NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 26

I had good intentions of getting stuff done this morning. But I guess my brain needed to decompress after all the legal-news-watching yesterday so getting up and out didn’t happen. Instead mom and I had an early dinner and then I tried to take us to see Cohoes Falls and failed not once but twice to get into the right lane to stay on 787 to get to Cohoes so we had a lovely tour of downtown Troy and spent a warm few minutes behind the Arts Center looking at the Hudson.

Then I came home and celebrated TGIF. These two haiku went out on a postcard as part of a yearlong poetry exchange.

Never a postmark
your words come to me again
unsullied

On the flipside
exotic destination
momentary trip.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 26

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 24

Lunch with Mom today because Wednesday is Greek Food Day at our Alexis Diner! Then home and the light was nice and it wasn’t too chilly so I sat out and watched the front yard change.

Yellow light slanting
in afternoon across lawn
blue shadows sap green

red wine seems chilly
afternoon shadows deepen
with glints of sunset

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 24

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 19

I sat outside even though it wasn’t particularly sunny this afternoon. The daffodil season is short in the scheme of things.

sitting with daffodils
no words from either of us
I painted, they glowed.

eventually
drops of rain fell on my work
all yellow washes

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 19

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 16

Feeling better! Today was Day One of no temperature (with no meds) so this is good!

Beautiful day! This is good too! Went out and sat awhile with the sun and daffodils!

Tomorrow is Haiku Day within Poetry Month, so start your engines! Today’s prompt at NaPoWriMo HQ was to “write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does.” This is as close as I could get.

finding the edges
the dark wine smoothly slips round
red meets transparent

no color edges
just whatever’s reflected
lips seal around it

cool sides now warming
edges hard by design
keeping it all in

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 16

TGIF painting

I went out this morning thinking to paint at Hand Hollow. I stopped and finished my coffee there but it was too hot to paint. Listened to the birds awhile and then went home and painted from my porch. I had my bubba packed with ice and a cool beverage.

Then I had a bit oƒ dinner and went off to Claverack for the opening reception of an exhibit, paintings of the Columbia County Plein Air Artists. This was at the Claverack Free Library. Very nice drive and nice exhibit room.

Came home and looked at the three peppers I’d gotten at the community frig in New Lebanon earlier – very picturesque! So I did a quick painting of them too.

TGIF painting

Wednesday, All Day

I wanted to stick at home today because this morning I started new medicine and wondered how it would kick in. That was the right move but this afternoon was so nice I had to sit outside awhile so I did and I painted my yard tableau. (nice word, eh? Tableau?) Here’s a couple in-progress photos and a final scanned version.

My advice to you all – stay out of the poison ivy!

Wednesday, All Day

May the Sixth

Feeling a little jet-lagged but I only lost sleep because Mom and I got up to start watching the coronation. Coverage started at 5 am. It was worth doing from a historical-I-might-not-get-to=see-this-again point of view. By the time it was over, we were BOTH starving and I made a full English breakfast with all the goodies. Turned out pretty darn good if I do say so and mom scarfed it up too.

Dug up some stuff in the front yard – by the time I sat down to do a quick paint, I was pooped.

May the Sixth

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 28

Little helpful hint for you: if you decide to clean off some of your palette, and specifically, decide to wipe down the paint-sticky edges of it… make sure that your finished painting is somewhere far away and your clothes are all washable because I managed to disconnect the lid, drop the bottom with all the newly wet and cleaned out sections of paint which basically threw drops of bright color paint everywhere onto me and the newly done painting. Yeah, I meant to do that. Honestly, it’s a thing and I’ve never managed to get good dots of paint like this before!

Pencil width rolls of
Lily of The Valley leaves
Spiking the lawn edge

the light is fading
the robins take to the shrubs
reciting their day

all the fresh green leaves
fade to silver and blue
and everything sleeps

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 28

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 21

Beautiful bright sun today. So many birds singing.

I’m needing a nap —
sat on the front steps painting
fading daffodils

Only I know what
the front yard looks like today
things caught by the sun

full of yellow
my eyes think even the sky
is golden today.

I reach to prune
but bumblebees are busy
yellow fairy wings

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 21

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 16

Thought it would rain. Maybe tomorrow. But I found another way to give the garden some moisture.

The sun runs laughing
between the dark gray clouds
the dry garden waits

white throated sparrow
practicing vibrato
from an unseen perch

refrigerator
still defrosting while I
eat leftovers.

In the garden
freezer ice melts slowly
bonus from kitchen

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 16