Robbie Cheadle's Blog, page 15

Robbie’s Inspiration – Pure haiku and Sunday Stills: Jigokudani monkey park, Japan #poetry #photography

Talented poet and author, Freya Pickard, has shared the first of my haiku for her Pure Haiku – Ghost Owl Face series.

You can read my poem here: https://purehaiku.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/1-3-4/

Sunday Stills – Snow is white

Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge is white and I am sharing my snow pictures from Japan. No snow here in South Africa – smile!

These pictures were taken at the Jigokudani monkey park in Japan.

The following photographs are snowy scenes from our hike up the mountain to the thermal spa where the monkeys bathe:

The next three photographs are of the snow monkeys:

You can join in Sunday Stills here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2025/01/12/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-a-whiter-shade-of-pale/

Robbie’s Inspiration – Syllabic poetry Spin the Bottle #poetry #ekphrastic #syllabic

Colleen Chesebro has brought her Tanka Tuesday challenge to an end and I am wanting to practice my syllabic poetry writing skills. To this end, I have decided to write and publish a ‘Spin the Bottle’ syllabic ekphrastic poem once a week on a Sunday. Naturally, I will also be using this opportunity to share information with you about South African flora and fauna – smile!

If you would like to join in and practice syllabic poetry with me, please leave a link to your poem in the comments and I will visit. I won’t be doing a round up post like Colleen did as I just don’t have time, but I would love to see what you write and I encourage other poets to follow the links too.

For this first poem, my picture inspiration is as follows:

Picture caption: This is my watercolour painting for January of a strelitzia or Bird of Paradise flower.

This is what Wikipedia says about this flower:

“Strelitzia /strɛˈlɪtsiə/[3] is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae.[4] A  of the genus is bird of paradise flower/plant, because of a resemblance of its flowers to birds-of-paradise. In South Africa, it is commonly known as a crane flower.”

I have chosen to write a Seox poem which Colleen describes as follows:

“The word seox in Anglo Saxon means six. This is a verse form written in 6 lines in keeping with its name. Form created by Ann Byrnes Smith. The elements of the Seox: a poem written in six lines, a hexastich, 3-7-6-5-4-3 syllables per lines. Unrhymed.” You can find Colleen’s example here: https://tankatuesday.com/tanka-tuesday-poetry-cheat-sheet-for-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenges-2/#seox

January

Overnight

January came about

A new year to enjoy

Fresh stories to write

On this blank page

Full of hope

Sunflower Tanka

A reminder that the Sunflower Tanka is now available as an ebook and a paperback from Amazon (Amazon US purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/Sunflower-Tanka-Anthology-Prose-Experimental-ebook/dp/B0DPVJD2PC

This is my digital music and art rendition of my poem, Jacaranda Blue, from Sunflower Tanka:

Robbie’s Inspiration – Thursday Doors – Outside the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo and coffee at Smorgasbord

For Dan Antion’s Thursday Doors challenge I am sharing photographs from my recent trip to Tokyo, Japan. These are pictures of outside the Imperial Palace Gardens. I walked from the hotel to the gardens on my first day in Tokyo. It was rather exciting as very few Japanese people speak English and I had to find my way there and back (which was about 12,000 steps and quite a few roads and crossings) on my own with Google Maps. Have you ever noticed that Google Maps isn’t that clear about where you must turn? Next week I’ll probably let you through the gate – smile!

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/01/09/runaround-prepare-the-badges

Picture caption: Reflections of the skyscrapers in the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: Reflections of a traditional gate house in the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: One of the gates to the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: Close up of the doors into the Imperial Palace GardenPicture caption: Picture of trees in the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: A nice contrast picture of the skyscrapers on one side of the moat and the gardens on the otherPicture caption: The bridge crossing the moat around the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: Japanese topiary garden outside the Imperial Palace GardensPicture caption: This picture was taken later on the far side of the Imperial Palace Gardens because I came out the wrong gate and had to walk all the way around.

