Welcome!
The tea’s wet, and the coffee concentrate and filtered water are in the refrigerator. Also, several hard cheeses a shelf down from the water, and cracker boxes on the stove. Please make yourself at home! A quiet morning, here, as the Scampers are off with my husband to the groomer for six-week baths and haircuts. If I am not improved by Tuesday of the coming week, I will be canceling my haircut appointment at the salon for a week from today.
On today’s schedule is WordCamp, which I am going to try for the first time, since it’s online and accessible to me, this year. Not a lot of the topics are of interest to me, since I am now retired, but…but one never knows what useful information might present itself. (I had time to attend one [interesting] talk before lunch, and then turned my attention to fixing something to eat. Then, the Scampers returned and all became chaos.)
The day slipped away, and night has fallen quite heavily. Al and Charlie are curled up in Al’s recliner, and Thadd and I have settled into the other. I have class (Zoom) from 10:00 to 11:00, this coming morning, and in the afternoon, the social/co-working Zoom meeting with Liz Danforth and friends. I bravely (after last weekend’s fall down the basement stairs) took a load of my hypoallergenic cotton clothing downstairs and started the wash. That’s now in the dryer, so I should have clothes to wear before it’s time to be in class.
During the week, I have written several poems. “September’s End” was written to a writing challenge on Ronovan Hester’s site: ronovanwrites.com. This one has not yet a home:
brisk winds from the north
sweep clouds from mountain valleys
moonlight brings me homestars dance to see the hearthfire
night’s fresh breeze hums lullabies
Copyright © 2021.10.01, by Lizl Bennefeld.
I am an inveterate reader, and I have books that I have saved from my childhood, others I have replaced through online searches for used books, and I am quite pleased when an old favorite shows up in a new, electronic format. I cannot speed-read using a handheld magnifying glass. On my Nook reader, I have a “Shelf” that holds the books I reread habitually over decades. Some are fun…intriguing…informative. A handfull of others evoke thought, empathy, feelings of kinship; or foreshadow paths that may or may not open through the years to come. That “special” shelf holds four contemporary books, right now: A Stranger to Command, by Sherwood Smith; Every Last Cuckoo, by Kate Malloy; The Sweetness of Forgetting, by Kristin Harmel; and most recently, The Pursued and the Pursuing, by AJ Odasso, which was released on the 28th. Sometimes a book stands up and says to me, “I’m real…and so are you.”
And now, the time is a quarter of three on Saturday morning. Which is not what I had planned to do, but it’s been good. Between the aches and pains from last Saturday and the frustrations of not being able to do for myself in some regards, I have given up a lot of reading and writing time for naps, pain-killers, and figuring out what foods I can prepare for myself.
Best wishes!
Lizl
Note 1: Our current host for Weekend Coffee Share is Natalie. You will find her coffee share post for this week: What Made September Special, which includes a Linkz app with listings and links to other bloggers’ posts.
Note 2: I did finally get outside for long enough to snap a few photographs. The weather was wet and often cold, but there were bright spots.
Hoverfly, Open Dandelion 
Cotoneaster Leaves,
Red with Yellow Veins
Raindrops and Grass,
Playing “Find the Bird”
The Moments Between 
Pamper yourself! That green photo is gorgeous.
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Thanks, Jackie! Love the water drops in the grass.
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That tea pot is beautiful (I know its not yours, but still.) I think I’ll have tea today 🙂 Your poem is exquisite. How are you doing?
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I am so happy that you enjoyed the poem, Maria. My tea of choice is Stash’s English Breakfast tea, as much for the aroma as for the taste. And I have looked with longing at the clear glass teapots, but I am clumsy and would not wish to break that which I love.
The bruising is painful, but settling into discrete units of pain, at last, rather than generalizing itself. Our local and extended medical personnel and facilities are once again stretched to or past limits. I am nearly convinced by now that I am only bruised, and not suffering with broken bones. My best estimate is another week of slow tapering. Past that, if there is still acute pain, I will see about scheduling x-rays.
I am finding myself writing verse, again, which is helpful to me. A return to normalcy. Writing demands a different sort of (non)attention, and more in free-fall with poem than with prose. It’s the flow of the layers at various depths, the changing viscosity as temperatures shift, flows moving up and down as well as horizontally. Och! Never enough time! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time with the school system you’re working in. Children as well as adults deserve schools that are both uplifting and effective in teaching truth.
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Your poem is lovely!
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Thank you, Janet. So pleased that it pleases you! 🙂
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I hope you’re feeling better. Thank you for sharing your poem and photos with #weekendcoffeeshare.
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Thank you, Natalie! Slowly, but definitely getting better.
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Cheese and crackers, sound good. Hope you are feeling better soon
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Thank you!
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Hi Lizl.
You tumbled down some stairs . . . !
Girl – that is scary to even think about and I’m so glad you are on the mend.
At my age, I don’t bend or bounce like I could 5 decades ago and doubt you bounce too much better.
Do be diligent in watching this better. I’ve grown very fond of our weekend meetings and hope they continue for a lot longer.
Also, you know I love your water drop lensing (is that a word?) photos.
Question: I’m always intrigued by how what you capture through the drop lens is always in tight focus while most of the surrounding is not. Obviously, you have control of the surrounding focus but are you actively focusing the water drop image or is that just happening?
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I have a choice of two microscope macro lenses. One has a fixed depth, and the other is controllable. My bone density is quite good. My depth perception and estimate of distances in relation to self and other are not good, but that is an hereditary trait. Going to have to change the lighting for that stairway to get rid of the deep shadows. ::sigh::
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Ah – I thought as much about the lenses.
Lighting is good but I recommend more grab bars so you can just drop the laundry if needed and have a grab bar nearby.
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The last time I grabbed a railing (1977, I believe it was), my right hand got caught in the curlicue at the bottom. Badly sprained my wrist, dislocated a finger, and got me hairline fractures in the bones of two fingers. immobilizing cast. Took me a whole day to learn to write with my left hand. Traumatic, that was, not being able to write legibly!!!! 😀 🙂
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Yikes – okay – that may not be a welcome idea in your case.
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Thank you for the tea and I enjoyed visiting with you this weekend. Your photos are beautiful, that raindrop is the best! I’m so happy you are on the mend. So sorry about your mishap. I loved your poem and the scampers look content after their grooming! Have a healing week ahead! 💖
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Thank you for the chat & cuppa.
I love your poem … it captures such an atmosphere; a space one is transported to despite all the goings-on around.
Hope you feel better through the week.
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Hi Lizl,
It’s been awhile since I’ve been in touch. I’ve been doing a lot of research this year and my blogging has taken a back seat.
I have a friend who has vision impairment and it sounds similar to your situation. She also has myasthenia gravis. The intriguing thing is that she often sees things I miss and she’s very observant in a way that makes no logical sense. She’s also developed her powers of perception. Have you found this yourself? She finds she loses a degree of these abilities when she uses her cane more frequently.
Take care and I hope you have a good week.
Best wishes,
Rowena
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Oddly, I see minute objects/shapes/movements out-of-doors. Insect sounds and movements, birds, colors and shapes and shadows of the leaves. I like the small things. I do miscalculate distances, which is where I get into trouble. I imagine that the broad range of distances in my environment may cause the falls and scrapes…and seeing what I am looking for at the time. ::sigh::
Best wishes & hugs,
Lizl
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Lizl, I also love the small things in nature. Both on Saturday and Sunday my husband and I went on a bushwalk hoping to find a patch of flannel flowers, which were finally in bloom. I just love looking deeply through the camera lens at nature and marvelling at all the intricacies within the larger whole. There’s so much beauty. That…as well as the capacity to lose sight of the bigger picture around us and trip.
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😎
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