Spelling!

^ Spot the spelling mistake. I laughed.

he's for sale!

^You can buy him for $6! I saw this whilst shopping with M. I had to laugh!

M and Portia

^ Portia and M. Our chooks are quite tame. M has trained Portia to sit on his arm. She sits quietly on his arm and doesn't try to get off. Portia is the tamest of all the chooks.
This particular time she was eager to keep eating. Usually she is quite happy to sit on his arm for a few minutes.

Unique find

^ I found this unique serviette holder at one one of the local op-shops yesterday. What a find! Cost 40 cents! I love the box it came in, vintage and cute.

Creative writing course week 2

This lesson we learned about some different poetry forms.

The forms that we learned were limerick, villanelle and haiku.
I knew how to do limerick and haiku, but had never heard of villanelle before.

Limerick and haiku are fairly easy, but villanelle is a bit more challenging.

An example of a limerick:

Once, while under the trees (A)
a dear lady sat drinking her teas (A)
out came the host (B)
they had a good toast (B)
but before they had a good squeeze (A)

Written by me.

It has a certain rhythm and rhyme to it.
There are two sets of rhyming couplets as shown and then the last line rhymes with the first two lines. There is also a songlike quality to the way it's read.

Haiku poems are very simple and short.
It is 3 lines long
The first line must use a nature or season word
There has to be one cutting or terminating word at the end of one of the lines
no rhyme or metaphor
The Japanese way of writing Haiku is the 5 - 7 - 5 syllable rule. However it is not necessary to stick to this rule in English Haiku.

Rain uncovers new dirt
heavy black clouds
thirsty plants refreshed

Written by me.

A Villanelle is six stanzas long, each stanza has 3 lines of poetry except for the last stanza. It is based around a rhyming couplet which is worked into the poem in a A B pattern. The last stanza consists of 4 lines with the last two lines being the base rhyming couplet.
There are five tercets (3 lines) and one concluding quatrain (4 lines).

It uses this form:

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 2 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 4 (a)

Line 5 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 7 (a)

Line 8 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 10 (a)

Line 11 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 13 (a)

Line 14 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 16 (a)

Line 17 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Refrain 2 (A²)

An example.

• Edwin Arlington Robinson's villanelle The House on the Hill was first published in The Globe in September 1894.

They are all gone away, (A¹)

The House is shut and still, (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Through broken walls and gray (a)

The winds blow bleak and shrill. (b)

They are all gone away. (A²)

Nor is there one to-day (a)

To speak them good or ill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Why is it then we stray (a)

Around the sunken sill? (b)

They are all gone away, (A²)

And our poor fancy-play (a)

For them is wasted skill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

There is ruin and decay (a)

In the House on the Hill: (b)

They are all gone away, (A¹)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Source: wikipedia

I must confess I struggled with this form of poetry as I am not used to structured poetry and rhyming poetry. I write free verse poetry mostly.
However I am finding it to be an interesting style, one I think I will get better at as I learn more.

I have ordered a rhyming dictionary and a phrase thesaurus so that will definitely help me.

Creative writing course

I had my first lesson for the creative writing course. It was really good. I really enjoyed myself. The teacher/presenter did a good job too.
There were about 11 or 12 people in the group. There was only one male. Most were older - 40-60s age group. There was one girl that was around my age - we sort connected because of that and also because we didn't know anyone else. The others all seemed to know each other. Not that it mattered everyone was treated the same.

There were five writing exercises that we did.

The first one was we had to write whatever came to mind for five minutes. We had to use the sentence 'bring me the sunset in a cup' somewhere in the writing though.
This was alot of fun and I came up with all sorts of random things. After the 5 minutes was up we were given the choice to share our writings. Everyone did except for one person. As each person read their piece of writing; the group would respond positively. The group had a positive and relaxing atmosphere about it. Even though I didn't know anyone, I felt accept and not judged. It was quite unusual, but nice for a change.

The second one we were given a scenario and we had to write using that scenario. The scenario was; leaning against a tree listening to a storyteller tell a story. We had to write what the story was. We had 15 minutes to write whatever story we came up with. After the 15 minutes those that wanted shared their stories. Once again everyone was very accepting and enthusiastic about each persons story.

