#WeekendCoffeeShare 2022-03-26

Welcome! I am not especially energetic, this weekend, and so…not much to say. The week in general has been cold and windy. Since most of the snow is gone, the dust, mold, and mildew are prevalent in the yard and up and down the street. I am hoping that this will continue to be a dry spring and that the fungi and such will fade away, as it has in a fair number of recent years. I am enjoying the colder weather, again, even with +40 mph wind gusts and temperatures around freezing.

I have tackled a number of household chores, this week, keeping up pretty much with laundry and dish-washing. The Scampers are enjoying their snow-free back yard with much barking and running about. The rabbits seem more plentiful, this spring, and willing to take chances on longer races through the yard, hiding beneath the gazebo and making mad dashes through the north fence and beneath the south gate.

I have come to suspect that my reverse seasonal affective problems are real and worsening over the years. Not certain whether I should get to bed earlier or later. Going with the flow, when I have been waking at night after several hours of sleep, I have gotten up and read or done some writing or quiet picking up around the house. Then I return to bed and sleep four to six hours. I sleep quite soundly, then. It does limit my daylight time and permit me to be more active and alert, rather than trying to keep awake and active during the days and cope with broken sleep.

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Past midnight, now, and feeling cheerful in the quiet of the house. I’ve chased Thaddeus Scamper off my lap, so that I can manage typing, again. Checked the weather forecast for the coming week, and it looks to be continuing cold with possibility of snow again towards midweek.

I have enjoyed reading, this past week. I started and finished Anne Bishop’s most recent novel, Crowbones. I enjoy the upbeat style of this particular “world” she’s writing in. I enjoy the absurdities as much as the intricate world building. I am about halfway through Jeffry Dwight’s My Manufactured Soul, and I haven’t the foggiest notion where it’s headed. (First book of several in a series. I have read anthologies edited by him; good stuff.) I am giving it a good shot, not flipping pages to the end of the book to see how it comes out, but reading along in order. Not a style I am used to, but interesting as it goes along. I am looking forward to reading Liberalism and its Discontents (Francis Fukuyama, May 10). I really enjoy his stuff, even though we do not always agree on everything.

Next week, April and National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). Once again I am warming up, hoping to get into the mood in spite of my current leisurely pace of idleness. I have written several poems in Ronovan’s weekly poetry writing challenges. Wednesday’s poetic form is sijo, I think. I have written several poems using this form and enjoyed writing them. Long enough to say something more complex than with the 11- to 17-syllable haiku,

This has been a nicely quiet time, before my heading off to sleep. Relaxing. Self-structured.

I wonder what the new day will bring.

Thanks for your presence!

Hugs & much love,
Lizl

P.S. Interesting beach art photographs in Natalie the Explorer’s #weekendcoffeeshare post for this week. Not to be missed! Thanks, Natalie! Goodbye Winter Hello Spring 2022.

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Springtime Remembrance & New Life

Spring Tulips (a.k.a. Rabbit Food)
Copyright © 2022-03-19, by E.W. Bennefeld.

This has been a transition week for me as Spring approaches, carrying with it mold, mildew, and newly uncovered debris on lawns shedding snow cover. And all sorts of things shoved aside by the snowplows making their way through alleys and city streets. Trash is coming home to roost, along with the early arrivals of birds returning from southern wintering spots with hope that this year, there will be no April ice storms or blizzards in North Dakota. I am still serving hot coffee and steaming black tea on #WeekendCoffeeShare visits. There’s a fresh carafe of coffee concentrate in the fridge, and on Friday, the postal carrier delivered enough containers of loose tea to last another four months. I always place an order when I get down to the last half pound of English breakfast tea.

“Footsteps”

mass of newly fallen leaves, moving

with the breath of winds…in and out of shadows

of leaves not yet fallen

* * *

leaves across the path

no more, familiar footsteps

never coming home

Copyright © 2016-10-01, by E.W. Bennefeld.

