inch by inch - Bloom

This is my entry for bloom - it was an accident - I took the picture below at the Naples Zoo on Saturday and was playing with it when I got (almost) this when I kaleidoscoped it. It looked like a whole circle of flowers! I just had to make a couple of prints and put them together to make a full circle - a mandala? Added stems and letters, voila!

Original image...

'What if ... "

Today's prompt was to write a 'What if...' poem, repeating the 'what if ' line as you begin each new thought...





Hatching

what if this is not my real life

what if I am an embryo inside
a shell, consuming yolk and albumen,
growing eyes, ears, feathers,

what if I never realized it is my job
to break the shell,

what if the wall has gotten so thick
I can’t get out,

what if I find a tiny crack I can use
to shatter the shell and escape

what if I let myself out into the world
only to find I can’t fly

what if I open my wings
and discover I can

Shadow Shot Sunday

I would never have heard of Shadow Shot Sunday except that I've been watching Julie King post her photos for a while now. Then one day last week I looked up at the ceiling and saw something I'd never noticed before - a really cool shadow! so here it is. Enjoy, Kristy

PS: while exploring the Hey, Harriet site (apparently the inventor of Shadow Shot Sunday) - I found a link to the coolest, most bizarre shadow art ever - you won't believe it - take a minute to look here.

Naples Zoo

Well, in all the time we've lived here, we've never been to the Naples Zoo. Since Dale can't golf this weekend, and we wanted to take some pictures with the new camera, we decided today was the day. Dale said his expectations were zero, so he wasn't disappointed. I was kind of disappointed, it's no fun to go to the zoo and not see the animals - some were behind so much fence you could't get a picture. It was hot and many were sleeping - so it was kind of expensive for what you got.. ($20 each). But...

I did catch these two guys in a very friendly, grooming moment - can't you just here the red one saying "a little more to the left, lower, lower!! Ah, that feels good!"

And then there were the twins... this was just before the wind changed, blowing the mister-water onto the bird on the right, who moved left until it was shoving the left bird practically off the perch... this resulted in a bird fight. They were still going at it when we walked on.

Harley

This is my baby-boy, Harley, he's a Sheltie. He loves to play frisbee. Every night at the same time he let's us know it is time to go out, and the longing in his eyes is more convincing than any words could be. I hate to let him down!
Then later at night (now) he brings a variety of toys over for a game of tug. He's really smart about his toys. If you tell him to get the monkey, he'll bring you the monkey, not the dolphin.
He likes fruit and carrots. If you have an apple, grapes, even raspberries, he wants you to share. It's pretty funny to watch him eat a grape. It's round and slippery and doesn't feel right, but he's got experience and knows it will be good on the inside, so he plays with it and finally bites.

Read Write Poem - #81

A photo prompt from Read, Write, Poem.









XX by nwolc


Thoughts on Sanford et al

he huddles in the wide-empty space, beneath
the broken tines of his shredded bumbershoot,

miniscule among the green sea grasses,
bewildered by his sudden, startling reduction

just yesterday he cartwheeled over the crowd,
tap-danced on a high-wire, a moral misstep,

now he sits, subtracted from the spectacle
of his adulation, converted from idol to ass

Inch by Inch - Courage

We had company this weekend and I couldn't get to any supplies (not that that would help too much) so I made these 'Gutsy Girls' as my artwork for inch x inch this week. I started with the idea of synonyms (I'm more of a word person than artist) and first I just made a collage of the words, which didn't thrill me since I did a random collage of shoes last week. But as I was putting the collage away to dry, I suddenly thougth of making the words into something like a 'paper doll'. I think they're kind of cute!
 
The words, from the top down are spirit, pluck, strength, tenacity, valor, courage, guts, dauntless, audacity, fortitude. My husband had a problem with 'pluck', it's a little old fashioned - kind of a 'Laura Ingalls Wilder/Little House on the Prairie' word - but it definitely means courage.
 

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon

Read Write Poem - Secrets from Mom

Little Secrets

My mother made my father’s lunches
in advance, five white-bread sandwiches
minimally filled with butter, meat, cheese
wrapped in wax paper, corners taped

Each week she baked a fresh batch
of refrigerator cookies, thick butter batter
tinged with vanilla, rolled into a log and sliced,
packed in pairs then frozen

Each morning my father pulled a brown
paper bag from the drawer, snapped it open
filled it with one frozen sandwich, one
apple and one icy pack of cookies

Two cookies a day, ten cookies a week,
yet by week’s end, two dozen cookies
had vanished, it wasn’t me, I swore,
I didn’t even like those boring cookies,

Give me chocolate chip any day, my mother
the master of the chocolate chip cookie
made with semi-sweet chips, brown sugar,
and a cup of lard, now that was a cookie

It wasn’t my brother, he didn’t even like
those boring cookies, they were frozen!
and if he wanted a snack he made himself
(another) peanut butter sandwich

Each week we exchanged suspicious
looks, accusing, but never sure, until
much, much later, when dad was gone
and mother soon to be, guilty, all three

of pilfering packs of frozen cookies,
risking our eye teeth and canines to break
off chunks, then letting the dough warm
in our mouths, chewy and satisfying

Boating with Mom

Dale's Mom has been visiting her three son's in Florida and it was finally our turn to have her this weekend. Of course we took her out on the boat and had a really good day. The water was smooth (although not as smooth as Easter) but it was a really nice ride... In case you can't tell by the picture - she had a good time!

