Tick Tock
Time melts
tick
tick
tick
away. Urgent
tick
tick
taking with it last chances
to hug, to love, to write.
tick
tick
tick
I see the sands of my life flowing down
tick
and yet
tick
tick
tick
I sit and stare
doing nothing with this moment for fear
tick
tick
of the next.
This is another tribute to The Walking Man, whose poetry often inspires me.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Click on the badge to go to the hub.
13 Words, more or less
This is pure word association.
1. Association
2. game
3. chess
4. queen
5. beauty
6. sunset
7. golden
8. years
9. time
10. flies
11. mosquitoes
12. smack!
13. ouch
Check out my Association Meme. You could win a sliver ingot.
Ah Maria, Yes It’s War, But Besides That…
On August 29th, 1756, Frederick the Great invaded Saxony. It wasn’t his intention to start a Europe-wide war. He needed Saxony as a buffer for Silesia and as a jumping-off for an invasion of Bohemia. He did these things not to provoke Austria, but because he believed Austria intended to strike at him.
With a Franco-Austrian treaty signed and sealed, he sounded out Austria as to her intentions. The answers he received were evasive and, to Frederick’s way of thinking, very suspicious. He even promised to withdraw his troops from Saxony if Maria would promise not to strike at Prussia. She wouldn’t do it.
He found the treaty between France and Austria alarming, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe that France would really fight alongside Austria. They had been enemies for far too long. Russia wanted to attack him, but he knew Tsaritsa Elizabeth wouldn’t do so without being paid to do so first.
Austria didn’t have that kind of money. England did, but why would England pay Russia to invade Prussia? They wouldn’t. So, the only thing he really needed to worry about was Austria. He was wrong. What he failed to see was that France had that kind of money and King Louis REALLY didn’t like him.
286/365 How to Make a Crazy Quilt
I’m not a quilter. I’ve made three full-size quilts and three baby quilts, but I have yet to do it right. Nor do I intend to. I’ve tried the real way of doing it. All those titchy little details that can cause a quilt to warp and twist if you aren’t careful drive me nuts. Instead, I make crazy quilts.
How to make a crazy quilt.
Step 1: Acquire a large pile of scraps through the natural processes involved in sewing.
Step 2: Clear a floor
Step 3: Place the scraps together, face up, with a minimum of 1/2 inch overlap. Pin.
Step 4: Run through the sewing machine on maximum zig zag stitch set for around 24 stitches per inch.
Step 5: Repeat until you have built up a pieced-together section large enough to cover one side.
Step 6: Repeat the previous steps all over again until you have another side built.
Step 7: Lay one side out face down (hope your floor it big enough). Cover this with the quilt batting. Place the other side on top of both of the other two face up. Pin in place.
Step 8 : I run the whole thing through the machine. I don’t recommend this, actually, as I tend to break needles in the process, but I’m not going to sit around with a hoop and put those ugly little tufts of yarn through both sides to hold it in place, or take the time to stitch it all together by hand.
Step 9: Wrap a strip of fabric or blanket edging around the outside edging of the quilt. Stitch.
Easy as pie.
Where Socks Go
Jack: How come there’s only one black sock in the dryer?
Jill: Don’t ask me. There were two when I put them in. I’m sure of it.
Jack: Well the dryer must have eaten one, ’cause there’s only one in there now.
Jill: I know. It’s like there’s a sock-eating black hole inside.
Jack: Darling, looks to me like there might be more than one.
Today’s theme is black
Previously in Jack and Jill: Add Diction
The rules for Photohunt can be found here.
Be sure to visit the home page.
285/365 Rabbit Rabbit
I was going to do a peeps Maypole thing, but someone ate all the peeps. Maybe next year.
Suzie’s House 162: A Suggestion
Suzie marched upstairs, telling herself to stay calm. It wasn’t such a big deal. So far as she knew, neither boy had done anything yet. With any luck, it would stay that way for years, possibly even forever.
And birds never had to land.
She hurried. Her phone conversation with Drew hadn’t seemed long, but to her amazement the boys could get into trouble even faster.
