Come Tickle A Trout

Once again I'm joining in with Elephant's Child

and entering a poem containing certain random words (the ones underlined)

It's lovely how some words immediately conjure up pictures in your mind's eye and you have the scene in front of you but then trying to work those words to form pictures for others is so difficult to do well.  

I welcome any feedback and suggestions on how to improve this poem.

Come Tickle a Trout 

Come tickle a trout my father said

So we set off ‘cross the fields to the river

Under a cloudless sky

And the sound of the water as it came round the point

Tickled my ears as I grasped his hand

Through the ripening corn

Come tickle a trout my father said

So we knelt by the side of the river

Under the dappled trees

And a kingfisher with psychedelic blues

Tickled my eyes as I watched it speed

Over the rippling water

Come tickle a trout my father said

With his fingers submerged in the river

Under the brown trout’s belly

And he stroked so gently that it never knew

Tickled my nose with the drops that fell

As it rose out of the water

Dispatching it quickly

Being true to type allowing me to try the next one

But my childlike fingers were not as illustrious as his

Many slipped away to swim another day

Each time his shrug meant no problem, no regrets

And so I remained trying my best until a fish landed

And my heart sang

We carried them home and cooked them above the flames

And sucked the flavour of the river and success from their bones.

Celebrate #5

This week I am celebrating along with my fellow bloggers over at:

1) The safe return of my DD - she has had the time of her life - thank you Australia :)

2)  This weekend my parents-in-law are coming over to stay along with my husband's brother & wife and their three little ones so we will have a house full and it will be lovely :)

3)  I am very pleased that I was successful in my bid for a Victorian sofa in a local auction but now I have to figure out how I am going to get it back to our house as I have been told it will NEVER go on the roof-rack !  Whoops!!

4)  I am very grateful for all those who have stopped by my blog this May - particularly those who leave a comment - as I feel I have continued the momentum of the A-Z Challenge and have found some more real good blogging friends out there.  Thank you for making it such a good month :)

I hope everyone is going to have a lovely weekend and please feel free to let me know what you have been celebrating this week :)

Coming Up in June

I am turning my thoughts to new experiences and blog hops I want to try in June.  I am trying to expand my horizons, meet new people, learn new skills and hopefully enjoy myself in different ways to how I normally blog.  So without further ado let me introduce you to some things happening in June that you may wish to have a look at too?

Beginning June 1st over at http://gallorganico.blogspot.com is this

I've never done a scavenger hunt before but I think this would be good to have a go at and might get me using my camera a bit more and "seeing" more things as I try to collect the necessary photos.

An even more ambitious project for me will be to have a go at creating an artistic piece each day on an index card

This is happening over at Daisy Yellow and will continue throughout June & July - I am really not sure for how long I will be able to continue this but if I don't try I'll never know?  If you want to find out more then click on the picture above.

I was also thinking I might give the write a poem a day challenge a go too - they understand that not everyone will be able to write like this so at least I won't feel too bad if I cannot manage 30 poems - hmm or even 10!  However, on closer inspection it turns out only those from Kentucky or living in or nearby can enter - so boo hoo fo rme but there might be others out there who do fit this criteria and may want to give it a go?

I will keep looking for maybe something to do in this vein as I would like to take those first few tentative steps into the world of grown-up writing - I can teach the basics of writing to children but can I write like an adult? So if you do know of anything that might fit the bill please let me know?
                                 

I'd love to know what you have on the horizon for June?  Are you off on your hols?  Are you competing in a new sport?  Have you got rehearsals for a production coming up?  Anything new in your hobbies?  Or now that you've seen some of these things above are you tempted by any of them?

Canal Reflections - Wordless Wednesday

Christmas in May

My DD is heading home so I'd better make sure the presents bought for Xmas are all wrapped so she can have her Christmas as soon as she has recovered from the jet lag.  

Of course inevitably, there will be those presents I squirreled away that will appear later on in the year or even next year!

Her main present of course was money to spend on activities later on during her stay and I know she has done loads and built up a bank of very special memories but these little gifts just have to be done too :)

Have you found any Xmas presents you forgot to give?  Did you receive any late Xmas gifts yourself?

Creative Monday Ceiling Catch Up

Joining in with

hosted by Claire Justine

This week I have been "creating" in the spare bedroom and thought I'd show you the final photos in mending my early 18th century ceiling project!

This was how it was patch repaired and sanded down - no longer a great bowing in the ceiling and already for decorating.

Managed to get 2 pieces of wallpaper up by myself without too many mishaps and very pleased I got it straight and lining up everywhere as this was my first attempt at ever wallpapering :)

Then onto trying to match the colour of the original ceiling so that I'd only have to do the bit I'd repaired.  No such luck and after unsuccessfully painting it to find it dried to a darker blue I finally gave up and bought new pale blue paint to do the whole of this side of the room sloped ceiling.

Then I managed to get two more pieces (this time of lining paper) up on to the wall that I'd also had to re-plaster some small holes and finally painted that a purple colour rather than the deep blue it had been before.  It needed two coats to get rid of such a strong colour underneath but everyone agrees it now looks SO much better.  My next task will be to hopefully colour co-ordinate the bed linen and maybe get a throw to put over the black leather sofa in there and then it will look like a really nice guest bedroom :)

I know it's not perfect but for a first go at a lot of DIY things I am really pleased with how it's ended up and I don't think too many people would notice anything too bad if I don't point it out!!

I welcome any feedback or tips you can give and I'd love to know what everyone else has been getting up to on their creative side too or their own DIY jobs around the place?

Collective Nouns

I was catching up with reading some of the blogs I follow when I came across this writing challenge on The Contemplative Cat - compose a story, poem, piece of prose that contains six set words. I was so taken with her short story written for the challenge that I decided to pop over to this week's originator of the words -  Elephant's Child  http://myjustsostory.blogspot.com

I am all for trying new things so here is my contribution in the form of a poem entitled Collective Nouns? . I would so welcome any feedback - the underlined words are those that were on the list :)

Collective nouns?

I know that a carillon is a group of bells

But is a bent a set of walking sticks?

An abracadabra a book of spells?

Is a glower a collection of eyebrows?

A nuisance - a profusion of cats?

And a smiling more than one rainbow?

Am I close with any of that?