Porthole

June 27 - June 33

A weekly blog that starts skinny on Saturday and fattens up by Tuesday and is ready for slaughter by Friday ... if not before.

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  ███████          PORTHOLE           ███████

SUMMER: JUNE 2020
"Ye are all leaves of one tree and the fruits of one branch.”
- Bahá'u'lláh

MY THOUGHTS

June 27: It's hard being attacked; harder when out of context with no clue why.
June 28: I'm making more typos. Have to spell check. Mental slippage? Probably.
June 29: There has to be more than 'tolerate' me. Value me? Show me kindness?
June 30: Very unsettled. Lots of bad news. Stressed out by deadlines.
July 01: 70% masks at the grocery store? The only thing mandatory in Montana is stupidity.
July 02: Slept in like Czeszniak. I'll just plod through the day.
July 03: I wonder whether people are concerned about me. They should be... but just a little.

WEATHER

June 27: 23° and cloudy; 25° and sunshine this week in Faro, Portugal.
June 28: 13° cloudy, rain later; 14° cloudy, humid, dry week in Port Townsend, WA.
June 29: 11° rain and more rain; 27° and warm sunny calm this week in Buffalo, NY.
June 30: 10° grey and damp; 7° and cloudy in Tromso, Norway.
July 01: 14° and undecided; 24° at 10 a.m. in Tbilisi, Georgia. Highs will be 31-36 this week.
July 02: 21° and pleasant; 23° in Prishtina, Kosovo a warm night after a hot day.
July 03: 12° at 2 a.m. but going u to 29 today; 19° in Perth, Australia, sunny.

IMAGES

June 27: chocolate-lavender milkshake, petting a black dog.
June 28: cool breezes, slashing rain, wet windowsills, thunder.
June 29: clouds wrapping the mountains in grey.
June 30: buttery pan-fried polenta.
July 01: egg-cheese sandwich. The sun has returned! Rose in my nose.
July 02: puffy clouds, slight breeze, taste of pink taffy.
July 03: pink and red hollyhocks. The fragrance of herbs-de-provence. Halcyon day.

CONTESTS

I've decided to enter "Musicology Anthology"  I only have 4 days to write 11 pieces. *sigh* I can do it.
I'll be putting them all in the folder: "Days of Future Past" 

[A] "The Day Begins" ""The Day Begins" [A]" 
[B] "Morning Glory" "Morning Glory [B]" 
[C] "Dawn: Dawn Is a Feeling" ""Dawn is a feeling" [C]" 
[D] "The Morning: Another Morning" "Another Morning [D] " 
[E] "Lunch Break: Peak Hour" "Lunch Break: Peak Hour [E]" 
[F] "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" "Tuesday Afternoon [F]" 
[G] "(Evening) Time to Get Away" "Evening, Time to Get Away [G]" 
[H] "The Sunset" "The Sunset [H]" 
[I] "Twilight Time" "Twilight Time [I]" 
[J] "Nights in White Satin" "Nights in White Satin [J]" 
[K] "Late Lament / Resolvement" "Late Lament [K] (Can be part of J)" 

It's increasingly obvious that I will NOT do all of these in any given month. Priorities are given to sporadic contest. Blink and I may have to wait 3 months!

"No Dialogue Contest-CLOSED"  SS <700. June: DAD. No dialogue. "Bluegill [177.99] (323 words)"  HM
"Poetic Traditions Poetry Contest "  <50. Old or new not awarded. Limited to 20. "Old Bob plants his garden" 
"The Writer's Cramp"  Daily noon-noon WDC = 10 a.m. MTT. Must be item. "Make that to ... [106] (298 words)" 
"The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus"  Monthly. Beach and avoid certain words? "Wavelengths [105] (17 lines)" 
"Invalid Item"  June. It's a dark month... "Abdication [108] (lines)" 
"Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" 
"Invalid Item"  3 parts June 15-29 "Masked - 6 word story for June 2020" 
"The Contest Challenge"  A contest of contests... every month.
"Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special"  Old non-winners! Got lots of those (poem/ss) June 15th-14th
"Share Your Faith"  until June 30. Story or poem. Prompt: dealing with anger. "Opening the garden ... of the heart [109] (36 lines)" 
"Inner Strength Contest "  July Theme: resolve <500 or poem 15 line max.
"Kittiara's Writing Contest"  1 ss, 1 poem. Theme: renewal "On the boat [107] (12 lines)" 
"The Random Poetry Contest"  through June 14. (closed for now)
"Invalid Item"  open for July
Je2 Jy1 "Invalid Item"  Round 73: hokku/renga "One hokku and eleven rengas"  Round 74: mondo.
"The Humorous Poetry Contest"  Humor, so I doubt I'll enter. "From Missoula with Love (15 lines)"  (HM)
"Verdant Poetry Contest - On Hiatus"  Nature-Summer. Form and words. "Knud Knudsen's Beach Burn [177.90]"  (HM)
"Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  Round 85 15th to July 14th. Old or new. Free verse <40 lines.
"Write from the Heart Poetry Contest"  Romance.
"Butter My Buns Contest"  Erotica! 500 words or 15 lines. July: devotion
Added:
"The Dialogue 500"  SS <500. July: A Dialogue with your Doctor at the Sanitarium.
"The Science Fiction Short Story Contest"  SS <2000. July:
"The PET NEWS CONTEST"  SS <2500, P <40. July: a real wild pet
"The 4 Controversies Contest"  Opinionated non-fiction essay >1200. By July 17: covid-19
"WEIRD TALES CONTEST "  SS <1000, July prompt: invaders from outside. Item.

