#FMF, Friday 9th August 2019, AGAIN

Hello there, welcome to another Five Minute Friday post.
If you would like to know more about FMF and join this group, writing with Kate Motaung, go here
Write every Friday, Five Minutes Flat on a word prompt.
You don't have to be a practicing christian to join this group. I'm not, my beliefs lie elsewhere (see my post REWARD, February 2019). All faiths welcome, as far as I'm concerned, as long as others' convictions are respected and nothing openly offensive is posted.




This Week, AGAIN.  Thank you Nick Hardy for the guest post.

Dubrovnik again.

The Sun crests the horizon
once again. The Moon creeps
night after night from full
to crescent, to new again,
and again, month after month.

She murders me with her gaze
year in, year out. She shot me
again on Thursday. I rise
from my corpse once more.
Freewill and I shall never surrender.

Once again, an old friend
at the other end of the phone.
Like yesterday, like thirty
years, so long ago, so far away.
Again we settle into safe companionship.

The cycle rotates, bumps
on cogs, bolts. The wheel
again takes the lead, edges
me back full circle to a haven,
my peaceful retreat, my pen and paper.

©susanbauryrouchard

©susanbauryrouchard

Crystalised, XX, 2009, here
Pursuit of Happiness, Kid Cudi, 2009, here
Heavy Cross, Gossip, 2009, here
The Sad Song, Freda Viola, 2009, here
Sheilia, Atlas Sound, 2009, here
Dandelion, Charlotte Gainsbourg, 2009, here and here .
Hang you from the Heavens, The Dead Weather, 2009, here
Immortels, Dominique A, 2009, here
Howling around my Home, Daniel Norgren, 2013, here


Thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to comment, discuss, like or dislike, rate. And I will be sure to reply.
Have a stunning Sunday.
See you next week.

#IWSG, Wednesday 7th August 2019. Dog Days of Summer

Dear Fellow writers and bloggers.
Welcome to another month of the Insecure Writers Support Group.

Thanks to Pat Hatt for this month`s post. I`m a cat person myself, and agree that everyday day is cat`s day. They do what they want. As the Ancient Egyptians knew, they are Divinity.
On my recent trip to Croatia, as in Istanbul last summer, I observed the growing population of cats. They are everywhere. They are free as the wind; it sometimes costs them their lives, especially when newly born. No mother, no milk, no shelter. If they survive, a caress of their body and tail, a plaintive meow is enough to melt the most leaden heart. And food will be provided. Shelter, conversation and fondling follow. However, a cat will not give up his freedom so easily. Windows and doors are to be kept open, imperitively, at all times. As the French say, 'Propose and the cat will Dispose'.

if you would like to read Pat's post and be reminded of all the exciting things going on at the IWSG,
go here

and you can sign-up .


Thank you to the co-hosts of this month's posting, Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, LG Keltner and last but not least , the Ninja himself Alex J. Cavanaugh.
A round of applause for all their hard work. Be sure to visit their sites, and like a cat, brush against them with your furry tails and look at them with your theatrical plaintive eyes like Cat in Boots (Shrek).

The (optional) question this month is:

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise ? For example, a positive and belated response to a submission you'd forgotten about or an ending you never saw coming ?

As a budding professional writer, my publications are few and far apart. So I have never forgotten about a submission. The positive responses have always come fairly quickly, although always as a welcome surprise. That's how insecure a writer I have felt uptill now..
Thank's to this group and the support of fellow bloggers who regularly follow my writing, confidence has grown exponentially in 2019. After forty-five years of writing my heart and brain out, but who is counting ... better late than never ... Another heart-warming surprise. Beyond my immediate family, their is a world out there, willing to listen and enjoy. As my mother would say, 'Wonders will never cease'. To discover who these amazing people are, see my Sunshine Blogger Award post, 16th May 2019, on this blog, here .

What truly takes me by surprise is the extent of insight I have occasionnally been gratified with over the years. Sometimes, I will read a snippet or whole pages of writing and think: ' Did I really write this ? Why did it take me solong to rediscover it  ?' Life and inspiration work in mysterious ways.
As Dr Seuss, would say, 'lessons have to be learnt over and over again' ....  and most we learn in Kindergarten.
My guardian angel, or muse or lucky star hovers, though imperceptively, constantly in the recesses of my pen and from time to time strikes. The lightening bolt cracks open the treasure chest or the current hits the tungsten filement of the light bulb. And , as lightening, you never know when or where it will crash down next. It rarely falls on the same spot, but it happens. People hit multiple times by lightening and survivng ....

