Tag: conversation

Busy Week | #weekendcoffeeshare
Life Through My Windows · Photography · Poetry · Social Link-Ups · Tea · Writing

Busy Week | #weekendcoffeeshare

E.W. Bennefeld5 Comments

Good day! I’m pleased that you have dropped by for a cup and a visit. It’s late in Sunday afternoon, and there are no more commitments for the weekend…except for trying to write this post;

This past week has been full of activity; online, catching up with chores, and writing poetry (the last week of National/Global National Poetry Writing Month). I have posted my poems at journal.thewrittenword.net — Though I have posted a poem for each day (and included a day’s poems in one post, having enjoyed that day’s writing streak), I have continued writing for the fun of it.

This was the week when the leaves burst forth, the tulips and dandelions (and a wild blue violet) bloomed. In spite of cold temperatures and middlin’ strong winds.

Friday, I was writing poems. Saturday, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Assn. (SFPA) had its first Town Hall Meeting (via Zoom), which was interesting and lots of fun. People I’ve known for decades, but whose voices I’d never heard; some, I’d never even seen a photo of. In the afternoon, Liz D.’s weekend Zoom meeting, “social”, rather than co-work sessions.

We hope to finish installing the rain gutters on the workshop, this weekend. If not today, then Tuesday, since tomorrow’s’ forecast looks to rain. I have enjoyed taking photographs during the week, and a lot of them are still in the camera. Today, meeting for worship and social time afterwards. On Tuesday evening, there is an online event for alumni of the college I attended.

I still am trying to get reoriented after such a focus on writing poetry for all of April. I even found myself taking notes for another poem during the social time after worship. Focused, as I understand it, on how they have been operating under the Covid-19 hazards and restrictions.

Time has fled, and I must finish this and get the URL posted here: The Upside of April,  where you will also find the Link Party links.

Best wishes for the coming week!

Love & hugs,
Lizl

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

Endings and beginnings, 19 March 2021 #WeekendCoffeeShare

E.W. Bennefeld10 Comments

dogs, asleep together
Naptime

Welcome! Choice of hot black tea or Toddy coffee, cold or hotted up. Also, cheese and apples, today. I have already switched from Toddy coffee to my first pot of tea for the day. The sun is shining, again today, and there’s no mention of snow in the weather forecast, now, until the middle of next week. A few photographs from Thursday:

On the Vine: last year’s False Virginia Creeper
From Someone Else’s Tree
Late-Autumn Weeds

This past week has been relaxed. I have spent a lot of time napping between chores. I have not been feeling busy or ambitious. The air quality has not been as good as I would have liked, as the snow has melted and molds become a problem. I keep forgetting to put on a face mask before moving from the air-filtered room—a habit that has faded away over the winter. I did get out to the gazebo, this week, to use the stationary bike. Will take me a while to work up to where I was last autumn. Note: Yesterday (Thursday). I completed .3 mile on the stationary bike, not wearing my face mask; today, wearing the mask, my total was 2.3 miles. Guess I’ll work harder at remembering to take one with me whenever I go outside. 🙂

May I mention that winter is my most favorite season of the year? This past winter was, in terms of snow and cold, quite inadequate. I think that my energy level and enthusiasm, excepting outdoor photography, plummets by ~90% with the arrival of spring. It always takes time to readjust to the relative hot.

No “special” events, this past week, except for the Speculative Poetry Reading, Sunday evening. A new-to-me poet, Jacqueline Johnson. Both engaging and thoughtful. The Wednesday evening Poetry Heals workshop was enjoyable. Good exercises. Especially enjoyed writing to the photo prompts. Thursday noon meeting for worship has been a welcome activity since it was first initiated, this past winter. My highlight for this weekend, I think, will be Saturday’s two-hour co-working/social Zoom meeting. I hope to use at least one of the 40-minute work sessions for physical exercise (dance and hand weights) and for playing the piano.

My “project” for the next while is to do something new and different with my patchworkprose dot com domain, My Notebook, which I lost track of over the past year or so. One of my very first domains. Right now, it’s just housing poems and scribbles that I don’t want to lose track of.

