Summer's End

Forest walk
with an eye for colour
Look ye there
I see another!

Reds, yellows,
greens and brown
A rainbow amongst the trees
and all around.




Feathered friends
and furry ones too
There's lots of life left
Despite Autumn's hue.

Those fleeting rays of sunshine
we chase into the trees
Our false sense of summer;
a pleasure and a tease.

These days a memory
one to cherish true
as winter approaches close
and balmy days are wished adieu

Editing Africa

For those of you who read this blog back when I regularly contributed excerpts about my travels through Africa, I want to thank you today. Just as it was a long process to write the story, it is a long process to edit it. It has all taken much longer than the original 10 months that I was gone for, but every time I step back into the tale, I am transported. And the encouragement that I received from you then, feeds me every time I push words around on the page today.

So, I just wanted to let you know that I have not given up the tale. There are 244 pages and counting, with new subtitles and potential pictures to be added. I am determined to see this project through to the end once more. I wandered through Zimbabwe today celebrating birthdays with friends, adding a little here and taking a little away there. And YOU my readers were with me.

Thanks.

And now, back to finishing the task at hand - dinner!

Add the pasta, and this will be a tasty treat

The Making of a Beet Salad

Stir beets slow

rooaaasssstttttiiiiiinnnnnnngggggggg

in oven Hot while

quinoa bubbles pop

don't stop until

a soft

com-

bin-

a-tion

they transform in

to

dinner salad

seasonal

delicacies

in tummies

yumm...

  Now, where did that chicken go?

Sunflower

cool breeze

autumn sneeze

breath torn asunder

at the end of summer

as a burnt umber face cries

to look at the skies

but all i can see

is the beginning of allergies

no cry for frost yet

i'll pay my dues, plenty wet

from the window seat indoors

with tissues & tinctures

and a memory of summer fun

and your beauty, hard won

Toad's Revenge

Cruelty to animals,

licking at their back?

Will he turn into prince so fine

or have jowls that just go slack?

The garden that he picked so fair

now inhabited by giants

that pluck his regal countenance

from quiet dreams in silence

Lo, the wrath he wrecks on those

who dare to look and see

This toady responds by releasing full

a bladder full of pee

Ewww,

toad pee!

on my hands

all over ME!

Shows you right 

for disturbing life

Revenge so fine

from our local wildlife