Tag: coffee

#WeekendCoffeeShare | 5 JUNE 2021
Coffee Time · Nattering · Social Link-Ups

#WeekendCoffeeShare | 5 JUNE 2021

E.W. Bennefeld5 Comments
cocker spaniels in need of haircuts

Hi! Thank you for stopping in for a visit, this weekend. I have settled in for a last cup of tea for the day. As always, there’s cold-brew coffee, as well as English Breakfast and oolong tea; fresh mozzarella cheese; gluten-free crackers and mixed nuts.

It’s hard to believe that the weekend has arrived again so soon! On the other hand, we have gone from frost warnings to heat and fire warnings, and promised rain has fallen only as light drizzle or evaporated before hitting the ground. I have ignored the air quality to get outside early in the morning, before the flowers fold up ,or the petals fall off, and the plants shrivel a little more. I banked the chive patch with spent coffee grounds and tea leaves, and it seems that enough water is stored to keep them looking healthy. I also go outside with the Scampers and let the Sun warm and loosen my back muscles. It feels really nice.

I continue to fool around with the new WP blog, trying out things to see what happens. I have added some older poems—from the fifties and sixties—as pages rather than posts. I can use Categories on the posts to group genres and more recent work. To date, I have divided my posts among my blogs according to content/purpose. I should be able to come at it another way.

I am looking forward to the weekly Zoom gathering with Liz Danforth and friends. It’s both Social and Co-working, so a couple hours (or a bit more). I enjoy the visiting, and as with Lucy Snyder’s weekday lunchtime writing get-together, I expect to get a lot of poetry written.

I look forward to playing with the Scampers, catching up on household chores, and reading, the Scampers curled up beside me on the recliner. Sunday, meeting for worship.

Best wishes for your weekend and the coming week!

Lizl

P.S. Natalie is the current host for Weekend Coffee Share. You will find her post for this week’s Coffee Share and the Inlinkz link party HERE: What Made May Marvelous.

Break Time · Life Through My Windows · Nattering · Personal · Photography · Social Link-Ups · Tea · Writing

#WeekendCoffeeShare : 11 Dec. 2020, still no snow

E.W. Bennefeld5 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)!

Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about?

Visit Allison’s site, Eclectic Alli, for her Weekend Coffee Share post and links to other participants’ blogs!

 

Welcome to the weekend! Help yourself to tea or Toddy coffee, if you’d like. Gluten-free crackers and sardines on the side. This week has been pretty quiet at the house, thanks to the backyard neighbor and his outdoor cooking. I am guessing that they are smoking turkeys, although the smoke is white instead of black, these past few days.

As I mentioned earlier, Al’s family in the area have canceled winter holiday celebrations, and I expect that all things being equal, they will also avoid Easter gatherings. Personally, neither Al nor I observe the secular Christmas or Easter (or other) holidays, while we do enjoy getting together for family gatherings and birthday parties.

I have been writing poems, this week, and getting out of doors to take photographs in the front yard. The neighborhood’s fallen leaves seem to have landed around our front steps. Our house is tucked into a curve in the road with a small front yard. I have been dancing, more, and using the indoor elliptical machine, rather than the stationary bike in the backyard gazebo.

After November’s brief snows, the grass is mostly green, again, even though the nights’ temperatures often dip below freezing. Strong winds have cleared the tree branches of their leaves. The Scampers are napping a lot, since they don’t care much for going outside alone. The exception is early morning and mid-evening, when the rabbits are plentiful in the back yard. Al said, last night, that he heard the rabbit hit his head on the baseboard on his way under the gazebo, the Scampers in hot pursuit. At least rabbits and dogs are getting in their daily exercise.

I am still rereading Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, by Francis Fukuyama. Finished rereading Sharon Shinn’s “Elemental Blessings” books, and I’m once again rereading L.E. Modesitt, Jr.’s “Imager Portfolio” novels. I have a friend in Australia who sends, once a week, her sermon and/or research notes; I have started in on the Advent notes. New book: Banshee Cries, by C.E. Murphy, “The Walker Papers” #1.5 ; enjoyed it very much.

I am dumping MS Office when my subscription is up, and switching to LibreOffice, which is supposedly better than OpenOffice for compatibility. I used OpenOffice when my main computer was running Linux. Sort of miss it.

I have run out of time, here, but I look forward to visiting your blog, this weekend, and catching up with what’s happening where you are.

Best wishes & much love,
Lizl

P.S. A few of my new poems are at https://journal.thewrittenword.net/ (quietspaces.net gets you to the same place)
 
Parting photos:

Afternoon · Break Time · Coffee Time · Life Through My Windows · Nattering · Personal · Social Link-Ups · Tea

#WeekendCoffeeShare : 11 May 2019 | Mixed Precipitation

E.W. Bennefeld7 Comments

Western Sky

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about? All are welcome!

Welcome! I am happy that you’ve dropped by for coffee and a visit, this weekend. There’s cheese and crackers to go with the (hot or cold) coffee or tea, as well as cold water from the fridge.

If we were visiting together, today, I would report that I am feeling much better than I was, a few weeks ago. I’ve finished the prescribed antibiotics, but have continued taking OTC antihistamine pills. Since the pollen count is high, right now, and I am quite allergic to tree pollens, the antihistamines help with getting to sleep and not waking up in the middle of the night. The air quality in eastern North Dakota in recent years has deteriorated, and so I spend more time indoors within range of the air cleaner.

The weather’s been colder than I would have liked. The temperature, Monday evening, was four degrees below freezing, and when I got up, the next morning, there was frost on the grass and thistles where the sun had not yet reached them. Most of the tulip flowers did survive. More have not yet bloomed, and so I am hopeful.

Frosty Morning
Tulips
Bird in Hiding

I had planned to have planted wildflower seeds by now, but between feeling ill and considering the cold temperatures and snow in northeastern Minnesota and elsewhere, I have yet to order seeds. I expect that some of the annuals that commonly reseed may appear a bit later. I did not have a chance to finish raking the backyard garden space and clearing out the late-autumn grass.

A delight has been the return, after years of absence, of the common wild violets to the lawn, coming up around the new workshop, now that the ground has settled, and some grass is also growing. I have enjoyed taking pictures of the violets and the hardy crop of dandelions. I have seen bees at the dandelions, already, and look forward to their return. If I have any wildflowers, this summer and fall.

Tulips in the Wind
My Dandelion
Common Blue Violet

At the follow-up with my PCP following the emergency room visit, I learned that I had lost five pounds in weight since my six-month checkup in December. I think that I have become careless about eating and should try for more frequent meals and scheduled mealtimes. That may be easier to do at this point, because I am also trying to exercise regularly, again, now that I am feeling more energetic.

I have enjoyed taking more photographs, this week, as I have gotten out into the back yard with the dogs more often. I am enjoying A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell. Also, I have reread my favorite parts of William Kennedy’s Toy Soldiers and watching the movie adaptation again on DVD.

During my spell of unwellness, I have withdrawn from some activities and am less often on the Internet. I had been feeling unsettled. Withdrawing has been helpful, and being more selective of activities has helped with relaxation. I have listened to some classical music, also, which helps.

Thank you for your time and company! It helps, being able to visit with people.

I look forward to visiting your blog during this weekend.

Best regards,

Lizl

 

Thanks to Allison of Eclectic Alli for hosting Weekend Coffee Share! Please find her post and the link-up for this weekend HERE.

water for tea #WeekendCoffeeShare 2019-04-13 – Quiet Afternoon
Afternoon · Break Time · Coffee Time · Life Through My Windows · Nature · Personal · Photography · Social Link-Ups · Tea · Writing

#WeekendCoffeeShare 2019-04-13 – Quiet Afternoon

E.W. Bennefeld2 Comments

If we were getting together for coffee or tea, this afternoon…you would be able to get to the house. Travel advisories are canceled in the area, and the sun is making inroads on the seven or so inches of snow that fell on Thursday and Friday. I think that we are expecting a second flood crest, but for the time being, we’re good, here in town. The seepage ended in the basement, and I was able to catch up with the laundry and dish-washing. We made a trip to the butcher shop and grocery store, and I cooked the meat in anticipation of a possible loss of electricity during the blizzard. Which there actually were, in the area, but not close enough to us to worry.

