Water

After the morning fog had cleared Saturday turned into a glorious day with plenty of sunshine and blue skies. The heavy rains and higher temperatures of the previous days have almost eliminated the snow cover in the more exposed parts. However, in shady spots, like inside the forest, there's still plenty of snow. And water...

Water gushing from virtually everywhere, gurgling streams trickling down the slopes across the path into a bigger stream and on toward the river already swollen with the recent rains and snowmelt, the river carrying the memory of the snowy mountains and the flooded meadows and the muddy soles wiped in the remaining patches of melting snow...

The difference a day makes

Still snow and puddles but this time reflecting some blue sky and the temperature was almost spring-like...

Not a good photo

... but a good representation of what my world looks like at present...

3WT in 55

In the assectation of his father's ambitions he became a lawyer. Infamous for never losing a trial, he often caused amarulence and grief in his opponents and victims with his unscrupulous approach. He didn’t care that the family renounced him some time ago as they felt he had defedated their name by becoming gangsters’ attorney.

A sample haiku

signs of spring

the dog sniffs the news
from a post

Some self-promotion - because you asked for it

All three of my readers expressed a wish to find out more about my accomplishments in haiku.
Well, for the purposes of this blog I am juliana but I submitted my work under my given name.

I wrote my first haiku-like poems at the beginning of 2005 and a friend who actually prompted me to start writing suggested I sent them to the president of the Haiku Club of Slovenia. She showed interest in my work and with her help I sent in a few haiku for the next issue of Letni časi/The Seasons (the magazine of said society). The issue was in print but a few samples were posted bilingually on line :
http://www.tempslibres.org/hcs/letni/lc26.html
http://www.tempslibres.org/hcs/letni/lc28.html

Having seen the issue, a Japanese artist Kuniharu Shimizu showed interest in my haiku and wanted to make haiga from four of them. Unfortunately, the website where those haiga were published no longer exists.

Later that year I discovered World Haiku Club and its publication World Haiku Review. A few of my very first submitted haiku were published and even commended in the Autumn 2005 issue. The links to the archives worked a few months ago but are not working at present.

That summer (2005) I also submitted some haiku to a few contests in Japan and to my utter surprise I received a notification towards the end of the year that I was awarded second prize by one of the judges.
Winners 10th Kusamakura Haiku Competition

In the following years I appeared in a few on-line publications:
http://www.themetpress.com/haiku/2006A/oblak.html
http://du5tin.net/haiku/oblak.html
http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n1/haiga-modern/Oblak/index.html

And in December 2006 my entries came second and first in the Shiki Monthly Kukai and the winning haiku was also selected for the annual Red Moon Press Anthology

Afterwards I was beginning to feel there's little new for me to say so, apart from occasional entries in the Kukai, I quit submitting my work. Perhaps I should renew my ambition and try to get into, say, The Heron's Nest.

An award!

Oh well, Thom in all his generosity bestowed an award on me along with all the other bloggers on his list. Since I can't turn a friend down I'll grudgingly accept it.



There is of course a catch... we are supposed to list seven things about ourselves and since there are no specifics, I'll try to make them as boring as possible.

1. I've lived in two different countries without having to move an inch
2. I find all kinds of holidays and anniversaries terribly annoying and would prefer to be exempted from them all
3. I love chocolate - the darker the better
4. I am introvert and a bit of a misanthrope
5. I suffer from the white coat syndrome
6. I never had any idea what I wanted to do in life - still don't, to be honest
7. in spite of #4 and #6, I was quite successful (competitively) in a few sports and was published (internationally) in the first few months after I started writing haiku

Strangers in the... snow

Snow mixed with rain, actually... and a couple of colourful umbrellas passing beneath my flat this Saturday.

Microfiction Monday

Hosted by Susan at Stony River




Alright, so you're stuck. Blocked. No idea what to write. And you expect me to do something about it? Like, pull a magician out of a hat?

A few olympic thoughts

The Vancouver Olympic games are beyond the halfway stage, and although there have been enjoyable moments, too much went wrong to call them a success.

It all started with the unfortunate death of the Georgian luger which immediately raised safety issues. It is doubtful whether padding at the exit of the superfast and dangerous turn could have saved his life but the fact is, the pillars were unprotected - which was later changed.

Both men's and women's downhills were not without incidents. A worker on the course while the racer was speeding down could have resulted in a disaster but at least this time there were no consequences. Anja Paerson's spectacular tumble off the final jump also ended without serious injuries and she went on to win bronze in the combined event the following day.

Which can't be said about Petra Majdič's accident in the warm-up to the cross country classic sprint in which she was favourite for gold. She slipped on an ice plate in a sharp bend (which, by the way, was her fault) and dropped off course almost 3 metres into an unprotected (!) ditch, sustaining serious injuries. How she was able to compete at all with 4 broken ribs and a developing pneumothorax is incredible but to force herself to bronze with such injuries is no short of a miracle. Irony of all ironies - the technical delegate for this particular race was Slovenian. Later on, the organisers protected the dangerous parts of the cross country tracks.

There was a number of other incidents which were not life-threatening but no less annoying, like the officials letting the competitors start too early or too late in both biathlon pursuit races, or biased judging in men's figure skating favouring Evan Lysacek, thus robbing Yevgeny Plushenko of a deserved gold (I know my American friends may disagree on this one), to name but the most obvious few.

Still, I hope the true Olympic spirit prevails until the end and there will be no more incidents to further mar the games.

Saturday reflection

It rained all day yesterday.
Rain mixed with snow all day today.
There's water everywhere, albeit much of it still in solid form.
Some rivers are flooding again.
Except for the one last week there hasn't been a Saturday this year without some snowfall.

