School Holidays are Over: Silent Sunday

Posted on October 15, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

Posted in photography, Silent Sunday | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Flash Fiction Rodeo Contest #3

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist

The third in the Carrot Ranch competitions. What a diverse set of subjects we are being tempted with. Mine is next on Tuesday. Competition 2 is open until Sunday. Competition 1 has closed to entries. Get your pen to the ready. This one is going to be a wonderful challenge.

Posted in photography | 3 Comments

Out of the Blue: Three Line Tales Week 89

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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photo by Austin Chan via unsplash

The sign shone down on me in all its neon glory, “This is the sign you’ve been looking for.”

I stared in disbelief. I didn’t know I’d been looking for a sign. Damn! Now I was going to have to find the question.

In response to Sonya’s Three line Tales

Posted in creative writing, flash fiction | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Scale: Weekly Photo Challenge

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

There was no doubting the cruise boat was large. It made the city of Sydney look small and people insignificant.

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© irene waters 2017

It towered above

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and blocked out the landscape.

 

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But from the skytower in Aukland, the tallest freestanding building in the southern hemisphere

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© irene waters 2017

(the lines are for a form of bungy jumping)

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the boat, though still towering above the cars and buildings around it, is not such a mammoth size.

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In response to weekly photo challenge where we are asked to show how big or how small the world can be.

Posted in cruising, photography, Weekend photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Skywatch Friday 13th October 2017 12.52pm

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

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© irene waters 2017

Thursday 12th October sunset.

In response to Skywatch Friday where skies round the world can be seen.

Posted in photography, Skywatch Friday | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Spring beauty: Floral Friday

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

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Does anyone know what these are? When I saw the bulbs starting to leaf and flower stalks coming I thought clivea but these are not clivea. Some type of lilly perhaps. I’d love to know.

Posted in Floral Friday, photography | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Dunedin Taieri Gorge: Five Words October 2017: Thursday’s Special

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist

Once a month Paula invites us in Thursday’s Special where you can pick one word or all and post one photo or many. The five words this month are : mountainous, whiskers, crumbling, spanning, immaculate.

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© irene waters 2017

The grounds outside Dunedin Railway station were immaculate.

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With the immaculate garden beds planted in black crumbly soil creating perfect blooms.

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Spanning time, we were greeted by two immaculately dressed train employees. The man’s whiskers the perfect length to go with his costume

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© irene waters 2017

We arrived early as we didn’t want to risk missing the train by a whisker so we explored the interior of the station finding it as immaculate as the outside.

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© irene waters 2017

Another feature of the train which also spanned time was the different types of carriages.

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We headed into a mountainous remote region.

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© irene waters 2017

Several viaducts span the gorge and the Taieri River.

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© irene waters 2017

The Wingatui viaduct is the largest wrought iron structure in New Zealand with a span of 197 metres. It must have been an engineering feat at the time it was built (1887) as it is 47 metres tall. The rivoted lattice structures stand on cement piers.

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© irene waters 2017

In places it looked as though the mountainside was crumbling. Loose rocks dotted the steep slopes.

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© irene waters 2017

In other places it had clearly crumbled away.

In response to Paula’s Thursday’s Special.

Posted in photography, Thursday's Special | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Possibly the last: Friday Fictioneers

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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photo @ Douglas M. MacIlroy

Pulverised garden worms. Adam had used his wife’s food processor whilst she was out making a tasty meal for the mynor bird he’d captured earlier in the day.  “C’mmon Tweety Pie. Just in case. Open wide.” The bird obliged and Adam fed him with the tweezers he’d found in his wife’s bathroom cabinet.

“Adam, what the hell do you think you are doing?” From his wife’s thunderous look he knew her full wrath was about to descend on him. Perhaps he hadn’t cleaned the mixer well enough. ” What are you doing with that poor bird?”

“All the canaries died.”

In response to the photo prompt for Friday Fictioneers

Background

Coal miners took canaries into the mine with them as the canary would die from bad air much earlier than the miner. Thus if the canary died, the coal miner knew to run. More info on this here I figured some man caves are probably as potentially dangerous to enter as a mine and what better bird than a mynor.

Posted in creative writing, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers | Tagged , , , , | 32 Comments

Letter H is for happy: Cee’s Fun foto Challenge

Posted on October 11, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

Happiness

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can be allowing the child within us to have joy at simple things

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© irene waters 2017

Nothing makes a mother happier than her family unless it is the happiness of having finished that jig saw puzzle. This happiness though is momentary in comparison.

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© irene waters 2017

Friends make you happy

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And love – what greater happiness is there than in those early days, planning marriage, eating out with friends.

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© irene waters 2017

Happiness is anticipation of an event yet to happen. A tummy rub does look possible.

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© irene waters 2017

Happiness is being in the moment, momentary, short-lived. But unlike Henry Miller who wrote in his book Big Sur and the Oranges of Heironymus Bosch  that at the “moment in his life when he felt so good, so thoroughly attuned, that he has been on the point of exclaiming: “Ah now is the time to die!” What is it lurks here in the very heart of euphoria? The thought that it will not, can not last? The sense of an ultimate.”

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© irene waters 2017

 

At this point, the point of ultimate happiness, I don’t wish to die. I know it will not last but I know that I can climb out of any valley into which I tumble and those downward troughs just serve to make me appreciate the heights that much more.

In response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Posted in Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, photography | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Sitting ducks: Wordless Wednesday

Posted on October 11, 2017 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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© irene waters 2017

Posted in photography, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments