Thank-you for stopping by. This is a week when I have welcomed interactions with people, including a lovely 90-minute phone call with my sister in New England. I put aside my plans for the week, pretty much, and a solid week of impromptu activities. And not using the alarm clock and napping often.

The weather was fairly dry, but for a few showers in the night. Promises of more rain for Sunday and Monday. I enjoyed Liz Danforth’s Social gathering (via Zoom) on Saturday afternoon. Relaxed and relaxing, a smaller group with easy conversation and good feelings. In the morning (Sunday) I’ve meeting for worship to look forward to with a social time afterwards.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and part of Saturday evening taking care of the laundry. Clean bedding for people and dogs. I trust that later on Sunday, I can take care of what’s in the laundry hamper. I understand that lots of trips up and down the stairs is good exercise. Speaking of which, I did get the gazebo cleaned up, the rest of the foam blocks out of the open rafters, and using the stationary bike after dusting and straightening the accumulation of items that were put there for winter storage.

I hope to maintain a relatively spontaneous group of activities during the coming week. I bought a recent Elementals novel by Mercedes Lackey, whose writing I have enjoyed since decades past and another Valdemar anthology for which she was editor. I preordered another of hers, months ago. I also preordered Laura Anne Gilman’s latest book.

I did catch up on the Ronovan Writes Monday Haiku and Wednesday Sijo poetry challenges, the last on Saturday morning. Sometimes, poems are not ready to be written. I go with the flow;

Hugs & best wishes,
Lizl

P.S. Natalie, our Host for Weekend Coffee Share, has posted her blog (with participant links) at her Natalie the Explorer blog: Loving Life in May 2022.

nature has no words
for friendship or loneliness
silent raindrop tears

copyright © 2022-05-29, by lizl bennefeld.

Welcome! I apologize for the mess. I have spent some time playing with the options on my Coffee Break blog, and I’m not set up for company. Time and days have gotten away from me.

My surprise for the week was the blooming of my Poet’s Daffodil, which bulb was given to me by an acquaintance, quite a few years ago, because it never produced a flower for them. I am surprised to find that the daffodil did not give up through the nights of Frost Advisories and maintained through many misty, cold, rainy days. While a few late blooming tulips are coming along, now, the bulk of those more luscious varieties are coming to end of season.

Next on the list of flowers to appear, besides the multiplicity of wild blue violets and buttery dandelions, are the longer lasting wildflowers. We have the blue wild flax to look forward to. My favorites of almost all the wildflowers! I have some few thick patches of flax plants, and I expect that the flowers will come along in a week or so. Last year there no Common Evening Primroses with their long-legged spiders waiting behind each open flower for an unwary bee or fly. Another favorite of mine is the “butter and eggs” flowers, which grow in the north corner of the back yard. They will come along a bit later, if the ground is not too dry.

This week has been interesting also as I got deeper into Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and its Discontents (10 May 2022; Farrar, Straus and Giroux). I read Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018) too long ago, and I feel like it belongs/fits closely with Liberalism. I have set aside the Liberalism book to read Identity, again. I expect to get a clearer picture of the whole.

I am still having some problems with breathing, but I have surrendered to the need to nap when I can and write when I cannot sleep in the middle of the night. Yes, I do wish that winter would return! I must reschedule my medical appointments before we get too deeply into June. The Scampers are to have dental appointments, once days and times can be confirmed. They are enjoying the great out-of-doors. Rolling in the grass and sundries and chasing the rabbits around the back yard.

I am running out of time, and so I must drop this and move on to evening chores and rituals (i.e., puppy time). Best wishes to you for the coming weeks!

Hugs & much love,
Lizl

P.S. Check out (our host) Natalie the Explorer’s blog post What Stories Do These Trains Tell? for a marvelous post (again) this week. I am particularly fond of towns and railroads and their histories, and I look forward to spending some time on her site, next chance I get. We had commuter trains running through the smaller towns and villages, when I was a child, carrying people from home to work, and back again at the end of the day. The fare was inexpensive, and I often snuck away during the summers to visit the big city and ride up and down the escallators.