The endings don't tend to creep up unawares though. They have a terrible habit of rushing to the fore at the most inappropriate moments, and like and impatient child, raise their hand, jumping up and down in their seats, to be picked on before I've had time to finish my meandering speech.
I dream of writing like John Irving, from end to beginning; that would put a lid, from the onset, on that over-zealous young spirit bouncing about in my mind.

©susanbauryrouchard

Dis-moi ce que tu penses, L'Amour et la Violence, Sebastien Tellier, 2008 go here

Entre les lignes: clouée au sol, Keny Arcana, 2006, here

Who the fuck are Artic Monkeys, Artic Monkeys, 2006, here

Mount Wrocklai (Idle days), Beirut, 2006, here

Trick or Treatz, Metronomy, 2007, here

Hier à Sousse, Alain Bashung, 2008, here

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.
Paris, sunny with a strong breeze. Bouncy bunny clouds floating from West to East. Yesterday's rain has washed away the dust and painted in the bright colours of Nature in again.
Have an inspiring August to contribute to the Anthology, Red Wheelbarrow and countless other 'goodies'.

⌗FMF, Friday 26th July 2019, MIDDLE

Welcome to Five Minute Friday.
If you would like to join up with Kate, start-here

Today MIDDLE.



Middle English.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales always fascinate me, even though the Middle English was hardeous at times. It transported me back in time to a place when people's preoccupations were either basic or spiritual.
The pilgrims on this, uncannily modern, road trip are endearing, funny and sometimes downright annoying. The perfect Human Beings.
I discovered these fireside stories about the same time that I visited Venice at 12 with my class. I spent that year documenting an enormous file on the Lagoon's origins, history, politics, economy and of course Renaissance Art.
I was under the spell of the earlier artists. Fra Angelico's frescoes, discovered first in Venice, then in Florence the following year with the same class. Then came UCELLO and his colourful battle fields packed with side-stories of minor characters in corners and behind the main scene. Botticelli was an allegory master who left the beaten path of religious representations to offer Nature a rightful place alongside human activities.
The architecture fulfilled my tastebuds for the Beautiful : palaces, gothic churches, campaniles. The explosion of gold and intricate mosaics encased within the Basilico San Marco.
No middle ground in Venice. Each canal, waterway, street, alley offer unsuspected treasures, amongst which I was all to glad to get lost and forget the average existence awaiting me back home.
©susanbauryrouchard

Palazzo Venice, July 2019

Paradiso by Tintoretto

Palazzo Ducale

School of Ucello, Naval Battle

The Grand Canal

Santa Maria del Salute

Basilica San Marco

the Four Bronze Horses

July 2019

Jacco Gardner, Hypnophobia, listen here

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.

⌗FMF, Friday 19th July 2019, DISTANCE

Welcome back to another week of Five Minute Friday. Write five minutes flat on a word prompt.
If you would like to learn more or sign up with Kate click here

Today DISTANT.


Distant in Space. Reach up and touch the Moon.
We climbed the mountain. Auburn butterfly hovering
over the violet clochette-shaped wild flowers.
Sea stretching away, azure transparent, clear green.
lunar landscapes islands, slopes crash into the water.
Kekrrastic rocks.
A Ryder sculpted onto the back of an Orc.
A log cabin, a deep well. Founders of the Botanical Garden
tread this path stealthily, cushioned by needle-blanketed
chocolate earth. A photograph immortalises them. Smiling
through Time.

Distant in Time. Lost to uncertain memories. The written word,
the captured image keep Time in a Bottle, to share and enjoy
full circle. Best friends at 8, lost to the passing years
and growing up. Re-connect at 54. Electrical waves bridge
an unfathomable abyss.

Distance of Emotions. When she expressed her aching feelings
and they were dismissed, made light of, made fun of,
a laughing matter. The comic story the family told over and over.
Emotions ignored, facts reported twisted into fiction imagined.
Fire ! Fire ! Wolf ! Wolf ! Burnt to ashes, eaten alive.
From frying pan to fire.

Distance of Opinions. Harmony of ying and yang. Creamy dough
of feminine flour and masculine butter. Clash of pater rostra
and questioning fila pequena. Gorge of misunderstanding : a woman's role,
a man's role versus a human being striving to survive to lead an equal,
balanced, fulfilling life.

Distance of Culture. The Hundred Years' War gathers like a storm cloud
over the Channel of my birth. Lightening strikes once, twice, again and again,
always hitting the same frail tree. You land me a blow, I get up and stare you
down defiantly.

