Tardy On Friday

The week has gotten away from me.

Work has ramped up again. Add in a visit to our daughter and her family yesterday (a ninety minute drive each way) and I was a tired old granny by the evening.

(Photo: icanhas.cheezburgers.com)

I'll be back on Monday with a "vacation days" poem ... I hope :)

Poetry Monday: Garden Gnome

It's Poetry Monday, and the theme is "garden gnome."

Join Diane, Delores and me as we tackle this theme! Feel free to leave your own poem at any of our blogs. Or, if you wish to post it on your own blog, please leave us a comment to let us know where to find you.

*****

No preamble this week! Dive right in :)


*****


O Garden Gnome

O pointy-hatted garden gnome

It's terribly sad you cannot roam

You're out in all inclement weather

Because your legs are stuck together

Unfortunately, the snow is so deep you can't actually SEE his legs.

(Photo: Pixabay)

*****

That's it for this week! Uncharacteristically short, I know, but then -- so are gnomes 😄

Do YOU have a garden gnome? Do you have any garden ornaments? Do tell!

Update:  Next week's theme is "vacation days" . . .

Wobbly Twins

In the grey dawn of early morning on Thursday, we noticed three visitors to our back yard: a pair of fawns and their mama. They were in a private corner next to the neighbour's solid high fence, under the low hanging branches of the trees near our compost pile.

We wondered if they had perhaps arrived as one visitor only -- a pregnant mama. I've seen newborn colts and a newborn giraffe (by giraffe cam), and I know how quickly they are able to get up and stagger around.

These babies were wobbly, still, on their impossibly long and skinny stilt-legs, and when they laid down they curled into equally impossibly small bundles of brown, dotted with white spots.

Two of nature's miracles.

No pictures because I didn't want to disturb them or their mother.

But each one looked much like this:

(Photo: Pixabay)

After about a half hour, mama and babies started moving slowly away through the trees, and when I dared to sneak a peek later in the day, they were gone. Despite our town's ban on feeding deer, I set out a small container of bird seed and another with pieces of carrot and apple. Let the local officials fine me if they wish . . . I remember how it felt to be a new mother.

The temperature today was an unseasonably cold 9C (48F) all day long, with rain drizzling down, broken only by a brief roll of thunder and a massive downpour in mid-afternoon.

I couldn't help but think of those babies all day. And all evening.

I hope they survive the cold, inhospitable elements.

And I hope they come back.

*****

Hope your weekend brings you a couple of nice surprises :)

I'll return on Poetry Monday, with the theme "Garden Gnome" . . . I'm looking forward to this one!

*****

Tell me something wonderful you've seen lately. I'm all ears, kind of like the fawn above, only more figuratively and less literally :)

Poetry Monday: Positivity

It's Poetry Monday!

Join Diane, Delores and me as we explore this week's theme, "positivity." You are welcome to leave a poem in the comments section of any of our blogs, or, if you'd prefer, post it on your blog and leave a comment to tell us where to find you. It's free and fun, and sometimes frustrating and futile; our poems don't necessarily have rhyme schemes or fit a pattern, but they're ours! Also, we work our little brains to mush creating them, so we get kind of attached to them.

And -- we're off!

*****

Well, no, we're not off yet; we need the Donkey Preamble.

My brain is still hurting from writing last week's overly long poem. Sometimes the critical lines of a poem pop into my head fully formed and I only have to expand on those. Other times, nothing comes to mind except the "angle" on the theme that I wish to use. Either way, I try to visualize the overall direction of the poem and work toward it. Sometimes it feels like driving a large boat using only my mind. The boat keeps wanting to go one direction and I want it to go another direction. The words and the rhythm are like currents that can either help the process or interfere with it. Often I delete whole verses that I really, really like because they are taking the story in the wrong direction. I probably need to do it oftener, but I'm afraid I'd give up writing altogether if I had to change more than I already do.

All that just to say that this week's offering is going to be short and sweet. Short, anyway.

*****

Positivity

It's easy to be positive when all is going well,
But oh! so much more tricky when the world is going to heck in a handbasket.

*****

What, you thought it was going to rhyme?? Feel free to substitute whatever you need to, in order to make it sound more pleasing to your ear :)

Quick, kitty! Get out of that basket before it's too late!

Have a good week, people!

Update: Next week's theme is "Garden Gnome" . . .

Greening Up Despite The Frost

I haven't gotten out for a walk for more than a week -- it's been busy here and quite rainy some days as well. But I have a few pictures taken prior to that; they show that our spring is steadily advancing.

The dandelions have mostly gone to seed by now.

Finches are supposed to love dandelion seeds, but I haven't noticed the finches in our yard eating any. Maybe that's because our finch feeder is still open for business. I would like to wean all the birds off the feeders very shortly because the finch virus that was rampant last year has already started in some parts of the province. But our nights have been so cold (there was a heavy frost Thursday night), I feel sorry for the birds. They aren't used to temperatures this cold this time of year. The next week is forecast to be warmer, though.

Things are looking very green now:

Green trees against blue sky. When you were growing up, were you ever told that green and blue clothing should not be worn together? I was. I think that was in Home Economics class. Now it's one of my favourite combinations. Mother Nature knows what she's doing.

The edge of the riverside trail where I walk, sprinkled with tiny blue forget-me-nots.

Wild strawberry plants in blossom. When I was a kid, there was a field of wild strawberries near our house. We could pick enough of the tiny berries to make strawberry shortcake for our family of four. They are very fragile and require careful handling. We always removed the hulls of the berries as we picked, to avoid having to touch them again before washing. It was heavenly to crouch in the tall grass amidst the strawberry perfume.

Wild apple tree blossoms

And finally, the moon on the rise:

It's not green, but I like it anyway.

* * * * *

What's happening in your corner of the world?

Stay tuned for Poetry Monday, with the theme "positivity" . . .

Hope you have a nice weekend :)