Relax and Relate #WeekendCoffeeShare

Image by Lizl Bennefeld.

Taking a break from “doing” to sit back and tune out the weather and the tension and the atmosphere of “business not as normal.” Catching up on cleaning the kitchen area and cupboards, hauling out trash, and operating without format or schedule or precise goals. Moving around and doing things as they come to hand, nothing planned or organized.

The last Saturday in January marked the beginning of my newest adventures in an Artist’s Way cohort through the U of Wisconsin (via weekly one-hour Zoom meetings). I am enjoying it very much. However, it’s calling for a marked change of routine until sometime in April.

I am trying to interact with people and keep better track of what is happening, and where. Very tired, as the winter weather hangs on. Our next winter storm is to come through on Tuesday.

I enjoyed seeing friendly faces via Zoom at Meeting for Worship, this morning. I am happy with the time change that wakes me up more than an hour earlier than before Daylight Savings Time finally kicked in.

The Scampers had their annual appointments, got their rabies shots, and refilled their prescriptions. All is well with them. I must get on with the evening. Especially while I have the house to myself for a few hours and things I want to get done before bedtime.

Thank you for dropping by! I do hope that I can stay more in contact as things untangle themselves.

Hugs and much love,
Lizl

Natalie (the Explorer)’s Weekend Coffee Share post can be found HERE.

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The Midst of the Cold #WeekendCoffeeShare

Photo by Naman Nayar on Pexels.com

Welcome to another weekend! I started to write this post a day early (Thursday) in case the winter snowfall/high winds during the night might take out the electric service. Instead, I lost a week, and it’s now February! We are in the midst of a cold snap, like -21 F with a forecast high for tomorrow of 32 F degrees above zero.

The past few weeks, I have been out of focus. I have not gotten many of my two poem challenges written on time, but I’ve caught up, pretty much. I have the new-to-me computer working, for the most part. It will be less awkward to move for Zoom meetings, it has a backlit keyboard, and the audio has more volume and quality, and microphones in the headset. The downer is that I still cannot type special characters, but must the character app.

I have continued to lose weight, after my early-January appointment with the diabetes educator. They would not be happy, if they knew.

I have my second Zoom meeting for my The Artist’s Way course, tomorrow morning, and a two-hour co-working session with Liz Danforth and friends just after lunch. A lot of sitting, since I have various stuffs I should be doing and not enough exercise, and I really am not hungry and do not remember to eat when I should.

A bright spot is that my sister in New England and I have started doing weekly phone calls. Feels so good to laugh with someone who knows our backgrounds.

Natalie is the host for our Weekend Coffee Share. You will find her post for this week here: Little Norway Park Benches.

Off to get caught up, now. Best wishes for your weekend!

Hugs,
Lizl

Off Hiatus #WeekendCoffeeShare

After the disruptions of the holiday season, it’s different. Not here in this household—we are not inclined to make much of holidays—but the hurry and sometime confusion around us. It felt good to have changes of routine. Productive as well as off-putting.

I myself have decided that with outside changes with people contact on the Internet, and the repetitive, I am going to repeat the Artist’s Way course/cohort? through a regional university. The instructor is one that I have known for a while through the Artist’s Way group that some of us started in the late 1990s. I have found the repetition as a group to shake out the past and look at possible nows and futures. Unsettled is quite good in small increments.

I have enjoyed reading new books, but also rereading favorites by favorite authors. L. E. Modesitt Jr.’s The Grand Illusion series is interesting in its depiction of social economics and politics. I hope still to be alive when Book 3, Contrarian, is published. And also the arcs to follow. He’s three years older than I am. ::sigh::

Also, I’d recommend Laura Anne Gilman’s Uncanny Times. And there is to be a follow-up book. Probably more to follow.

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Now Sunday afternoon, and chores are backed up. But … in addition to 13 weeks of The Artist’s Way, I hope to write a haiku a day during February (National (?) Haiku Writing Month: short month, short poems). April I get to do the same during Global/National Poetry Writing Month, time and health permitting.