Distance of Manners. Je fais fie de vos conventions. They are chains
and I am not a slave, nor a caged bird. My wings are delicate, engineered
to fly up, up and away like that beautiful balloon of my dreams.

Distance of Character. My genes have spoken, my likes, my dislikes are my own.
The battles I fight serve my survival and the bliss of loved ones.
If you do not wish to dance in my circle and take my hand, be gone with you.

The Distances have crept up unawares. The bridges that we thought were made
of stone have fissured and crumbled. The arches have toppled and stunned us dizzy.

I have lost a friend. You have severed a tie, imagining your unease is at the origin
of all your problems. I am but the tip of the iceberg of your own making that
you are intent on ramming your head against.
Turn your wheel away, and stir clear. The wind will once again fill your sail and carry
you towards clement lands.
I am content to share my hard-fought ice with my friends the penguins, polar bears
dolphins and whales. Basking in the clear air and rainbow skies.
©susanbauryrouchard.

La Garrigue, Lac de St Cassien, Côte d' Azur, July 2019

Street art Nice, Côte d' Azur, July 2019

Exhibition : Empress Sissi's Wardrobe

Opatja, Croatia, July 2019

National Park Velebit Mountains

View over Pag islands, Croatia.

Rock formation. Velebit mountains.

Morning moon over Pag Island

Gajac, Croatia

Johnny Cash, Live at Folsom Prison go here

Supertramp, It's Raining Again, here

Jim Croce, Time in a Bottle, here

Simon and Garfunkel, Wake Up Little Suzie, go here

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to comment, discuss, like or dislike. And I will be sure to reply.

#FMFriday, 12th July 2019, WILLING

Welcome to Five Minute Friday.
I’m on the Road this week. Stopping over in Nice to search for an apartment for my son who is studying here next year. Then off for ten days in CROATIA, down the Dalmatian Coast. Returning by Venice, then Marseille.

If you would like to join Five Minute Friday, write five minutes flat on a word prompt and sign up with Kate, Here

Today Willing.

Am I willing to change my ways ? I am still the same person I was at 5, 15, 25, 40. My husband calls me the ‘ quincado, the ‘ fifty-teen ‘. However, I am willing to change my actions, if unwilling and unable to change myself. You are what you achieve. ‘ I am what I am’ as Jerry Lee would say.

1989, return from a year in Africa. Consumerism Society was suddenly unbearable. Although in 1987, I had already sensed this: I had wanted to join Volunteers Abroad to teach English and French in schools around the world. I was politely asked to seek employment elsewhere, as my diploma was not that of a teacher of English, but a BA in Business Administration. However I was bilingual English/French, spoke German and Russian and had given English lessons to countless kids around the block. I had also travelled extensively and knew how to adapt to different cultures. My will and abilities counted for nothing because I did not fit into a box. Will and might do not change the world. Actions do. Not speeches or diplomas.

To change the world start by changing your ways. So that is where I started. I earned my living in
jobs corresponding to my diploma.
Then when I had earned enough to choose what I wanted to do and where I wanted to live, I passed my exams to teach English as a foreign language and taught in Spain, English and French to children, teens and adults, in schools and firms.
At the same time, my crusade against consumerism began, changing things in my lifestyle, day by day, little by little.
First, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, which I started doing in France. Buying my produce from greegrocers, small supermarkets, local butcher and fishmonger, cheese mongers. Buying local or at least French, then Catalan or Spanish products.
From 1994, I started to find organic and environmental friendly products and extended their purchase up till now when my whole shopping cart is solely composed of them.

Little by little, step by step, initiating my children along the way, as they came, grew and left the nest. Planting, harvesting. Avoiding use of the car then reverting to electric and solar, wind based energies for the house. My children walked, cycled to school and gave up most superfluous consumerism habits. Now living on their own, they follow suit by a will of their own and perseverance, initiating others along the way.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment and I will be sure to reply.

⌗FMFriday, 5th July 2019, TAKE the money and run.

It's Friday again. Time for another post of Five Minute Friday. Write Five Minutes Flat on a word prompt.
If you would like to join this group hosted by our loving Kate start-here

Today , the word is Take.


He took the money and ran. He ran, ran and ran again. Soles beating the cobbles, cycles zipping by, cars zooming overhead; balloons floating alone high above. He walked through forests and meadows. He climbed the highest mountain and rolled in the Midnight snow. He hiked down the cliffs, taking the goats' paths. Then, ran some more, on dirt tracks, along railways, over bridges. Across tripping streams, he hobbled. He swam, slicing a lake, Amazons swooping past his auburn locks.