Talented author and blogger, Patty Fletcher, kindly invited me to be her coffee guest over at the lovely Sally Cronin’s blog, Smorgasbord. I was very touched by Patty’s kind words. You can read this post here: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2025/01/08/smorgasbord-coffee-morning-authors-bloggers-patty-fletcher-and-her-guest-robbie-cheadle/

Robbie’s Inspiration – Reblog: Cook and Read on Writing to be Read #bookreview #recipe

Welcome to the first Cook and Read post of 2025. Today, I am reviewing A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and sharing a delicious recipe for Peach Chicken.

Thanks for hosting, Kaye Lynne Booth.

Cook and Read – My review of A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and Peach Chicken #CookandRead #fiction

Robbie’s Inspiration – my poem, Elephant’ on MasticadoresUSA

My thanks to Barbara, editor of MasticadoresUSA, for sharing my poem and painting, Elephant

“Elephant” by Robble Cheadle

Robbie’s Inspiration – Lion photography on Chewers by Masticadores

Thank you to Nolcha Fox from Chewers by Masticadores for sharing my lion photographs. These pictures were taken at Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa.

Lion Photography by Robbie Cheadle

Robbie’s Inspiration – Tanka Tuesday, a haiga, and Christmas #poetry

Thank you to Melissa from Mom with a blog for hosting this week’s Tanka Tuesday. You can join in Tanka Tuesday here: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/12/24/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-haiga-12-24-24/

You can find the talented Melissa here:

This is Melissa’s challenge:

Haiga (俳画) is a refined visual art of combining brush painting, haiku, and calligraphy. A traditional haiga requires all three of these elements. Just as haiku succeeds by creating space and energy in the relationship of its two juxtaposed parts, haiga creates interest through the “leap” or even disjunction between the poem and the painting (the painting is typically not just an illustration of the poem, nor is the poem a caption for the image).

Here is mine:

Post-Christmas fatigue

Couch beckons enticingly

Rejuvenation

Post-Christmas fatigue

Couch beckons enticingly

Rejuvenation

Christmas at my house is always chaos and food filled.

This is all the food we consumed:

Picture caption: Dad made the roast potatoes (you would have thought there was no other food – he was very proud of himself – haha!)Picture caption: Roast chickens with sausage (pork) stuffing made by mom. Beef stout pie and Greek slow roast lamb made by me.Picture caption: Mexican avo and tomato salad (recipe from Lorraine at Now quite Nigella blog), beetroot, mixed peppers and cucumber and pineapple salads from my SIL and MIL.Picture caption: My Christmas pavlova fruit wreath. Idea curtesy of Lorraine from Not quite Nigella (you can find her blog here: https://www.notquitenigella.com/

Sister #4 made a trifle but I didn’t get pictures. She served it while I was still assembling my dessert so it was half eaten when I got there.

Sister #2 was late to the food request party so she got off the hook with contributing.

Sister #3 slung her hook to the Drakensberg Mountains and missed all the fun.

I hope you had a wonderful festive seasons.

I nearly forgot. This is my table and lights display. I love lights!

Picture caption: My table (mom did the cloths and overlays) with my American light cable in the background.Picture caption: My Christmas chaos tree with new lights.Picture caption: Lights above my antique treasure cabinet. If you look carefully, you will see my new hand painted Japanese fans in a row on the bottom shelf against the back. Picture caption: More lights! My mom says I’ve become very American – haha! My African beaded flamingo was happy to be a lights centre piece.

Robbie’s Inspiration – Youthful Infatuation on Hotel by Masticadores

Thank you to Michelle from Hotel by Masticadores for sharing my poem.

“Youthful Infatuation” by Robbie Cheadle

Robbie’s Inspiration – Advent Calendar Story Train: Sir Chocolate and the Graffiti Artists #Christmas #Storytrain #SirChocolateBooks

Welcome to the Advent Calendar Story Train, where you can read through 24 stories under the theme Surprise.

Sir Chocolate and the Graffiti Artists by Robbie and Michael Cheadle

It was two nights before Christmas, a cold and cloudy day

When the Roundy Twins thought of a new idea for play

Into Sir Chocolate’s Chocolatier, the naughty pair snuck

And found his sweet decorating tools; for them a bit of luck

Picture caption: The Roundy Twins

They spent the long winter’s evening having a lot of fun

And admired their handiwork when they were quite done

They had painted the town with Sir Chocolate’s edible-paint

The tubes were all empty, they had painted without restraint

***

Pictures and graffiti adorned every house in town’s walls

They had been to the local market and sprayed all the stalls

And the stage in the park, was full of paint and a mess

Shocked at their destruction, the twins were a bit stressed

Picture caption: The stage and backdrop full of spray paint

They felt some remorse; the annual play was on Christmas Eve

They’d painted all the props, not one did they miss and leave

Now that they had finished, they knew they’d been bad

The concert would be ruined, and their friends would be sad

***

Bright and early the next day, Sir Chocolate heard a knock

He was hoping to sleep late, but could not the loud sound block

Mr Christmas Pudding and Miss Christmas Cracker were at his door

They were really upset, their tears made puddles on the floor

Picture caption: Mr Christmas Pudding and Miss Christmas Cracker

They had been preparing for months for this Christmas event

The invitations to the townspeople and already been sent

“We’ll have to cancel the show and it is such a shame

“We can’t carry on now, without props it won’t be the same!”

***

A short while later Constable Licorice joined them for tea

Everyone helping to clean up was the only plan he could see

He and Sir Chocolate walked around town, looking for clues

It didn’t do them any good, they only wore out their shoes

***

Who were the irresponsible troublemakers? There was no sign

When they were found they’d get a piece of Constable Licorice’s mind

Signs asking for information, were put up all around the town

Passersby read them with interest and shook their heads with a frown

***

The towns people rallied around, and work extremely hard

The culprits, once caught, from the concert would be barred.

It took all day, and everyone was feeling hot and tired

There was so much to do, some extra help had been hired

***

Sir Chocolate was amazed at how the mess disappeared

The stage and props looked fine when the paint had been cleared

The town’s people sat down to enjoy a picnic on the grass

And to the good results of their scrubbing, they all raised a glass

***

Mr Christmas Pudding went around town and all the concert tickets sold

Miss Christmas Cracker performed and was a sight to behold

At the end of the play, the crowd gave a standing ovation

Which the performers on stage received with great elation

Picture caption: Miss Christmas Cracker performing on stage

The next day Sir Chocolate was awoken early once again

Mrs Roundy had come to visit and her boy’s behavior explain

She had seen them mopping around looking most upset

Their naughty and destructive actions they both did regret

***

Constable Licorice and the boys had a long conversation

Sweeping the street clean of snow, became their obligation

In this way they made amends for their naughty silliness

They knew the results of their actions had been quite serious

***

Each made a promised they would never write graffiti again

This was one form of art from which they’d always abstain

They spread the news to their younger siblings and friends

They felt it was the least they could do to try and make amends

Picture caption: Sir Chocolate and some friends, watching the show

The Sir Chocolate Books are available from TSL Publications here: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/sir-chocolate/

The Sir Chocolate highdays and holidays books are available form Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ

Thank you for reading today’s story. The last one will be available to read on December 24th, titled “Bob The Reindeer“ . This link will be active tomorrow when the post goes live.

If you missed yesterday’s you can go and read it here.

Treasuring Poetry – Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, Tanka Prose, & Experimental Tanka collated by Colleen M. Chesebro and Robbie Cheadle #…

I have devoted my final Treasuring Poetry post of 2024 to Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, Tanka prose, & Experimental Tanka co-edited and compiled by talented poet, Colleen M. Chesebro and myself. this collection features poetry by a large number of poets in the WP community.

Thanks for hosting, Kaye Lynne Booth.

For this final post of 2024, I am sharing about Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, Tanka Prose, & Experimental Tanka collated by Colleen M. …

Treasuring Poetry – Sunflower Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, Tanka Prose, & Experimental Tanka collated by Colleen M. Chesebro and Robbie Cheadle #…