⌗Freedom-of-Expression Challenge, Thursday 6th June 2019, DREAM

Welcome to Week 23 of the Thursday Freedom of Expression Challenge hosted by 

Richa at iScriblr, amazing Haiku blogger among other gems.

If you would like to know more about this challenge and join up, 

go here

Post every Thursday on a word prompt. Writing (poems, short stories, fiction, articles); reading, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, music, film,  quotes...whatever inspires you.

Today, DREAM

Dreamer, I'm nothing but a Dreamer, can I put my hands in my head, 
Oh ! No !

Supertramp (my version)

Dreams are what make life liveable. They are what makes us Human. Do animals dream ? Do they have nightmares ? In Jean-Jacques Annaud's film l'Ours, the baby bear does. A toad is its' worst nightmare.

When we sleep our dreams are fuelled by what has gone on in the day or echoes of what has happened to us in the past, what we have read, listened to, seen. They spur our imaginative writing. That's why early morning writing is so valuable, so productive: our dreams are still fresh.

Our day-dreams warm-up our hearts. Our thought-through dreams set us goals  and pave our way forward.

Don't let anyway take your dreams away ! If your dreams die, your inner-self dies along with them !

A boss once told me that, in life, we couldn't do what we wanted, that we were all sheep, condemned to follow the flow, to stay in rank, to stay in check !

Asshole ! I retorted that I was not a sheep but a Ram ! (I am too, Aries, )

And that I lived in the Land of 'Do-as-you-please' It took me 40 years of my life to finally get there !

Poem inspired by a Dream/Nightmare, December 2009.

She gets up and steps

into the hotel corridor.

Barefoot, her white

cotton nightdress

frayed at the edges.

Tears sewn up

summarily.

Her tread patters

on the rough carpet

along the windows.

The corridor is blasting

with light, although

all is quiet. Hundreds

of strangers huddle 

under their sheets

unknown to her night walk.

She imagines blown-up

heads billowing along

towards her. Japanese

Manga freaks with no legs.

Chattering menacing teeth.

They become real and then

they disappear. A staircase winds

down from the left, blue

linoleum. Another corridor

joins her own. Daytime 

explodes around her.

Future's ghosts busily

bustling towards

conference rooms

with briefcases clenched

and tight legs in tight

skirts. Blazing ties

and sleek black hair.

Hands demonstrating

a point; a laugh,

an angry shout.

The pace quickens

and time lines

stream past

the jostling crowd.

Suddenly the Present

jolts back into place.

All is still again.

Just her and the coffee

machine at the end

of the corridor,

stretching doors, floors.

©susanbauryrouchard

L'Ours de Jean-Jacques Annaud. 1988, full film (English version). The bear's dream, minute 10.00, 
go here



Dreamer, Supertramp, 1974 ( Crime of the Century ). 
go here

Imagine, John Lennon Live in New York City. 
go here

The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blighton, 1943.
go here

2002 edition

1978 edition. I first read them in 1971.

My Photos that warm my heart.

1st May 2014

rose at Elie du Bois, May 2014

Montory, Pyrénées April 2014

Deauville, April 2013

Compton Acres, Bournemouth

July 2010, Alice's photo.

Old Harry Rocks, July 2010

Beg Meil, Brittany July 2012

Laggo Guarda, July 2009

Alice's photo

Emma and I, Italy July 2009

Alice's photo

My home village, Chambourcy

December 2013

view over the Seine valley

from my bedroom window

December 2015

Delicate Arch, Moab Utah

July 2013

Morning Moon

from my garden, February 2019

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

Sunshine and blowing, billowy clouds. Cool breeze from the West, the Atlantic.

⌗FMF Challenge, Friday 7th June 2019, WELL

Well, It's Friday again, Five Minute Friday challenge.

Write for five minutes flat on a word prompt.

We're late ! Poor Kate, she has a lot on her plate. Let us pause and thank her for all her hard work to make us better writers. Hoping she is well and truly O.K.

If you would like to learn more about Five Minute Friday and join this group, go here

Today's word is WELL.

❀ I will not be talking about the stone lined hole in the ground from which we draw water, but the well of feeling good, in health.

Such a bland word, used so casually. What do we mean when we ask someone if they are well ?

A polite way to start a conversation or a letter. In Africa you inquire about the person you are talking to, and all of his family; his job, his welfare, his interests, his occupations, his health. This is very important and can take a long while, even if you have only met this person.

We have lost this consideration in the North. In Muslim communities, they still abide by this unspoken rule. In Japan and other Asian countries too.

❀ Sometimes we use the expression as a sincere inquiry into the person's health. We answer 'Very well, thank you' or 'yes, I'm O.K.'  , but are they ? We are concerned for their well-being and we start to worry. Do we worry because we really care or because we are worried that this loved one will just add to our pile of worries.