He shuffled, exhausted, over farmland, hearing the bleating of sheep, the bark of a dog, the mooing of cows in pain, awaiting dawn to be milked. He crawled along, undeterred. Finally, the ocean stretched before him. He spotted a boat. He took the water-melon canoe, seized the oars and launched into the waves. He took in the sea air, the salt and the spindrift. He took to the horizon and took in the rays of the setting sun.

He happened upon a shore. He took to the beach, hauled the embarkation onto the rocks. He found a spring behind a copse.
He took the water into his hands and sang to be free and alive.
©susanbauryrouchard


Woody Allen, Take the Money and run, go here
Tom Hanks, Castaway, here
Zulu, Forest Whitaker, go here
Documentary,  Di Caprio's Before the Flood, go here

Joan Baez, Forever Young, LIVE 2016, go here
with Bob Dylan, LIVE 1982, here
Joe Cocker, With a little Help from my Friends, Woodstock 1969, go here
Frank Zappa, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, go here
Leningrad Cowboys go America,  go here
Cold War Kids, We used to Vacation, here
Hang me Up to Dry, here
Patrick Watson,  The Storm, go here

Deauville, April 2013

Brittany, July 2012

Santonia, Spain, Atlantic July 2014

Pyrenees, March 2019

Biarritz, Basque Country March 2019



Thank you for reading. Please feel free to like/dislike, comment, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.
The haze has lifted, closing on to 40º C. Have an inspiring weekend.

⌗HOT-IWSG Wednesday 3rd July 2019.

It's time for another IWSG Wednesday, hot, hot, hot.
If you would like to know more, or join the Insecure Writers Support Group go here

Today HOT Wednesday.

It's July, so now we're cooking! 

Temps are up, fall is beginning to look darned good, but we need to take time and celebrate 

HOT #IWSG Wednesday.

Thanks Alex!

And it's not too late to visit all of the great July hosts and say hello: 

The Question of the Month is "What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?" The question is optional, so I'll opt to answer it as best I can. 

My response ( Susan Rouchard )

Most of them. As they say ' Write what you know '.

Who do I know better than myself ? It took me some time to get there but my writing stems naturally from my unconscious : she, he or it (Sie, Er oder Es) had me pinned down for who I was from the start.

In the first short story I wrote, at about 12, my character is a boy who runs away from home when his father leaves. Why is he a boy ? Because I'm a tomboy, the son my father never had. He was disappointed on having two girls. He didn't know the first thing about girls.

He was an only child. To please him, I became that son. When we were in New York, my hair was kept short until 3 and a half. Passers by would stop and comment : ' How lovely (or the NYC equivalent), you have a girl and a boy ' .

Why does this boy run away ? Because like me, he flees toxic situations: a strong survival instinct. He is quiet though, unlike me but he has the same  keen sense of observation. He assesses a situation and draws his conclusions, thus learning the lessons of life through experience, trial and error.  Not taking for granted what an adult may tell him is the truth. Very Independant minded. That's it, now I'm on Jung's couch ! ' Proceed, proceed ', he says to me or ' Weiter, weiter. '

My second story is about a boy, yes again, who lives in the Future on a planet, not necessarily Earth, or come to think of it not necessarily in the Future. Not the same space-time continium anyway. A student of mine, an algorithm Genius who worked at the CNES ( Centre National d' Etudes Spaciales ), devising ways to ' count ' the stars via satellites whose algorithms he designed, once said to me ' You are an extra-terresteral',. My feeling exactly, at times.. He was actually sending messages, at the time, via social networks (end of the nineties, so the premises) to see if he could find any Aliens living on Earth ( of course they probably wouldn't have told him if they were..). ' You think too much ' I thought, but didn't say anything, so as not to hurt his feelings. Poor guy, may he rest in peace with the stars. He died in 2010 of a rupture of the brain, anevrism (is that how you say it in English ?). His widow said to me that he spoke fondly of the best English teacher he had ever come across. He was young, maybe 50. He left a younger wife and two small sons.

To come back to my second male character, he was about my age, 14, curious, outspoken and much more an extrovert, like myself, than my first hero.In this imaginary society, he was of an age when he was to go through the rites of passage to become a fully-functioning adult. I envied him because he could be what I couldn't : Himself. In an environment which thrived on each individual's uniqueness. Without setting out to mold them and constrict them into rabbit hatches. In order to then lead them like sheep through life with a whip and a whistle, as I felt society treated us.