Butterfly

I am not at all clear about why my blog seems to be so 'buggy' lately... I am not a bug person, but who could resist this beautiful (large) butterfly. I saw it at Six Mile Cypress Slough on the same day I saw the giant grasshopper. This is called an 'Eastern Tiger Swallowtail'. I believe this is a female because of the blue...

TWW - wicked, arresting, rhythmic

Grandma, Unexpected

rhythmically rocking,
baby in arms,
enthralled
by curled fingers,
jelly bean toes,

arrestingly beautiful,
I imagine seeing
your mother
in you,
family nose,
puffy lips,

blue eyes,
who will you be,
old soul
or new,
will we

sing together,
walk to school,
bake cookies,
eat too much
candy, stay up

late while
mom and dad
go out,
I write this
to you

from far away,
before
you have ears
to hear me say
you are coming

to a good life,
to good people,
lucky baby,
nothing wicked
waits

Lubber (and a fighter)

So I took the new camera to Six Mile Cypress Slough to see what it could do. I met this critter there - I have to say I was pretty scared to hold the camera up to him. He was about 3 inches long, a baby I guess,but I thought the picture turned out great.

When I got home I looked him up, and below is what I found out... YUCK!

"Florida has some pretty spectacular insects. You have to go looking for most of them, but it’s hard to miss the eastern Lubber grasshopper.

This giant, slow moving grasshopper’s bright orange, yellow and red colors are a warning that it contains toxins and will make any potential predator sick. If for any reason, you fail to heed the color warning and pick it up, the grasshopper makes a loud hissing noise and secretes an irritating foul-smelling foamy spray.

These 4-inch grasshoppers are too large and toxic for most natural predators, so they don’t need to move fast. Lubbers cannot fly far, and travel in short clumsy hops, or walk and crawl slowly through the vegetation. They feed on broadleaf plants and can become a nuisance when swarms invade residential areas and feast on garden plants. Lubbers seem to be unaffected by most insecticides, and according to experts at the University of Florida, if they become a garden pest, the best way to get rid of them is to stamp on them, or ‘hand pick’ them and drown them in a bucket of soapy water. "

so he gets a poem of his own...

Stomp

beware
orange and yellow
giant hopper

hiss, spray
foul and foamy
toxic Lubber

lumbers
clumsy over
broadleaf buffet

bully
insect too big
to eat

immune
to our human
poison

but not
to our human
boots

inch by inch - traveling/journey

This week was traveling/ journey and for a long time I wanted to do a bike, but then I decided on feet/shoes/walk which is how I prefer to go if I can... so here is my 3 x 3 masterpiece of the week (cutting out all the tiny shoes was tedious)... and by the way, we did get a new camera, tada! so no more excuses - any 'blurry' is all me!

Bucket List

Some things on my bucket list (in no particular order)
1. go parasailing
2. see the aurora borealis
3. swim with a dolphin (DONE)
4. publish a novel
5. live on the water (DONE)
6. go whitewater rafting (DONE)
7. go up in a hot air balloon
8. go kayaking in the fjords of Norway
9. hold my grandchild
10. Make a hole in one (DONE)
11. See a broadway show
12. Go up in the Empire State Building (DONE)
13. Go up in the Statue of Liberty
14. Do a mini-triathlon (DONE)
15. Do a half-marathon (DONE)
16. Learn to juggle
17. Volunteer in a foreign country for a month
18. attend a Spanish immersion program in Mexico until I can speak the language
19. Cruise to Alaska (DONE)
20. Go to Disney World (DONE)
21. Visit London (DONE)
22. Visit Paris
23. See the Grand Canyon (DONE)
24. Go to Hawaii (DONE)
25. Be in a band (DONE)

Looking at the list (and this is just a starter list) I'm surprised at how much I've already done. About half, a little more, which makes sense when you figure I'm a little more than half-way to 100! I think I'll work on this some more. It's good to see what you've already done, instead of only thinking of what you haven't.

