This mysterious and gorgeous flower appeared in one of my pots. I did not plant it, and do not claim any ownership for its cultivation. I guess I own it now, since it is in a pot that I have paid for. And, this pot sits in my garden. Perhaps the birds brought me the seed.
I was surprised to see its glorious bloom a few days ago. I am taking a guess that it is a Peruvian lily, but I could be wrong. I am happy for anyone that knows this flower to identify it.
Here are some close-ups.
Dear Readers of Mondays Finish the Story. I am very sad to re-post the news that Barbara who started and ran the Mondays Finish the Story fiction challenge has passed away last Sunday. I saw the message from the late Barbara’s husband when I visited her page this morning. I wanted to share the news with those of you that enjoy my contribution to this fun 100-150 story-telling exercise – created by Barbara W. Beacham. She also supplied all the pictures.
You have helped sharpened my story-telling skills. I will miss the challenge and your wonderful comments Barbara.
My Life in The Foothills has Passed Away
November 24, 2015 by babso2you
It is with the a sad heart and mind that I let all of the readers of Life In The Foothills know that Barbara who began this a few years back has succumbed to her illnesses and passed away last Sunday. Writing this blog as she dealt with her health issues gave her tremendous pleasure and as she told me many times a purpose to continue and fight the cancer that finally took her.
I shall miss her tremendously as she was my wife, my best friend, and my life’s love. Those that did correspond with her please know you helped her with her fight and added to the pleasure she received as she writing her stories.
To all of you thank you.
I myself do not have the same strength as Barb did at this time. I am in that emotional spot at this time that wants me to run from reality yet it wants me to confront it as well. I know many of you have experienced this as well.
As this will be the final post I ask that no-one reply to this as I will not be monitoring any reply to have it posted. So rather than reply please simply send out a thought or prayer on Barb’s behalf and that will serve a better purpose than a typed message.
God Bless her and keep her safe.
Here is a collection of beautiful feather art by Chris Maynard.
You probably know that much of the world’s environment is under threat. But a new study says languages are disappearing alongside plants and animals.
The study, from the World Wildlife Fund, measured the threat to languages using a scale that tracks how threatened species are. Not only are many languages steadily losing speakers, says co-author Jonathan Loh, but “the rate of decline, globally, is actually very close to the rate of decline in populations of wild vertebrate species.”
There’s the obvious threat of in-demand languages, which many people start speaking more and more as the speakers of smaller languages dwindle. “Thousands of indigenous languages spoken around the world are being replaced by one of a dozen or so dominant world languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese,” Loh says.
But Loh, who’s also a research associate at the Zoological Society of London, says that languages are dying off due to many of the same issues that plants and animals face.
The other day I found this tiny ‘gangster’ running around in my garden. It was all over every plant as I chased and tried to shoot it with my macro lens, but ‘he’ was too fast.
His colours reflected the light and I fell in-love with him. Twice, when I got closer, he jumped onto the lens. I tried to not squash him by accident. I spotted something on his back when he jumped off the lens. It was a pattern that looked very close to a skull. Look at the picture below, can you spot it too?
I thought “gangster” was a good name for him. He quickly spun a web in the cherry tree and made it, his home while he waited for his next prey.
The next day, I checked, and the gangster was gone. I just hope the gangster had not become someone’s meal.
Nature’s beauty is its simple mystery. How can a Heliconia Sexy Pink as they call it, get from the colours in the picture above to the colours in the image below when it is aging? I don’t know, but I really like the contrast. I took these pictures in my mother’s garden in Lae, Papua New Guinea. They were taken from the same bush before my mother pruned the ginger plant. The kurakum (pidgin word for red ants) really appreciate the aging flower. That is another mystery.
There are many aspects of the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (PNG) that are worth writing. I wanted to share tonight two aspects that are very valuable; one is the culturally inspired dress and two, the education support it gives to PNG women.
Here are some pictures from the crowing night of the Miss Pacific Islands PNG pageant. There is a pageant category called traditionally inspired dress. In these pictures, the six contestants wear their dresses inspired by their own tribal cultures. PNG has 22 provinces, over 800 languages with three official communication languages – English, Pidgin and Motu.
The Miss Pacific Islands Pageant Papua New Guinea’s motto is: Passion, Strength and Beauty.
The Miss PNG committee, while developing and moulding the young contestants to prepare for the final and then bring the winner to the regional Miss Pacific Pageant, this powerhouse team of women raise money to educate young Papua New Guinean women.
The process is that if any of the young women completing their tertiary education cannot finish their schooling because of financial reasons, this fund can help. Since its conception in 2010, the PNG committee has paid for 140 young PNG women to complete their tertiary education.
Moon Games – JK.Leahy© Poetry
She waits for the day’s end
To let her luminous games begin
When yoke slips beyond horizon,
where naked eyes sees reflection,
she watches the day’s lingering torment
In his reluctance to let go of moment
The day throws hues of fire and gold,
across the massive body of water
And tiny fallen stars appear
where sand banks glisten sapphire
Dusk performs and summons night
to what we call evening.
She smiles, time is right
As shadows define, reaching tall,
the moon reveals herself, but only,
to be captured by wandering clouds
Miss Pacific Islands – Papua New Guinea, was crowned last night in front of a packed audience at Crowne Plaza Port Moresby.
Abigail Havora, age 24, is a Biology-Chemistry graduate from the University of Papua New Guinea. Miss Havora works for Oil Search Ltd. She is also a feminist and, an advocate for youth. Miss Havora was sponsored by the Pacific Balanced Fund. In her spare time, the bio-chemist devotes her time to The Voice Inc, a dynamic youth development organisation and the PNG Cancer Foundation.
“My intent is to bring a message that strengthens the bridge between culture and the changing times so young people, especially women, are more aware of what they are contributing to, and the type of influence they are exerting. I am passionate about making a difference, which may come across as a broad statement, but my personal motto is to – leave the place better than it was.” Miss Havora said.
Miss Havora is from Gulf and Central parentage, She will represent PNG in the regional quest, the Miss Pacific Islands Beauty Pageant in Cook Islands later this year. Abigail was one of six entrants in the pageant this year.
More on Miss Pacific Islands Pageant PNG – in the next post.
November is a very busy month for our family and usually it is full of celebrations.
My niece Joycelin Kauc, (picture with my mother) celebrates her 17th today (Nov 10th) in Lae, Papua New Guinea. Happy Birthday!
We celebrated Chris’s 17th birthday last Thursday, 6th of November. We will celebrate Nathan’s 20th birthday on November 16. People ask me how I have managed to have my sons in the same month and on the 6th and 16th. I used to joke that it made it easier for their father to remember their birthdays. I also had many other answers of course, but my favourite response is, they were both Valentine’s Day babies. Let’s leave it at that.
In this picture from last Friday, we did not plan to, but we all wore grey the morning of Chris’s birthday. Families do, do strange things sometimes. I enjoy most things in life and am very grateful for them, but I must say, being a mother is my ultimate achievement – especially when I see my sons grow into good people.
Chris’s girlfriend Leela Rashid (below right) joined us in a breakfast celebration before school. At birthday mornings, I rise early to cook a pancake tower and dress it with as many sweets as I can. This time, two of us were on diet so we had to settle for strawberries, blueberries and light cream.
Chris will graduate from high school next week and I have a few small projects to finish up, so I will take a short break (a week) from this blog and respond to any comments when I return next week. Thank you very much for reading Tribalmysticstories.
Tribalmystic Stories 