' Dr Jung, my hour is up and there is so much more from where that came from... Thank you for listening to my rambles. I will not be paying you because I am a storyteller and you should be rewarding me for the entertainment. See you soon. I'll call you when I feel like making another appointment. Have a pleasant day. Here are some treets for you to enjoy and share, so don't play any tricks on me... '

©susanbauryrouchard

Jethro Tull, Heavy Horses, 1978. promo videos, go here

                  Black Sunday, LIVE, 1980, go here

                  Thick as a Brick, concept album, 1972, LIVE, 1977, go here

                  Interview of Ian Anderson and group in the 90's about the creation

                  of Thick as a Brick. go here

Monty Python, Sketch, Adolf Hitler lives... go here

Veronique Sanson, Amoureuse, go here

                             Vancouver  go here

                             Tout est Cassé, Tout est Mort, go here

                             Les Délices de Hollywood, go here

                             Irréparable, go here

                             Bernard's song, go here

Neil Young, Crazy Horse,  LIVE RUST Concert, 

                  Sugar Mountain, go here

                  Out of the Blue and in to the Black, go here

David Bowie, LIVE, Hammersmith, Riverside, 2003, go here

Tracy Chapman, Crossroads, go here

Marilyn Monroe, We're having a Heatwave, go here

Like Crazy by Drake Doremus 2011, with Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, and Jennifer Lawrence, go here and here

2010, on the road to the Mediterranean

Tarragona

Brittany, Beg Mel, Fouesnant, 2012

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to like, dislike, rate; agree, disagree, discuss. And I will be sure to reply. Have a HOT (cool) IWSG Wednesday.

Going up to 35º C today. So after a spot of gardening this morning, before 10 a.m.

I'm behind my wooden shutters, enjoying Day four of Wimbledon. Nadal- Kyrios up this afternoon, Rafa is wary of his theatrics but will probably give him the thrashing he deserves...so much for uniqueness !

Creativity Takes Courage, 

Henri Matisse (French Impressionnist 1869 -1954 ).           

                                                                                              go here

⌗FMFchallenge, Friday 28th June, WORLD

It's Friday again, time for another post to contribute to Five Minute Friday, hosted by Kate.
Thank her for her hard work in keeping this FMF group alive, on Blogger, Wordpress and Facebook.

Write Five Minutes Flat on a word prompt.

This week World.
If you would like to join the group, and add your blog to the link-up/mailing list go here


WORLD

What a wide Word prompt !
my poem.


Where to is the World Spinning ?

It's rolling, rolling.
Stop the World and let
me off. It's twirling,
it's frantic, it's spinning
off its axis.

The World ? No.
Mankind, Yes.
Who is taking down
all fellow living things
with him.

The birds, the flowers,
the trees, the tiger, the panda,
the elephant, the rhinoceros,
the koala bear, the whale,
the bees, the butterflies.

The Oceans, the Mountains,
the clouds, the sky.
Warnings issued for over
50 years remain unheeded.
Only by too few.

The Earth is not in jeopardy,
It will heal itself.
It will adjust, transform.
Cease to be
the Blue Planet.

If air and water survive,
new species will be born,
with Time. Man may find
an escape route to make
the same mistakes.

All Over Again.

©susanbauryrouchard


He's got the Whole World in His Hands, sung by Nina Simone go here
Biopic on Nina Simone , 2016 go here  and  here and here, again here

Wonderwall, Oasis, go here

TIME AND LOVE

Mr Nobody film by Jaco Van Dormael, 2009 go here
and here, again here and for those who are still following here and for those enjoying all this here
Mr Sandman, film extract, here (spoiler).
Everyday, Buddy Holly, film extract, here
Daydream, film extract, go here
Where is My Mind, film extract, here


Dance Me to the End of Time, Leonard Cohen, poet, musician, singer, philosopher,  He's My Man
Live in London, 2008 go here  ,  Introduction here
Tower of Love, go here
The Future, go here
Anthem, go here
First We Take Manhattan, go here
I'm Your Man, here

Leonard Cohen 1934-2016, biography.
Memorial Concert Montreal, November 2017. go here

Toulouse, June 2019

Pyrénées Orientales, Le Boulou, May 2019

The Mediterranean

Sitges, Catalunya May 2019

Orange and Lemon trees, 

Gardens, Hotel Capri, Sitges

Toulouse, June 2019

Cathédrale St Etienne

our Meadow

Dordogne, June 2019

Merlin's house

Kindergarten Kermesse

How the Children see

The World

In My Garden

no pesticides or fertilisers

the sun, the air, the earth

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply. Have a lovely and inspiring week with a basketful of roses and positive thoughts.