365 Project - Vespertine

The rainforest comes alive at night when the vespertine creatures take the stage and perform their rituals of foraging and mating when the seasons are right.

365 Project - Evanescence

The australis borealis shimmered and spread across the night sky with a magical evanescence; it was a miraculous phenomenon I may never see again.

365 Project - Hunky Dory

Dad: "How's the bike coming along son? Have you managed to fix the brakes yet?"

Son: "Yep, it's hunky dory Dad, just about ready to give it a trial run."

365 Project - Macabre

Why do so many people harbour a fetish for the macabre movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and the like?

365 Project - Yaw

The ship ploughed through rough seas towards a submerged reef, faulty navigation causing it to yaw from it's correct course.

365 Project - Yen

Seeing an oil painting depicting the craggy moors of her home town set her heart to yen to see it once again, even after half a century of thinking she would never want to return.

365 Project - Zephyr

Exhausted and collapsed on the beach, the half-drowned survivor stirred as a salty zephyr rolled in from the seas along with the waves, gently ruffling the torn sail he lay on.

365 Project - Enthrall

The shimmering lights of the southern night sky served to enthrall the audience beyond the magic of the outdoor concert.

365 Project - Cakewalk

Those first time parents who consider bringing up their children will be a cakewalk through observation of others' failures, will learn firsthand that they were grossly mistaken.

365 Project - Haptic

Users of braille have honed their haptic skills to a consummate degree, such that they become totally reliant on understanding the world around them through touch instead of sight.

365 Project - Couvade

Dictionary.com definition: couvade \koo-VAHD\, noun: A practice in certain cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child.

365 Project - Heliolatry

Religious worship aside, modern heliolatry where men and women roast their often naked skin in its rays has proven to have its own inherent curse – skin cancer.

365 Project - Rococo

Dictionary.com definition: Pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.A style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etcIn the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo.

365 Project - Proliferate

The landscape was gradually afflicted by the stream of box-shaped houses that began to proliferate and obliterate its once green and rolling outlook.

365 Project - Amok

I watched in rage as the rogue chicken ran amok in my freshly planted vegetable patch; she was oblivious to the dying seedlings and searching only for the tasty wriggling worms that had made their home in the wonderfully composted beds.

365 Project - Hegira

We began the gargantuan task of sifting and packing 20 years of accumulated 'wealth', ignoring the tugging of heart strings, in preparation for our hegira to a foreign land across the sea.

365 Project - Oscitant

I am sure cat-walk models practise an oscitant gaze many times a day in the mirror to make all observers feel distinctly inferior and unworthy of their attention.

365 Project - Indemnity

He looked for indemnity in the wrong place - his long-suffering wife was not supplying an alibi for his traiterous actions.

365 Project - Festoon

I could not wait for the herald of spring; the late wattle would festoon the air with its heavy scent and the trees with golden blossoms.

365 Project - Quintessential

The nurse in charge was the quintessential matron; starched cap over a severely caught up hairdo, and equally crisp apron, impeccably uncreased dress, perfectly white shoes and a manner to match it.

365 Project - Vernacular

My son told me in his own inimitable vernacular, that I should leave his room and shut the door.

365 Project - Juggernaut

The juggernaut that is the theory of evolution, stifles any hope that there is any hope for mankind's sorry plight.

365 Project - Kowtow

I remember Margaret Thatcher best for her policy that recommended the government should never kowtow to terrorists.

365 Project - Ruth

He hung his head in ruth for the horrendous misdeeds he had perpetrated during his long and turbulent life, realisation dawning for the first time only when faced with his own imminent decease.

365 Project - Noctivagant

I latched the cabin door, worried my noctivagant mother-in-law would sleep-walk over the side of the ship while we all slept.

365 Project - Occidental

Occidental meets Oriental - Plato meets Confucius - I wonder if they would agree on most philosophical theories.

365 Project - Fathom

If we could fathom the depths of each others' cultures and belief systems, would there be less war in the world?

365 Project - Bathos

Nothing makes me feel more like throwing something at the screen than a finale reeking of bathos and inconsistency.

365 Project - Penumbra

The shadow following her appeared as a penumbra each time she looked directly back to see who or what was behind her; it was only by looking in its general vicinity that she could make out the shape of a person.

365 Project - Manichean

Her Manichean philosophy prevented her from taking care of either her own body or the things which she owned out of a bare necessity; an outlook shared by many of gnostic persuasion.

365 Project - Swain

Depend upon it - the true female person does - secretly or indeed openly - cherish a wish that a gallant swain would sweep her away from the thralls of common life.

365 Project - Goad

A message to the chef that you are not pleased with your meal does not spur him to improve on his culinary skill, and serves only as a goad to spit in your food!

365 Project - Oleaginous

The cards showed a full house, but I am certain the oleaginous stranger was dealt an entirely different hand. Who cheated who?

365 Project - Threnody

Her face was stony throughout the entire eulogy, disintegrating only after the last words of the threnody died away.

365 Project - Scuttle

To scuttle the innovative ideas of upcoming geniuses before they are brought to bear, is to smother invention in its infancy.

365 Project - Epoch

The move to create an Australian republic, breaking from the umbrella of the motherland, would be an epoch-making decision.

365 Project - Ethereal

Ethereal strains were poised in the stillness, waiting to breathe on the ears of the fervent listeners . . .

The lazy art

And so dear non-existent readers, I confess to a penchant for Jane Austenesque style stories, whether novels or dramatised for the moving screen. Even the frivolous minutiae of hairstyle, dress style, decor and the manners of former times are the most fascinating of subjects to me.

Which is why my hope and fantasy of completing a novel will in all probability come to nought - I am too old-fashioned to be fashionable, and I am presuming my style of writing will be too labourious, restrained and earnest for the likes of the modern person. I should write for myself, but I do not know whether it is my best employment when so many other demands make themselves known to me.

I find writing to be the laziest and gentlest of arts - not that I am familiar with all artistic pursuits you understand. I have danced, worked tapestry, sewn and embroidered, but not painted, worked with clay or bronze, sung or played any kind of instrument, with the short-lived exception of playing one or two tunes on a guitar during my middle school years. But of these, surely writing requires the least physical expenditure or accoutrements. And that is possibly why it is my favourite, I am ashamed to say.

Words are abundant and free of cost, readily available to all - even to those who have no use of the sounds they make, for these are more important in their visual form to the dumb of tongue.

When I think further on that, these people are blessed indeed, for it is easy to erase the hastily written word, not so easy the spoken one - for once spoken a word cannot be taken back.

Two Phrases That Reduce the Value of Human Life

Think about the countless civilian people who are considered officially to be "collateral damage" in war zones. Isn't that a term which has an anaesthetsising effect and which takes away the human tragedy of the act? It gives the scene a sense of fatalism, the sense that it's a risk we're willing to take - that the end justifies the means (to overuse a cliche)?

The "greater good" theory can override one's ethic and moral baselines when dilemmas are faced by anyone who needs to make difficult decisions. Having said this, I wouldn't want to be where President Obama or any other world leader is.