoke in you? Do you think Batman, Swanston and Hoddle feel that they have anything to look forward to?
My favourite entry of the week was this one from Gilly.
For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
Love’s Journey
Image via http://www.sxc.hu
We know
it’s our unclaimed baggage
at the station,
more than a few lockers full.
We don’t go there,
travel light,
well enough,
without it.
But impossible journeys
plague
our dreams.
Weekly Photo Challenge: (A) kiss (to build a scream on)
No photo this week: I’m ambivalent about the whole kissing thing.
Sure, a kiss of any nature feels good (unless it’s from some lecherous golfing partner who’s intent on kissing instead of shaking hands) but then there’s that sound: like a dog licking itself or a person chewing with their mouth open – ewwww.
People kissing on the big screen or TV? Fine, just turn down the sound.
I thought this particular aversion was just another peculiar quirk of my ultra-cranky disposition, until a few years ago when a young colleague expressed his mystification at why his wife would fly into a blind rage whenever their spaniel would do his daily licking grooming.
“Does she have the same reaction to people kissing on TV?” I asked.
“Yes!!” he shrieked.
I was onto something.
I did some research. Turns out, it’s a disorder (Of course. What isn’t?!). And it goes by the name of Misophonia.
In my case, these rage-inducing noises are limited to certain mouth sounds in others: teeth-sucking, open-mouthed chewing, licking, slurpy kissing, lip-smacking, spaghetti-sucking, finger-licking (I guess you won’t be inviting me over for dinner any time soon, haha).
Actually, it’s not that bad – I don’t have to leave the room to deal with my neurological irrationality. Just wish I could use it to my advantage: I’d be soooo thin if I had the same reaction to the sound of my own chewing…
What about you? Are there any sounds that drive you beyond crazy?
****
For genuine entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
Great Cinematic Moments
This is one of my all-time favourites.
I took ballet, modern and tap-dancing lessons from the age of 3 and aspired to dance like Cyd, but after a friend adapted the lyrics of ‘She’s a Long-legged Woman Dressed in Black’ to “she’s a short-legged woman” to describe me…well, you can guess the rest.
Sometimes friends have to be cruel to be kind.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Home
“Home is where the heart is.
Home is so remote.
Home is just emotion
sticking in my throat.
Let’s go to your place.”
The decor of this Sydney restaurant is a colourful reminder of the linguistically and culturally rich country that was my home from birth to mid-life.
My favourite from this week’s challenge was this one from Jo Bryant.
See The Daily Post for more photographic interpretations of ‘Home’.
Fix
Chocolate is essential.
It’s existential.
I did not, I repeat, did not attempt to bribe Nancy at Spirit Lights the Way with chocolate so she would include me as a semi-finalist in her ‘The Writer’s Desk Challenge’. 😆
Thanks, Nancy – I’m delighted.
Vote for your favourite entry here.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique
Reconstruction of an Archaeopteryx – Melbourne Museum
The staff at the Melbourne Museum have done a wonderful job of reconstructing this strange creature.
For more entries in this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post
Five favourites from this week:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Love
“Old and rare books!”, we gasped in reverent unison,
as we swerved off course, making a bee-line for the shop window.
“Don’t open ’til ten”, a chap behind us on the pavement drawled, the smoke from his early morning cigarette curling around his smile. He’d obviously seen our type before.
My niece and I were in Melbourne, relishing some girl-time. The day before we had spent a wonderful day at the Melbourne Museum, where we immersed ourselves in a shared love of all things scientific –
the wild,
the weird,
OK then, the weird…
..and the seriously mind-boggling.
This day we would spend the morning traversing Melbourne’s laneways, indulging our love of shopping, architecture and art,
and the afternoon marvelling at the mysterious workings of commercial harbours (Melbourne’s has quite a colourful history but I doubt that any internet resource can provide an as wry and amusing and account as our ferry driver did :lol:).
But about that bookshop – we made a mad dash back before closing time
and what a treasure trove it is – an extraordinary collection of enthralling books,
watched over
by the largest collection of owls I’ve ever seen –
they are everywhere, roosting in glass cases,
on pelmets, in windows and on bookshelves,
and have been mysteriously multiplying for the 47 years that Kay Craddock, the bookshop’s owner, has been in business.
But Old and Rare Books was nearing closing time and we were fading fast – a love of chocolate chocolate addiction is in our genes and we hadn’t had our Koko Black fix for the day,
so, after a quick purchase for the love of my life, we exited this wonderful place.
My niece and her husband were with us for three weeks over the 2012/2013 Festive Season: a wonderful and extremely precious time. We don’t know when we’ll see each other again; we live on different continents. But a myriad of shared interests and the deepest bonds of love keep us connected.
😀 😀 😀
More about Melbourne
Food recommendations from our trip:
Koko Black (of course!)
City Wine Shop (don’t let the name fool you – this establishment is not all about wine: their food is quite delicious – and their desserts are sublime!)
Longrain – the duck salad (which we shared) was superb, as was the banana and lime sorbet- yum, yum.
And for excellent photos of Melbourne, head over to Leanne Cole’s blog – mine can never do Melbourne justice the way that Leanne’s most certainly do.
For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
The Worst Day
I can never tell you
About that day…
It was the death of gravity, a falling
Away,
Unspeakable, unspeakable
Is all I can say, forever
It’s unspeakable
And the worst day.
beeblu blog 
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