Category Archives: Ragtag Daily Prompt

RDP Friday: Overture

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Bed Linen

The soloist has entered the stage. Her instruments are an iron and an ironing board. She will be playing the duvet and pillow covers. There is silence, a pregnant expectancy surrounding the stage. The artist fills the iron with water and connects it to the electricity. There is resounding applause for these first actions. The first outbursts of steam appear, yes the ouverture has begun. She places the first movement on the ironing table, a duvet cover, raises her hands containing the baton iron and rolls into the accompaniment. There are puffs of steam escaping and rising to a crescendo. The first movement of the duvet is completed, the next movement, the pillow,  follows and then there is a diminuendo whilst the iron is tuned with some water. And so the performance continues.

Eventually the overture is finished and the accessories are folded away and put into the cupboard. The performance will continue in two weeks when a new musical event appears. The old overture will be replaced by something different. Other colours and design. Watch this space, the ironing concert always has something new to offer.

Ironing

And here is the maestro herself at an earlier rehearsal in Summer.

RDP Friday: Overture

RDP Thursday: Fumble

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Bedroom, Castle Waldegg, Feldbrunnen

It’s fumbling time in the bedroom again, but this is not our  bedroom. It is the bedroom at the local castle, we do not have such tapestries on the wall. I decided not to show a photo of our bedroom.  There are somethings that are not necessary to be internetted and this is not Facebook where people seem to be proud of showing their bedrooms to the whole world.

We have Mrs. Angloswiss, who succeeds in losing her balance now and again and walks like something from the Ministry of funny walks in the Monty Python Show due to MS, and we have Mr. Swiss who has problems with his back. And now we have two beds needing fresh bed linen. Actually the basis is completed. The duvet and cushions have their new covers, the mattresses have been turn and the bed has been cleaned and dusted below.

There is one problem, that is the fitted sheets for the bottom of the bed. Neither can Mrs. Angloswiss or Mr. Swiss do this any more. We are now waiting for No. 1 son to arrive home from work to complete the job. We are no longer going to fumble with this bed making, it will now be a family effort, with No. 1 son doing the organizing. Our cleaning lady was going to do it, but she is ill this week and so we decided to do-it-ourselves.

The great fumble can begin, No. 1 son has just arrived. Wish us luck, otherwise we will have to book a hotel room for the night.

RDP Thursday: Fumble

RDP Wednesday: Coterie

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Ducks 06.12 (1)

One female and 4 male mallard ducks: I bet she has some fun.

Living in Switzerland in the same town for 50 years I belong to the coterie of Anglo-Swiss. I arrived in Solothurn and was working as the english secretary for everyone in a  company that had many english girls over the years, one after the other. Some married a Swiss and stayed and some moved one. I was one of those that married a Swiss, working in the same company, but before got got together I was a bit isolated. One day I had a call from an english girl that worked in my job before me and married a Swiss. “You don’t know me and I don’t know you” were her first words, but she went on to say we should meet and invited me to her home for the evening.

She was my first english contact in Solothurn and through her I met some others and discovered we had a coterie, more like a witches coven to be exact. We might see each other in town, perhaps have a coffee together, but thanks to my first contact I realised I was not so alone. Later Mr. Swiss and I got serious, married, had kids, but Mr. Swiss also knew this girl that contacted me, and was a friend of her husband. And then there was another girl that married someone in the same company who Mr. Swiss also knew. You get it? the circle was expanding. The other girl lived in Australia for some years with her husband who was in charge of the Australian branch of the company. They returned to Switzerland, lived near and contact was resumed.

There was even an Anglo Swiss club in our town, although I was not a regular member, but just went now and again. It was lead by one of the high school professors whose wife gave Engish lessons to the Swiss and she was from Liverpool. I still see this lady in the local supermarket. She is now very old, and almost blind, but if I give her a hello she knows who I am.

