The week has been one of variety. Clouds and sunshine, rain and dry lawn. This morning I awoke to discover dew and open dandelions, followed by midday rain showers. I took out my cameras between.
This morning (Saturday) I took part in the last session of the Artist’s Way via Zoom from the University of Wisconsin. Scattered a bit by some unavoidable hitches in scheduling, there was extra time for me to go through the 13 sessions more thoughtfully. As a result, a couple weeks ago I started another (free plan for the the time being) WordPress blog to discover if The Artist’s Way would be feasible to ramble on about my responses . . . and a not-boring personal project to explore. I expect that it would end up being a lot of private posts.
The afternoon Zoom meeting was a co-working/social get-together during which I put the sheets and my own hypoallergenic clothing through the washer and dryer. Very productive.
In the midst of the smoky haze, the first lawn mowing of the entire yard took place. The grass did not bend to the blades and filled severral sacks of cuttings to haul away to city compost bins. More bendable, the wild violets and dandelions survived intact. They did much better than I! Even though the air quality showed much improvement, and today’s air is fit to breathe, the briefer exposures earlier in the week have left me with a raw throat and a bad cough.
There were accomplishments early in the week. I was able to catch up with the kitchen cleanup, washing everything, clean as well as used. Scoured the sinks and took a good first round on the countertop stains. I will have to recover my balance and energy before doing any more. The outdoor temperature is back in the forty-degree (F) range and rainy. Hopeful that the showers will clear both air and the ground.
We have found a water heater on sale, and that will be delivered on Wednesday. We will have to relocate the basement pantry shelves to get the water heater in place. Happy that so much of the shelves are already cleared. I got a lot of that clutter out on the boulevard during Spring Cleanup Week, the beginning of the month.
Right now, I am still rereading Councilor, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and I have gotten a ways into Being Peace, by Thiich Nhat Hanh (non-fiction).
The Scamper pups are sticking close by to keep me company. Thaddeus is sleeping across my ankles, and Charlie is asleep across the doorway to my room. The lamp is within reach. I think that I will turn out the light and take a nap, now. Hours, yet, before the noontime.
Good morning! The tea is hot, and the cheese and crackers are looking good, this time of the day. (I can offer you Toddy coffee, with or without milk, if you’d prefer. A fresh batch of homemade coffee concentrate is in the fridge.) The Scampers dozing on the loveseat, and all is quiet, again. We did wake up in time to enjoy an early dawn outing in the back yard.
The weather has turned warm, this week, and I have spent a lot of time out of doors, taking photographs of the tulips and finally the blue wild flax flower perennials along the south side of the garage. I also saw some more hover flies, although singly, attending the open flowers. I have seen almost no pollinators until now. Also, only two spiders and no webs.
This has been a cold, wet spring that almost hasn’t been. I am happy to report that the seepage really has been quite minimal for a flood year, and the dehumidifiers in the basement have been working well to keep the humidity down. The floodwaters are not under control everywhere, yet, but we are hopeful that fields across the state can be seeded in time to produce crops for fall harvest..
While my writing, this week, has been minimal (think “photographs”), I did contribute to Ronovan Writes Monday (haiku) and Wednesday (sijo) poetry writing challenges. And caught up on the ones that I missed. Also, this week the first Wednesday of the month was June 1, and that meant the Zoom poetry workshop through Poetry Heals from seven to eight o’clock, Central Time. Quite a lively time of it, this week. Met and interacted with some new-to-me folks. Afterwards, I did a bit of rewriting and found photographs to go with the two poems that I wrote independently during the workshop, which are on my Quietude blog: “Playing with Words“.
Got a lovely package from Laura Anne Gilman: one of the paper galleys for her book Uncanny Times, which comes out later this year. (I support her work through Patreon at a tier that includes that benefit … the coffee stain was an unexpected embellishment.)
Friday evening, I attended the third of three poetry readings via Zoom of the short poem section of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association 2022 Rhysling Anthology (an annual publication of SFPA member-selected favorite poems to be voted on by members). Got my votes recorded before the June fifteenth deadline. On to the long poem section! Votes for the longer poems are due in August. There is talk of making the online readings an annual event, and I am in favor of that.
With the progression of the seasons, I still am feeling restless. Sleeping a lot during the day and waking in the middle of the night (five o’clock, this morning with my alarm set for nine o’clock).
I hear a stirring in the next room, and so I am going to wind this up. Natalie, our host for Weekend Coffee Share, has posted her blog post for this week: Five Easy Walks to Cool Off (with a lovely selection of photos along her way), and you will also find an InLinkz link party app with links to other participants in Weekend Coffee Share.
The cotoneaster leaves have finally appeared in the midst of this stormy springtime rain. The grass is greening, and two clumps of blue wild flax plants have emerged among the plumping tulip bulbs. I thought for a while that Spring would not displace Winter, this year.
The Moments Between 