Welcome to May's Secret Subject Swap.
Again 7 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.
Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.
Baking In A Tornado
Spatulas on Parade
Wandering Web Designer
A 'lil HooHaa
Climaxed
Southern Belle Charm
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom
My subject is
April showers bring May flowers,
and you are surrounded by them.
BIG, HUGE MAN EATING FLOWERS!
What will you do? How will you survive?
It was submitted by: Spatulas on Parade - thank you, Dawn!
Interestingly during the weeks before and during lockdown we had the most gorgeous weather (which made it hard to stay at home for the outdoorsy folks). Come May, however here's the rain. Nature urgently needs it, so I won't complain.
Now on to the prompt...
One minute I am strolling through the park, admiring the beautiful tulips at the shore of Lake Zug,...
The next, I realize they are slightly taller than I like flowers to be. Actually they're huge. They're taller than me! And ever since a certain individual who likes to call himself the president, the wordhuge yuge has somehow gotten a negative touch for me.
I think I just found out why. Huge means menacing!
Geez, can you see the people in the background taking a picture of our mock up Jet d'Eau (the real one is in Geneva)? They are tiny!
And you know what's tiny, too? No, I won't get into a certain someone's brain here.
Wait a minute, what is going on here? Why are these tulips bending?
I don't like this. I think they are stretching their stems towards me, what are they doing to me?
I'm scared, I need to get the h*** out of here!
Why can't I run? Why are my legs so heavy, go away, flowers, I didn't do anything to you!
And what's that chopper doing circling above me? That loud, buzzing sound is driving e crazy!
Oh, it's not a helicopter, I think it is one of them scary murder hornets!
I try to run, but my legs are letting me down, come on, now!
Somehow I manage to get away from then flowers after what feels like an eternity. I must have crawled to the shore, because running was definitely not happening. The hornets are still hovering above me, I need to escape.
The lake looks calm, I think the insects are not going to follow me into the water, right?
Deep breath, and I let myself fall into the lake. The water isn't even as cold as I feared. But as I try to take a few strokes, a vortex is closing in on me, pulling me under water. It is too strong, I don't even try to kick.
This was it. This is how I'm dying. I am drowning.
Is this what it feels like for these Corona patients whose lungs are filling up with water, making it hard for them to breathe until they just tire out?
For some reason I feel very calm, though. I just let things happen. I'm floating under water, passing fish who just give me blank stares.
For a moment I get above water to gasp for air.
Where on earth am I? Am I looking out a water hole???
Two rhino are grazing, minding their own business.
A hungry lion family on their way to breakfast is crossing the dirt road just before my very eyes.
Back under water I am being pulled. More fish. Is there a shark?
Next thing I know I resurface in a pool-like area.
Wait a minute. This is not your average swimming pool, and while there are toys, there are no kids. Who do these colorful balls and rings, life savers and cones belong to?
Why is it suddenly freezing cold? I notice it's smelly, too.
I can feel a gentle nudge on my left hip, I turn around to encounter - a seal!
Awww, it's cute!
Oh look, penguins at the other end of the iceberg!
What is happening here?
Am I reborn at the Arctic Zone? To they have toys at the South Pole?
At this point I realize I must have left my purse at the restaurant.
Purse?
Restaurant?
It is clear by now that this is a weird dream. So a distant memory of times we actually frequented restaurants must've sneaked into my current subconscious.
There's an attendant. I ask her how to get to the mall. I am pretty sure the restaurant was at the mall.
"Sure thing" she says.
"Use the shortcut through Kaeng Krachan."
Oh, I know what this is!
They named the Zurich zoo's new elephant habitat after Thailand's largest and most biodiverse rainforest national park. The Swiss zoo partnered up with Wildlife Conservation Society to support the conservation of about 200 wild elephants and other animals in Kaeng Kracha, Thailand.
So is this a drinking game? You have all seen these challenges:
A picture of a giraffe, a camel or an elephant, rudimentarily run over with a sharpie, captured if anyone can guess what animal this is, I'll open a bottle of wine!
Are you saying I am drunk? Hallucinating about man eating flowers, murder hornets and penguins?
Let me tell you, after two months of collecting glass, cans, cardboard, plastic bottles and paper, I made a trip to the recycling center last week. I left one bottle of wine and three mini bottles of Prosecco. All the other glass recyclables were pasta sauce jars!
Back to the elephants at our zoo. One of the females had a baby in February of this year. Elephant herd, zoo officials and visitors were overjoyed! Not only was the baby boy - his name is Umesh - super cute, but also because two other elephant ladies were pregnant at the time, and one birth was expected for early April.
After a 655 days' long normal pregnancy, 15 year old Asian Elephant Mama Farhha gave birth to a daughter the night leading to April 5. It was recorded on surveillance camera. The elephant baby was alive, and on the screen they could not see anything unusual happening. However, in the morning, keepers found the little one lying dead on the ground. They discovered injuries to the head. Specialists at the university's veterinary pathology may find out more.