POULTRY

DAILY for JULY: "The Daily Poem"  by 4 p.m. WDC
DAILY: "Invalid Item"  by midnight WDC

STATIC

One hokku and eleven rengas  (13+) I wrote two lines 7/7 in response to other peoples hokku for a June 2020 contest. #2225550 by Kåre Enga in Montana

"On the boat [107] (12 lines)" 

"Abdication (30 lines) [108]" 

"Opening the garden ... of the heart [109] (36 lines)" 

"Late Lament [K] (Can be part of J)" 

"Antidote [110] (20 lines)" 

"In a garden - 24 syllables [111]" 

"Once upon a time in Ontario [112] (10 lines, limerick)" 

"Peace until the rise of dawn [116]" 

"In Cathedrals of the Book [117] (16 lines)" 

"To remember Tokyo [118] (16 lines)" 

Not yet laid:

PORK

June 27:

STATIC

Make that to ... [106] (298 words)  (18+) < 300 words. Prompts: face, three, Mark; pride month coming out. #2225430 by Kåre Enga in Montana

READING

Utopia, poesia de Costa Rica ... still
Mapping the Distance poetry by Alicia Hokanson.

MOVIETIME

I can't focus on audio-visual! I need to finish one movie and find one that works for me. I have 200 to choose from. May need to go on-line and watch some East Asian love story serials.

MARKET SENIOR CENTER COFFEEHOUSE

June 27th: Didn't bother with the sad farmers market. Went to Butterfly Herbs and said hello to a couple people, wrote, ordered a chocolate-lavender milkshake.

MY FORMER LIFE

June 1960s: roses bloomed this time of year where I grew up
June 2010: visited Lawrence Kansas.
June 2017: visited San Jose, Costa Rica.

WATT'S GNUS

Elijah McClain: Colorado protesters shut down Highway 225 (CNN) Apparently when people have the time they can protest ... maybe a silver lining to this dark viral cloud.
We Could Be Feeling This for the Next Decade’: Virus Hits College Towns (NY Times) Ghostly Trump Towns. Missoula is impacted but has some Summer tourism.
Montana dphhs: 56 new covid-19 cases; highest since this began. 20 new cases in Missoula
Oklahoma voters approve Medicaid expansion as coronavirus cases climb 200k will be helped! Very good news.
At least 152 coronavirus cases linked to Michigan bar (CNN) It never gets better because Americans still want to party and the rest of us be damned.

WATT'S GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Malawi's new president, a former evangelical preacher (AFP) I'm skeptical about religious leaders in politics. It's been rough in Costa Rica.
Kosovo president says he will resign if indictment confirmed (Al Jezeera) region is tottering even without this.
Pride celebrations stir tensions in Turkey (Reuters) A reminder that issues are global.
Taiwan expels two Chinese journalists over political shows (AFP) Ongoing tension heightens.

OPINIONS

"Rebuilding a blogging community" 
"2020 wish for secular governments and human rights" 

SPACEBOOK quotes (you can guess context):

BLOGVILLE

Reference to challenges, contest and prompts (not all appearing on the same week):
BC: "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  (daily) (I'm not a member)
BCOF: "Blogging Circle of Friends "  using my Nlog (nature blog) "Nurture your Nature"  and "Hoarfrosts from Hell"  (daily)
BHC: "The Bard's Hall Contest"  using my Tlog (travel blog) "On The Write Path"  Theme: June is blog month.
JAFBG: "JAFBG"  (open rants)
JI: "Journalistic Intentions"  using my Blog "Enga mellom fjella"  (8 blogs from 16 prompts) "June post. I'm finished. "  
30DBC: "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  (July)
MHA: "Invalid Item"  weekly prompts starting June 14th.
OP: "Invalid Item"  using my Plog "L'aura del Campo" 
PP: "Promptly Poetry Challenge (2023-2024)"  my Plog response to prompts as I missed the sign-up date.
Real: "Welcome To My Reality Forum"  75 prompts
SB: "Space Blog" 

June 27th SB: "4149 305-313 Scribbles in all shades of green" 
June 28th SB: "7788 17 Future Past" 
June 29th SB: "You choose what you consume..." 
June 30th SB: "Stardate 4549 382-385 " 
July 31st 30DBC: "Letter " 
July 32nd 30DBC: "Moods (Blood of the Garlic) [115]" 
July 33rd 30DBC: "Quentin has a royal hissy fit... " 

Visited this week so far and commented: Sum1 Kell Willsen Lyn's a Witchy Woman WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024 Lostwordsmith tah2o SusanFarmer Alexi Cheddah SandraLynn Team Florent! QueenNormaJeanGreeneggs&vegham Bernie runningwolf04 lizco252isback skeason Charlie ~ Emily Apondia SB Musing Mighty Sumojo IceSkatingSugarCube Robert Waltz 💙 Carly bobturn StephBee Prosperous Snow celebrating ♥Hooves♥ QPdoll Joy Chris Breva Debi Wharton Charity Marie - <3 Eric Wharton Sorji Elisa the Bunny Stik Elle - on hiatus ⭐Princette♥PengthuluWrites {......}

Trying to keep up on blogs. Over 30 last week but 15-20 is a better goal.

Postcards:

Received touchnote from Cecilie sent from Paris last week.
#6 to Debi and Eric in Mississippi 6/27
#7 to my sister in NYS 6/27

Stained glass at Woolarac, Oklahoma:

                                                                                                                                           

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