It’s almost time for the Scampers to wake up and ask for their noon yogurt, so I’m going to sign off. Best wishes for your day and week!

Love & hugs,
Lizl

As always, Natalie the Explorer, our current host for Weekend Coffee Share, has an interesting post to share, as well as this week’s InLinkz link party where you will find more participants from this week’s Weekend Coffee Share: How I Enjoy Spring.

Life Through My Windows · Nattering · Personal · Poetry · Social Link-Ups · Writing

Before Valentine’s Day : 13 Feb 2021 #WeekendCoffeeShare

E.W. Bennefeld7 Comments

haiku by Lizl Bennefeld written for valentine's day

Welcome! The tea’s wet, and the coffee is brewing. Help yourself to beverage and snacks, and sit a while.

This has been such a scattered week, between online activities and my writing, that it seems a blur, punctuated by many, many naps and not much else accomplished. I did enjoy the Poetry Heals workshop, Wednesday evening, and earlier in the afternoon, an online discussion (Beyond #NoDAPL: Indigenous and Black Lives Matter, Anpetu Wi Dialogues). My indigenous heritage, Sámi, is rooted in northwestern Europe (Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia). It appears that my father’s father’s people came to the United States from Norway in the 1870s. Here in North Dakota, I find myself more interested in local populations and issues. My father’s mother’s people also came to the United States in the same time period, from Ireland and Norway.

I have been keeping up with writing at least one poem for each day during February, which is National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo). Being located in a part of the country where the temperatures are stubbornly remaining below 0°F, I have mostly been using photographs/images from the “free to use” Internet sites to inspire my poems. Too cold to go outside for more than a few minutes, and I’ve gotten out of the house during February for only my appointment with the ophthalmologist on the first of the month. (Poems for this month are on my Quilted Poetry blog.)

Right now, I am sitting in on a combo social/co-working session with friends via Zoom, hoping to finish this post and get on with writing more poems. Or at least finding more inspiring photos to prompt more poems.  My husband is heading out for two hours of volunteer work in a little bit, so I will take a break then to get some more laundry going.

As far as reading, this week, I have been sorting through my ebook collection of novels by Georgette Heyer to see which favorites I am missing. So many of her books are republished by a variety of publishing companies that I have to list the titles, rather than depending on the list of books available through Barnes and Noble. Actual reading, however, involves more escapist novels. Yes, back to rereading L.E. Modesitt, Jr.  The Flash, Archform: Beauty, and The Octagonal Raven (related) novels. They blend in nicely, and more dramatically, with Francis Fukuyama’s nonfiction political/sociological writings. (Check out AmericanPurpose.com. Some  (but not all) of the articles are interesting.

I found a good summary online of why I should wait for the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. Chemicals in the first two vaccines available were mentioned as being the ones that I had identified as being the source of the allergic reactions I was worried about. Those chemicals are absent from the Johnson & Johnson offering. When it does become available, I will contact my PCP about when and where I can get it. Until then, I am holed up at home, freshly washed face masks and nowhere to go.

I am not planning anything else for the rest of the day and hope to catch up on relaxing and listening to music. On the NY Times web site I came across, in the music section, 12 jazz recordings that turn out, the first ones I have listened to, at least, to be mind-blowing and the sort of music I love most. I want to spend a lot of time listening, and then relistening to the entire set.

I hope that you are having a fun, relaxing, productive…? weekend. I look forward to visiting more blogs this weekend than I got to during the last. My puppies call to me.

I hope you will stop by Natalie’s blog; she is the current host for Weekend Coffee Share and the links app where other participants will be posting their blogs for this weekend.

Hugs & much love!
Lizl

Natalie the Explorer blog and Link Party: here: Natalie the Explorer.

Life Through My Windows · Nattering · Personal · Poetry · Social Link-Ups · Writing

Writing and Dreaming | #WeekendCoffeeShare 5 Feb 2021

E.W. Bennefeld8 Comments

aurora borealis

my heart stills

ancestral lands

trees and tall mountains

dreams draw me closer

waves of light

going home

[interwoven haiku]. Copyright © 2021–02–04, by Lizl Bennefeld.

