books

When leaves fall . . .

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld
December Leaves

Welcome to my blog! I have just made more hot tea and am fixing lunch—Greek yogurt with thawed mango chunks and blueberries. There’s a fresh batch of homemade coffee concentrate in the refrigerator. Help yourself or bring your own munchies and brew!

Another week almost finished up! I have been taking time off from things this week, again. I have been sleeping more, exercising, rereading some favorite novels, and making some progress on cleaning and redoing the books on the front-room shelves. In my room, I still have boxes of books and electronics that we hauled out of the basement, a few summers.ago, when we got water seepage from heavy rains. I am now ruthlessly tossing things. Also, I need to get some of the picture frames back on the walls and out of harm’s way. I have one (framed) embroidery sampler from the late 1800s that I need to unframe and send to a relative on the east coast; her first name is the same the girl, a direct ancestor, who embroidered the sampler. I think that it should not have been kept under glass. My sister will know what to do with it to preserve it without more damage.

My last Artist’s Way session (13-week course through the U of Wisconsin-Platteville with Prof. Sean Shannon) was last weekend. To maintain the framework somewhat, I decided to continue on my own by rereading Julia Cameron’s book It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again. I also have on hand Naomi Wakan’s Write Away (prompts for a healthy life). (I ordered two copies , which are available from a business near her home, and both were autographed, which I had not expected, but much appreciate.) Naomi’s book is much more utilitarian, coming from experience without extraneous sidetracks. I may intersperse the exercises. I may find that I want to stick with Naomi’s. I logged onto B&N’s site and found three more books (available only as paperbacks) that I can add to my library. They should be arriving two and three weeks from now.

My mother left many completed quilt tops in her fabric arts room when she died. One of my sisters-in-law took them, along with the many shelves of Mother’s materials stash, to put to use as she could for various and worthwhile projects. I hope that much of it is donated to charities, whether as quilt tops or finished quilts. Before they left with the items that fell to them to distribute, I chose two quilt tops, which my sister-in-law has quilted for me. Finally, in the midst of the pandemic, she and my brother made the long drive to bring them to me/us, this week. They felt that shipping was too uncertain to trust them to. My sister-in-law does exquisite quilting, finishing them almost as fine as Mother would have.

Mother’s Quilts

The four of us enjoyed supper together at the local Denny’s Restaurant. It was interesting, being out and around people talking and enjoying one another’s company. I had missed fried eggs with hash browns and bacon. Something I do not make for myself. (That would be the potatoes, which I do not keep in the house. I do, however, have a frozen veggie pasta meal in the freezer. The stuff with the cheese sauce.) We three oldest siblings have gotten together on Zoom a few times, these past two years, but being together in one place is something we have not done for a very long time, other than the parents’ funerals, the winter of 2016-17.

when leaves fall
they give themselves back to earth
to rise again
transfigured into flowers
clothed in butterflies
and dreams

[tanka.] lizl bennefeld, © 2021-12-17

Although I have been writing some poems in December, I am not focusing on writing. I very much enjoyed joining with other participants during February 2021 for the February National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo). I plan to write more haiku, tanka, and other (in English) Japanese poetic forms during January, leading up to the poem-a-day activities in February 2022. My reading has been mostly rereading favorite books. I found a number of them lost among the volumes that had accumulated on the front-room bookshelves. Found a favorite ebook that I had thought lost; a science fiction book by my friend Melisa Michaels, now deceased. Had a good cry. Missing her a lot. I am happy that she and her husband bought property and lived for a while in the same state we do, so we were able to get together more than once during that all too brief time.

Time has passed so quickly, and I must tend to the Scamper dogs and start in on the laundry, once Al is out of the shower. I am grateful that you have stopped by for a while.

If you visit the blog (link below) of Natalie the Explorer, you will find her weekly Weekend Coffee Share post and a Links app with links to the other Weekend Coffee Share participants. Enjoy! Natalie is taking a two-week break from the Weekend Coffee Share feature on her blog, and so the next will be on 7 January 2022.

Best wishes for the coming week and the new year!

Lizl

Good Books Beautiful Lights

The end of a long week | #WeekendCoffeeShare on 22 Jan. 2021

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld

Well, almost the end of the long week.