Made me so sad.
She was pregnant for almost two years, went through elephant birth (and these are 150 kg babies, that's 330 pounds), certainly no picnic, and in the morning they took away her dead calf :-(
What's worse, her Dad Maxi had died just a few months ago as well. Originally born in Thailand, he recently turned 50, and he had spent 31 years of them at Zurich Zoo. He fathered 12 kids, of which four daughters were born in Switzerland, and he was a proud Grandpa to 21 grandkids and two great-grand kids.
In this video you can see Maxi trying to be left alone, but his granddaughter Ruwani (she was going to be a big sister to the new baby girl) kept bothering him, so he ended up shoving her into the pool ;-)
I guess you can say Maxi had a good life.
His counterparts who live in the wild have an average life span of 42 years, no thanks to poachers, destruction of rainforests and other factors, while elephants (oftentimes kept poorly) in captivity live a median of only 17 years.
While a zoo is still captivity and can not mirror an authentic habitat to the animals, I am happy that Swiss zoos are observing high standards, and Basel Zoo (Switzerland's second major zoo) ranking 20th of the best zoos worldwide is proof of that. They have a excellent reputation for breeding great one-horned rhino.
Karen, check out the full list, Omaha's Henry Doorly is the gold winner!
Even people from the animals' origin countries support the concept of well kept zoos because they know about the importance of these creatures' role: to be an ambassador for their species and spark the humans' interest and motivation to help protect them and their habitats.
How exactly did we get from man eating flowers to Indian elephants in Swiss zoos? I don't know. Also I have never recovered my purse in my dream.
Speaking of dreams: parts of what I recounted here, have really happened - in different nights. Encouragingly in the last few weeks I had some nights that I actually slept through and had vivid dreams. In one I even encountered my beloved Grandma who passed away last year and missed her 100th birthday by only a couple of months.
In my dream she was walking her dog and had a little girl with her. Colin and I met them in the school yard, and she was delighted to see us. She said she was doing great.
When I woke up I was part sad because I miss her, and part happy because she was upbeat, and nothing seemed to restrict her or hurt. I haven't seen her walking on her own in probably ten years. To my knowledge she never had a dog in real life. Did she want one but couldn't? I remember they had two budgie parakeets, a blue and a green one, and one was called "Tookie", and he was able to say his name and a few simple words. The bird cage was right next to the plant you see in this picture.
I am so glad my Granddad took this picture back then. It makes me feel like I remember actually sitting on my Grandma's lap that day. ❤️
How about you? Did you have comforting and / or weird dreams, nightmares even these past weeks?
Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to visit my fellow bloggers' posts!
Interestingly during the weeks before and during lockdown we had the most gorgeous weather (which made it hard to stay at home for the outdoorsy folks). Come May, however here's the rain. Nature urgently needs it, so I won't complain.
Now on to the prompt...
One minute I am strolling through the park, admiring the beautiful tulips at the shore of Lake Zug,...
The next, I realize they are slightly taller than I like flowers to be. Actually they're huge. They're taller than me! And ever since a certain individual who likes to call himself the president, the word
I think I just found out why. Huge means menacing!
Geez, can you see the people in the background taking a picture of our mock up Jet d'Eau (the real one is in Geneva)? They are tiny!
And you know what's tiny, too? No, I won't get into a certain someone's brain here.
Wait a minute, what is going on here? Why are these tulips bending?
I don't like this. I think they are stretching their stems towards me, what are they doing to me?
I'm scared, I need to get the h*** out of here!
Why can't I run? Why are my legs so heavy, go away, flowers, I didn't do anything to you!
And what's that chopper doing circling above me? That loud, buzzing sound is driving e crazy!
Oh, it's not a helicopter, I think it is one of them scary murder hornets!
I try to run, but my legs are letting me down, come on, now!
Somehow I manage to get away from then flowers after what feels like an eternity. I must have crawled to the shore, because running was definitely not happening. The hornets are still hovering above me, I need to escape.
The lake looks calm, I think the insects are not going to follow me into the water, right?
Deep breath, and I let myself fall into the lake. The water isn't even as cold as I feared. But as I try to take a few strokes, a vortex is closing in on me, pulling me under water. It is too strong, I don't even try to kick.
This was it. This is how I'm dying. I am drowning.
Is this what it feels like for these Corona patients whose lungs are filling up with water, making it hard for them to breathe until they just tire out?
For some reason I feel very calm, though. I just let things happen. I'm floating under water, passing fish who just give me blank stares.
For a moment I get above water to gasp for air.
Where on earth am I? Am I looking out a water hole???
Two rhino are grazing, minding their own business.
A hungry lion family on their way to breakfast is crossing the dirt road just before my very eyes.
Back under water I am being pulled. More fish. Is there a shark?
Next thing I know I resurface in a pool-like area.
Wait a minute. This is not your average swimming pool, and while there are toys, there are no kids. Who do these colorful balls and rings, life savers and cones belong to?
