NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

Really? A sonnet? An American sonnet you suggest, NaPoWriMo? I had a day. So here ya go.

Woke up this morning wanting to paint
Wanting to use the vacuum cleaner
Not wanting to think it had been awhile
Made breakfast to let me feel normal
Sat down and painted a landscape
some clouds, some blue sky, some hills
why so pastel hills, I wonder
why is my palette so messy? so of course
I spent time cleaning all the corners
dug out two blues and spread fresh paint
Noting that a couple tubes were almost spent
Of course I went to the art store and
then the grocery store, just to feel normal.

From the Quote Box:

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. — Harriet Beecher Stowe

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

Trying to put in what’s there

In an effort to add the rhododendron as a dark contrast I did this tonight. Too wet to finish and some tree shape problems but not horrible.

I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love, and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they will keep getting a busy signal–and soon they’ll forget my number. — Edith Armstrong

Trying to put in what’s there

Thursday – Time for Something Different

Got a good sleep-in this morning after getting up around seven to take meds. I was awakened by the itch! Went to my local diner after filling the car with gas and my wallet with money. There I had a fun time doing a little free-advice phone support. It was a nice reminder that I haven’t forgotten everything I know or how to figure out where I need to be to fix the problem without the “customer” knowing I am looking for it!

Was content just to rest awhile inside when I got home. Am finishing another series on YouTube – had some slow spots but one of the better ones. Then I thought – why break the painting streak? Maybe something fun, quick and different. So here you go: two fun, quick and different paintings.

Anything that works gives [others and yourself] a reason to push you in the direction of the thing that works. You can spend your life imitating yourself. …how am I going to be that person that wrote this thing four or five years ago who I just don’t associate myself with anymore … it takes some pretty big acts of courage to be like “I’m not going to do anything like what I did last time” — Damian Kulash, lead singer OK Go

Thursday – Time for Something Different

From the Quote Box

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. — Albert Schweitzer

From the Quote Box

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 27

It’s hard not to bend down to look at what’s coming up when I go outside these days. There’s always something new and a hope that something will appear in some places. They usually wait til I’m not looking or I’ve given up. In the area that I cut down the old shrubs, there’s a delicate carpet of tiny green leaflets, no doubt due to more sunlight, looking to get a foothold.

In other news – quick trip to the art supply store (Arlene’s!!) for a roll of tape and well… I replaced all the hot press paper I’d used so I have some more to cut up and use!

Bent over the ground
this is how we welcome spring
looking for new life.

Small familiar shoots
poking through the fragrant earth
unfolding greens

a forgiving eye
the sprawl of leaflets – all weeds –
insisting on life.

This was either a second cuppa coffee and/or “gotta let this dry a little” break early on. While this painting is perhaps more frantic seeming than the actual jar of stems, I think it sort of captures a lot about them and the season. When I looked at the photo in my phone it offered to ID the plant for me, pointing at the actual leaves, and it did identify the main plant there correctly as garlic mustard.

One’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes. — Andrew Wyeth

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 27

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 19

Morning appointment with Mom. Tried to look at an electric car after we’d had some brunch but – sorry – we don’t have any. You could put a deposit on one and when it comes in, see if you like it. If not you’d get your deposit back. That might take six months. I’m short, so I prefer to actually sit in a car to see if I fit and can see everything but thanks. Restocked the freezer on the trip home and here I am. Between all that and the looming brush pile in my driveway, my brain is messy. But it’s that very brief interlude of daffodils and bluebells.

cut down the cedars
which the deer had pruned into
something scrawny

three misshapen shrubs
now piled up by the driveway
please deer, eat them now

defrosted freezer
so clean and strangely empty
fill it, start again.

Update on yesterday’s paint:

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. — Carl Rogers

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 19

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 17

and a Happy Haiku Day to all! A welcome rainy day here, cool enough to welcome a light sweatshirt but warm enough to relax into spring. Apologies to Bob Dylan for today’s first haiku du jour.

Hard rain gonna fall
thirsty ground unweeded
takes in every drop

When the first drops fell
everyone paused turning
toward the window

rainy days, required
the blue-gray skies setting off
yellow-green tree buds

aren’t we all looking
the solid edge to stand on
the leap rushing up.

I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity. — Igor Stravinsky 1936

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 17

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 6

I stepped outside to contribute the coffee grounds to the garden and it was much warmer outside than in. I came in, and even before making the new coffee, I opened my bedroom window to the spring. Such a relief to have fresh air in the house after all the furnace mess and cleanup.

Stepping outside to
warmer than inside the house
Open the windows

I paint daffodils
remembering the planting
so deep, years ago

Plant them a foot down
with plenty of bone meal and
they’ll bloom happily

Below daffodils
the daylilies are sprouting
later pleasures.

From the Quote Box:
The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance.
— Aristotle

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 6

From the Quote Box

Art to me, is seeing. I think you have got to use your eyes, as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn’t work. That’s my art.
— Andrew Wyeth

From the Quote Box

The Eve of April

Here at the month’s end
the night ripples with words
waiting to take flight

grey evening falls
from the shoulders
of waiting April

A yearly tradition of waiting for April and NaPoWriMo to begin. Happy writing everyone!

Know that it is good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it. It is easy and interesting. It is a privilege. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure. — Brenda Ueland

The Eve of April