The third writing exercise was writing a poem - my forte! However we were given a list of words to incorporate into the poem. We had to use 5 out of the 7 words.
The words are:
black
emerald
wild
blue
moonrain
angels
sulky

We all shared our poems - each person had such different ideas and poems. I think mine was the darkest. I couldn't get past the word black - it kept bringing the rest of the words down.
here is my poem:

Wild black thoughts

On an emerald day

My sulky mood

Waits for nothing

I sit

think

thoughts

Many thoughts

tumble over

red, purple and pink

there are too many

overwhelmed

my sulky mood

on an emerald day

Wild black thoughts

return

dominate

control

must break free

The fourth writing exercise we were given a scenario where we were invisible and we had to write what we would do, say and listen to. It was quite a fun writing exercise. There were some funny stories that came out of it.

The fifth writing exercise was similar to the first. We had to write whatever came to mind. However there was no sentence we had to include.

We were also given homework - either keep working on one of the exercises/stories I have started or invent a character and write three journal entries that tell a story.

It was a very fun learning experience. I am so glad I signed up for it. I believe it will be one of the best things I have done.

Book quotes

A few quotes from one of my favourite books. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

"She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person.."

"She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."

New adventures

I'm going to be going to the art group on Fridays from now on. I'm really looking forward to it.
I have also signed up to go to a creative writing course that runs for 2 months or so. It is run by a poet, and children's writer. I am really looking forward to that too. Exciting times ahead.

Creativity

Art: I'm possibly going to be able to go to an art group thing from 11 - 4 on Fridays. I'm very excited! I find out tomorrow.
It will be good to have space, time and support regarding my creative journey.

Realisation

A day of blah...well that's how I feel. Today is a day of realisation.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng.com

Aging....not really.

Trying to see if I've aged (ie look older) hmm...was looking at photos from when I first got married to now. I don't feel older, prob look it. Although I have been told that I look as young as 18-20 - nice compliment really seeing that I'm going to be 26 next year. I'd rather look younger than older. I hope it stays that way as I get older.

It was like that even when I was a teenager. People who met my sister and I used to think my sister was older than I. It annoyed me somewhat at the time, but now I'm glad. I remember when I was 17 being told I looked 13. That was an insult then, not so much now.
Having said that, my sister wore makeup alot whereas I never wore it. That could be one reason why. I still don't wear make up (hardly ever anyway). It doesn't appeal to me to put on a mask to improve how I look. I'd rather be myself.

Amused

These two 'how to' links amused me.

Create your own language

Create your own style

Random.

Squashed seedlings

Tiger was sleeping on my seedlings today. He was curled up in the box I have them in, sleeping right on top of them and squashing them! *screams in frustration*
Cats!

Anaglyph

I created this anaglyph effect in Photoshop. It's actually for an assignment I am doing at the moment, believe it or not. I have to write a unit of work for students that involve technology - any technology - computers, printers, cameras, scanners, various programs. I came up with this idea, I got the tutorial from worth1000.com and thought why not. Then I had the fun task of making it an actual assignment and to make it more involved rather than just a simple task as making this effect in Photoshop.
So I'm going to get students to collect 8-10 items that reflect who they are and photograph them and making it a anaglyph - put simply. I have to make examples of what the work looks like as part of my assignment so there's my anaglyph with my reflectional items about me.

Now I just need some 3D glasses.

Our chooks

^ photos of our chooks. They are funny to watch and quite tame.

Past thoughts

I found a piece of prose I'd written ages ago. Probably close to 8 years ago. It was an odd experience I had when I was relaxing on my bed. I think I was listening to Linkin Park, but I can't really remember.

The sound of the ocean sounded so surreal all around me.
The distant waves crashed onto the towering cliff, the sound was so real.
I looked at the calm waves beside me, gently nudging the shore.
The sky was hard, cold and wintery looking,
and yet it looked fresh as though it were new.
The spray from the distant waves splattered the cliff,
like the many more waves to come.
Then all of a sudden I heard a loud noise beside me
of a breaking wave,
I felt the wave pull me toward the sea bed,
I floated along with it
and it felt like I was nothing, totally weightless
as I floated and moved with the motion of the ocean.
Then suddenly I shook myself
and I was back on my bed,
half expecting to be surrounded by water.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home

Amusing quote

I just found a quote of Andy Warhol's that I had written down when I was younger. I just had to share it. I must have liked it then and still do. It's amusing.

"My favourite thing to buy is underwear. I think buying underwear is the most personal thing you can do, and if you could watch a person buying underwear you would really get to know them. I mean, I would rather watch somebody buying their underwear than read a book they wrote. I think the strangest people are the ones who send somebody else to buy their underwear for them. I also wonder about people who don't buy underwear. I can understand not wearing it, but not buying it?" Andy Warhol.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home