Good Day! I’ve just decanted a batch of Toddy coffee concentrate, and the first pot of tea for the day is ready to pour. Help yourself to a cup! Mozzarella cheese and mixed nuts on the table, also.

The first week of February, and finally we are heading into winter weather. Cold and snow that will stay around for a while. I am enjoying the lower humidity and the sparkle of sunlight on the newly fallen snow. The temperatures are now plummeting, and there is a winter wind chill advisory with regard to the combination of very low temperatures and brisk winds.

February is “National Haiku Writing Month” (NaHaiWriMo), an activity I have enjoy immensely, most years. Last year, I think it was, I dropped this annual challenge, not inspired by the provided prompts, but not up to coming up with my own. This year, I am wandering through other people’s photographs, as well as my archives, and writing what I see and feel. I do not always post every poem I write during these and other events. However, so far I have been posting them on my Quilted Poetry blog.

I have put aside my cameras for the time being, hoping that there will be true winter weather with snowflakes and frost on the trees and other seasonal variations. On Monday, at my optometry appointment, I asked for a prescription specifically for reading my piano music. I am hopeful that when I do get to the lens crafter’s shop, my attempts to expand my music practice will benefit. I continue to exercise, and my energy level is up from last week.

Tomorrow, I hope to enjoy a Zoom meeting, again, with the usual bunch (mostly gamers); not a social/co-working session, but just a social gathering. I made it to most of the lunchtime write-in sessions and either wrote a poem or washed dishes or got a load of laundry into the washing machine. Time set aside specifically for doing things! There was an extra Zoom meeting of the group around Wednesday lunch, providing needed concentration time for folks on deadlines. Enjoyed the Poetry Heals online workshop, Wednesday evening, and attended the Thursday Meeting for Worship, also via Zoom.

I have picked up a bit more reading material, this week. An article about Bernard Baruch available through B&N, since I remembered that I delivered one of his speeches for high school Declamation; Roses and Lords, by Anthea Lawson; still reading A Quiet Gentleman, by Georgette Heyer; and The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous, by Joseph Henrich (recommendation by a friend). and Crucible, an anthology of short stories written in Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar story line. I had forgotten that I’d bought this anthology, and so it was an unexpected treat, finding it in my ebook library.

The day has progressed, and it’s nearly “Puppy Time”, and so I must go away. Hope you’re enjoying your weekend! I look forward to visiting your blog before the end of Monday. Best wishes for the new week!

Love & hugs,
Lizl

Natalie, at Natalie the Explorer blog, is the current host for Weekend Coffee Share. Her marvelous post for this weekend is at this URL, along with the Inlinkz link party with web addresses for other participants in this weekend’s coffee share.

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

Downtime — #WeekendCoffeeShare on 30 January 2021

E.W. Bennefeld4 Comments

photograph by Tea Creative | Soo Chung @teacreativelife
Wish List for Afternoon Tea

Welcome! Tea, coffee, and yogurt for the fruit. Help yourself! I have been enjoying a slice of ham and a cup of baked beans. Fruit and yogurt for lunch. I think I had just Toddy coffee and a square of chocolate for breakfast. That’s my regular morning fare. It would be nice to have tea with guests, again, someday.

Moon behind the clouds

The week has passed quickly, here. The weather has been variable. This weekend, we’ve had freezing rain and snow advisories. My husband has scheduled additional volunteer shifts, so he will be out and about one weekday and both weekends for a few hours. I did get out a few times with the camera. This is the photo that I liked the best. Taken from the back step, looking West.

Poems that I have written since my last Coffee Share post: Tired, Butterfly Moments, Rough-Chopped Breakfast, Inside/Outside, Beginnings, and Time’s Flight. Looking through my text files, I find that I have started rough drafts on at least half a dozen other poems during the last week or two. I’ve been sorting out the files, today, and deciding what I want to do with each…delete, rewrite, or polish and finalize.

Reading in progress:The Octagonal Raven(Modesitt, reread), The Listening Path (Julia Cameron, new), Blood Banked (Tanya Huff, short stories),The Quiet Gentleman (Georgette Heyer, reread), and a couple that I decided I didn’t like enough to finish reading or wasn’t in the mood for at the moment.

