dry dirt…crumbling leaves
— dreaming of raindrops
dust dims the morning sunlight
— their patter on the water
no clouds in the sky
— rainbow memories
Copyright © 2021-04-03, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Welcome! I am pleased that you are able to visit, this weekend! This being a weekend, Saturday, with nothing scheduled before the afternoon, I am enjoying some fruit and yogurt with a cup of English Breakfast tea. Virtual goodies and beverages of your choice….
Thursday marked the beginning of Glo/NaPoWriMo (Global/National Poetry Writing Month) as a part of National Poetry Month. After the haiku-a-day activities in February, writing a haiku or tanka, I absented myself from obligatory writing and alternated napping with necessary chores. This past week or so, I did started writing poems accompanied by/paired with pictures (that is, haiga haiku and haiga tanka, mostly).
The weather, this week, has been cold, windy, and very dry. The air quality index is in the Moderate range, which means that I must limit my time outside; the pollen allergy index is also in the Moderate range. Rain would be quite welcome, this year. Definitely not a spring flooding year! In lieu of new, green grass, the wild rabbits, who shelter under the gazebo, are eating down the emerging tulip plants. I cannot begrudge them, since they also need to eat, and they continue to play tag with the Scamper pups. I hope to send off an order for summer-blooming wildflower seeds in the coming week.
My excitements for the week involved the news of the Johnson & Johnson problems at the Baltimore production plant, as I waited for that particular covid-19 vaccine to become available where I am and for my risk group. (I have multiple chemical and fragrance sensitivities, including the stabilizer PEG in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.) This coincided with the eligibility changes taking place the next day (April 1) and my finding one pharmacy in town that still had the vaccine (temporarily) in stock. Phoning 15 minutes before their closing time, I got an appointment for the next morning, and all went well. No soreness or side effects of any sort. The percentage of new daily cases is headed up, again, and so I remain sheltered at home until the 15th. Which I would be in any case because of poor air quality and allergens. ::sigh:: I do, however, feel more relaxed. The vaccination took care of one more item on my “Urgent” To-Do list.
I have picked up some new eBooks, this past week, as a break from rereads. I discovered that one of my old favorites, a book by James P. Hogan, is not available in eBook format, and so sometime during the coming week, I plan to go through the boxes downstairs to see if I still have the hardcover edition. Last night, my husband made supper for us: La Choy sweet and sour chicken chowmein. While he is away for his volunteer work, later in the afternoon, I will fry hamburger patties for supper. My hypoallergenic cotton laundry is now in the washing machine. All the t-shirts!
I am still having fun trying to reorganize/repurpose my patchworkprose domain’s WordPress blog. I have been sorting, as I may have mentioned, my poems from the 1950s-1990s—sorting, tossing, entering from handwritten and typed versions, and revising/revisiting as I go. I am grateful that for a number of years, I substituted creating crossword puzzles. Saving none of them! But it was lots of fun at the time.
On Thursday, I attended a webinar that was presented through an organization whose newsletters I have subscribed to since they first came on the Internet: “Reflections: Advocacy in Support of Imprisoned Scholars”. One such scholar who had been imprisoned overseas and his wife talked about their experiences and the importance of ongoing support for both scholars and their families at home.
The time approaches when I must tend to the Scampers, again. They will be waking up from their before-lunch naps and looking for yogurt in their bowls. I must close this, now, and get on with activities. Only one Zoom meet-up, today—a social hour that I would hate to miss. Tomorrow, meeting for worship, also via Zoom.
Ah! The laundry room drain has plugged up. Unavailable for the interim! Best wishes for the coming week!
Love & hugs,
Lizl
Natalie of “Natalie the Explorer”, is our host for Weekend Coffee Share. Please visit her blog to read her post and participate in this week’s links party: Bits of Joy in March.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay