Not a Hawk

Posted on December 27, 2014 by treshabarger

I went outside and when I stepped off my front porch, I noticed something on top of the utility pole near the house. It had its back to me and I thought it was a bird, a small hawk, with the wind ruffling its feathers. I sneaked back inside and got my camera. I opened the front door slowly to minimize any noise. Tiptoeing to the edge of the porch, I raised the camera and focused.

What?! Not a hawk? Not any kind of a bird? A squirrel?! It’s a squirrel on top of the utility pole. We don’t have squirrels around here. Okay, now we have (at least ) one.

A squirrel that worked really hard to get to the top with no idea how to get down

I checked an hour later and the squirrel was still there; an hour after that, the utility pole was unoccupied.

Fiction Friday: Caledonia

Posted on December 26, 2014 by treshabarger

Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.
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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Bjorn Rudberg

Caledonia

Quintus woke with a vision: The Emperor Septimius Severus would not return to Rome, but would soon take his last breath beneath the northern sky of Britannia.

At dawn, Quintus broke his fast at his post on the Antonine Wall. His vision weighed heavily on his mind, for dangerous times followed an emperor’s death. He knew Rome was lost to him forever. Fleeing was risky; staying possibly even more so. To the north lay Caledonia, the only land not under Roman rule.

The next sunrise found his post abandoned, but with the news of the emperor’s death, no one noticed.
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The photographer is Bjorn Rudberg and his story is The Emigrant.

Christmas Truce, 1914

Posted on December 25, 2014 by treshabarger

One hundred years ago today, the world was at war. When I think of war, I don’t think of countries or governments, but of people, individuals: men, women, children; those fighting the war, those affected by war (which is everyone). I’m re-posting my favorite Christmas story. Peace to all.

Peace to all

In 1914, during the Great War (World War I), an unofficial truce took place on Christmas Day along the Western Front. Some German and British soldiers took it upon themselves to celebrate Christmas by stopping the war, greeting each other, exchanging what small items they had as gifts (cigarettes, chocolate, etc.) and playing a soccer game. Peace broke out in more than one area and in more than one year.

There is a memorial in Ypres, Belgium commemorating this truce that was lead by the soldiers themselves.