Sunday, 8 February 2026

Best intentions gang aft a-gley

 Some felt that simply the page of 5 poems was enough:

https://rhapsodieswiseoldbird.blogspot.com/2026/02/6-more-weeks-of-haikuing-through-winter.html 

And that these two pages didn't add anything:

 https://rhapsodieswiseoldbird.blogspot.com/2026/02/june-20th-mainly-2025.html

 https://rhapsodieswiseoldbird.blogspot.com/2026/02/rainbows-and-puffins.html

So having started the illustrations for fun, here are the last

three for you to enjoy, I hope.

 #######################################################

#3
Sea Pinks along the cliffs
Nesting with Puffins, Fulmars,
Nature Lovers smile.
 
#4
Sea pinks on the rock,
Fair Isle coast in salty wind,
Pink cushions hold fast.
 
#5
Sea pinks shimmering -
Dewy droplets lovers shed.
Fragile strength embrace.

################################################### 

 #3
Sea Pinks along the cliffs


 


Nesting with Puffins, Fulmars,


 

Nature Lovers smile.


 

 #4
Sea pinks on the rock,


 


Fair Isle coast in salty wind,

 



Pink cushions hold fast.


 

 #5
Sea pinks shimmering -

 



Dewy droplets lovers shed.

 



Fragile strength embrace.


 

############################################################# 

A comment. With 3 poems in this entry there is a reason to think of 2 cases: one - all 3 poems were written by WOB and then #1 and #2 must have been written by HAL  which of course means:

HAL's name, according to Clarke, is derived from Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000

Or there are mixed authors for #1 and #2  and also for these last three poems. Take your pick and let me know your thoughts, please. What could be simpler? Well, not writing is also simple, sadly.

 

WOB 

Thursday, 5 February 2026

Rainbows and Puffins

 #2
Rainbows on hill tops,
Puffins reigning supreme.
Glad am I for this.

 

 

 

Indeed,

WOB 

Wednesday, 4 February 2026

June 20th, mainly, 2025

 #1
Coastal windswept home,
Pink spheres on slender stems sway,
Salt air, sun-drenched life.

 

 

Coastal 


 windswept home


 

Pink spheres on slender stems sway


 Salt air


 sun-drenched life

 


 WOB

Tuesday, 3 February 2026

6 more weeks of haikuing through Winter

 Panic Point Perry saw its shadow yesterday - 6 more weeks of Winter!

Wonderful.

And we have had 6 weeks approx since December 21. And there are approximately 13 weeks per season ( 4 X 13 = 52 weeks/year). so what is one week more or less from the expected?

 So my fevered frost-bitten water-on-the-brain splitting hairs
has lead me to write 3 Japanese style poems, haikus, of
3 lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables. And I don't know what got
into me but I decided to give Goggle artificial intelligence
the same info and see whether it could come up with
anything. It did, resulting in 5 poems - can you tell who
wrote what? 

Actually, I wrote a couple of poems before giving "HAL" all the information that I had - Fair Isle, Sea Pinks, several birds that I had photographed, and then with "HAL"'s  2 poems I wrote some more.

That means to me that the poems are not all that different/independent.


The poems have been arranged alphabetically by 1st line.
 
#1
Coastal windswept home,
Pink spheres on slender stems sway,
Salt air, sun-drenched life.
 
#2
Rainbows on hill tops,
Puffins reigning supreme.
Glad am I for this.
 
#3
Sea Pinks along the cliffs
Nesting with Puffins, Fulmars,
Nature Lovers smile.
 
#4
Sea pinks on the rock,
Fair Isle coast in salty wind,
Pink cushions hold fast.
 
#5
Sea pinks shimmering -
Dewy droplets lovers shed.
Fragile strength embrace.

I intend to illustrate each poem  in its own entry in the coming days.

I hope you will enter the spirit and tell the world why you think a particular haiku poem was written by either AI, aka "HAL", or by me, aka WOB . I shall consider how I proceed at a later date. Have fun.

 

WOB 

Monday, 19 January 2026

Ruffed Grouse

 Rufous Grouse on high


 Fluffèd round by Arctic chill


 Silent observer

 

WOB

Sunday, 21 December 2025

It is snowing and blowing here in Mariposa!

 Inspiration from old blogs - and the fear that the perspiration will freeze - Volker, als Angstschweiss!


 Can't find Mariposa? Why? Because  we are snowed under!

It is the season for angels sprouting wings  - I actually know a real

"angel" - he is called Dieter! And although I have known him for many

decades I do not have a photo to show of him. However, I did have the good fortune to see where an angel had been on Thursday January 7, 2016:

 


 It is a little difficult to see, Let me move a little further.



 For scale, the snowshoe tracks are about 40 - 45cm long. The bird, an owl, appears to have caught something. Unfortunately I cannot read the bar code.

 


 So I cannot track the parcel, either.




 

 I guess I am stumped.


 The case is cold.



 I guessed at the time that this might have been evidence for flying reindeer.

 

WOB 

Thursday, 18 December 2025

It is raining here in Mariposa

 However, it has not always been so.

Just 6 hours East, on Sunday. less than 12Km from where we lived for

11 plus years:


 It started with - song

Kiss! never thought of cherry tree! 

Kirsch auf Deutsch . Rheinbach.

 


 

Latitude? Fifty

 Eifel - Ardenn - Winnipeg

Latitude . North Rome:


 A Haiku is a

style of poetry - 3 Lines 

5 - 7 - 5 sylls

A picture is worth a 1000 Words

 A blog (short for "weblog") is a regularly updated online journal or website where individuals or groups publish content, called posts, usually in reverse chronological order (newest first). Blogs feature informal, conversational writing and often include multimedia like photos or videos, allowing for reader interaction through comments, serving purposes from personal diaries to business marketing and expertise sharing.

 Bleak beak bird bill Bill!

 Visualization:




 

 


 


Christmas Bird Count Sunday December 14, 2025

WOB