Before and after photos of Max. Three months without a haircut left Max looking a little scruffy. We finally got him groomed today. Looking like a new dog. Of course, we love him either way!
Not a Green Thumb
A few years ago some lovely person (maybe Lilla) gave me a potted Gerber Daisy. It was a delightful gift – but unfortunately I promptly killed it. I’m not good with plants.
I dumped the dead plant along with its potting soil in the side yard. Surprisingly, there it has thrived! I don’t water it or care for it in any way. Turns out that my neglect is better for plants than my TLC.
Lesson learned!
Botanical Gardens
I was fortunate to take an early morning walk through the Botanical Gardens with my sister. Viki has been an employee and continues to have a membership there. The Gardens were recently hit with a hail storm which was hard on the plants. Still lots of beautiful sights in the pleasant company of my sister.
RV Life
Travel gear, 2020 style.
Watercolor II -Sunflower
A sunflower at the market. The watercolor is much more dramatic than the actual photo!
Watercolor
Keeping busy in quarantine. I ran an old photo through a watercolor app and I liked the result. Decided to share!
What Only You Can Do
A Center
You must hold your quiet center,
where you do what only you can do.
If others call you a maniac or a fool,
just let them wag their tongues.
If some praise your perseverance,
don’t feel too happy about it—
only solitude is a lasting friend.
You must hold your distant center.
Don’t move even if earth and heaven quake.
If others think you are insignificant,
that’s because you haven’t held on long enough.
As long as you stay put year after year,
eventually you will find a world
beginning to revolve around you.
~ Poem by Ha Jin
Blessing
blessing the boats
(at St. Mary’s)
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that
~ Lucille Clifton
Wooden Spools
Mending
Here are old things:
Fraying edges,
Ravelling threads;
And here are scraps of new goods,
Needles and thread,
An expectant thimble,
A pair of silver-toothed scissors.
Thimble on a finger,
New thread through an eye;
Needle, do not linger,
Hurry as you ply.
If you ever would be through
Hurry, scurry, fly!
Here are patches,
Felled edges,
Darned threads,
Strengthening old utility,
Pending the coming of the new.
Yes, I have been mending …
But also,
I have been enacting
A little travesty on life.
~ a poem by Hazel Hall
April is Poetry Month
The Heraclitus Door
I found a free-standing door in the woods.
Of course I went through!
On the other side you weren’t
any less absent, and yet
panic like a paper lantern
launched from my chest.
I turned, snatched the handle,
found it locked.
I knocked and I knocked;
the past would not let me back in.
~ Todd Dillard
