All posts by tribalmysticstories, lazylittlefrog.com

Author, Artist, Arts Curator, Climate Activist, Anti - Violence against Women, and Entrepreneur
blogging, JK. Leahy Short Stories, short stories, Writing Stories

The Nightshade Escape – Short Story

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Picture by Barbara W. Beacham.

Flash Fiction Challenge

Mondays Finish the Story is a flash fiction challenge by Barbara W. Beacham. The story requires 100-150 words. Here is my short story for this week’s prompt based on the first sentence below and the picture.

The Nightshade Escape JK.Leahy Short Story©

“The team employed the use of Nightshade to get the information they wanted from their captive.”

Viola smiled to herself as she finished the paper and her coffee. “Nightshade”, her ‘weapon’ was right next-door, she thought. All this time, her plan to make his death appear subtle, wasn’t working.

Wearing her garden hat Viola strolled to her neighbour’s yard,  pretending to tidy her garden beds. Her blood roses were peeking at her, but she won’t pick them today, the day was fading fast and in a few hours, Greg arrives.

Crouching, she reached through the fence and cut a few shoots and flowers off her neighbour’s nightshades.  A dog barked loudly and so close that Viola leaped, dropping her hat and all the cuttings. She ran back into her house. Shaken, she watched the large doberman sniffing where she sat, seconds ago.

Oh well, if that dog is going to guard the damn nightshade – the rat poison will have to do, she decided.

blogging, Photography, Writing Stories

Shooting An Aloe – Photography

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Week three of bloom. ©JK.Leahy photography.

Photography can be easily addictive as most of you that take pictures know. And, when you have an interesting subject of beautiful colours, it is hard to stop shooting. I have been shooting aloes in my garden with the Nikon D5200 and thinking of ways to make the pictures more interesting because the flowers are narrow and tall.

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Week four bloom ©JK.Leahy photography.

I find the aloe itself fascinating for many reasons. The most important reason is that it is a medicinal plant and we all have come across the Aloe Vera commonly eaten, drunk and used in skin products. I used the juice when I was pregnant with my boys for skin-care and digestion. These days, we use the aloe vera for cuts and itchy skin. Aloes are part of the Liliaceae family. There are about 500 species of aloes in the world. They are a perennial succulent and their medicinal uses are traced back to 1500BC where it was known as “plant of immortality”.  Read more here.

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Week five bloom close-up ©JK.Leahy photography.

Aloes are very hardy plants and like the cactus – they can grow in very tough conditions. The amazing thing about Aloes are their beautiful flowers, many are intricate and often not what you expect to see.I have a few varieties and each one of them have their own unique bloom. See other colours here.

 

blogging, Living, writing, Writing Stories

A Small Win on Tribalmystic Blog

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Blue Lily
I share a picture of my blue iris to say thank you to all my readers. JKLeahy pic. 2015

Thank you to all my readers

I like small wins. Here, my blue iris bloomed for the first time in almost a year. Perhaps it was because I moved her from the edge of a small pond to the shade of a gum tree – I’m not sure what happened to her, but she came back. That makes me happy.

The other win was that this blog hit the highest number of visits per month ever. I had over 3000 visitors in July and the top performers were;

  1. United States of America.

  2. Australia

  3. Papua New Guinea

  4. United Kingdom

I appreciate ALL readers and visitors and look forward to your continued support.  Thank you!

TM

 

Art, blogging, Writing Stories

Birds Talking – Poetry – Drawing

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JK.Leahy © – Sketch in pencil and ink on paper. 2015.

 

Birds Talking – Poem JK.Leahy©

Birds Talking

Silent words, only seen

Scratching, screeching and bursting to surface

Extending wings, feathers, beaks and necks

Swooping, flying, walking and talking

Birth by imagination

Birds taking forms

Living on paper

 

 

 

blogging, Poetry, writing, Writing Stories

AUTUMN LEAVES Recited by Peter O’Shaughnessy

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I recently found this website poetryreincarnations and the links to videos of the poetry. The videos are beautiful and the animation are quite strange and amusing at the same time. I hope you can visit and enjoy.

Jim Clark, the creator of poetry reincarnations writes, here is a virtual movie of the great Charles Dickens reading his beautiful melancholic poem “Autumn Leaves” This poem likens the aging process with the season of Autumn was published under the title “George Edmund’s Song” around 1858. The poem is read superbly by the celebrated veteran Australian actor director Peter O’Shaughnessy. Peter has a brilliant website full of biographical and theatrical content and numerous recitals of poetry and plays spoken by him.

All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2011

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George Edmunds’ Song…………
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around he here;
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!
How like the hopes of childhood’s day,
Thick clust’ring on the bough!
How like those hopes in their decay-
How faded are they now!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around me here;
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!
Wither’d leaves, wither’d leaves, that fly before the gale:
Withered leaves, withered leaves, ye tell a mournful tale,
Of love once true, and friends once kind,
And happy moments fled:
Dispersed by every breath of wind,
Forgotten, changed, or dead!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, lie strewn around me here!
Autumn leaves, autumn leaves, how sad, how cold, how drear!

Here is another video. If you like it, visit here to see more.

blogging, JK. Leahy Short Stories, short stories, Writing Stories

A Friendly Visit – Short Story

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Mondays Finish the Story

This is a unique flash fiction challenge where Barbara W. Beacham provides a new photo and the first sentence of a story each week. The challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words. This challenge runs from Monday to Sunday.

A Friendly Visit – JK.Leahy Short Story©

He thought he found the perfect hiding spot.

Near dad’s cabinet, the curtains moved.

Black feet peeked from under and two green eyes pierced through the curtain. It was a dog. We didn’t have a dog, and neither did Jessy.

My mind went back to yesterday.