Thanks to Natalie for hosting the weekly #WeekendCoffeeShare.

Best wishes!
Lizl

Taking it easy #weekendcoffeeshare

I am taking a break from writing a weekly post for the Weekend Coffee Share, among other activities, during the holiday season.

See you on the other side!
Lizl

A trace of winter | 25 November 2022

I have finally gotten around to doing some writing, again. Household chores to tend to, as well as relaxing to read a lot of books. I am still sleeping a lot and not spending much time at the computer(s). I have found that the Nook devices and iPhone app have a font (OpenDyslexic) that is much easier to read/focus on; using a smaller font size, I read faster and take in more at a glance.

The Thanksgiving Day gathering got moved to yesterday (Saturday) on account of an exposure to Covid (the host/cook for this year) the previous weekend. Her tests came back negative, so all was well in the end. I still could not attend because of the larger gathering, but still don’t feel comfortable after having breathing problems/time in hospital at September’s beginning.

As the tensions recede, and I am feeling more myself, I am sleeping, catching up on rest, and taking it easy for the time being.

I did head out to the front yard, where I got some photos of the leaves uncovered by the warmer days with sunshine. Soon to return to winter-like weather.

Thanks for stopping by! By then I will be more able to offer more than Thanksgiving leftovers. 😀

Hugs,
Lizl

Natalie the Explorer has included the Weekend Coffee Share schedule through the remainder of the year, and she plans to do the same in the blog posts to the end of the year. This weekend coffee share post can be found here: Toronto Music Garden in Autumn

before winter | Weekend Coffee Share

Before Winter’s Ice & Snow

Good day! We have survived our first major winter storm, here in eastern North Dakota (USA). Winds, rain, sleet, and then some inches of snow over much ice, Hot, black tea or Toddy coffee and very dark chocolate are in order, today.

I got wrapped up in activities, this weekend, including about five hours, counting Salon/Co-working activities on Saturday, Friends Meeting and afterwards on Sunday, and a lot of poetry writing to catch up on. Actually, I had a fantastic time, between researching and the writing itself. What is presentable out of that is on my Quilted Poetry WP blog.

Al has volunteered to add a couple volunteer hours on Monday at the shooting range, and so I will some extra free time during the day.

Best wishes for the new week!
Lizl

Natalie the Explorer, host of the #weekendcoffeeshare, does a great job! Stop in at this week’s main share page or go to the InLinkz-Linkup to see all the other shares.

All at Sea #WeekendCoffeeShare

“Jan van Goyen (1596–1656): A Stormy Seascape / Myrskyinen merimaisema / Stormigt hav”
by Finnish National Gallery is marked with CC0 1.0 .

Welcome! I’ve both drip and Toddy coffee to offer, this Saturday evening, as well as a freshly brewed pot of English Breakfast tea. Gouda and Jarlsberg cheeses and rice or corn crackers, if you like.

I am surprised that on Day 4 of NaNoWriMo, I had finished only two poems (poem-a-day challenge among my poetry-writing cohorts), so far. I will perhaps be back on track by the end of the weekend.

I am moving back into more physical exercise, I think, but I am doing more pedaling on the elliptical machine than on the dance and dance exercises. That is because I can read and pedal at the same time. While I wait for Tuesday’s ebooks to arrive: The Laran Gambit (Deborah J Ross/Darkover) and Call Me by My True Names (Thich Nhat Hanh), I also think about the poems that I will write tomorrow.

For the time being, I am focusing as much as I can on relaxing and recovering my health. Catching my breath. And tonight, we have been watching the infrared light show across the back fences, two lots down, with enjoyment. That surveillance camera displays a ghostly panorama, ever changing with the dancing fire reflections and fickle breezes. Time to go to sleep…

Best wishes for your week!
Lizl

Natalie the Explorer – Bay of Fundy: 5 Natural Wonders is where you will find our host’s #WeekendCoffeeShare post. Also, links to other participants’ posts.