January 29, 2013
madness frozen out
bones interred together warmed
peace buds in waiting
Early morning view from my sitting room window: the clock tower – about 1/2 mile away – of the once notorious Victorian “lunatic asylum” at Menston, now luxury flats. Over 2,000 bodies of former inmates are buried, together, close by
August 9, 2012
Chirruping crickets
All else mute they look to dawn
Winter waits restore
August 4, 2012
I got pollen
I got nectar
I got freedom
Who could ask for anything more?
With deference to George and Ira Gershwin
August 3, 2012
Biscuits cut from sky
Baking in the summer sun
Heaven gives look up
Alt for American audience:
Cookies cut from sky
Baking in the summer sun
Heaven gives look up
These shapes immediately brought to mind the tiny ‘biscuits’ which are a part of any celebration in the part of Romania I know well – the northern part. In many different shapes – crescents, stars, cones and many others – they are known as ‘fursecuri’, which I cannot translate but can pronounce: foor-sec-oorr. The only picture I could find of them is:
July 16, 2012
I’ve left the haiku for today and diverted into a limerick.
And an enticing recipe for some soft-centre ‘cookies’ has led me to put up the recipe for my favourite cake – a cake with a soft centre.
Yet again it was bloggers doing ‘likes’ on my post which took me to their blogs
http://www.madkane.com/humor_blog/
http://homemadewithmess.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/soft-centered-chewy-cookie-recipe-3-2/
In the first I found a ‘limerick challenge’. Madeleine gives a first line and the challenge is to complete the limerick. In the second a cook who likes to make a mess.
Struggling with my first attempt at a short story the limerick came pretty easily:
Rueful limerick:
A fellow was starting to rue
Re-doing his story anew
The words wouldn’t come
He was almost struck dumb
And he knew that a few wouldn’t do.
My favourite cake:
Reine de Saba (this is a chocolate and almond cake, thanks to Mastering the art of French cooking, the book from which I Iearned to cook).
8inch cake tin, 1.1/2in deep. Butter and flour the tin.
Melt 4oz good plain chocolate with 2tbl rum or coffee (I go for half and half) over very hot water.
Cream 1/4lb of castor sugar with 1/4lb of softened butter, until they are a pale yellow, fluffy mixture.
Beat in three egg yolks until well blended.
Beat the three egg whites with a pinch of salt until there are soft peaks. Sprinkle on 1 tbl castor sugar and beat until there are stiff peaks (a copper bowl makes this much easier).
Blend the melted chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture using a ‘rubber’ spatula, then stir in 2oz of pulverized almonds (pulverize the almonds at top speed in a liquidiser for about 30 secs) and ¼ tsp almond extract.
Sift 2oz of fine cake flour.
Fold in a quarter of the egg whites.
When partially blended sift on a quarter of the cake flour and continue folding, then another ¼ of the egg whites. Fold in egg whites and flour alternately until all is used.
Turn the mixture into the cake tin, pushing the mixture up to the rim (so there’s a dip in the centre).
Bake in the oven at 350degF for about 25 mins. The cake is done when 2.1/2in to 3in around the rim are set so that a needle comes out clean but the centre moves slightly when the tin is shaken and the needle comes out of the centre oily.
Allow the cake to cool for 10 mins, run a knife around the edge of the tin and reverse the tin onto a rack. Allow to cool for an hour or two.
I like it just like this, but you can cover it with chocolate butter icing and make a design on the icing with almonds.
July 15, 2012
imagine differ
climb out of the commonplace
halt think free proceed
Browsing around looking for inspiration I came across a site which, weekly, gives three words as a prompt to write something. This week’s three words were ‘imagine’, ‘differ’ and ‘halt’. The site is
http://www.threewordwednesday.com/
I thought I’d see if the words would prompt a haiku. They did.
In my previous post I said I liked the discipline of the 5-7-5 haiku. I also like the discipline of having to include a given three words, just from time to time.
I haven’t given up on the picture haiku, marrying up a photograph and a haiku, or just creating a ‘haiku’ from 17 pictures, as I did in my first effort – I find it very appealing and my efforts seemed to prompt quite a few ‘likes’ and ‘follows’, so I will persevere.
I find Romania inspiring so I’m hoping to find some haiku inspiring pictures there in August. There’s a little place called Sadova near which, several years ago, I experienced the greatest feeling of peace ever. I hope to go there and maybe recapture that. Just the thought of it has given me an idea for a short story – which will be my first ever if I can complete it (in fact it will not be my first; I’ve been told I wrote a lot of stories as a child. Somewhere along the way I lost that).
Another idea I’ve picked up from another blog, and I’m very sorry I cannot find it again to give a credit, was to assign a day of the week to each of various subjects. For me this might be a great idea as although some people seem to run a multiplicity of blogs, each for one of their interests, I cannot imagine being able to do that. One is hard enough. It might also help with keeping up with a post a day. I’m working on it. I guess it might help followers who find one of my topics interesting but not others.
I haven’t yet signed up to threewordwednesday but maybe I’ll work out how to do the link and make it.
June 23, 2012
June 23, 2012
from the old locked box
photographs you left behind
my eyes become yours
Taking a break from sorting through a lot of photos found at my Mum’s (she died last year at 91), I was visiting the blogs of people who had given me a ‘like’ and came across this Haiku.
So beautiful, so appropriate.
I couldn’t resist putting it up with one of the pictures from the ‘box’.
Kids from Albert Avenue, Shipley, W Yorkshire, UK, dressed for the play they wrote and performed for the street party celebrating the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Never saw this scene because I’m in it. Wonder what my Mum was thinking with this in front of her.
It’s a play we kids wrote for our Coronation street party in 1953. Sadly no sign of the script.
Thanks to fivereflections for the like which brought me to this
http://fivereflections.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/haiku-20120527/
