Yay! Peaches! Yeah, I've been loving 'em. One of my top three favourite fruits, really. Grapefruit, Mac and Empire Apples, Peaches. Blueberries would be high on the list, too.

And another Dutch singer draws near to releasing her third solo album. Charlotte Wessels put out another video from The Obsession this week. The album is up for pre-save on Spotify now, too, if that's your streamer of choice.

And from reviewing the track list, I see that Alissa White-Gluz appears on Charlotte's album as well. The two have collaborated several times both in studio and on stage so it's not really a surprise to see another collab.

Continuing with Simone's solo debut, she and Arjen made the brilliant decision to close the album with a gorgeous acoustic ballad, "Dark Night of the Soul". With Simone backed by piano and cello, it is a beautiful and perfect ending to the album.

Alien : Romulus

Round things can roll away.

Let's twist again, like we did last summer. oo...or not. That kind of twisting we can do without. 😜

And good morning to y'all.

Kind of grey and muggy here. Had some wicked storms roll through yesterday evening and there's a chance of shower or thunderstorms today. In short, it's wet here again.

Coffee is Jamaican Blue Mountain. Teas are Darjeeling and Raspberry Royale. We look good for cold beverages.

Have a good day!

Love that cover, Bear. Nice blurb on the back, too. Congratulations.

I took a course on Latin poetry in university (my undergrad major was Classics) and out of that I got a couple favourite poets.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in English just as Horace, wrote poems that were mostly on the shorter end. Some were reflective, some satirical. His Odes are probably his best work, or at least my favourites, but his Epistles get into a bit more detail of his philosophy (he was basically an Epicurean).

Publius Virgilius Maro, aka Virgil, is best known for his epic The Aeneid, especially the romance of Aeneas and Dido which forms the fourth chapter. He also wrote the Georgics and the Eclogues, shorter, more pastoral works.

The two knew each other and were part of a circle of poets around Maecenas, who functioned as kind of Augustus Caesar's minister of culture.

Eight of Horace's odes with both English translations and the Latin original:

Horace: Eight Odes translated by Ranald Barnicot | The High Window (thehighwindowpress.com)

Virgil's Georgics in English translation:

Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) - The Georgics: Book I (poetryintranslation.com)

For The Aeneid, I am fond of Robert Fitzgerald's translation which is still available in print and ebook, I think.

Yeah we've got a really annoying computer issue at work right now.

So Cora is now the new cookie lady? 😊 Maybe I should write a poem about cookies. But not sure how to make that fit the theme. Cookies from beyond the veil doesn't sound terribly appetizing, really.

Ape here. Coffee is on. Went with a simple dark roast from somewhere. Teas are English Breakfast and Kittie Zoomies (verbs left some in the cupboard and I want to use it up). Wash the pitchers and made fresh iced tea (NOT Kittie Zoomies) and lemonade. With Sara not around, thought we were running short on goodies so I picked this up at a local bakery.

New album out yesterday that is almost doomed to make my year's best list. Vermillion is the debut solo album from Dutch metal mezzo Simone Simons, who has been the lead singer of the band Epica since its founding 20+ years ago. She collaborated with another amazing Dutch musician on this, guitarist/producer/songwriter Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon and Star One. The results are a true work of beauty.

The final single, which came out with the album, features another singer I adore, Montreal's Alissa White-Gluz. Alissa is best known as the lead singer of melodic death metal band Arch-Enemy for the past decade. While Alissa's voice isn't quite in the same operatic range as Simone's, she is a strong clean singer and also one of my favourite harsh vocalists (her main voice in Arch-Enemy) and both voices get a workout here.

Weekend coffee is on. Some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

For teas, we got Scottish Breakfast and Buddha's Blend (white + jasmine green w. hibiscus).

Cold drinks looking good.

Nice weekend here. In fact, we are getting the nicest weather we've had all summer right now, though it's getting a titch warm for my taste (29C tomorrow).

Poetry time. Or story time. Not sure which yet, but I will endeavour to do some writing.

Cello in metal is not new with Tina Guo. The Finnish trio Apocalyptica have been doing it for a long time. But the Chinese-American cellist really rocks in her show at Wacken Open Air this summer. She's not new to the festival, but I am not sure if she ever performed a set of her own before. Usually, she's been there as a featured artist with other bands. And get a load of that cello in the first one.

Lime mostly these days, but both are good

Jazz or blues?

Quote by verbal
I once shook Richard Nixon’s hand!

Washed it thoroughly afterwards I hope. 😁

Never shaken hands with anyone higher up than a mayor. Did get nodded and smiled at by Pierre Trudeau once, not long before his retirement from politics.

Quote by JamesPBear
We'll see what happens, and I'll make a formal announcement when it's all done.

I can't ... bear the suspense.😎

(Flees giggling)

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorning!

Ape is rocking out to Verimillion by Dutch singer Simone Simons. She's a redhead so do the math on the album title. More in the music thread later.

Coffee is Deathwish Dark Roast. Teas are Assam and Raspberry. Pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are washed and filled. Sodas are ready. And I've added some flavoured soda water (Bubbly, if you know that) to the mix.

Brittany Slayes (real surname is Hayes) is a power metal vocalist from Victoria, British Columbia. Her band Unleash the Archers dropped their sixth studio album earlier this year and are touring right now. Brittany herself has been getting some attention for a powerful performance she gave with the Dutch supergroup Ayreon last fall. She packs quite a set of pipes as can be heard in this performance of The Cranberries' Zombie from a few years back.

6688 (is counting like this great?)

Strawberry, though either is good. Not sure which is easier.

Fruity tea (like an Earl Grey or lemon) or Spice tea (like a chai)?

Quote by verbal
Michelle Obama gave a speech for the ages last night. I watched both conventions, RNC and DNC, and hers was the best so far. Even better than her husband.

People keep talking about her making a run someday but I don't know, having seen the ringer the dingbats put her husband through, I would not blame her for saying "hell, no" and just continuing to be a supportive presence for people like Harris.

(end politics)

Today was a fun day. Booked it off work and spent two hours hiking with my best friend, as in the one I married 31 years ago today. By this time on August 21, 1993, we were officially husband and wife.

Putting on some of my favourite oolong tea to celebrate. Goes good on its own or with either milk or cream (if you're lactose intolerant, you can try soy or almond but I make no promises since I haven't tried it).

Quote by Molly

And Cora makes six! Also, please feel free to advertise this on other social media.

Already promo'd on some sites I am on including my other writing site but I don't do the big social media sites so someone else will have to deal with promo'ing it on X, FB, etc.

Tomato. Potato is okay as a staple starch and enjoyable if done right but tomato packs more flavour.

Tomato sliced up in a salad or as a sauce?

I would have to have a cause that I really, seriously believed to commit that kind of energy and time. Never say never, but I don't really see myself doing it.

WYE make a large contribution/investment to a project to get your name on it (assuming you had the cash)?

Footnote: Arguably, Wondercafe2, the site I admin, is charitable, not in a legal sense but in that it is volunteer-run and funded by donations. It is not a huge effort, though, and doesn't have the tax and accounting issues that being a legal charity brings.

Quote by Cora

Maybe sitting out on "Beyond the Veil" is the best thing for you. Even though you initially wrote two poems, you have been struggling with the comp since it began, it seems. It also seems you are in a good place now, focusing on your longer fictional pieces. Life often takes us by surprise; you may very well be inspired to write a poem sometime before Sept. 6.

That's kind of where I am right now. Just leaving the comp well enough alone and hoping my muse comes back from vacation. That said, we are coming down to the wire. At least there's a long weekend before the deadline so I have some time if I do get something going.

And I just realized that in rejigging a character in the story I am working on, I inadvertantly turned him into Will from my story The Bat. Some differences in the details, but his name is Will and he is haunted by an act of violence he committed as a teen protecting a girl was in love with. But I think I am okay with the reprise in this case because this version of Will is on a different trajectory.

That version was a time travel story where Will got to rewind his life and change the past. But here I can focus on him dealing with the consequences in the here and now, particularly how it affects his relationship with the female protagonist (it's basically a romance but might end up with thriller elements as I piece this together).

Saw cuts deep through wood.

Fine - File

Collection of shorts, I think. Seem to lack the focus for longer pieces right now.

Shop in person or online?

Good morning!!! How are you all this fine day? 😊

Got some nice Dark Roast Costa Rican coffee waiting for you. There's also Darjeeling and Buddha's Blend teas. Washed the pitchers and made up fresh iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked up.

Into some lovely and, yes, cooler, drier weather. I actually did not look like I had walked through a rainstorm after mowing the lawn yesterday. Will warm up again by the weekend but how bad it gets really depends on where the humidity goes.