In response to the Weekly Photo Challenge prompt on 16 May 2018: Liquid. As the morning’s sunlight hits the eastern windows in late December, the frost ferns transition slowly to drops of water. Gradually, the window panes become dry and clear.
Cotoneaster shrubs in our back yard
Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge, 31 January 2018: Beloved.
A flight of fancy …
… and some favorite photographs from September 28, 29 and 30.
I am now in the last week of the four-week “Introduction to Japanese Poetry” workshop that I’d signed up for in at the beginning of August. This week I am to write tanka every day and read essays that I am finding quite helpful in understanding the underlying rationale (?). My understanding of haiku has changed a lot during the course of the workshop, also. Very happy that I signed up for it, and I will have a lot to carry forward after the workshop ends.
I find that my joy in writing poetry is expanding.
These weeks have been, as I had expected, quite difficult to get through. My youngest sister died on September 30 in 2014, and the anniversary of her memorial service is Tuesday. Last year, these two weeks included my mother’s transition from the family home to hospital and when a bed became available, transfer to a care facility under hospice care. The feeling of loss contests with my joy in their present joy. And yet it’s not the one against the other, but both emotions, each a legitimate recognition of reality, coexist. Life’s texture becomes deeper, more intricate. Things are settling inside me. I think that’s a good thing.
The reports of the Nile Virus on the news broadcasts sounded daunting. Since I can’t use insect repellents or insecticides, I may be spending more time indoors than I had planned on, timing my gardening around pest-free conditions. I expect that may involve being out on a breezy, dry day in long skirts/long-sleeve shirt and work gloves. I still have to improve the soil along the front and sides of the house, where nothing grows, now, but for the tulips in the spring. I’ve the “aged” used coffee grounds and the peat moss. I have only to dig out half a foot of soil all the way around (in sections), mix the barren dirt with the additives, and smooth it out, again. Then I can water the soil and tamp down the seeds. I’ve only the annual flax seeds, and only two ounces of those, and so I may have to order more for summer and autumn blooming.
The new garden is in shade more than I’d planned on, by the backyard fence. It catches tree and house shadows before 9:00 a.m. and late in the afternoon until dark. So, I must pick wildflower mixtures next year that fit better with that.
The weather turned cooler, with rain, but progress has been made on building the workshop. I’ve found myself back in bed, however, after being up for three or four hours, because of cold feet.
Yes! Cold feet! I finally found an old heating pad, and I’ve warmed the tops of my feet. Now, I’m holding it between the soles. Should not have been walking around in wet moccasins, this morning.
Next on the agenda is to feed the Scampers their noon meal, find warm socks, and write my poem(s) for today’s National Poetry Writing Month ongoing event during April.
Accomplishments for today, so far? Fed the Scampers their breakfasts, cleaned up after them, took photos, and fitted in half-hour nap before lunchtime. (Have not yet made lunch.)
We spent some quality time with family, this evening, and then came home to play with the puppies. I’ve got a few photos from several days taken with my telephone camera. I also enjoyed having a telephone conversation with my sibling next in age to me, who lives in the Twin Cities.
The weekend has sped by too rapidly, and I am still one poem short in the National Poetry Writing Month activity. I did get my wildflower seeds sown, finally, and watered. Must do that again in the morning, so that they are not blown away by the wind. All in all, an enjoyable time.
Our promised storm was not visible here, away from the winds. I think that a No Travel advisory is still in effect in the area. The temperature is expected to drop after Noon with a high of -2°F for tomorrow. The out-of-doors is beautiful, but I don’t want to go outside again until April.
We were having a sleep-in, this morning, but I woke up an hour before my alarm. Got on the telephone to the clinic to find out what was about with my appointment times through March. Also, called the pharmacy to discover the why of a particular prescription oddity.
Still worrying the ins and outs of the diet, but now I do have an appointment with a diabetes dietitian, next week. I do hope that it is of some help. If I’m understanding this, the idea is to eat enough carbohydrates to avoid the “I’m starving” mechanism that sets off the liver’s manufacturing glucose, but not enough at a time to spur the pancreas into overdrive. I, who can forget to eat, … I consider purchasing an alarm that will ring when it is time for a meal or snack. With a variable tone, so that it will not fade into the background noise and , through familiarity, go unheard.
I have found some cookbooks that address gluten-free cooking for the diabetic diet, which I am finding helpful.