Welcome! This is a decompression day (2nd of 2 for the week.) I forgot I was to get up and make breakfast, and so I am eating now, before lunchtime catches up with me. There’s v. dark chocolate, mixed nuts (with or without peanuts), Toddy coffee (of course), and fresh mozzarella cheese, and also filtered water, cold for drinking or ready to heat for tea.

It was nice to visit the dentistry office, on Wednesday. Too long since Al and I last took the drive to Hawley. Next month, if all is well, I get to meet with the optometrist, also. I’ve a small cavity starting on the gum line, so hope to go back, sometime after the eye exam, if the weather and pandemic cooperate.

Wednesday evening, I attended the free Poetry Heals workshop via Zoom, which was fantastic and just what I need. Listening, being heard, and writing poems together. Yesterday, a lot of notes for more poems and resting. Catching up on sleep. The Scampers and I also attended, via Zoom, the weekly noon Meeting for Worship for Healing.

We (the Scampers and I) awakened before the alarm went off. They had breakfast, but I had not. The nuts are good, and the chocolate was delicious. I’ve a Zoom meet-up scheduled for this afternoon with the four oldest siblings in the family. That would be the Bay area in California, eastern North Dakota, the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and Connecticut. I need to fit a lunch into the next hour.

Tomorrow noon, I will enjoy an hour’s Social gathering with Liz Danforth and friends via Zoom. This week, I have been rereading a 2-book story arc by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., comprising The Parafaith War and The Ethos Effect, both of which have informed my view on current U.S. events; Blood Banked: Stories from the Blood Verse, by Tanya Huff, in ebook format., so I can read them comfortably ; and I have just started rereading William Least Heat-Moon’s PrairyErth: A Deep Map, which merges prose and prose poetry—quite addicting.

Twice, this past week, I got out into the snow-and-cold with the Scampers to take photographs. Hope you find something you like among them.

Poems that I wrote, this week: Winter Art,  Room Enough, and Winter Grass.

I hope to visit your blog for coffee, sometime over the weekend. Thanks for dropping by, here.

Hugs & much love,
Lizl

P.S. Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share post for this weekend is here: Natalie the Explorer.

July 13: Ups and Downs | Weekend Coffee Share

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld

large and small, brown teapots

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share! There is Toddy coffee, if you like, but also a pot of Oolong tea, which I have been enjoying, today. The week has been…awkward. My husband was coming down with something, I don’t know what, and became quite ill, Wednesday evening. Much better, today, and so he was up and around, finally going out to his workshop to build tables for the ham radio room. Things come to a grinding halt in the house when one of us is ill. Fortunately, that is not often.

During the week, to get out of the house (out of the way), the puppies and I spent a lot of time in the back yard, where I pulled weeds and took a lot of photographs. I also put in much more time on the exercise bike in the gazebo, most days, and spent more time there.

Taking Flight

Almost every day, I post some favorite photographs from the morning shoot (flowers, wildflowers, miscellanea) in the back yard at the JPG Mag web site. This week and last, I got some really good pictures, and I was nominated for “Member of the Week”. Pleased to say that I was selected, today (selections are made on Fridays), and there is an announcement post HERE with a few of my photographs, a snapshot of me, and a link to my photo gallery.

This was a more active week than usual, although I did not get out of the house after Monday evening, when we attended a visitation at a funeral home in the next town.  The brother of one of our good friends died; my husband knew his mother, who lived in the same town when they were young. There was a great gathering of relatives and friends.

I did not write a lot of poetry, this week. (See photographs.) But I did manage to do one for the Ronovan Writes Haiku weekly challenge. It was odd. Based on a stray train of thought that seemed improbable until I got into it.

These past few weeks seemed unwelcoming, and so I tried to concentrate on activities close at hand. Things within reach that I could actually do something with/about. While I was on the exercise bike, this week, I read three novels in a favorite fantasy series by Sharon Shinn. I have read through a number of her series, this year. Her series and L. E. Modesitt’s novels are the most rereadable, right now. I am not in the mood for Pern (McCaffrey) or military SF. I did find a new book in Sheila Connolly’s Relatively Dead series. That was wonderful. And I pre-ordered Murder at the Mansion, which is next on my to-be-read list and was just released.

My blood pressure is still low enough that I’m not to worry about it, and I had to use my nebulizer, last week, but I suspect my blood sugar is doing better because of the increased exercise and decreased stress.

I don’t know what I can blame the disjointedness of my thoughts. Probably thinking about too many things at the same time. Thanks for the company, this evening.

Best wishes for your week!
Lizl

Note: Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Eclectic Alli. Her post for this week is HERE, and the InLinkz link also can be found on that page where you’ll find other participants in this week’s Weekend Coffee Share.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Friday Night

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld

Not Quite Ready, Yet

Thank you for joining me for a coffee break! The week has been long, and I am looking forward to a quiet weekend with cool and rain. On Wednesday, we navigated through the street construction projects to my clinic for my six-month check-up. (We did the same on Monday to get the blood testing done.) Everything seems to be maintaining or improving. My A1C reading was up a tenth of a percent, but we had reduced my medications by a third, six months ago, so that was good. Maintaining my weight. After the run-in with allergies, this spring, I am able to return to aerobic exercise. That is, I can pedal and breathe at the same time. Twenty-six miles on the exercise bike, this week.

On the way into the clinic, we saw a cloud to the south that showed rainbow colors on its edge. Quite colorful and well defined…which is not well captured by the photographs I took before we had to go inside.

Rainbow Colors

I have enjoyed taking photographs of the flowers, this week, and reading several books. I put aside New York to Nome: The Northwest Passage by Canoe to read L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s latest Recluse novel, Outcasts of Order. Enjoyed it and plan to read it again in a couple of days, when I will be able to pick up on more of the details and integrate the story in my mind with the previous books in the series.

My sister-in-law, my youngest brother’s wife, is under hospice care. I would like to get to the care facility. Not sure if my coughing and sneezing are allergies or another cold, right now; I hesitate to bring fresh germs into that setting. The other sister-in-law who is local did make it over there, a couple of days ago.

I am thinking that with all the personal, family, and external turmoil, I need to take some time off to just read and garden and unwind. Al is having a good time of building and painting, and now planning furniture to build to fit out his new workshop. A good time, a happy time to share together. Trouble and worry are continuing, but they can be laid aside. The world’s troubles are much larger than me. I must pay attention to the moment and the needs of the people whose lives mesh with mine.

The hour is late. Midnight, already! I still have to prepare and eat one more meal before my day can end. Al is heading off to his computer/sitting room to watch the end of his last television show for the evening.

Thanks for listening! I look forward to reading your Weekend Coffee Share post tomorrow.

Best wishes for your weekend and the new week!
Lizl

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Allison, whose site is eclecticali.wordpress.com; her coffee share post is at the top of the blog. The InLinkz link is HERE! You’ll find links to other people taking part in Weekend Coffee Share. –Lizl

 

#WeekendCoffeeShare on 2 July 2017: A long week

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld

If we were getting together for coffee, this evening, we could sit in the back yard and visit for a while. Until it gets dark and the illegal fireworks and noise makers start up, again. Some years it is difficult to breathe because of the combustion byproducts. I have come in with the Scampers, where quiet will prevail for a while longer.

If you’d like coffee (drip or cold brew), I could offer you a muffin to go with it, tonight. A neighbor brought over a box of muffins and cookies, late this morning, and my husband had me put some away in the freezer. The wonders of the microwave! Instantly thawed muffins and fresh-frozen fruit!

There have been people in my week. On Monday I met with the grief counselor, and I enjoyed talking with her. I am more determined, now, to try establishing some social contacts that involve in-person interaction. It does feel different, although mostly I think it’s not having a lot of time to ponder how to respond and what I might want to say in the course of a give-and-take conversation. (No, I don’t Skype or do instant messaging, either.)

And toward the end of the week, an Internet friend dropped by in the midst of a few days of visiting at the home of relatives here in town. She’s from California, but travels a lot, and couldn’t pass up the chance to add North Dakota to her list of states she’s been in. And, our having known each other for years through the SF Poetry Assn., it followed. I even got to fix a light lunch for the two of us, since Al had volunteered for an extra shift at the marksmanship center over the noon hour. It is remarkable, how I felt that I had known her practically forever, and was comfortable visiting. (I had previously bought her recent poetry book [then lost it, and ordered another, then found the first, again] and was happy to have her sign it for me. Just the one copy.) 