I would also show you where an industrious bird (possibly looking under the snow for nesting materials or food) was clearing away snow, this morning, and tossing dead leaves and grass onto the front sidewalk, looking for something that he or she didn’t immediately find. I hesitated to take many photographs from my vantage point in the doorway, for fear I would frighten away the bird before it found what it wanted.

discarded leaves from a bird's excavations
Discarded Rubble

If we were visiting together, I would tell you about my progress in the April poetry writing, a poem a day during National Poetry Month. I have written at least one poem for each day, plus a couple of warmup poems at the end of March, through Friday. I still have to write a poem for today. When I tried this (without my poetry-writing email group) for National Haiku Writing Month, I gave up at about this point in the effort. This time around, I am not concerning myself so much with writing to provided prompts from Writers Digest, a daily library mailing, or the Academy of American Poets (a group that I have supported since the beginning of last year). Not all of the poems that I have written so far this month are ready to put online, but I have written and posted one original poem for each day on my Quiet Spaces (dot net) Journal. And also, randomly, on others of my blogs.

Writing, whether poetry or prose, inevitably stirs up trains of thought that I many not always want to follow to speculations and/or conclusions. A dangerous thing about writing, as opposed to reading. The “inspirations” come from within me, and not as distractions from outside of myself.

The Scampers have fallen asleep while waiting for their suppers, and so I must leave you! Coffee or tea to go, as you journey on? Help yourself! (I have eaten all of the filberts and veggie crackers. Sorry!)

I look forward to reading about your week! And don’t forget to stop by Allison’s to read her Weekend Coffee Share post and connect with others.

Best wishes for the week to be!

Love & hugs,
Lizl

P.S. I never did get through the “Terms of Service” for the new link set-up for Weekend Coffee Share, and so I am not adding my Coffee Share link, there. You can still find me on Twitter and the WordPress Reader, though, if you aren’t following my Coffee Breaks blog.

cup of black tea on a table Up Late : #WeekendCoffeeShare
Break Time · Life Through My Windows · Morning · Nattering · Poetry · Social Link-Ups · Tea · Writing

Up Late : #WeekendCoffeeShare

E.W. Bennefeld2 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)!

Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about?

All are welcome! Just add your link to the Linky-List, and be sure to visit others and join in their conversations!

— Eclectic Alli

Welcome! Please help yourself to your choice of (virtual) beverage and snacks. At this time of the morning, everyone else is still asleep in our household. I am trying to avoid making any sounds. The Scampers have been quite demanding, being inside and without any meaningful exercise for too long.

Bored, Now

If we were having coffee together, this morning, I would tell you that I have welcomed the respite from the long stretch of sub-zero Arctic air that should have stayed at the North Pole where it belongs. When I took the Scampers outside, first thing on Friday, the temperature was high enough that I was able to go out in shirtsleeves to snap a few photographs. Our next Winter Storm Advisory indicates a return to inclement weather less than ten hours from now. I am not amused.

withered fruit on the cotoneaster tree
Cotoneaster Fruit

One of my planned activities for the weekend and the rest of the month is to write a haiku (or related poetry form) for each day in February. I am not confining myself to the prompts provided at NaHaiWriMo (February is haiku-writing month), but of the haiku that I’ve written so far this month, one of yesterday’s poems included the prompt. So as to not clutter my poetry blog, I am collecting the February haiku at my Blogger blog for the time being: theartofdisorder.blogspot.com (I also have November’s poem-a-day poems there; I didn’t manage a poem a day, but I didn’t miss a lot of days.) Here is Friday’s poem:

winter’s fingers draw pictures on the windows
while I sleep beneath my quilts

There is also a photo to go with it. My other activity for this weekend is to go through my sorting boxes, looking for music CDs that my husband wants to add to the computer that he takes out to the workshop. I had not been keeping track of them, not having a CD player for too many years. I have been feeling out of sorts for weeks, now, and I’m hoping that napping and remembering to eat more often will help.

