Porthole

June 6 - June 12

A weekly blog that starts skinny on Saturday and fattens up by Tuesday and is ready for slaughter by Friday ... if not before.

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  ███████          PORTHOLE           ███████

SPRING: JUNE 2020
Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Tree of Eternity,
with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones
the glad tidings of the nearness of God...
- Bahá’u’lláh

MY THOUGHTS

June 6: I hope I made a difference in the past; hope I still can.
June 7: I wonder whether I've ever won a Quill Award. I've been nominated.
June 8: It's dark. I'm tired. I'm awake.
June 9: It's 01:36. I should be asleep. My routines have been totally whacked.
June 10: Up at 8 a.m. No... I'm not ill, but this is early for me.
June 11: I've always been chatty. It's part of my annoying personality.
June 12: Up too late = pay the price. Almost noon = barely functioning.

WEATHER

June 5: 23° sunny and heating up; 32° in Sabetha, Kansas, sunny and very hot.
June 6: 14° and rainy at 11:30; 16° and partly cloudy at 19:30 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Hi 24 Lo 7 this week.
June 7: 12° and cloudy, high for day; 26° and 97% humidity in Ruifang, Taiwan, low for night.
June 8: 9° and rainy at 11; 32° and sunny at noon in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
June 9: 7° and clear at 1 a.m.; 1° and clear in Butte, Montana.
June 10: 10° and misty at 8 a.m.; 23 ° and flooding in New Orleans.
June 11: 17°, sunny and warming at 10 a.m.; 13° and rainy all week in Newark-on-Trent, UK.
June 12: 23° and hazy sun at noonish; 28° in Roundup, MT and brilliant sunshine.

IMAGES

June 5: Roses, hot sun. A woman wearing an orange hat, orange mask, and orange T shirt.
June 6: Lowering grey clouds, dark morning. Fire&Ice: chocolate-cayenne milkshake.
June 7: Taste of passion fruit yogurt. Sight of burnt macaroni ... oops.
June 8: Cold. Sun glitters off fresh snow on the mountains.
June 9: 6 boiling brown eggs. Egg and cheese omelette.
June 10: Poppies! Peach colored orientals and multi-colored Icelands. Yellow iris.
June 11: A small striped spider explores the window; I stay inside to write and sigh.
June 12: Roses and petunias. The tarragon is growing like weed. Need to snip it.

CONTESTS

I've decided to enter "Musicology Anthology"  LATE! I only have 21 days to write 11 pieces. *sigh* I can do it.
I'll be putting them all in the folder: "Days of Future Past" 

[A] "The Day Begins"
[B] "Morning Glory"
[C] "Dawn: Dawn Is a Feeling"
[D] "The Morning: Another Morning"
[E] "Lunch Break: Peak Hour"
[F] "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)"
[G] "(Evening) Time to Get Away"
[H] "The Sunset"
[I] "Twilight Time"
[J] "Nights in White Satin"
[K] "Late Lament / Resolvement"

It's increasingly obvious that I will NOT do all of these in any given month. Priorities are given to sporadic contest. Blink and I may have to wait 3 months!

"The Writer's Cramp"  Daily, noon-noon. Must be ITEM.
"The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus"  Monthly. Beach and avoid certain words? Good.
"Invalid Item"  June. It's a dark month... maybe post in "Hoarfrosts from Hell"  if I go too dark.
"Journey Through Genres: Official Contest"  until June 30. Genre fan-fiction. Huge prizes!
"The Contest Challenge"  A contest of contests... every month.
"Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special"  Old non-winners! Got lots of those (poem/ss)
"Share Your Faith"  until June 30. Story or poem. Prompt: dealing with anger.
"Invalid Item"  until June 30. Theme: Resilience Flash <500 or poem 15 line max.
"Kittiara's Writing Contest"  until June 30. 1 short story, 1 poem. Theme: renewal
"The Random Poetry Contest"  through June 14. Prompts: spring, repair, threaten; 15-30 lines
"Invalid Item"  until June 25. Must be 13+, tell a story, new.
"Invalid Item"  Round 72 until June 14.
"The Humorous Poetry Contest"  Humor. I'm not funny so I doubt I'll enter this.
"Verdant Poetry Contest"  Nature. Summer. Form and words by June 30. in NyN
"Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  Free verse 15th to 14th.
"WFTH Poetry Contest - ON HIATUS "  Romance. Prompt an admirable couple. By June 30.
"Invalid Item"  Erotica! Prompt 'passion'. Until June 30. Isla and cake?

POULTRY

"Snow geese 雪雁 (xuě yàn) [177.87]" 

"Everytown, Kansas [177.88] (16 lines)" 

"Knud Knudsen's Beach Burn [177.90]" 

Not laid yet.

PORK

STATIC

Admiral of the End-of-Days (297 words)  (18+) 300 word flash fiction prompt: I don’t have time for this. #2207604 by Kåre เลียม Enga

was nominated for a but did not win.

June 5:

STATIC

Kathryn's eyes (300 words) [84]  (18+) < 300 words. Prompt: jewelry, eyes, truth #2223542 by Kåre เลียม Enga

June 7:

STATIC

Across his knee [85] (268 words)  (18+) <300 words. Prompt: nail, belt, knee #2223800 by Kåre เลียม Enga

June 9:

STATIC

Will you save me this dance? [86] (300w)  (18+) < 300 words flash fiction. Prompts: dance, question, walk. #2223905 by Kåre เลียม Enga

June 12 (won):

STATIC

Binky, the alabaster alligator (299w)   (18+) < 300 words, prompt: joke, last, name [177.89] #2224140 by Kåre เลียม Enga

READING

Evening in Missoula, short stories by Shelley Kirilenko. Recommended. The characters seem real and the places are real. The characters weave in and out of each other's lives. "Going to Paris" is heart-wrenching and triggered me. Very well done.

MOVIETIME

I can't focus on audio-visual! I need to finish one movie and find one that works for me. I have 200 to choose from. May need to go on-line and watch some East Asian love story serials.

MARKET SENIOR CENTER COFFEEHOUSE

June 6th: Sat in Butterfly Herbs with Nan (my incense supplier), had my chocolate-cayenne milkshake made by Landon, wrote a postcard.
June 8th: No one sitting outside the Senior Center. Today's pick-up lunch was lasagna.
June 10th: Quite a few people in masks at the market! Prices are okay but few sales. Did get a bucket of spumoni.
June 12th: Bratwurst for brats day where the Old Folks sit and play. Got a bit toasty in the sun. Only got one pre-made meal. I toss much of it some days.

MY FORMER LIFE

June 1950s: The red rose bush by the front door would bloom at the end of the school year.
June 1960s: Planting my garden before the clay mud baked into rock.
June 1973: Summer school at Kansas University: chemistry and anthropology.
June 1981: Living with friends in Canada for the summer.
June 2004: Dinner-plate magnolias in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
June 2013: In Sweden for the national day (June 6). In a cabin in Abborreberg, Norrköping.
June 2015: Dublin. Visited the statue of James Joyce on the 7th. Visited Lush.
June 2015: Borgund Norway, Visited the stave church on the 12th.

WATT'S GNUS

Trump says ‘no kneeling’ after latest in Drew Brees, National Anthem controversy (ABC News) White nationalism? Basic patriotism? Words of a despot?
Cities Ask if It’s Time to Defund Police and ‘Reimagine’ Public Safety (NY Times) But what to replace it with?
Pentagon Ordered National Guard Helicopters’ Aggressive Response in D.C. (NY Times) When the military turns against the people we are in trouble.
Federal Agents Lacking Insignia Raise Accountability Concerns (Wall Street Journal) Not being able to identify them creates issues of trust.
Cristobal Pushes Onto Louisiana Coast (Wunderground) Could go due north and bring excessive rains as far as Western Ontario.
A Top Trump Adviser Says the U.S. Suffers No ‘Systemic Racism’ (Bloomberg) Pisses me off. A White guy in the White house knows better than every minority?
Op-Ed: White tribalism is under assault — from white people. That's an amazing development (LA Times) On the other side of the color line... me.
Bolton book claims Trump committed other ‘Ukraine-like transgressions’ (The Guardian) A bulldog attacks from the Right.
Trump finalizes rollback of LGBTQ patient protections (Politico) Sexual, language, ethnic diversity is despised by this White Nationalistc administration.

