The Weather Service continues to forecast rain and thunderstorms, changing the forecast warning further and further away with each dry hour and day. Al and I speculated (for years, now) that the accumulated heat from the concrete buildings and paved sidewalks and roadways forms its own ecosystem with rising heat shoving the rains aside into the country and into higher windstream layers.
I did write a poem, finishing just after Midnight. Unhappy with the responses Ronovan got with the Wednesday Sijo prompts, which I rather liked, he has switched to “Ovi”. I am not against it, but I do not like reading or writing to rhyme patterns of any sort. (Exceptions including contemporary hymns for worship that were fun to both write and sing and an occasional sonnet.) Anyway, I used Ronovan’s prompt word, but wrote a kauta.
And the other of us arrived with greens and other veggies! Best wishes for the day!
P.S. The other of us decided to mow the lawn, front and back. Halfway through, the rain started.
The weather report said “Sunny”. No such thing! Smoke high in the sky and falling towards the ground. No outside photographs today or tomorrow, and possibly the day after that. Enjoyed my dried nut mix, Toddy coffee with milk, and very dark chocolate (10g). Going to finish reading the book I started last night.
May the sun shine on you and your day, wherever you are!
P.S. Reading Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh, my current non-fiction selection.
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:
Late-Autumn Weeds
From Someone Else’s Tree
On the Vine: last year’s False Virginia Creeper
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.
It’s been too cold to venture out for more than a few minutes until just Thursday. The temperature rose above 0°F during the day, and more reasonable weather supposedly will follow. I did not have time to heat water for tea, having gotten up too late, but I did get a load of laundry washed and dried while the Scampers settled in for a morning nap. That’s what we do…we sleep between snacks and meals, whenever the lapdesk is on the lap. The Scampers had a great adventure, Wedmesday. They were dropped off at the groomer’s at eight in the morning and did not return until almost four in the afternoon. They look like totally different Cocker spaniels. Until Charlie’s sable grows out again, they will be hard to tell apart at first glance.
My haiku-a-day activities during February are going nicely. With the monotony of the weather and my reluctance to go out-of-doors with the camera (weather-proof or not!), I have been enjoying other people’s photography on various “free to download” photo/video sites. While it has been cold, there has not been new snow, to speak of, which gives me nothing new to photograph in the yard. I remember a couple different spots (the Buffalo and Red rivers in Minnesota) with backwater bends and fallen trees. Summers, we used to cross the Buffalo River on them, that river being much narrower than the Red River and closer to home. One of the earliest photographs I still have of my father is of him and me on the river bank, and him holding up the fish. I loved fishing, and learned how to scale or skin them (I frequented a fishing spot with lots of bullheads), clean them, and cook them up in the frying pan.
me and father
we bonded over fish and
favorite books
first memories last longest
gone away…not forgotten
Saturday, I slept in a bit, but was awakened by Scampers who were sleeping on top of me. So I got out of bed to feed them, and then made up a cup of hot Toddy coffee and have settled back into the recliner. Thaddeus is still with me, but Charlie’s wandered away to share Al’s recliner.
As for today, I have a 1-hour social gathering via Zoom with my Artist friend Liz and other friends, many of whom are involved with Gaming (e.g., Tunnels & Trolls). (Are those what are referred to as RPGs?) I have haiku to write for today and tomorrow, and perhaps for the next day. I do not know if the Weekend Coffee Share Zoom meeting will be taking place this weekend, or not. I expect that if it does, I will get an email invitation, later today.
Another writer whose work I have enjoyed, Steven Gould, has started a Patreon page, and I have decided to support Steven’s work and see how that gets along. I know that the pandemic has turned many people’s worlds upside down and plans go astray. I may go through the list to discover how many Creators I have been supporting have simply abandoned their pages.
Al and I have been talking this weekend about investing in a higher capacity generator to keep electricity going to run the furnace during longer power outages. It’s looking to be impractical if there are to be long stretches of generator use; worried about how long it would before one would have to replace it due to heavy usage. What we’ve heard from friends, so far, does not sound promising. With the workshop working independently with a heat exchanger (?) and a garage heater, the generator we have could keep us warm for some time. out there. We put a lot of insulation into the building.
I’ve caught a cold (stuffed head and a bit of a cough) and am trying to both rest and stay involved. Not an easy balance. My ocular migraines have returned; they interfere with reading and computer use, but fortunately, there is no pain involved., but only the weird lights in my field of vision. Thinking it’s just from the ongoing stresses. Hours keep slipping by without my noticing them. Since the medical, dental, and eye exams are done, I am back to self-isolation. Al has had his first covid-19 vaccination shot, and I am still waiting for a vaccine to become available that will be more likely NOT to give me an allergic reaction.
Time has flit! Happy you stopped by for a visit, and I hope to return the favor before the weekend ends. Wherever you are, I hope that you are safe and warm and fed.
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?
You will find Allison’s Weekend Coffee Share post here at Eclectic Ali and also the Inlinkz link party with links to other people’s weekend coffee share posts.
Welcome! If we were getting together for coffee, this morning, there would be lunch to go with it. In the meanwhile, I have just finished a snack to tide me over. I have started writing this post during my weekday “Lunchtime Write-In”, which puts aside 75 minutes, Monday through Friday, for nothing but writing and related research. In the kitchen, you can help yourself to some mozzarella cheese, mixed nuts, and a Braeburn apple. Or, we can heat up some Cashew-Carrot-Ginger soup and toast a slice of bread.
I have lost track of days, I think, as winter weather, melting, and then last night’s snowfall, have blurred the hours of the day, activities, and sleep cycle. It is almost like going to sleep in a snowstorm and waking up to spring, green, and waterdrops on new grass.
The Outside Inside
green grass and snowflakes
dry leaves blown against the house
wet leaf on the floor
The framework of my social activities continues to be Zoom meetings and conversations with Al, scattered throughout the day, and curling up with the Scampers when he goes out for volunteer work (he’s taking more shifts, these days), errands, and grocery shopping. And the weekday write-ins and another on Saturdays with connections through Patreon.
The major change in my schedule for November is the National/Global Novel Writing Month. As is our custom, writer friends and I will be writing a poem a day for the month. Prompts are provided by various organizations, which is a kickstart for each day, even if a poem decides to intervene…or wander off on its own. Looks like seven of us are free to take part, this time around. We also do the National Poetry Writing Month activity together during April. I expect that with the pandemic and the winterish weather, I will have fewer distractions, this year.
This week, I wrote five (six?) new poems. Four are posted on my QuiltedPoetry blog on WordPress. One will go to the other members of my speculative fiction poetry critique group, and one—will be pulled apart, reworked, or abandoned. A couple of poetry-writing months, I wrote practically nothing but fragments, sketches, and notes that I referred to in writing many new poems over quite a few years.
Needs Washing
Again, I have spent much time indoors, napping. Towards the end of the week, I have gotten outside with my camera. Mostly earlier in the morning. Love that the wind is melting snow and drying the fallen leaves. I love the shapes and piles and mixtures of species and colors. I love doing different things with the photographs, bringing out colors or shadows or geometric patterns. I could easily become lost in it. But…laundry. Running up and down the basement stairs is exercise, too.
leaves by the door
cotoneaster fruit and sky
someone’s lunch
I hate to leave Weekend Coffee Share at this point, but time has slipped away. Perhaps I will make it back here before the end of Monday to add a few notes on the weekend as it happened. Or perhaps not. In either case, I hope you have a marvelous new week, and I look forward to a visit.
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?
Good day! Welcome to Weekend Coffee Share! Today, there are crackers, fresh mozzarella cheese, and “natural” chunky peanut butter to go with the tea, or either cold- or hot-brew coffee. I’m drinking hot English Breakfast tea, this afternoon. Enjoyed cold-brew coffee and heart-healthy nut mix for breakfast, today. In recent years, I think, the October snow has disappeared for a good stretch before the actual stay-on-the-ground snow settles in for a months-long visit.
Snow Cover
This time, we have cold in the forecast, which might not lend itself to melting away the snow cover. This leaves me at a loss. I was waiting to clear the wildflower garden of weeds until the grass and flower stems had dried. Fifty square feet of nonnegotiable rotting vegetation beneath a foot of snow, much having blown in and then dropped just short of the cotoneaster trees. In earlier weeks, twigs and larger branches were brought down in our neighborhood by strong winds.
one month into autumn, and winter has begun
what are we to do?
gather up broken branches…
kindling and the fallen limbs
Scampers’ Outing
On Friday, my husband decided to pick up an extra volunteer shift at the range, so the Scampers and I enjoyed an afternoon of naps and laundry. The particulate matter in the air was just enough that I hesitated to use the stationary bike in the gazebo. So, I carried laundry up and down the stairs and got organized for washing dishes and cookware, today (Saturday).
frying pan and oil
hotter than they should have been
one page left to read
On Monday afternoon, we went to the closest venue for early voting. Happy that we got it out of the way on the first day, rather than getting caught up in last-minute lines. I have been feeling some fatigue, this week, and during the snowstorms, it was difficult to get to the gazebo to exercise. We slept a lot during the worst of the storm days. The temperatures were close to freezing, and there were many accident reports in the online news.
Side note, here. I am listening to “Bloodstream”from Tokio Myers’ album Our Generation. I am reminded of why I seldom play background music. Too easy to get lost in absorbing sounds and forget about doing anything other than listen and/or dance until it ends.
melody
errant autumn wind
breathless
singing in my heart
even when songs end
On Wednesday, I took part in a Zoom meeting with my brother Tim (Mpls.) and sister Chris (Conn.) for more than an hour. We had not had a chance to visit together, the three of us, since our father’s funeral, close to four years ago. We had a lot of fun talking about many things. I am considering getting a paid Zoom plan and learning how to actually run the thing.
a new world…not strange
a world I lent myself to
one I helped to grow
I look forward to Sunday’s Meeting for Worship at the noon hour, and also the initial meeting at six o’clock, also via Zoom, of the SF Poetry critique group that I was assigned to.
I am finding many aspects of the pandemic isolation that I do enjoy. Most, I think, have to do with not having to cope with as many interruptions of what I am doing. Having longer stretches of time to put to use for activities that hitherto were pushed aside. After retirement, of course, that is an obvious benefit. At odds with that is the proliferation of social interactions, however mediated by technology. I do miss walks in the park and around the neighborhood, sometimes. (Photographing other people’s trees and flowers.)
Thank you for stopping by for a visit, this weekend.
Best wishes for the week to come!
Lizl
You will find links to other participants in the weekly Weekend Coffee Share at Allison’s blog: Eclectic Ali, which you can find here: Thank Goodness It’s the Weekend. More photographs below.
the warmth of the fire
burning in the fireplace
friends bask in its glow
wherever we may scatter
we will never be alone
All poems and photographs are mine (Copyright October 22-24, 2020, and as otherwise noted, by Lizl Bennefeld.)
Good day! Welcome to Weekend Coffee Share! Today, there are crackers, fresh mozzarella cheese, and “natural” chunky peanut butter to go with the tea, or either cold- or hot-brew coffee. I’m drinking hot English Breakfast tea, this afternoon. Enjoyed cold-brew coffee and heart-healthy nut mix for breakfast, today. In recent years, I think, the October snow has disappeared for a good stretch before the actual stay-on-the-ground snow settles in for a months-long visit.
Breaks in the Day 