If we were having coffee together, this morning, I would mention that another of my cousins has died. I hadn’t seen him often for many years, now; not since his father’s funeral in 2013, I believe. I had 60-some first cousins, my dad being the oldest of twelve children, and I did not know many of them. Most did not live in the area, and I had left home at age seventeen, missing most of the family reunions for that side of the family. I think they had a lot of reunions on the West Coast.

I can hear the Scampers waking up in the next room, and so I must bring our conversation to a close. Looking forward to visiting your Weekend Coffee Share post before the weekend’s conclusion.

Best wishes for your week!

Hugs & much love,
Lizl

#WeekendCoffeeShare 12 January 2019 | Icy Roads
Afternoon · Break Time · Personal · Social Link-Ups

#WeekendCoffeeShare 12 January 2019 | Icy Roads

E.W. Bennefeld5 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)!

Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about?

All are welcome! Just add your link to the Linky-List [at our host Eclectic Alli’s site], and be sure to visit others and join in their conversations!

California Poppy in July

frosty mist and fog
streets papered with sheer ice
the warm steam from my cup

— mine, today

If we were having coffee together, this afternoon, I would recommend Skype or telephone. We have been enjoying freezing drizzle and fog, and the neighborhood roads are iffy, with many traffic mishaps reported around town. My husband has skipped his habitual coffee break and is spending the day in his workshop (where he has his own coffee maker and snacky things in the mini-fridge. I don’t expect to see him before suppertime.)

If we were visiting together, today, I would tell you that I did order that salt-and-pepper set that I mentioned in one of my last Weekend Coffee Shares; the package is to arrive within the week. I am quite happy about that. I would also tell you that my husband ordered a copy of Rachel Mankowitz’s book, Yeshiva Girl, for me. I have not finished the book, yet, but it is interesting and well written. (I get through paper books much more slowly because of eye strain.)

I would also mention to you that I started taking my antihistamine tablets, again, and they are helping with the irritations in my mouth; I already had cut down on spicy foods without much luck, and so I figure I added something to my diet over the past three or four months that I am allergic to. Also, since starting to take those pills, again, I am sleeping soundly through the night and my blood sugar levels are getting lower between meals. A happy sign. My blood pressure, which I try to take a couple times a week, was 101/66 at last check, and my blood oxygen level is up. So, I have managed to not upset anything crucial, this week. A major accomplishment!

My cleaning and straightening project is coming along slowly. On careful scrutiny, I discover that my clothes closet is full of clothing that I never wear. I mean, like, for a decade or more. Almost all of the clothing I wear can be (and would be) stored in dresser drawers, if I could get through the boxes of odds and ends to sort and toss. I am wondering how to rearrange things to move the dresser into the clothes closet. I do not dare to dump entire boxes, no matter how old, into the dumpster without looking through them, because one of the boxes contains my old Lenovo laptop from the years when I did freelance work.

I think that the problem I have with putting my bed-sitting room in order is the same problem as my trying to put my blog pages and posts in order. I have nowhere to put the items that I have not yet decided to either toss or keep. Or what to do with the ones that I want to keep, but not make public. I see some massive printing projects in my future.

In closing, I would tell you that my younger sister has ordered the hardcover proof copy of the book she has compiled/written and edited of our parents’ correspondence with each other, beginning when they met in Iowa before the United States entered World War II. I am excited to see the finished product.

Again, thank you for listening. I look forward to reading your weekend post.

Best wishes for the week to come!

Much love & hugs,

Lizl