The Mimosa Effect 2

Trying out my new digital camera for the first time today. All pics can be clicked on to get the full-sized image.

Bumble bee with Purple Coneflower (Echinacea)

Red tea roses with white hollyhock and yellow lily.

The Nameless One surrounded by six-foot-high grass.  Something tells me Eddie the giant koi won’t be eating that particular batch of duckweed.

Close-up of pond bubbles and water lillies (the new batch is doing well, despite a less-than-promising start in the spring).

Yes, this was taken on the same day (and yes, it’s still mid-July).  Apparently this maple-leaved volunteer shrub that’s currently hiding our drain pipe is somewhat seasonally confused.

Caught this little visitor just before he scurried off again.  Hardy white rose in front garden, in the sunniest front corner.

And finally, I just liked the way the colours came together in this one.  In case it wasn’t obvious to any non-gardening folks, that’s a purple climatis climbing the fence behind the flower pot.

Blue hills rise from the fog
in the pre-dawn light
Our skin pricked cold
breath hanging
like words best forgotten
This is the true homecoming
We know the bedrock here
like our own bones
felt but not seen
except in times of disaster
We left regret behind
in the last village
clinging to the cliff’s edge
like a gnarled, salt-stung tree
Remember how you said
you didn’t like to travel
but if getting there is hard
it makes arrival that much sweeter
Here the sheep and cows and chickens
are anything but domestic
wild, shaggy, ruffled
with eyes like coal embers
storm-blasted, hawk-harried,
they’re no easy kill
We leave the car
by the side of the road
and walk into the lifting fog
leaving footprints in wet grass
We climb
until we can barely stand
Looking down we imagine
the curve of the earth
We can feel moss growing
between our toes
feel the pulse of waves
through the soles of our feet
Now you understand
what home feels like
and wonder where you’ve been
all this time

(words used: true, blue, you / how, now, cow)

(for Saturday Scribes)

Sal squinted into the darkness of the old stone corridor. She was quite seriously considering fratricide. Walking the length of an underground maze with only a ball of string, a piece of chalk and a candle to guide her was not, as it turned out, nearly as exciting as it had seemed in the stories she had read as a child. It wasn’t that she was expecting to run into a Minotaur around the next corner – these cramped corridors were rather too small for that – but the prospect of being lost without food or water, alone in the Byzantine twists and turns of a seemingly endless, dank-smelling labyrinth was not an appealing thought. It wasn’t so much the spectre of death by thirst or starvation that bothered her, as much as the idea of being rescued by her brother Jack. He’d be mocking her for it until their hair turned grey and their teeth fell out, if she didn’t kill him first.

>> MORE….

Thanks to Grondzilla for giving us the heads up on this, or we might have missed it, and that would have been an utter tragedy:

The free version is only going to be up on the website until July 20th. Act I & II are already up, Act III to premiere on July 19th. Help support the Joss Whedon internet revolution! Peace out… (er, but… not literally.. peace I mean…)

 

 Miss Kitty Fantastico!
 Newest member of the Haney-Harrison household.

We were keeping it quiet for the first couple of days until we were sure everything was going to work out.  The other 2 cats, 4 fish and 1 turtle are all fine, excepting Freddie (fish #5), the 8-yr-old blind albino goldfish, who is still M.I.A. While our two big guys were initially less than pleased with the introduction of MKF (aka “Miss Stinky”), Jake (the tabby) is caving fast, and is quickly becoming MKF’s newest bestest playmate. Dude (the other, he says “original”, black cat) is still Mr. Grumpy but is gradually easing into a grudging (and occasionally interested) semi-acceptance.  Miss Kitty was adopted through the Animal Rescue Krew (ARK) and the good folks at our local Pet Valu store.

More M. pics of Miss Kitty can be found here.

Where the Hell is Matt? 2008 video (If this one doesn’t work, you can find a working one on Matt’s website: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com )

That is just so totally full of awesome. (Even if it was funded by a gum company.)

For some reason, when I first attempted to write something with this week’s Saturday Scribes prompts in mind, I came up with this poem here, which ended up having nothing to do with any of them. So I tried again, on the theme of “communication”, which led to “media”, which led to this (the process of which is as much of a mystery to me as it likely is to you).