I'm not a bloody amphibian (and they are still hibernating at this time anyway) and am totally sick of this half-frozen squishy slushy mess. So, whoever is responsible for it, please give me a break!

3WT - again in 55

No odynometer can measure the amount of pain a mother feels when her baby disappears without a trace. Just imagine the horror when the rumour spreads there is a brephophagist among the villagers. But then a sagittipotent paladin hunting in the forest finds the baby boy, having got lost while playing, and brings him back.

More fishes

Last weekend I showed a photo of these fishes from about three years ago. Well, here's how they looked this week.

Haiku time

(no, it is not 5-7-5 and yes, it is a haiku)

melting snow
a crow weaves a new twig
into his old nest

...

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a buterfly.
- Richard Bach

Microfiction Monday

Courtesy of Susan at Stony River



You what??? Bought a pirate ship?!?

But it was a bargain. And they said they would otherwise disassemble it after the carnival procession.

Fishes

Since I kind of promised, here they are...

Another reflecting window

I've shown these windows before. This time, however, the branches reflecting in them are still laden with snow.

The sun showed shyly today from behind a mist but I didn't have any time for taking photos... I wonder if it will still want to show up tomorrow?

My world

This is how it looked yesterday morning. The snowing did stop although there were still a few flurries today. In the meantime the mountains of dirty ploughed and shovelled snow have grown some more and it will take a mighty thaw before the roads and pavements (sidewalks for the Americans) are clear of the formerly white but increasingly blackening stuff. Right now we're still frozen solid, though. Is spring ever coming ???

3WT in 55

"Where did you hide my earrings again, you facinorous bird," Melanie muttered as she searched despondently for the pair of earrings she wanted to wear at the hebdonadal numismatic society meeting. She should have extirpated her brother's idea to domesticate a magpie before the bird claimed ownership of all the glittering objects in her vicinity.

A comment to the pics in the previous post

accumulating
far beyond my comfort zone
february snow

No comment

Stolen pic

Dreary days continue... no sign of the sun, just the dismal grey clouds covering everything and piles of dirty snow hardened by the rain from a few days ago into cement-like mounds.
So, to lighten things up, I stole this shot of a guy in yellow tennis shoes riding the escalator...

Microfiction Monday

Another Monday and time for the fabulous meme hosted by Susan at Stony River



What is it you're saying? You love me? Want to marry me?
Oh, Sean darling... yes yes yes!
What? You're not Sean? No, I'm not Dee... crap!

Reflection on a dismally grey Sunday

Mixed stuff

Tomorrow being mother's birthday, she invited the family out to lunch today. I knew father would be there, too, so I was reluctant to go what with the last year's row and the ensuing cessation of all communication between us but for her sake still couldn't decline. We were supposed to meet at a restaurant on a hill. The day was grey and misty, rain mixing with snow, and the forecast gloomy. However, the precipitation stopped mid-morning and after a phone consultation we decided to go nonetheless. Once we were there the snow picked up again but at least it didn't accumulate.

M (my partner) and I arrived at the spot without incident and at the appointed time. However, the rest of them were nowhere to be seen. So I called and found out we were given a wrong time frame and besides, my sister with her husband were late to pick up parents. They finally arrived and we exchanged courtesy and b-day wishes and stuff. But imagine my astonishment when father - the very bastard who humiliated me and abused me verbally and emotionally throughout my life - stepped up and hugged me and welcomed me back.

Now, this sure made mother's day and everybody seemed to be happy about it. Not me, though. I'm not sure what I feel yet. Perhaps I should be happy, too, or at least relieved - but I am not. In fact, I feel completely indifferent at the moment. I did not turn him down - after all, how could I - but it didn't make me feel any closer to him. I still don't like him and I don't think I ever will but I don't hate him either. And I'm just not sure how far I can tolerate him and his antics. Still, he is but an old man and hasn't much time left so maybe I had better learn to.

(gosh, how I miss my lost friend...)

Fact (or rumour) is stranger than fiction - in 55

Three bullmastiffs attacked their owner and bit him to death last Monday. The owner, a renown physician with connections in high political circles, was discovered naked and died immediately after the arrival of the police. Allegedly, a dildo was found at the scene and rumors have it the deceased had changed gender some years ago.

3WT - just some nonsense

Faced with a paucity of ideas as to how to continue with his latest novel the bestselling author decided to take a walk. Soon he noticed he was beeing followed but before he could do anything a glabrous man grabbed him by the thropple. He tried in vain to explain he had nothing of value with him as he was running out of breath. Suddenly his assailant burst in a bout of sternutation which gave the man enough time to escape to safety. When he remembered he had an old copper phalera still attached to his jacket, he realised it had probably saved his life. Harry Zoilist, the notorious gangster, was allergic to copper. When he finally returned home, he was happy he had escaped the hitonious attack so he put on a CD with isangelous zither music and set about writing. The incident had provided him with enough material to overcome his writing block.

To haiku or not to haiku

oh well...

waking from a dream
the air raid siren becomes
my old alarm clock

Feathered bandits

This is not my first photo of crows ransacking the rubbish bins - but it gives some idea of the amount of snow we currently have (and yes, the sun finally showed up for a few hours). Being the clever animals that they are, the hooded crows have learned to take advantage of everything humans leave behind, and these cheeky opportunists have mastered the art to perfection.

Microfiction Monday

Hosted by Susan at Stony River



Waiter! There's a bug in my stew, and it's huge!
Impossible! I removed it mys... goodness! There's folks in there, too! call 911, quick!