Doodle Week Day 7 (& Portrait of Words).......

Well here we are the last day of Doodle Week.

I hope you've enjoyed my (and the others) doodles. If you haven't seen the others already go here and take a look.

The theme for today is PARTY!

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Want to try out your writing talents?

Here's the perfect opportunity.

Jeff (A Word in Edgewise) has started up this monthly challenge, derived from a previous challenge from R.E.H.'s "Picture Fiction Challenge". This month is number 1.


Each month Jeff will give FOUR pictures which represent THE CATEGORIES and THREE pictures which represent THE WILD CARDS.


The object is to:
Write a story of any length or style. Long or short, comedy or tragedy, fact or fiction, etc,etc... it's up to you. Use each of the picture representations in your story. (one from the wild card options)


Go here to get this month's challenge details. Your story doesn't have to be posted until 15th - 17th September so you have a while to get your thinking cap on.


Go on, have a go, you know you want to.

Saturday Wordzzle # 28 (& Doodle Week Day 6)....

Wordzzle first then scroll down for Doodle Week Day 6.

The idea is, every week Raven (View From A Raven's Nest) gives you between 8 and 10 words/phrases and you have to create a small but coherent paragraph using every one of them and the same with the mini challenge. You can do either, both or a megawordzzle using all the words, or even all three, it's up to you, you can post them on your blog or email them to Raven. If you join in go to Raven's and put your name on the Mr. Linky so other participants can come visit you.




Here are my efforts - complete with my doodles.



This Week's Ten Word Challenge is: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle

Mabel Waterloo, was a famous psychic, who had starred at all the big theatres around the country. She was very popular, and a sight to behold bouncing around the stage as though she was on a pogo stick and had an ant farm in her pants. Her psychic abilities were exceptional and quite often when she was delivering messages to the audience the lights would dim to the extent that the theatres installed surge protectors whenever Mabel was appearing. After 40 years of unfailing duty to the spirit world, unfortunately Mabel’s health had now deteriorated, she had been made weak by the ravages of time and pneumonia. No more bouncing about on stage, Mabel was now as slow as a turtle but she still did private readings with her precious tarot cards, which she kept in a tin box because she hadn’t got a wall safe. Despite her failing health Mabel’s powers were still strong, in fact the neighbours often complained about their light bulbs blowing when Mabel was working!




And for the Mini Challenge: Swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potter’s wheel

Carla picked up the hairbrush and sitting in front of her bedroom mirror, smiled her toothy grin and began to sing. In her mind she was an opera singer, a film star – she thought of her favourite film ‘Ghost’, she was Demi Moore sitting at a potter’s wheel with Patrick Swayze whispering in her ear, artists clamoured to capture her beauty on canvas in oil paints. Unfortunately none of her dreams were likely to happen, she was a middle aged woman about 20lbs overweight with swollen ankles and a voice that sounded like a cat on a hot tin roof.



Megawordzzle

Dame Marjorie Forsythe, the opera singer, took her place on the stage playing the part of Lady Hamilton in the new Opera ‘Waterloo’. Her mind wasn’t really on the part she was playing today, she just couldn’t stop thinking about the veritable ant farm that seemed to have developed in the kitchen of her house, first thing tomorrow she would phone the pest control people and have them send someone over.

Angus, the pest control man, had arrived like a whirlwind, displaying a toothy grin and a face that only a mother could love. Showing him into the kitchen she pointed out the problem, an army of ants marching relentless across her kitchen floor. Angus proceeded to tell her some story about him having been in hospital for six months with pneumonia but Marjorie wasn’t interested so she said

“Will this take long?”
Opening his tin box Angus pulled out a device which he plugged into the nearest socket.

“What are you going to do, electrocute them?” enquired Marjorie.



“Of course not” replied Angus “this is like a minature vacuum cleaner, I’m going to suck them all up and take them away.”

Hopping from one foot to the other because of her swollen ankles, Marjorie looked on as the ants disappeared up the tube. Suddenly there was an almighty bang and all the lights went out.

“Oops” said Angus “I think I should have used a surge protector.”

“Oh good grief, how old is that contraption, it’s certainly showing evidence of the ravages of time?” said Marjorie.

“I’m going to the summer house until you sort this lot out, let me know when you’re done” Marjorie told Angus.

In the summerhouse Marjorie fed the turtle in the aquarium and pondered whether to get out her oil paints and finish the self portrait she’d been working on, or rest her feet by sitting at the potter’s wheel, instead she chose to meditate.



Once Marjorie was out of the way Angus went on a search of the house, he guessed Marjorie was well off living in such a big house so there must be cash somewhere. Up in the bedroom Angus discovered a wall safe, which had been left open, behind a painting on the wall, what luck he thought as he busily filled his pockets with the contents. Suddenly he felt a crack on the back of the head and everything went black. Marjorie had walloped him with a pogo stick. What Angus didn’t know was Marjorie wasn’t just an opera singer, she was also a psychic!

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Ooooh Day 6 of Doodle Week already.

Are you playing? You can, it's really easy. Doodle something on TODAY'S theme of YELLOW and post it on your blog, then go here and put your name on Mr. Linky so others can visit you. Don't forget to visit other participants to see their doodles.

Here's my YELLOW doodle. It's a yellow capsicum, just in case you don't recognise it!

Doodle Week Day 4.........

Day four already of Doodle Week.

If you want to join in post your doodle on today's theme of FIRE and go here and put your name on Mr. Linky so folk can come visit you. Don't forget to visit the other participants.

Here's my doodle for FIRE.

Body Worlds (& Doodle Week Day 3).......

On 15th August MWM and I went into Manchester to the Science and Industry Museum to see an exhibition called Body Worlds, by Gunther von Hagen, the anatomist/physician, which is an exhibition of Real Human Bodies preserved by a process called plastination which was developed by Gunther von Hagen in Germany. The process makes it possible to lend rigidity to soft body parts e.g. individual muscles, organs such as the lungs, or a single nerve. This means specimens of entire bodies can be inherently stabilized and posed in such a way that they are actually capable of standing, which was formerly restricted to skeletons.

Now you may think that this exhibition would be gruesome, or resemble a circus sideshow but I can assure you it is not, it's absolutely fascintating and incredible to say the least. It enables you to see all aspects of the human body in situ and I feel priviledged to have seen what was, before von Hagen's plastinates, restricted to the closed order of physicians. Plastinates reveal the inner structure and function of the human body from the human skeleton and its interplay with the muscles, to the functions of the inner organs of the respiratory tract and the digestive organs, to the nervous and cardiovascular systems to the beginning of life in the womb. The functions of the individual organ systems are explained in accompanying texts. Disease based organ transformations, such as degenerative joint disease, myocardial infarction, or the damage caused by many years of smoking are shown as well. Having had a knee replacement I was particularly interested in an exhibit of a knee showing degeneration due to arthritis.

Obviously taking photographs was prohibited and although I bought a catalogue showing photographs of many of the exhibits there is the question of copyright, so I am unable to scan any of the photographs to show you. You can, however, see examples here.

The Manchester exhibition finished on the 17th August but there is a permanent exhibition in Guben, Germany and also exhibitions in Edmonton, Baltimore and Los Angeles. If you are anywhere near any of these exhibitions I would encourage you to go and see for yourself (if you haven't already) - you'll be amazed.

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Day three of Doodle Week and todays theme is WATER.



If you want to join in post your doodle then click here and sign Mr. Linky to let others know you're playing. Don't forget to go visit the other participants.



Here's my WATER doodle.

Doodle Week Day 1 & 2.....

Doodle Week started yesterday and I forgot.

You get a different theme every day. If you want to take part click on the link and put your name on Mr. Linky so folks will know you joined in and visit the other Doodle Week participants.

Yesterday's theme was SUNFLOWER, here's mine.

Today's theme is EARTH, here's mine.