Again, I have slept a lot, in addition to reading.  The air quality, again, has not been good, even though the classification for pm2.5 is “Moderate”, which has kept me inside and mostly near the air cleaner. I look forward to colder weather outside and drier air. The past few days, I have been able to exercise for short time periods. Not enough.

I enjoyed my two-hour Zoom meet-up with Liz D. and friends, Saturday afternoon, while Al was away. Tomorrow, I hope to make it to the 11:00 Meeting for Worship, also via Zoom. The app has not been cooperative, recently. Thinking overloaded systems somewhere. And this evening, I uninstalled my Microsoft 365 module, on this (13″ screen HP convertible), and I now have LibreOffice on both of my laptop computers. It is nice to not need an office suite anymore. I’ve used so many of them over the past 34 (?) years. I do believe that Microsoft’s Office software has been the most frustrating of the lot. Happy to leave it behind.

I’m finding that my eyes get quite tired at this time of night, and so I must go away and get some sleep, now. I am looking forward to my appointment (only seven months late) with the optometrist, this coming week.

Natalie, at Natalie the Explorer blog, is the new host for Weekend Coffee Share. Her post for this weekend is at this URL, along with the Inlinkz link party with web addresses for other participants in this weekend’s coffee share.

Thank you for stopping in! I appreciate it very much.

Love and best wishes,
Lizl

Featured photo by Tea Creative │ Soo Chung on Unsplash.

buff cocker, sleeping Winds and Snow, Poetry and Naps — 16 January 2021 #WeekendCoffeeShare
Break Time · Life Through My Windows · Nattering · Nature · Personal · Social Link-Ups

Winds and Snow, Poetry and Naps — 16 January 2021 #WeekendCoffeeShare

E.W. Bennefeld8 Comments

Welcome to the end of the week! Coffee, tea, filtered water…or something stronger? I am working on my first cup of tea. The weather is cold. The blizzard continued south of us, just into South Dakota. The roads are icy, here, and we’re not going anywhere for awhile. Al picked up a few things at the store last night; we settled in and waited for the day to improve. Al will be getting out today; he has picked up an extra volunteer shift for this afternoon.

Some photographs from Thursday before I quit venturing outside with the Scampers. Earlier in the week, I was able to get on the stationary bike in the gazebo, a couple days, and put in 6..5 miles total. Not much, but enjoyable.

Snow shower
Scamper Pawprints
Garden Shed

My cold and sore throat are ongoing. Sneezing has begun, and I’m quite uncomfortable. My temperature, this morning, was 97°F, so I’m guessing it’s still just a head cold running its course. I sneezed enough that the Scampers are not lying on my feet, keeping them warm. If it doesn’t clear up, I expect I won’t be welcome at the dentist’s office, this next week. Ah! now Scampers.

This week was more comfortable than the previous, because I sat down to write poems and enjoyed that activity. I pushed myself to write, a distraction that gaining momentum until today, when, you know…Weekend Coffee Share. One of the poems that I wrote is on this blog, a post on the 13th: “Weather forecast”, and others from this week are on my Quilted Poetry blog. Writing poems from other people’s images/photographs loosened up my creative output, and left me concentrate on the words rather than spreading myself to the photo work as well.

Last week’s Mediterranean cooking inspired me to vary my diet a bit, this past week, with canned fish and baked beans. I  enjoyed poppy seed dressing on my afternoon green salad, yesterday. This weekend’s “excitement” is Saturday’s two-hour social/co-working Zoom session with some online friends. If I don’t sleep through it.

awakened early
by the telephone alarm
8:30 AM
let out the dogs and fed them
now we’re ready for a nap

The Scampers actually are settled in to sleep, now. I think that I will follow their example and hope to feel more alert when one o’clock rolls around.

Natalie is our new host for Weekend Coffee Share. (Thank you, Natalie!) You will find her coffee share blog post HERE: Coffee Share #2 | Words and Photos, along with the InLinkz link.
 
I look forward to reading your Weekend Coffee Share blog post as I am able.
 
Best wishes for your week!
 
Hugs,
Lizl