❀ How can we live selflessly and feel wholly well enough to care for others in a friendly, compassionate way without infringing on their privacy, their intimacy even, sometimes ? A health professional can attempt to chase illness so that the body is well. How about the mind ?

Is it lawful and respectful of another's dignity to slide into their shoes and show them a way to wellness ?

❀ Each and every one of us is different. Some feel alright living with all sorts of bodily harms and spiritual pains. Others are never well, whatever their degree of fitness.

Another person can provide comfort, joy and love. However our own freewill should spur us on into finding our own path, our own place, our wholeness, our wellness. The best way to heal, to heal your body, to heal your mind is by first learning to love yourself. To accept yourself, to change what you can with foremost your well-being in mind and let all things that you can't control slip over you like a receeding wave.

❀ Then and only then can we truly care for the wellness of others. Of course most of us just operate a balancing act all our lives, but by striving to first care for yourself, you become stronger and more apt to bring love and joy to others.

©susanbauryrouchard.

Just the Two of Us, Supertramp, Roger Hodgson, go here

West Side Story, One Hand One Heart, go here

Queen, I want to Break Free, FREDDY Mercury, go here

My Lady, film trailer. With Emma Thompson, go here

Ramen Shop, film trailer, Singapore, go here

Interview crew, go here

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to like, comment, react, agree, disagree, discuss and I will be sure to reply.

Have a lovely weekend.

Puigcerda, Spanish Pyrenees, on the border with France, 

1st June 2019, coming back from Sitges.

Still snow névée on the Mountains

Villefranche de Conflent, near Prades

Cité Vauban, UNESCO protected site.

US Invasion !

⌗IWSG, Wednesday 5th June 2019

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late....she said looking at her pocket watch...
It's that time of month, busy like a bee, it slipped her mind. No pocket watch or calendar could save Humpty Dumpty.....

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Every month share your thoughts about writing prompted by a question.

           

If you would like to know more and join this enhancing group. go here

This month the question is :

Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favourite to write in and why ?


When a child , I loved stories involving people I could relate to. As I grew up my favourite characters just got older with me.
Now I enjoy all ages for my protagonists, read fiction and non-fiction about children and adults.
The genre never really mattered as long as the characters felt real and belonged to whatever universe they evolved in. I began writing with poems and non-fiction : descriptions, impressions, thoughts.

I started reading science-fiction very early on and it grew on me as I learned maths and physics, also as I took an increasing interest in the Universe. As I read, I started to write sci-fi stories too and still enjoy writing them. They are less outer space now and more anticipation.
Historical fiction was always fascinating too. It was a trip into the past : I learnt a lot and this genre fulfilled my itching for time travel.    
When these two genres are combined, I am in Heaven. However I have never written a story about time travelling : I choose a period in the present, the past or the future and stick to it. My characters on the other hand are free to time-travel in their minds : to reminisce, discover new aspects of a forgotten period or visit a faraway culture.

Fantasy and magic come next as a reader. As a child Dragons and Ghosts, later I discovered J.R.R.Tolkien at 14 and entered a whole new dimension. However I have never written a story with anything fantastical about it. The closest I get is 'eerie' or 'unexplained'.

In Poetry, the narrative poem is my favourite read. My own poems explore the narrative, the contemplative and the reflective. Sometimes they can take on a dreamlike quality and appear as fantasy but they are rooted in experienced truths.

Mysteries and Crime are all-time favourites. I started with the Famous Five when learning to read but quickly preferred Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood, the Treacle Pudding or other Wishing chair type stories. My late sister stuck to the Secret Seven and the Naughtiest Girl, who was, for her, along with Dorothy Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister, what she had to live through every day with....me ! For my part I would get lost in the land of "Do-As-You-Please' !

Arthur Conan Doyle then took over with Crime. My writing has not explored mystery or murder as of yet. I suppose a weekly diet of Hitchcock humbled me as to my ability to create meaningful suspense ! However the great film Director introduced me to Daphne Du Maurier. A strong female voice that I could identify with. In the same vein, Jane Eyre was The Revelation amongst the Brontë Sisters' work. To succeed in emulating these all-time greats would be quite an achievement indeed !

Finally, at 17 I discovered John Irving. And my ultimate goal as a writer was now clear.

Theatre is never far away : Shakespeare, Marcel Pagnol, Sartre and Jean Cocteau; Thorton Wilder, Brecht, Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. Although I was incapable of writing a play, my mastery of dialogue was poor, at best, I have dabbled in this genre...without success. Hence my hitherto unwritten novel !

