New paintings and regular art updates.
Christmas, alone for another year. Make Merry they say. Bah Humbug! Do I reply? No, I’m not so lost that I turn my cheek to the world. But a quiet Christmas? Maybe. One chicken leg. A small bottle of beer. Three sprouts if I’m lucky? Any sparkle and cheer? I might make handmade crackers and tie one end to the door handle to pull them. Meanwhile, I bought myself a new garden bench to sit alone on, so happy new year, dear.
Does anyone else mutter extra words after they have finished a phone call? I just caught myself doing it, adding a little comment when my caller had ended the call. It wasn’t rude, just something along the lines of ” oh leave me alone”, but it could have been multiple phases. I think it must be something to do with being tired. It was just that I realised I might not have hung up properly. But no it was OK. I wonder how often this habit occurs? I shall have to be careful!
From the fuzzy grey of my brain I seem to have developed a need to think of an unusual name that I could, if I ever wrote a novel, use as a character.
This normally happens when I’m half asleep, it might be a continuing dream. And like a dream, I think of a name and then almost immediately forget it!
I don’t have a list, I didn’t think of writing names down. But I think each name is a little complicated, perhaps having several syllables. Is this normal? Is there a name for it? (like nominative determinism, where a person’s name relates to their job… A Mr Kitchenn as a cook for example?)
I am trying to think of names….
Buttercup Sylvester
Pamela Praline
Humphrey Othello?
Or maybe
Martia Stephinkos
Greg Carlos Carlisle?
I think I come up with better ones when I half asleep.
If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
I do sometimes use the word awesome on social media. It sort of explains my thoughts about some of the images online. But to be honest it is too easy to use. You don’t have to think of more subtle descriptions.
An ‘awesome’ limerick:
There once was an awesome post
On a website I used to host….
I realised my words
Were really absurd
And I hated ‘awesome’ most.
I just think it exaggerates the importance of an object ot person. To look on something in awe, is to see something of great style, beauty or extraordinary complexity. You would not call a bag of crisps awesome. Nor would you describe a cup of cappuccino and a muffin at the local cafe awesome as you took ten photographs of them. My point is words like awesome should only be used in exceptional circumstances. I need to give it up.
I decided to write a poem on a poetry page on Facebook. Here it is.
I would like to be brave and post something here.
But my poems are mostly spontaneous.
An explosion of thought on the page.
My mind dances around thoughts,
Spiralling into nooks and crannies.
Flying across the landscape of my brain.
Hopefully landing safely and intact.
The nights are getting longer
The days slightly shorter
It’s almost bedtime
But I’m hot
My heart aches, my mind too
So I’ll sit and watch TV a bit
No sensible thoughts in my mind
Just watching the nights decline
Into a slow dawn.
Maybe the sun will shine bright
In the morning after this night.
I don’t know
Time goes slow
When you’re alone
With the pain of loss.
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
Change my name, change my face…
Change my world.
Why Eloise? I just like the sound. I’m not even sure if I’ve spelt it correctly? If you add a U it becomes Elouise, which just sounds like you’ve misspelled Louise?
I also think it could be written e-loise… An electronic version of the name. Better than e-louse (an AI version of a woodlouse?).
I was going to be Samantha, but I really don’t feel like I’m one of those. I think its too cuddly and feels like a princess name?
Eloise does sound rather proud and exotic? We all have our own ideas of how words work. Your favourite word might be something I hate. We mentally add connotations onto a word or a phrase. And I no no one called Eloise, I just like the sound… Am I strange?
Every week Esther Chilton posts a limerick challenge. This week’s Monday limerick word was “luck”.
Sometimes these are easy, other times hard. This week’s wasn’t bad.
Basically a limerick has two rhyming lines of a longish length, then two shorter ones that rhyme using a different pattern and then finally the last line is longer and goes back to the first type of rhyme. Have a go yourself on Esthers page?
My limerick is :
Finally I have had some good luck,
I found lots of gold in a truck,
it was hidden away,
in an old parking bay,
at the home of the Pirate called “Hook”!
Confused, muddled, incoherent. Gobbledegook.
Like double-dutch it’s a word that tries to describe the kind of word salad some people talk rather than a measured and clear explanation.
If you have ever seen “Sir Humphrey”, the political private secretary in “Yes, Minister”, and “Yes, Prime Minister”, the BBC series from the 1980s and 90s, you will know he would used gobbledegook or flimflam (another lovely word) to blag his way through telling the Minister important information without telling him clearly. It’s in this case a method of obfuscation, using a long tangle of incomprehensible words that is sneaky and makes the story he is trying to tell virtually impossible to understand.
It’s an informal noun and according to Google it is defined as :
language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms.
“reams of financial gobbledygook”
I hope you enjoyed this word!
Esther Chiltons blog has writing challenges every week, I’ve started trying to do some. New beginnings was an interesting one.
This is what I wrote :
New beginning?
I hope so.
My life has changed in so many ways. I’m having to reassess what I can do, can afford, can maintain.
New beginnings means the garden is starting to flower, I hope to get outside and maybe paint if I feel up to it. I need help to keep the garden tidy.
My main wish is that my health improves and I can have some real new beginnings….
Esther does other challenges, like on Mondays we try and write a limerick with a certain word in it, or on Thursdays a set of words and a limited number of words to use. It’s fun. Why not look her blog up?
Mallaband-Brown