This is just a little test post, to see if I can publish from my tablet using a little bluetooth keyboard. If I can figure out the details, this might be a more portable way to do some writing, around town or maybe just around the house.
This photo of my coffee mug from a recent-ish morning journaling session was the easiest one to access.
We’ll see how this goes.
(I really gotta clean that window….)
When I graduated high school, Mom and Dad gave me a really nice sewing machine, and Aunt Helen, Mom’s sister, gave me my first cookbook.
She Cooks By Ear was written by my Uncle Buddy’s cousin, Frances S. James, and Aunt Helen got her to autograph it for me.
There is great cooking advice and many great recipes between its covers, but, as you can see by all the stains, this is the family favorite. Most often it was made just as a chicken gumbo, but we did make the full recipe for company and special occasions. (Except for the oysters. Oysters are nasty.)
Today I made the full recipe (with the previously noted exception) as a celebration for the bright-and-shiny New Year 2021. We had our requisite black-eyed peas yesterday, but this tastes way better.
Over the past year (or longer–time is always a little wibbly-wobbly for me, totally unrelated to current circumstances), I’ve read about how intelligent crows are and how people make friends with them and then the crows bring them bright-and-shiny presents.
I decided I want to make friends with crows so they can bring me bright-and-shiny presents.
I told Steve I wanted some kind of feeding platform in front of my writing window, so I would be able to see the crows when they come to eat the peanuts that I read would lure them. He kindly obliged.
We did not get crows, but we did have blue jays visit.
And squirrels.
What I didn’t consider was how interested Gracie would be in the peanuts. I thought she was just guarding the backyard from the squirrel invaders, until I saw her eating off the board when she thought I wasn’t looking.
Obviously, an alternate strategy was called for. So, I bought a hanging feeder.
Steve dismantled the low platform, found the shepherd’s hook, and we were good to go. Except the birds stopped visiting. Back to the drawing board.
After some engineering and hard work on Steve’s part, we now have a new feeding platform.
Within a couple of days, we started having visitors!
This titmouse pair are now regulars at the feeder. I put out about ten peanuts when I first sit down for Morning Pages, and they almost always show up before I’m done.
This morning was especially exciting, because the jays have finally returned! Not only that, but in addition to my titmouses and the jays, a woodpecker stopped by, and I saw a cardinal pair watching the goings-on from across the yard. I may have to start buying more peanuts.
So, today I cut up my first fresh pineapple
And it really wasn’t all that hard to do
First cut off both ends, then trim away the sides, and slice as you like
Eventually, you’ll have a plate full of sweet, luscious, juicy bites
Watch out for the slippery juice, though
Or you’ll lose your heavenly ambrosia bits to the floor
Right where the dogs are waiting, waiting, waiting for any little morsel to
Drop
Still catching up with OctPoWriMo, I offer this playful acrostic based on prompts for the sense of taste: delectable, tantalizing, explosive, creamy, bitter, sour.
Tags in clothes are scratchy
Wool is itchy
Socks choke my ankles
Shoes smother my feet
Turtlenecks try to strangle me
And don’t get me started on bras or shapeware
I really don’t like wearing clothes much at all
When I go out
All the people, at the store, at the mall, everywhere
They’re all trying to breathe my air
Or pollute it with their perfumes, colognes, aftershave
Getting too close, bumping into me
Don’t even say excuse me
And the big box stores, with all their stock jammed everywhere
Fifteen-foot shelves crammed with stuff
So many colors, shapes, sizes, choices
So overwhelming
I can maybe go to the mall, on a Tuesday afternoon
Except in November, December or early January
Or when there’s some big sale
I’d rather pay extra, thanks anyway
So, really, while I don’t like the idea of having to stay home all the time
Not having a choice in the matter
The truth is
Sheltering in place, keeping safe, minimal outside contact
I’ve kinda been training for this my whole life
Catching up some more. OctPoWriMo offering based on a prompt on exploring touch. Kinda free-verse, kinda prose, kinda Friday night free-for-all.
I love the mockingbird’s bright tune
The fussing of the squirrels in my
Backyard
Big band music gets me moving
With blues and swing, I find my own
Rhythm
Children laughing, puppies yipping
Church choirs singing, filling the air
With joy
Airplanes roaring overhead
Hot rods revving up their engines
So loud!
My lover’s voice, just a whisper
Caressing my heart strings, touching
My soul
All this, creation’s song of songs
The theme that fills our days with life
And love
Y’all have heard of tinnitis, right?
Ringing or buzzing in the ears
Growing
Mine is like a cicada’s song
At least I’ll never be lost in
Silence
Still playing OctPoWriMo catch-up! At least I’m not falling any further behind. Today, on the 22nd, I offer poem #19, in a form called Synchronicity, based on sensing your surroundings and the prompts: roar, dripping, rough, smooth, dark, putrid, sweet, stale
Write
Your tears
Or your fears
Pencil or pen
Clear the pain of the years
But where to start, where to begin
It doesn’t matter, you know where you’ve been
And you know that you want to escape from the night
To find yourself and your feelings again
Remember how you felt back then
The skies and your mind clear
Remember when
Grace appeared
Revered
Right
More OctPoWriMo catching up. A Diatelle poem, based on an invitation to explore how you process your feelings, and the prompts: rejuvenate, reboot, breathe, meditation, process, healing
My heart beats and pulses with the stars
My blood ebbs and flows with the tides
My lungs breathe the gases of creation
My joy swells to fill the open skies
I dance to the rhythm of the seasons
I whirl through the wheel of the year
The skies spin in spirals far above me
To feral music only I can hear
Playing a little more OctPoWriMo catch-up, here is simple rhyming poem based on the prompts: rhythm, blood, bones, breath, heart, belly.
Playing a little bit of OctPoWriMo catch-up here, with a pictorial poem, based on prompts of inside out, upside down, and all the colors.
Sometimes I have to pace
Back and forth and back and forth
If I’m not careful, I trip and I fall
Headlong into the rut my dragging feet have worn into the day
Sometimes I rise easily (more or less)
Pick myself up, dust myself off
I’ve only worn away the dirt this time
And there’s still something of me left to salvage
Sometimes I lie there
In the rut, in the dirt
Without the energy to fight the weight of gravity
Of the earth or of my thoughts
Sometimes I stop struggling
Let my head fall back
Shut my eyes, shut out the world, shut out the pain
It’s easier, really, to just lie there
Always, though, you realize where I’ve gone
Lost in my head, lost in the dark
You come find me where I’ve fallen
And lift me up, back into the sunshine
Today’s offering for OctPoWriMo, a free verse based on the prompt “a change in perspective”
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