Science Fiction

C.S. Lewis
John Wyndham                                           Arthue C. Clarke                       Ray Bradbury
Isaac Asimov                                              Kurt Vonnegut
Georges Orwell                                          H.G. Wells                                 Aldous Huxley

Historical Fiction

Jean Plaidy
Robert Merle                                             Lian Hearn
Philippa Gregory                                      Dian Gabardon
Carlos Luis Zafon

Fantasy and Magic

E. Nesbit
Enid Blyton                                             Penelope Lively                           Susan Dickenson
Barbara Euphan Todd                             Aiden chambers                           Elizabeth George Speare
J.R.R. Tolkien                                         C.S.Lewis                                    Terry Pratchett
J.K.Rowling                                           Philip Pullman                              Lev Grossman
and most recently, fellow writers           Yvette Carol                                 Lisa Fender

Crime and Mystery

Enid Blyton                                          Arthur Conan Doyle                     Michael Crichton
Jo Nesbo                                               Paula Hawkins                              Elizabeth Georges
Stieg Laarson                                       Karen Giebel                                 Agatha Christie

Poetry

Keats
Coleridge                                             Wordsworth                                   Robert Burns
Shakespeare                                         Rimbaud                                        Baudelaire
Ted Hughes                                          Gerard Manley Hopkins                Sylvia Plath
Kenneth Koch                                      Billy Collins                                  Carol Ann Duffy
and most recently,                               Tamar Yoseloff                               Rebecca Gethin

Collections Fiction

John Irving                                          H.E Bates                                      Robert Merle
René Barjavel                                      Umberto Eco                                Bernard Werber
Boris Vian                                            Kafka                                            André Brink
Jostein Gaarner                                    David Lodge                                 Robertson Davies
Margaret Atwood                                Carol Shields                                 Margaret Forster
Paul Auster                                          Pat Barker                                     Kasuo Ishiguro
Henry James                                        Shakespeare                                  Charles Dickens
Mark Twain                                         Jack London                                  John Steinbeck
F. Scott Fitzgerald                               Sartre                                             Camus

Graphic Novels ( over 300 in our bookcases )

Belgian School                                  French School                                Italian School
Argentine                                          Windsor Mc Kay                            J.B. Frost
Peanuts                                              MAD  artists


Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, give your input, ask questions and I will be sure to reply.
Have a lovely week End.

          
                                                                                                       
                                                                           

⌗WEP-IWSG, CAGED BIRD Sign Up, June 1st 2019.

Good Morning, and thank you for visiting.

I am signing up for the June Challenge of the combined WEP-IWSG community of writers.
If you would like to know more about Write...Edit...Publish go here
and the Insecure Writers' Support Group  go here

I wrote a short story for February, theme, 28 DAYS that you can read here
I did not write anything for Jewel Box because  I was participating in the A to Z Challenge April 2019 (Tenth Anniversary) for the first time and still groping around for my marks !

In June I will be writing a short story with the theme CAGED BIRD.
It will be set in Sitges, Catalunia, on the coast.

If you would like to sign up for this challenge go here

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, share, discuss. And I will be sure to reply shortly.
Have a pleasant weekend.

#FMF, Friday 31st May, 2019, NAME

It’s Friday again. time for a new FMF post. Missed last week, as I was at the World Impact Summit at Bordeaux, France. Ecological Fair, France-Africa, finding sustainable solutions for the development of the African continent : energy ressources, water, nutrition, power, irrigation, digital networks, education, health, basic rights.
Write every Friday for Five Minutes Flat on a word prompt.
If you would like to know more about FMF challenges, Kate and her Gang go here

NAME


Safari M. my new Congolese friend who showed me the way.
Who knew my name before I opened my mouth. Who saw me for who I was before I uttered my name. Who danced my son and I through the night and imparted wisdom beyond his years. I, his ‘Mama’ , him, ‘mon fils’.
Who quoted Richard the third to me !
‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for....chocolate !’
No more to say. Tell me your name, and I will tell you who you are !
Tell me who are your friends and I will tell you where you are going from here.

Queen, I want to break Free, Go here

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.
Sunny , here in Sitges. Gay pride tomorrow. Beach, pool, reading, writing, watching Roland Garros Vamos Rafa !
Have a very pleasant weekend.

⌗Barkskins, a book and a poem, 28th May 2019

Good Morning my fellow bloggers and faithful followers.

Today, after a week in Bordeaux for the World Impact Summit, I will be talking about the book I have been reading for over a month now. Why the slow progress ? Because, first of all it is long, 713 pages, then because it is such a rich read. Spanning four centuries between 1693 to 2013, the novel explores the theme of the exploitation of North American forests, first in New France, then in the American colonies by following two French peasants who emigrate to Trois-Rivières in 1693 to become woodcutters. Their lives and their descendants' lives are intertwined with the fate of the Great Forests, the Native Americans, the United States, Canada, Québec and all the other European emigrants of that period, notably the Dutch merchants.

The novel is fascinating. Every page conjures up images, historical and botanical knowledge, social and political events which are all more detailed than the next. At each new chapter, you are compelled to widen your horizons by researching even more contextual erudition, in order to milk maximum pleasure out of the read.

