I’ve just checked out The Haiku Foundation’s Troutswirl and read the submissions for the monthly KUKAI. The theme is chocolate and I can see it’s not the easiest subject on which to write a short, proper haiku. Still, an amazing variety have been submitted and readers are invited to vote on which they like best. Some are humorous, some romantic, some are almost risqué. Others deal on the child-labour aspect of harvesting cocoa pods. If you’re interested, you can READ THEM HERE.
Inspired by the various thoughts, here’s a hodge-podge of verses I’ve written on the theme. I trust some will give you a smile.
chocolate bunny the hesitant child nibbles the tail
mom’s chocolate chippers
still warm on memory lane
abiding comfort
children’s party
a stack of Oreo wafers
all licked clean
shopping Plus Sizes
the chocolates I’ve eaten lately
come along
eying the curves of her chocolate cake his heart races
her longing gaze
wanders once more to his
plate of brownies
The Bloganuary question today: “What’s your favorite meal to cook and/or eat?“
And my response is: Roast beef (fork tender), mashed potatoes and gravy, a veggie like peas & carrots. And for dessert, rice pudding with cinnamon and lots of raisins.
Easy enough to answer. However, I rarely make a full meal like this, so it’s always a treat. 🙂
Fizzy brings to mind soft drinks, or pop, my Achilles’ heel, as it were. One digestive NO-NO that I must heed. I’m one of the few people who can’t drink carbonated beverages straight from a bottle or can. After I’ve had only a few swallows, all those little fizzies gang up on me. They form into one big ball of air in my stomach, rise up into my windpipe–and suddenly I just can’t breathe. I rather start gagging, trying to burp up that ball of gas.
No, if I want to have fizzy pop, I have to pour it, from high up, into a glass. If the drink is really fizzy, I’ll even stir it a bit to expel the bubbles. I don’t like pop that’s absolutely flat, just pop that’s lost at least half its carbonation.
Everyone has their issues, and that’s one of mine.
Lady Northorpe was throwing one of her famous parties. The guests had gathered in the ball room and servants were offering around trays of food prepared by their chef.
Dame Snootwich ogled the dainties on the tray a servant was holding out. “Oh, these look almost too good to eat!”
The butler, passing at that moment, said, “I assure you, my Lady, our chef’s delicacies are all quite esculent.”
After the butler had left the room, Dame S turned to the serving girl. “Whatever did he mean by that odd word?”
“I think it means edible, my Lady. Our butler came from the colonies, a place called Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They speak some native language there – Cree, I think they call it – so his English has a few foreign words mixed in.”
FlyLady Marla C has focused on dealing with paper clutter as her “Habit” this month, so I’ve been going through old files. This news clipping was among Mom’s paper stash and I incorporated it with mine when we moved her. It’s an article with a photo of the mammoth cake given to P Burns for his 75th BD.
At 7-ft high, the base 8-ft square, this is one hefty birthday cake!
Rancher, businessman and politician, Burns was born in 1856 to Irish immigrants near Oshawa, Upper Canada — now the province of Ontario. He settled in Manitoba, farmed and started buying beef cattle. Later he moved to Calgary where, in 1890, he built his first slaughterhouse and began supplying beef to the city and surrounding area, also to the miners during the Yukon gold rush days. His business became the well known Burns Meat Company.
In 1901 Burns married Eileen Louisa Francis Anna Ellis, the daughter of a Penticton, BC, rancher. Sadly, the couple had a stormy marriage that ended in separation. Their only son, Patrick Thomas Michael, wasn’t robust in health and was found dead in his bed at the age of thirty, an apparent heart attack.
Called Alberta’s “Cattle King,” Burns was one of the “Big Four” ranchers who founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912. He was a special guest at the Stampede on July 6, 1931, and his 75th birthday party was celebrated with this seven-layer cake weighing 3,000 pounds (1587 kg). The banquet was attended by various VIPs: AB Premier Brownlee; the Lt. Governor of MB, and Prime Minister R B Bennett. The cake was cut into 23,000 pieces and given to residents of Calgary.
When Patrick Burns died, the Alberta government had a real windfall, as the taxes on his estate were enough to eliminate the provincial deficit and balance the province’s budget!
In life Burns was a generous man and in his will he left bequests to the Lacombe Home, the Salvation Army, the local Children’s Shelter, widows and orphans of men in the city’s police force and fire department, the Roman Catholic bishop of Calgary, the Collège Saint-François-Xavier in Edmonton, the Navy League of Canada, the Canadian Red Cross Society, the Junior Red Cross, the British Empire Service League, the Canadian Legion’s tuberculosis section, the 103rd Regiment (Calgary Highlanders), the Boy Scouts Association in Alberta, and the Southern Alberta Pioneers’ and Old Timers’ Association.
Christine's Collection 