Featured in a magazine:
One dilapidated time-turner
Family heirloom, owner recently deceased
Well-used, some rust, a few scratches
Runs fine despite appearances
(battery must be kept charged at all times)

On the front page (Monday edition):
Unexpected demise of local dignitary has locals shocked and saddened
Baffled authorities are requesting that any witnesses please come forward immediately

Debunked on popular website:
Rumours of time running amok proven false
Regional gossip and sightings of recent eclipse appear to be to blame, although experts aren’t ruling out the usual suspects: Sightings of Venus, the moon, flocks of geese at twilight, and bugs on camera lenses

As seen on TV (evening news edition):
Temporal anomalies no longer considered just a “regional phenomenon”
Reports are still coming in from all around the country, although most of them seem to be centred on the West Coast and the Mid-Country
Authorities are pleading with the public to remain calm, and to call the emergency help line if they are in need of assistance
Dunbury residents in particular are asked to steer clear of the area between Fleet Street and Coddleberry Lane.

As reported on short-wave radio (anonymous survivor, call-sign “XX2342″):
Yeah, it’s just me and the wife out here, goin’ on three weeks; although it’s hard to tell time lately, if you know what I mean. I was told the army guys would be comin’ by but I ain’t seen ‘em yet. There’s been a couple supply drops, mostly I hear the planes at night, then I have to go lookin’ for the boxes in the morning. Been livin’ off MRE’s for a while now. Good thing they dropped water too, everything here’s contaminated – no, not poisoned, it ain’t like that… it’s just… you can’t eat or drink anything here, or start fires using local wood or nothin’. Everything’s all out of phase, kind of thing. Tell the truth, not really sure when the stuff was dropped, before or after it happened – but at least you can live off it. Not sure for how much longer, though. What? It’s been how long? Nearly a year? You gotta be shittin’ me… Aw, crap – not again…. Look, I gotta sign off, I’ll check back in later, the generator’s busted again. Damn pieces keep goin’ missing. Just tell ‘em not to give up on the rest of us, all right? Even if it has been twelve months for the rest of you – we’re still out here.

As featured in a magazine:
One novelty item, mysteriously labelled by owner as a “time turner”
Appears to be a combination of a pocket watch and an antique compass (see photo)
Some rust and scratches, needs polishing
Original use unclear – should make nice decorative accent once restored.

The sun has seven petals
 One for tomorrow
  full of wishing and promise
   the day that never comes
    although we always know it will
    — Faith

One is for evening
 violet-blue of twilight
  grey shadows at dusk
   brilliant in serenity
    — Solitude

One for the dead of night
 fondness grown in absence
  delicate as razors
   the blissful oblivion of sleep
    — Mortality

One is for morning rising
 the first blush of false dawn
  mist off the lake
   golden in memory
    — Hope

One for the noonday sun
 baked earth, cracked clean
  sweat on the brow
   the sweetness of shade sought
    — Endurance

One is for stormy weather
 wave-tossed, wind-lashed
  dark clouds seething
   cold biting skin
    — Adversity

One is for today
 always with us
  never faltering
   limitless potential
    — Life

-T.H. (not entirely sure where that came from, since it bears no relation whatsoever to any of the Saturday Scribe prompts – hence the second try, in the form of the short prose bit that I’ll be posting next)

John Scalzi (over at AMCTV), on why scifi movies are rarely truly funny (at least intentionally). As usual with Scalzi posts, the ensuing discussion in the comments section is worth reading, as people weigh in on the central question posed in the article.

Unfortunately, it only helps to make the inevitability of seeing Wall-E (which is already getting great buzz) something to look forward to even more. Unfortunately, because I much prefer to see a film with low expectations, and be pleasantly surprised, than to go to a film filled with child-like excitement, only to be let down (for which there are many opportunities with genre movies, these days). So I will just have to struggle a bit harder to maintain my facade of cool disinterest.

As so often is the way of things, Brick had been looking for something else when he found the shoe.

It was under a rock, in the desert. The cactuses were blooming. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen anywhere, hadn’t been for weeks now – not even when you needed one. Especially then. It was, Brick thought, an odd place for a shoe to be. He had seen single shoes before – lost, forgotten, abandoned – by the side of the road, mostly. They always made him feel oddly nostalgic, and slightly unsettled at the same time. He used to wonder, why just one shoe? Why didn’t people ever lose them in pairs? The only time you ever saw pairs of shoes, they were tied together and thrown over telephone wires.

Brick sat in the shade of the rock, holding the shoe in his sunburned hands, and wondered who had been the first person to do that. He used to think it was big kids being mean to smaller ones, stealing their shoes and throwing them where they couldn’t reach. But then it became a trend. He’d heard that kids even went so far as to buy old pairs of shoes at the thrift store, just so they could throw them over the wires. This one looked brand new. It was one of those state-of-the-art running shoes, with all the bells and whistles. A shoe looks like that, you should be able to log onto the internet with it, send photos to your friends, call your mom and order up groceries while you were at it. He half suspected the damned things came with their own ring-tones.

>>MORE….