Here is a poem I wrote last Tuesday, inspired by Barkskins.

Lady in a Canoe


They paddled up the river
from Penobscot Bay.
They passed tree stumps
and roaming sheep biting

down on the newborn grass,
laying the earth bare.
they glimpsed no beavers
who had slunk away

deep into the forest
fleeing the hammers'
thunder. The nailing
of timber box wikuoms.

They built a fire
for the night. A lean-to
for shelter. They hunted
but did not spot a moose.

The outpost was busy
with the strange
dealings of the whiteman,
the Mi'kmawki idle.

The eel dryouts,
forlorn, offered no food.
The ghost of their people
harboured eyes dulled

by firewater. So they
skunked back
to their canoe. Paddled
some more to where

the forest stood sovereign.
Lady at the helm picked
a spot to plant
her feet.

They marched forth
with bow and arrows.
The Lady of the canoe
raised her babes.

They sat cross-legged
beneath the stars
and strung stories
of the Time that Was.

©susanbauryrouchard


Barkskins by Annie Proulx  go here

My trip to Bordeaux to the World Impact Summit included conferences on sustainable energy and sustainable agriculture among others.
I also met with French start-ups who offer solutions to small communities who lack the basic means to survive : nutrition, access to healthcare and power.

Inovaya, filters to ensue water is drinkable and nourishing. go here
I will be helping them correct the English version of their website, as you can see, it is full of mistakes !

Sunkofa Energy, small solar panels for health centers, community buildings or shops. go here

I am in contact with many NGOs from Africa, mostly, and other countries who have elaborated projects which need technical solutions and financing. So now we have the technical aspect sorted out, or nearly, we have to find the financing. My contacts with UNICEF France (for whom I'm a volunteer), Entrepreneurs du Monde (for whom I do translations), WWF, Croix Rouge, Action contre la Faim, Medecins Sans Frontières.....ADEME, Electriciens Sans Frontières....  should prove useful !
Building Bridges not only for my writing but also for causes I wish to act upon. Words only go so far ! Practice what you preach !

Elie du Bois, Dordogne, May 2019

The Meadow

New Leaf

Wild 'Marguerites'

The Cherries, before I picked them

or the birds got'em !

Knock on Doors

Bordeaux, last week.

Bordeaux

Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux

from the bus-boat on the Garonne

The new Draw-Bridge

Bordeaux, 25th May 2019

While at Elie du Bois, I found My childhood 'Magical Roundabout' book from the 60's.

So for those of you who have read my post A to Z Challenge, letter Z go here

here are some extracts, photos.

Sibelius, Finlandia, while writing. go here

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs, go here
film The Night of the Living dead, the Suburbs, full album. go here

Alela Diane, Wild Divine, go here

Cat Stevens, Where do the Children Play, go here


Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply. March weather in May, here in Toulouse. Light drizzle in between gusts of a cool Easterly breeze. 17º C, barely, in the afternoons. We are off to Sitges, just South of Barcelona, snuggle in the Garaf cliffs. Weather forecast: sunny but not more than 20º C ! Oh, well ! I'll still be going bathing in the sea and the pool ! Reading and writing, eating all the Catalan food that I miss: fideua, pan amb tomaquet....
Have a very pleasant week. Hoping you will visit again.

⌗FMF, May 17th 2019, PROMISE

It's Friday again.
Write five minutes flat on a word prompt.
If you would like to know more or participate go here

Today

PROMISE


What a wonderful word prompt !
Although it is raining today in Toulouse and the weather has gone cooler 14ºC instead of 26ºC all week, the weekend is full of Promise.
We are spending two blissful days in our house in The Dordogne : the promise of the first cherries.
The promise of a quiet retreat away from Internet.
Time to write, garden (if the rain lets up) and the promise of heart-lifting spring cleaning in the house.
Clearing away the ashes from the fireplace. Sweeping the cobwebs from the beams and corners.
Working to music, singing and whistling along like Snow White.
Maybe even the promise of a fun game of tennis ! Or meeting with our neighbours and the promise of some enhancing, nourishing news.
©susanbauryrouchard


Extract from Snow White, Disney, 1937 go here
I first saw Snow White in 1969, when I was four and it scared me half to death ! The witch and the branches in the forest !

Edith Piaf, 'Mon Dieu', go here
extract from the film 'La Môme'
go here

Edith Piaf, 'Non, Rien de Rien' go here extract from the film.
and here scene comparison between the film and real life.

Elie du Bois, Dordogne, France

The Meadow. Cherry tree to the left.

Cherries. Photo May 2013.

Elie du Bois. The Living Room. May 2013.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, like, share your own promises, joys. And I will be sure to reply.
My friend Sonia Dogra kindly nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award this month. Go and see my post, yesterday 16th May 2019.