TTW restless dangerous keepsake

Puppet

we all have
secrets
tucked away

treasure boxes
full of remainders
and reminders

shiny keepsake
illusions of our
own histories

dangerously
tempting us
to look back,

pulling on strings
of restlessness
in our hearts,

remember,
remember,
don’t dance,

close the lid

Breakthrough Moment

Today I finished an art project that I almost really like! This is a first! I got some new 'mulberry' paper, which I'd never seen before and it is very cool to work with, then the bird was made from a Thanksgiving card I got from my daughter, see how the eye is a little bird? I thought that was neat. The hand didn't turn out that well, too many layers, too dimensional, but I learned...

The very best thing about this little art project was that it was inspired by my own latest poem! Another first - how nice is it to be able to inspire yourself?! That never happened before and it definitely feels like turning some kind of 'creative' corner... anyway, I had lot's of fun with all of this...

the problem

with happiness
is that happiness floats
like soap bubbles, so fragile
you don’t dare grab, or grasp, only
put out a finger and hope happiness
chooses to perch there

once blessed
don’t move, don’t
try to wrap yourself around it,
you mustn’t cling, or clasp, only
open yourself, let it rise into you
like the sun

Inch by Inch

I made a little picture for 'Change' but it was horrible, and then I couldn't get my camera to take a proper picture of it, so I was going to skip it altogether, but this morning, this creature, who measured almost exactly 3 x 3, was resting on my screen, and if he isn't art, I don't know what is, so I am submitting this photo, and maybe it doesn't quite fit the rules, but maybe you will find him inspiring. I do. (PS: I like the way you can see my sweet dog Harley through the screen on the right!)

The good news is, between all the writing and artistic playing I've been doing I have actually done most of an art project that I like, no love! which is amazing, so I can't wait to finish it and post it here along with the little poem I wrote that inspired it.

Great Boat Day

This is where I want to go on vacation! There are half-a-dozen of these little 'stilt fish houses' out in the water west of Bokeelia and just south of Useppa - Dale tried to get in close so I could get pictures, but it was really shallow. Only one appeared to be occupied. I've tried to see (in the last hour) if I could find out any information about renting them, but I so far, no luck.

Went out on the boat today, it was a little rough at times, at other perfect - we had lunch at the restaurant on Cabbage Key where the wall is thick with dollar bills (unfortunately my photo is blurry - think it's about time for a new camera)

Gifted

Which I am not, and I think that I am not supposed to care, but I do care, and this is a source of unhappiness in my life. Why do I care? Why do I feel like I have to do something that 'matters'. This is why I have Sue's little poem up in the right corner of my blog - I'm aiming for that... pleasure in the process and not the result...


Knocking on Hidden Doors

Gourmet cooks can swallow a spoonful
of sauce, then spout the list of ingredients.
Talented musicians listen to a piece once,
then play it back note-for-note.

Acclaimed poets are able to read an offering
for the first time and see how much better
it would have been, if only you had not failed
to put a comma in the third stanza.

Practiced painters absorb the view
from the top of Mt. Shasta, across a series
of varied blue-green hills, and are able to blend
the unique color required to paint each one.

I, on the other hand, can run a microwave,
play chopsticks , read a poem, and paint
by number. If I have a gift, it remains safely
hidden, biding it’s time, as my time runs out.

TWW - hostile, folly, ordinary

A little truth


hard to pick a specific folly
from a life so long and twisted

what seemed like an ordinary road
a straight shot from birth to death

met hostile forces early and often
learned to jump, turn, retreat,

as we all do, why do parents pretend
it’s easy, hovering over the young

building a false sense of promise,
you can do anything you dream of

when perhaps a little more character
building would serve them better

a little honesty, here’s how to recover
when it all goes wrong, and it will

Dresses for Paws for Healing

You probably know that my friend Yvonne is crazy-involved with Chihuahua rescue. The humane society calls HER to help them with problem dogs... She now finds herself on the board of Paws for Healing and in support of that, I've volunteered to supply some dog dresses to the organization that they can sell to raise funds... I did a first set of five or six, and some of the little ones sold quickly, so today I sent off these three that I whipped up in the last couple of days out of my scrap pile. Didn't have to buy a thing... It's not much, but those Sarah Mclaughlin commercials about the animals that have to be euthanized is more than I can take, so, ever little bit....

Cold poem for a hot day

Ice Princess

crunchy footsteps on ice-glazed snow
numbness crawls up from the tips of her toes
long underwear bunches, creeps up beneath down
heat trapped in layers, escapes at the crown

Worst Artist Ever 3x3

Here is my piece for 'Rain' 3x3. I have to say that I believe I am pretty much the worst artist ever. I know you have to start somewhere, but when you're FIVE, not 55. I don't guess my paper mosaic squares, umbrella and lace rain drops with sewn drip paths will win any kudoos, (oh let's not forget the stamping...) but it was a few minutes of fun anyway, and isnt' that the point?