Why is it suddenly freezing cold? I notice it's smelly, too.
I can feel a gentle nudge on my left hip, I turn around to encounter - a seal!
Awww, it's cute!
Oh look, penguins at the other end of the iceberg!
What is happening here?
Am I reborn at the Arctic Zone? To they have toys at the South Pole?
At this point I realize I must have left my purse at the restaurant.
Purse?
Restaurant?
It is clear by now that this is a weird dream. So a distant memory of times we actually frequented restaurants must've sneaked into my current subconscious.
There's an attendant. I ask her how to get to the mall. I am pretty sure the restaurant was at the mall.
"Sure thing" she says.
"Use the shortcut through Kaeng Krachan."
Oh, I know what this is!
They named the Zurich zoo's new elephant habitat after Thailand's largest and most biodiverse rainforest national park. The Swiss zoo partnered up with Wildlife Conservation Society to support the conservation of about 200 wild elephants and other animals in Kaeng Kracha, Thailand.
So is this a drinking game? You have all seen these challenges:
A picture of a giraffe, a camel or an elephant, rudimentarily run over with a sharpie, captured if anyone can guess what animal this is, I'll open a bottle of wine!
Are you saying I am drunk? Hallucinating about man eating flowers, murder hornets and penguins?
Back to the elephants at our zoo. One of the females had a baby in February of this year. Elephant herd, zoo officials and visitors were overjoyed! Not only was the baby boy - his name is Umesh - super cute, but also because two other elephant ladies were pregnant at the time, and one birth was expected for early April.
After a 655 days' long normal pregnancy, 15 year old Asian Elephant Mama Farhha gave birth to a daughter the night leading to April 5. It was recorded on surveillance camera. The elephant baby was alive, and on the screen they could not see anything unusual happening. However, in the morning, keepers found the little one lying dead on the ground. They discovered injuries to the head. Specialists at the university's veterinary pathology may find out more.
Made me so sad.
She was pregnant for almost two years, went through elephant birth (and these are 150 kg babies, that's 330 pounds), certainly no picnic, and in the morning they took away her dead calf :-(
What's worse, her Dad Maxi had died just a few months ago as well. Originally born in Thailand, he recently turned 50, and he had spent 31 years of them at Zurich Zoo. He fathered 12 kids, of which four daughters were born in Switzerland, and he was a proud Grandpa to 21 grandkids and two great-grand kids.
In this video you can see Maxi trying to be left alone, but his granddaughter Ruwani (she was going to be a big sister to the new baby girl) kept bothering him, so he ended up shoving her into the pool ;-)
His counterparts who live in the wild have an average life span of 42 years, no thanks to poachers, destruction of rainforests and other factors, while elephants (oftentimes kept poorly) in captivity live a median of only 17 years.
While a zoo is still captivity and can not mirror an authentic habitat to the animals, I am happy that Swiss zoos are observing high standards, and Basel Zoo (Switzerland's second major zoo) ranking 20th of the best zoos worldwide is proof of that. They have a excellent reputation for breeding great one-horned rhino.
Karen, check out the full list, Omaha's Henry Doorly is the gold winner!
Even people from the animals' origin countries support the concept of well kept zoos because they know about the importance of these creatures' role: to be an ambassador for their species and spark the humans' interest and motivation to help protect them and their habitats.
How exactly did we get from man eating flowers to Indian elephants in Swiss zoos? I don't know. Also I have never recovered my purse in my dream.
Speaking of dreams: parts of what I recounted here, have really happened - in different nights. Encouragingly in the last few weeks I had some nights that I actually slept through and had vivid dreams. In one I even encountered my beloved Grandma who passed away last year and missed her 100th birthday by only a couple of months.
In my dream she was walking her dog and had a little girl with her. Colin and I met them in the school yard, and she was delighted to see us. She said she was doing great.
When I woke up I was part sad because I miss her, and part happy because she was upbeat, and nothing seemed to restrict her or hurt. I haven't seen her walking on her own in probably ten years. To my knowledge she never had a dog in real life. Did she want one but couldn't? I remember they had two budgie parakeets, a blue and a green one, and one was called "Tookie", and he was able to say his name and a few simple words. The bird cage was right next to the plant you see in this picture.
I am so glad my Granddad took this picture back then. It makes me feel like I remember actually sitting on my Grandma's lap that day. ❤️
How about you? Did you have comforting and / or weird dreams, nightmares even these past weeks?
Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to visit my fellow bloggers' posts!
That's some vivid dreaming you're doing. Wonder if it has anything to do with the prosecco.
ReplyDeleteI would have to sleep all day if I had those dreams! I don't often dream or I don't remember. Every once in a while I have a really bad one, but thankfully not often.
ReplyDeleteI normally have very vivid dreams and recall every detail. Here of late my dreams are weird indeed and a mix of happy sad and confusing. Sometimes I remember them and other times I wake very tired and confused. I'm sure it's all that's going on in the world today.
ReplyDelete