MEET THE NEIGHBORS

The Rogue Speaks:

I was out chasing "whitey" down the fairways yesterday, and by the time I got home, I was way too tired to write.  My offering for Saturday Centus is a little late, and the photo that Jenny gave us to work from is in my sidebar, but nevertheless, here's my little story:

MEET THE NEIGHBORS

“Hi!  I’m Fred!  I love your costume—very original!  I’m just meeting all my new neighbors and I thought this Halloween party would be a good idea.  I haven’t seen you around.  You must work the night shift.  You have sexy eyes, but you don’t talk much, do you!  Let me show you the upstairs.  We can be alone and get to know each other.

Well, this is it!  You could take your mask off.  It must get hot.  Here, let me help you.  Hey!  This isn’t a mask!  Wait!  What are you doing???  No!!!! My neck!!!! You’re hurting me…….!!!”

VLAD, THE IMPALER

The Rogue Speaks:

I want to trick or treat at Blogger headquarters.  I have some rotten eggs that I would like to throw at their windows, because they won't let me upload photos to my post.  I can put them in my sidebar, however, so be sure to check them out.

VLAD, THE IMPALER

 

 

 

Vlad, the Impaler (1431-1476) is also know by his family name, DRACULA!!!  He was an excessively cruel leader of Wallachia, the present-day Romania.  Vlad fought against the Ottoman Turks, and was knows as the Impaler because he executed his enemies by impaling them on a long wooden stake, then stood it up in the ground for all to see.  The weight of the body would slowly drag the victim down, in a painful death.

 

In 1476, Vlad was brutally murdered and beheaded.  His head was sent to Constantinople, in Turkey, but the rest of his body was never found, though many people over the years searched for its final resting place.  It is thought by some that Vlad came back to life, and remains alive today, wandering the earth in search of more victims.

 

QUICK!  LOOK BEHIND YOU!  IT'S DRACULA!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

ELECTRIC LEAVES

The Rogue Speaks:



ELECTRIC LEAVES


The leaves cruched under my boots until they didn't.  I had reached the edge of the lake.  I turned and gazed up the path.  On the left was the sourwood tree, its leaves glowing neon red in the sun--electric leaves.

A young woman and her lover lay on a faded quilt beneath the tree, their bodies close, his fingers gently pushing her long brown hair back from her face.  She slipped her arms around his waist and pulled him down to her.

I turned and, opening the urn, I flung the contents into the water, saving a little to place by the sourwood tree, under our electric leaves.


An October Saturday Centus, with 109 words including the prompt, which is in bold type.  If you have not taken part in this exercise, please consider joining me and the other Centusians, led by our muse,  Jenny Matlock.  Every week is a different challenge, and it is so much fun to read the creative ideas of other writers.

Blogger is messing with my head again, and won't let me publish photos with my post, so you will find the photo for this Centus in my right sidebar.  If anyone knows what's going on with these strange and goofy error codes blogger is handing out, please let me know.  Google doesn't even know!  What do you think about that??

See you on Thursday!!

OUR SEASON

The Rogue Speaks:

Little Pigeon River - JMcEwen

 

 

Our Season

“Remember our ‘Salad Days?’” she asked wistfully.

“You mean when we were green and tender?” he replied with a smile, taking her hand.

“Yes! When fall comes, and I see how beautifully leaves grow old, I realize that it is only a season since we were youthful and vibrant. Our lives go by so quickly the older we get.”

“Did you think we would stay young forever?  That’s no fun!  I’m glad I can rest now, and sit with you like this—like a pair of comfortable shoes that have seen better days, but fit so perfectly together.”

 

 

Jenny gave us such a wonderful Saturday Centus today, didn't she?  The prompt is in bold type, and the words, limited to 103, just fell out of my fingers and onto the page!  I'm anxious to see the offerings of the other Centusians, and I hope you will join me.

Tasteless and Tacky

The Rogue Speaks:

Now I've seen everything!  WTF!!  The maker of Chia Pets has come out with presidential chias!  So dash to your closest KMart or WalMart and vote for your candidate by purchasing one of the tacky and tasteless items!  Will it be Chia Obama or Chia Romney??? 

The makers of Chias have been around for a long, long time.  When I was a very little girl, my grandmother had one that she would occasionally sprinkle with grass seed.  I thought it was silly  then, and it is still silly to me today.  What a waste of money!!  And after the election, where do you think all those presidential Chias will eventually end up???

I wanted to show you photos of this two absurd items, but of course Blogger won't let me post any photos from the web these days, so you'll have to just imagine the two candidates with green hair.  Not a pretty sight is it?  Some people will do anything to make money, because they know that there are millions of impulsive folks who will throw away their hard-earned dollars on sheer crap.

