Poetry Thursday: A Little Tennyson

I did not find any time to write a poem this week, though I loved the "totally optional writing prompt" suggested by Poetry Thursday for the week. The prompt was simply the word "rivers." Maybe over the weekend, I will find a few moments to scribble some lines about rivers. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this tiny snippet, just the first stanza really, of a long lovely poem by Tennyson called "Maud." And above, there is a photo of my Maude, joining me in the garden (well, actually leaving me cheerfully behind as she races to the pond.)

"COME into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the roses blown."

~ Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson. 1809 – 1892

The scents that "waft abroad" in my own garden right now are those of lilac, and iris, and the thorny, invasive Russian and Autumn Olives that abound on this property. These non-native species thrive here, except where we have pulled them up by the root. Despite all those negative attributes, the tiny white and yellow blooms are delicate and pretty, and the scent, strong and sweet, is a fragrant invitation to linger outdoors.

photo 1 by Aisling, May 29, 2007 , Maude in the field

photo 2 by Haiku, May 30, 2007, Heuchera (coral bells) dripping over the garden trail

poem from A Selection of Poetry in the public domain

Remembering Mariah...

This sweet girl was my kitty companion for 17 years. Today is her unofficial birthdate. (I never knew the exact date. ) She died last year on the fourth of July, but I often expect to see her in her favorite perches as I round the corners in my home. I suspect I always will.

"I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through. " ~ Jules Verne

Possibility...

Our neighbor (the one who lets us wander at will) has kindly plowed this corner of our property. Limerick plans to grow grapes on this sunny slope, and I plan to grow blueberries along it's eastern side. In between, the boys will mound dirt into little hills for pumpkins and watermelon. The soil here is very poor; the top soil was stripped away and sold before we lived here. Despite that, I believe that this little plot of dirt is rich with possibility.

"We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

photo by Aisling, May 29, 2007

All the words that I write...

If you are not a fan of poetry, then ignore me on Thursdays! I'm going to try to participate in Poetry Thursday for a while. I did not decide to do this early enough to use their writing prompt for this week, but will try to do so some of the time. My first Poetry Thursday post will be a short poem by William Butler Yeats. I love how this poem suggests that we write not only to be heard, but also to offer comfort.

"ALL the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,
And sing to you in the night,
Beyond where the waters are moving,
Storm-darken'd or starry bright. "

William Butler Yeats.

1865 - 1935

Photo by Haiku, May 12, 2007, Apple Blossoms

Poem copied from A Selection of Poetry (in the public domain)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday...

These are photos of Aquilegia (columbine) that "planted themselves" in my garden.

Photo by Haiku, 5/22/07

Dreaming by the window....

My friend Nan asked to see more of Maude on my blog. I have a fantastic picture of her on top of a hill, with a blue sky above her, but can I find it? Nope. Not yet anyway. In the meantime, I snapped this one of her on Thursday. She was dreaming by the window until I called her name. Despite the old saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, at the advanced age of 12, Maude has learned a new one: country line-dancing in my new front garden. Maybe that is what she was dreaming about, when I woke her to take this photo!

photo of Maude dreaming by the window by Aisling, May 17, 2007

A Closet Make-Over (Or Misadventures in Decorating)

Yes, I have one of those closets. You know the kind. As someone approaches, you shout, "No, don't open that...." You are interrupted in your warning, as boxes and papers and assorted mismatched items fall upon the head of the unsuspecting victim who, seeing the rest of your fairly tidy house, thought it would be safe to open any door. This was our homeschooling closet for eight years. Though we have not been homeschooling during this past school year, I had yet to return the closet to its original purpose of linen storage.

I heard on a daytime talk show last week that paint could be tinted, in the absence of professional pigments, with unsweetened powdered drink mix. Ah-ha! I thought, I can finally paint my hall closet a lovely outrageous color that will make me smile each time I open the door (I've wanted to do that for ages!) So, on my next trip to town I bought eight or ten packets of drink mix to add to some pale pink paint that had been sitting in my basement for years (It was mixed wrong for another customer and the hardware store manager gave it to me, thinking that, with my two young daughters, three cans of pink paint might one day come in handy.)

Into the top of a can of baby pink paint, I emptied many packets of orange and red colored powder, then began to mix. I was hoping to see the paint turn from pale pink to deep, glowing apricot. A strange chemical reaction occurred, and the paint began to thicken and texturize mysteriously. Hmmm, I thought, this is not what they said would happen on daytime TV.

Back to the drawing board... well, to the stack of paint cans in the basement. I found a nice yellow paint, left over from painting the kitchen back-splash five years ago. (Are you beginning to suspect that my basement - with all of these old cans of paint - looks something like the aforementioned closet? *grin*) I grabbed another of those cans of baby pink paint and headed back to my laboratory, er, kitchen. I added some of the pink paint to the yellow and then, in a boldly creative move, poured in a whole lot of red food coloring for good measure and stirred. The result was pale peach, rather than the hoped-for glowing apricot, but pretty enough for my linen closet. I painted the closet late on Friday night, after my boys went to sleep. Then, I spent the early part of Saturday folding and stacking linens in my pretty "new" closet.

photos May 18 & 19, 2007, by Aisling 1) the closet of doom 2) powdered drink mix in pale pink paint 3) the "new" pale peach closet filled with quilts, afghans and other linens.