I’ve gotten both of the manuscripts for the two prequel “Lady Astronaut” books (by M.R. Kowal—won the bid in the Con-or-Bust online fund-raiser auction), read one, and am starting on the second. Lovely! I look forward to reading the final version, next year. I very much enjoyed the

This weekend’s splurge was beef liver. Yes. Really! Bought enough for three meals, cooked it up with onions, and ate Meal the First for today at lunch.

I must mention (and would take you on a very brief tour of) the woodworking shop that we are building in the back yard. Al has painted a “test” board of the siding we’ve chosen for the shop with the color that we’ve chosen. The primer is oil based, which I can’t be around at all, but it’s got a short drying time, and the outer layer will be a different (safe to breathe) sort of paint. Two thirds of the building will be Al’s woodworking space, and the other third will be a multi-purpose hobby room.

Just Looking Around

It’s time for our local amateur radio Sunday Night Net, and Al’s net control, this evening. I should sign off, now, so I don’t miss all of it. I’m glad that you stopped in for a visit.

Best wishes for the coming week!
Lizl

P.S. I hope you’ll have time to stop by Emily’s blog, who is the current host of Weekend Coffee Share: NerdintheBrain.com, where you’ll find “a big ol’ announcement” and the link button to other people’s Weekend Coffee Share posts.

#WeekendCoffeeShare – Again, a weekend!

by Lizl/Liz Bennefeld

If we were getting together for coffee, this weekend, we might take our cups into the back yard, where we could settle into the gazebo and watch the dogs run and play together.  The rain is supposed to be over by eight o’clock, and so the ground may be dry by the time I’m awake, again. My husband has turned our garage into a workshop, where he is putting together what will become his actual workshop. His dream has been to plan and construct a freestanding workshop for his woodworking. The lumber for the frame was delivered, and he’s made enough progress that he’s recruiting friends and family to help raise the walls, sometime this week. Early, I think.

The excitement has been wearing on the puppies. Charlie fell asleep, one afternoon, on the back of the love seat. A little too much energy wore off too quickly. I’m surprised that he didn’t tumble off onto Thadd’s toy beaver.  The squeaking would have awakened Thadd, who was dozing in my chair.

Life has progressed, these past weeks. The grief counselor from hospice came by for a nice visit, a few days ago. We had only talked before, briefly, by telephone. An in-person meeting gave us a chance to get to know each other. We’ve made an appointment to get together again, a few weeks from now. I enjoyed being able to talk about my experience of and feelings about my parents no longer being alive and active in my life. Talking with someone who is not family permits me to talk more freely, and that results in my discovering what I do think and feel. And how I feel about thinking and feeling as I do.

I would share with you my delight in discovering that a new (30th anniversary) edition of my favorite Stress Management book was published in 2012, and I am enjoying my review of how to deal constructively with and mitigate the effects of stress in my life. My 12-month life changes points are well above 300, which is much too high. I don’t seem to be drowning my stress in food, however, as I continue to lose a pound of weight or more each week. Fourteen hundred calories a day now looks to me like a lot of food.

My disappointment, this week, is the discovery that all of my wildflower seeds, which had germinated periodically over this long spring, have died of the frosty nights and cold days. I found a seller on-line that sells seeds in smaller quantities than my go-to site and ordered California poppies in different colors and also both annual and perennial blue flax wildflower seeds. Perhaps by the time they show up, we will be finished with hard freezes.

I have been rereading some favorite books, this past week or so. I have just finished rereading Citizen of the Galaxy, by Robert Heinlein. The three-book As You Wish series by Mindy Klasky also has been enjoyable. As for new books, I have downloaded the Northern Yearly Meeting’s new Faith and Practice, which is available in epub format. I look forward to getting into it. A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg: A City Novel, by Harry Kalmer (a long-time Internet acquaintance), which I’m about halfway through, is fascinating. And totally beyond my experience of life. Challenging! A far cry from the rural/semi-rural Upper Midwest, where I’ve spent my life.

Late, here, getting to sleep, but I know that if I once again put my post off until morning, when I do not have enough time, I would end up not writing until Sunday evening.

I will get back to the post during the course of the weekend to add appropriate links. In the meantime, t hank you for stopping by. I look forward to seeing you again next week.

Best wishes,

Lizl

P.S. You will find the InLinkz and our host’s WeekendCoffeeShare post here: Nerd-In-the-Brain.