WATT'S GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Kosovo Lifts Trade Hurdles to Pave Way for Talks With Serbia (Bloomberg) I love visiting both countries. The area neeeds peace and cooperation.
Iranians must live with virus 'for long time': Rouhani (AFP) Iran has been hit bad; it's now opening up and authorities are worried.
Russian hiring of Syrians to fight in Libya accelerated in May (Reuters) The rest of the world has issues too ... lest we forget.
The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test (NY Times) Dr. Bonnie Henry of British Columbia. The politicians got out of the way!
No students in school without virus vaccine, Philippines says (AFP) Poor people don't have internet; so, they may end up broadcasting by television.
Officers had a 'duty to intervene' to save George Floyd (AlJazeera) "Minneapolis policy requires police officers to stop fellow police from using unreasonable force, not just follow orders."
Chinese fighter jets briefly enter Taiwan airspace: Taipei (AFP) Worrisome for my friends I'm sure. Few want to be absorbed by China.
Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza dies of heart attack, government says (Wa Post) 55 years old probable heart attack. Newly elected president takes office August 20th.

OPINIONS

I've been keeping copies of my facebook rants. Truly I have. I need to look at them again and link it when rethought and edited. My non-rant insights I tend to post in my 'normal' blogs.

"See me take your dis out of disABLED" 
"Cops should be civilian peace keepers" 

BLOGVILLE

There were only 10 views of this blog last week and a few comments on my other blogs.

Reference to challenges, contest and prompts (not all appearing on the same week):
BC: "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  (daily)
BCOF: "Blogging Circle of Friends "  using my Nlog (nature blog) "Nurture your Nature"  and "Hoarfrosts from Hell"  (daily)
BHC: "The Bard's Hall Contest"  using my Tlog (travel blog) "On The Write Path"  Theme: June is blog month.
JAFBG: "JAFBG"  (open rants)
JI: "Journalistic Intentions"  using my Blog "Enga mellom fjella"  (8 blogs from 16 prompts till 7/4)
30DBC: "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  (July)
MHA: "Invalid Item"  weekly prompts starting June 14th.
OP: "Invalid Item"  using my Plog "L'aura del Campo" 
PP: "Promptly Poetry Challenge (2024-2025)"  my Plog response to prompts as I missed the sign-up date.
Real: "Welcome To My Reality Forum" 

June 5th JI: "Will I find love before I drop dead?" 
June 6th BCOF: "Dancing with the dandelions" 
June 7th BHC: "Kaap Stad, Suid Afrika" 
June 8th JAFBG: "BOOM BOOM boom boom ROOM EIGHTEEN" 
June 9th BCOF: "Staying inside" 
June 10th OP: "Snow geese 雪雁 (xuě yàn) [177.87]" 
June 11th JI: "Spacebook is quicksand ... and a slow angry death " 
June 11th BCOF: "Labor Day Weekend 1980s" 
June 12th BCOF: "Sandy's soft soles" 

Visited this week so far and commented: Robert Waltz Sum1's Home queenkissy Kit_Carmelite Quilli ☕ QPdoll Satuawany IceSkatingSugarCube Pumpkin Ready for Spring StephBee Sorji SB Musing Elle Lyn's a Witchy Woman Elisa, Stik of Clubs Cadie Laine SandraLynn Brian K Compton Scottiegazelle L.A. Grawitch MD Maurice Charlie ~ Prosperous Snow celebrating Ned 🐕GeminiGem🎁 🌻 pwheeler ~ love joy peace Jayne QueenNormaJean snow finally!!! Joy bobturn

  I commented to Chris Breva : Interesting. So instead of "why am I angry?" perhaps "what do I fear?" would be a better question to ask myself. Thank-you.
  Grateful Jess has an entry about fear and narcissism that triggered me a bit. Many have said that Trump is a narcissist so I found a couple lines shook me. "Fear Response" 
  I told ridinghhood-p.boutilier : I really like the tone of this. We leave the light on so those who are out late or lost will find the way home. Appropriate image for these times. "June 7, 2020" 

Try to keep up on blogs. Is 10 writers per week enough? 15?

Postcards:

Received one (I-70, Colorado) from Soldier_Mike .
June 6: wrote one to Jamie in Maryland. (bobcats)

Blodgett Creek, Montana (photo by Hobie Hare)

                                                                                                                                           

2.402 views as of June 5th.