This has been a slow week. We have slept late and accomplished little. The Scampers refuse to go outside and get their feet wet. Thaddeus has curled up across my legs near the end of the recliner chair. I think that Charlie has been snoozing in Al’s computer room, where Al’s put another dog bed on the floor under one of the computer desks.

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Saturday, Noon

A relatively sleepless night, but I have lazed away the morning. Blueberries and yogurt for breakfast, and perhaps salad and soup for lunch.

I have not been totally idle, this week, having written miscellaneous short-short poems. This was a week for Poetry Heals, which was fun. Not certain how productive, however. A few samples from my Facebook page (or elsewhere):

hands idle
thoughts lightyears away
lost in space
© Liz Bennefeld, 2022-03-17



lilacs at spring
laughing voices echo
from the past
© Liz Bennefeld, 2022-03-15

March's thaw is
freeing space for April's
later blizzards
© Liz Bennefeld, 2022-03-15

thoughts come and go
flying fast on tiny wings
nests almost in sight
© Liz Bennefeld, 2022-03-14

I would enjoy taking an afternoon nap, but fortunately I have a Social/Co-Working Zoom meeting from 14:00 to ~16:00. Going to take out the trash from the first half of the week, gather a load of laundry, and enjoy the camaraderie of the afternoon. I did write a sketchy poem about goals during Poetry Heals. I did a revision, a day or two later; I want to go back, now, and see if it says what I want it to say. (See previous post: “Ponderings”.)

Well worth your time to explore our #WeekendCoffeeShare host Natalie’s post for the week: These B/W Murals Revive History. I enjoyed particularly the large black-and-white murals depicting some of Toronto’s bridges from earlier times. Quite fascinating.

Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully, I will be feeling more cheerful by next weekend. There is a promise of cold and snow, here, beginning Monday night. I can hardly wait!

Best wishes & Zen hugs,

Lizl

Time to sleep

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich from Pexels

Running quite late, tonight, but there’s still half a pot of English Breakfast tea and some rice crackers. if it’s not too late in your day, the apples are in the bowl on top of the fridge.

The weather has been variable, but we finally got our first winter storm. Semis going off the highway, traffic accidents, sirens and emergency vehicles. ::sigh:: We are pretty much out of that, however, since the other of us caught a chest cold that keeps getting worse. (Finally got some Nyquil, this evening. Coughing from the bedroom at the other end of the house is quieter and more infrequent…finally!) i caught a cold, also, but it has not lasted as long. Still trying to catch up on housework and laundry. Also, we now have running water for the shower for the time being, and the toilet has completely new innards. Yesterday I took my first shower since last Saturday.

I have been trying to catch up on sleep. The bruising has eased a lot after my fall downstairs, end of September. The air quality has still been iffy, but I haven’t had to use the nebulizer for a couple days, now.

On Tuesday, we attended a funeral visitation. The husband of a couple who have been neighbors since the late seventies died on the fourth of bone cancer. A long and gradually debilitating progression. Recalled to mind my mother’s funeral in November of 2016. Wrote a poem in remembrance.

My poem-a-day project has been going well. I have written some extra poems, in case more unfortunate events eat up my writing time as the month progresses. I am having much fun trying out new Japanese poetic forms that I have been learning about on the Writer’s Digest website. Quite happy that I added that structure to the poem-a-day process, this time around.

It’s almost one in the morning, so I had better close this and get some sleep. My Artist’s Way class starts at ten o’clock, and I have much to accomplish before then.

Thanks for stopping in. I look forward to visiting more over the course of the weekend.

Best wishes!

Lizl

P.S, Natalie the Explorer, our host for Weekend Coffee Share, has written another interesting blog post. That and the inLinkz (?) app can be found here. “Fall Cycling and Hiking.”

Too tired to proofread, tonight. Maybe tomorrow, though. ::sigh::