Yes our little coterie is not a tight group, but we all have something in common, the english language. I would add that most of us have been so many years in Switzerland, that we are a bilingual group with Swiss German as well. The result is that if an english person would  be listening to us they might get confused. The words get a little mixed up, something like “pigeon english” but perhaps called “Swenglish”. Sometimes the Swiss words are more easy to use than the english words, especially if like me, you cannot remember all the correct english expressions.

Oh and my new neighbour where I live is an Australian, although his wife is not Swiss, but that is just a coincidence and he speaks better French than Swiss German.

RDP Wednesday: Coterie

RDP Tuesday: Connect

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Two Firebugs

Firebugs have perfected the art of  connection. They lose no time. As soon as the warmer weather arrives, they connect.

“Hey, baby what about it?”

“You mean you and me.”

“Yea, let’s take a walk together for a week or so.”

“Night and day?”

“That’s the way to do it baby.”

“You seem to be quite sure of yourself.”

“All in the name of the preservation of the species.”

“You males are all the same. Hitch up and pull us females until our feet hurt from so much dragging.”

“And what about us males. We have to do all the work. You ladies are not easy to pull around. I use up all my surplus energy.”

“And who raises the kids afterwards?.”

“Oh, come on baby, that’s the idea and they raise themselves, so don’t show off. I know you want to go for a walkabout with me, just playing hard to get.”

“Stop pulling.”

“Too late baby, we are now connected and our purpose in life will soon be complete.”

“Ok, but let’s simplify it. You pull and I will push, they we can do it much faster and it will be more comfortable.”

“Good idea baby, so let’s go.”

And that is the life of a firebug, but they get plenty of exercise.

RDP Thursday: Connect

RDP Monday: Ripple

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River Aare Water Ripples 28.11.2018

it caught my eye as I was wheeling along the river bank in my chair. Water is just water and the river is deep but not record making deep. At the edges you can even stand, although in the middle – who knows. Of course we have many ducks and swans that enjoy a good float on the river, and even a few river rats. They are usually active on the banks of the river and now and again you might see one. I once saw a rat running across our gardens, but it quickly disappeared. And the rats were not the cause of the ripples.

The water was constantly vibrating and moving in this particular place. You can see it in the bottom half of the photo..I noticed the regular continuous movements of the ripplesPerhaos. It was as if there was something below the surface that was causing this rippling effect. What more it seemed to be coming from the same spot. What was happening deep down to cause the ripples. Do we have a sea monster in our local river? Perhaps it is the beginning of tsunami. It was a still and quiet day. There were no high winds.

Just to be sure I passed the same place a couple of days later and there were no more ripples. A normal calm surface.

RDP Monday: Ripple

RDP Sunday: Dream

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Cannabis

He tried sniffing glue, but that was a stress
His hair stuck together in a gooey sticky mess
The dreams were tangled in a labyrinth of fibres
Confusion was complete, too many dividers
The next inspiration was trying marijuana
He then got lost in a land of nirvana
Dreams are elusive and drugs might not work
But he never gave up even if the body did jerk
And so he tried mushrooms, the ones that were magic
The result was a headache which got very tragic
And then he discovered the ultimate key
The final solution was LSD
This was the answer and he now had the knack
He went on a dream trip but never came back

Just to add the plant in the picture, cannabis, was in my garden and no I do not grow it. It grew alone from some bird seed. But I kept it all the same. You never know, and it was a female, the nice bushy ones. Sweet dreams everyone.

RDP Sunday: Dream

RDP Saturday: Squat

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Grinding on Berufsschulhaus building site

I took this photo four years ago in town when they had begun to build a new trade school. The school has now been finished and the students attend the courses regularly. I was in town and had a look and saw this guy squatting to do his work. He seemed to be grinding the concrete surface from the clouds surrounding him. With his mask and white hands he really resembled a ghostly apparition.

And what shall I say about squat
It is something that I cannot
If I squat, I am down below
I cannot stand up, what a show
My joints would lock and refuse to move
And my back would ache, it would not be smooth
I prefer to sit and take it easy
It is certain that squatting would make me queasy
Golden Oldies should always live it alone
Our limbs would fix, and we would moan

RDP Saturday: Squat