I think I told you about Mum's blue plastic talking watch that she bought, for a "good cause," because the money was supposedly going to some charity.  The alarm was a crowing rooster, and Mum didn't know how to shut the alarm off, so when she came to visit us, we had to stick that watch under some boxes in the garage so the sound wouldn't literally drive us crazy for a month.  That plastic watch was designed for someone who couldn't see, but poor Mum couldn't HEAR, so she had no idea just how annoying that piece of plastic was.

Now here's a clever sales pitch by Pat Robertson's organization--in order to get people to open a letter from him, asking for a charitable donation, his people put a dollar in every envelope.  Of course people would open the envelope, because who is going to throw a dollar bill in the trash?  A lot of those people who opened that letter ended up donating a minimum of $5, so for an investment of $1, Robertson got back at least $4.  Not bad, eh?  The poor people who were suckered in never stopped to realize just how many letters went out all over America!  I wish I had all those dollars for my own personal "charity!"

I will close this silly post with a caption from a cartoon I once saw in the newspaper--"Satisfaction Guaranteed or No Money Back!!"  "Duh, sounds good to me!!"

Now hop on over to Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and read the other students' homework!!

Talented Artists Who Blog!

The Rogue Speaks:

This is supposed to be posted Monday, but Blogger is being hateful, so I am publishing it Sunday night instead.  I wish they would get their issues worked out!!!  I'm tired of this "We're sorry..." stuff.

There are so many talented artists in the blogging world, and I decided to recognize a few of them today.  I have always admired collage artists.  I have never thought of myself as being very good at layout, and I love studying collage artists' work so I can hopefully learn something.  Laying out all those bits and pieces and moving them around, until suddenly one has a piece of art!  How fulfilling that is!

The first artist/blogger is my friend, Jo West.  A couple of years ago, Jo created a very special piece for me when our Precious girl crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  It hangs in my sitting room, and I see it every day.

  I gave one of Jo's collages to our daughter in New Orleans for her birthday this year.  I wish I had photographed it before I gave it to her, but I didn't!  Anyway, she loved it!!  I framed it in a shadowbox frame that can be opened from the front, so she can put some small memorabilia on the shelf inside the box.  O.k., I confess that I tried to nick a photo of the collage off Jo's blog,
 My Paper Playhouse, but blogger is being really uncooperative about that stuff, and wouldn't let me post it!!

The next collage artist is Theresa Plas.  She had a piece on her blog a couple of months ago, and I just had to have it for our new house.  You really must go to Theresa's blog, Studio 48 Tango, and then go to her Etsy shop.  This woman really has the gift for collage!  I plan to give some of her pieces as Christmas presents this year.

 

 

Teresa's piece is the one on top!  Isn't it fabulous???  Below it is my weak attempt that I did in an encaustics class a couple of years ago.   Mine looks better when it is in such good company!

 

 

You have already seen the work of Marsha Jorgensen in my right sidebar.  She is part of a group of artists who  are trying to stop art piracy.  If you are interested in collage, please go to her blog, Tumblefish Studio, because she sells supplies for creating collages similar to the ones you have seen here.

 



Well, that's it for today!  Next Monday, I may just tell you about the culinary artistry I performed with some fresh crabs that I trapped at the Jekyll Island pier.  The photo below is not a collage, but I am so proud of last week's catch, I just had to show it to you.  We had a wonderful crab feast that night!!

Birches

The Rogue Speaks:

Yikes!!  Saturday Centus really crept up on me this time!  The Ryder Cup is on, and you know I can't miss that!  While we were lounging on the couch with our coffee, the children were playing games in the office.

Plus, we took the dogs to the beach at low tide so they could run off some of their energy.  Then, Mulligan was so filthy from trying to catch fish in all the seaweed, that when we got home, I had to give him a bath in the tub!  I have some great photos of playtime and the beach, but Blogger is being hateful, and won't let me publish them!!

Jenny's prompt, which is in bold type, is sure to produce some interesting posts.  We only have 106 words, including the prompt, and this is what I came up with:

Birches
 

 

“But you’re like Frost’s “Birches,” bending, but never breaking.”
 

“Don’t try to pull that crap on me!  I have bent as much as I intend to!  We’ve had this conversation before, and I thought I made myself perfectly clear.  I’ve had enough of your lies, your promises.  Face it!  I’m way smarter than you, and you’ve never gotten away with anything for very long.  This is it, pal!”
 

“What do I have to do to get you to believe me?  It won’t happen again!  You know I love you!  I really do!  I’m done with her.”
 

“Sometimes you bend, sometimes you break!  I broke.  Get out!”

 

 

 

Please remember that I am now posting on Mondays as well.  This started out as an art blog, so my Monday post will be about artsy things.  I hope you will mark your calendars and come back to visit, and leave a comment!!