“I don’t want you to play with Jessy”

Why not mother?”

“You are eight and he’s 16, and there is something weird about that boy”.

“Like what mother?”

“Those large green eyes – when he grins, I cringe”.

“That’s not fair mother!” I yelled and ran to my room.

Today, my parents went to dad’s work party. Aunty Anne was coming over, but she was late. Jessy stopped by. We played video games and then I went to the toilet. When I returned, Jessy was nowhere to be found…

“Jessy! Where are you?”

“I’m right here”.

The lounge was not big at all. I shivered.

“I’m here stupid! Find me!” Jessy growled.

blogging, writing, Writing Stories

Tribalmystic is Being Revamped

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Hi friends and followers,

if you see strange things happening on my front page, I apologise. I am trying to revamp my blog for better navigation and hopefully this would make it easier for you to find posts you are looking for, to read. The revamping will be happening this week and I promise to try to keep the disturbance at a minimum level. Should you see a blank page, know that I am working on it as fast as my minimal techie skill can allow me to.

Thank you for your patience and your continued readership.

TribalMystic

Art, blogging, Living, My Art, Nature and Environment, Stories

A Camera Opens New Doors – Tribalmystic Blog

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A camera means more new pictures will be seen on Tribalmystic stories. It also means I can share my garden with you, virtually.

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Samanea Saman bloom. It is also called False Powder Pluff.

I got myself a ‘real’ camera today. A Nikon D5200. It may not be a Pro level camera and not what I was aiming for, but I have not had an SLR for nearly twenty years so I am thrilled. My son Nathan loaned me some money for it. When my younger son Chris and I arrived home, guess who already had the package opened and was handling it – Chris!

Watermarked Photos

Mum was cooking and giving stern instructions from the kitchen for Chris to wash his hands first and not leave any greasy prints on the lens or any part of the camera. Poor Chris…I’m sure he was just laughing inside his head. Who tells a 16-year-old what to do these days? Know the feeling when your kids play with your stuff?

Then, the little bugger went off and charged the battery and started taking pictures. Oh well…I guess he was just as excited as I was, even when he pretended he wasn’t.

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There was some light left and I went for a quick walk in the garden to try the camera with some very curious bystanders. I shall show the ‘bystanders’ on Tribalmystic stories later. These are pictures of Salmanea Saman, often referred to as the false powder fluff – not the stuff you wear on your make-up though.

I have to get my photography grove back. Let me know what you think of my first pictures. Thank you.

Cool stuff

The Serpentine Pavilion – Cool Stuff

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The Serpentine 2015: Public Domain images

The Serpentine Pavilion made my Cool Stuff list. What does the serpentine pavilion look like? Below is the 2014 The Serpentine Pavilion. But, check out this year’s pavilion (above) which looks just like a rainbow caterpillar. Spanish creators José Selgas and Lucía Cano explained that this year’s serpentine pavilion was an experiment that plays with coloured,  translucent and mirrored plastic sheets.

“We want to test different materials and in this case it is EFTE (plastic)” Selgas said. The architects  want visitors to use it, walk through, sit in it and interpret the serpent – freely.

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The Serpentine 2014. Public Domain images

The Guardian called the 2015 serpentine pavilion London’s psychedelic maze that drew colours from summer and rainbow.

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Inside The Serpentine 2015. Public Domain image

Selgas Cano are never shy about experimenting with wild colours, and their summer structure for the Serpentine Pavilion is no exception. This strange rainbow cocoon looks like a childish scribble that has been enlarged, changes colour as you wander through it – and is a perfect party pavilion for the annual Serpentine commission’s 15th birthday.

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The Serpentine 2015 Picture by George Rex.

Those interested and if you are in London – you can step into London’s psychedelic new maze now. If you are not able to see it, click on the link below to watch the video.

The Guardian

IkeaDecoration

Culture and Heritage

The Clash of Religion and Culture

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Picture by Lonely Planet, courtesy of EMTV PNG website.

The clash of religion and culture – the fight that almost brought the House down How many times do we hear about religion and culture clashing?Does someone’s personal belief make it right for them to destroy a nation’s heritage? Religion versus culture and vice versa is a topic that often raises concerns around the world. In 2013, I remember protesting against the destruction of 19 cultural objects in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) national parliament house on Facebook, with many others. Our National Speaker  who comes from Morobe Province, decided that he did not want the 19 statues that represented the provinces to be in the chamber. He ordered the removal and destruction of the statues, build with the house by the first prime minister, Sir Michael Somare.

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The lintels removed and damaged in the interface of the parliament chamber. Picture from Dr Andrew Motu, Head of PNG National Museum.

Ryan Shram write this very interesting article about the incident and discusses the argument about religion and culture in the material world. Ryan goes even deeper into the history of the house and the country. Click here to read this story. While I am a christian, I treasure the beliefs and good traditions of my ancestors in Melanesia, and especially in PNG. My grandmother was a great believer of both – you learnt the christian ways and you also use your traditions because that is what your identity is. Your heritage is also one that has given birth to you and there are so many great things you can learn from your culture through your beliefs, foods, celebrations, rituals and many more. It is not easy to separate yourself from your culture and your heritage – unless you choose to. Traditional medicine healed Melanesians and other indigenous people before European medicine came. The rituals and spiritual practices provided  – food, water and shelter and created sharing, love and healing in a community that was balanced with nature. All the practices were connected to and derived from nature and the environment. There are traditions in Melanesian heritage that are not good. These include sorcery and witchcraft, confusion between what is an ailment and what is a spiritual curse, the Big Man syndrome (the act of thinking you are wealthier and better with more status so you could manipulate and have several wives). The treatment of women and girls as second class is another Melanesian culture I detest. What are your experiences of your culture and religions – please share your comments here.