RE

A series of senryu written for the Blogging A to Z challenge. Today’s letter is R I. Re: reference referring to whatever is on someones mind II. reruns or retakes the hope of doing over that which we regret III. the verdict is in remanded to custody the losses remain IV. Reset all the clocks […]

Good Morning

I awoke to interesting things this morning. Six inches of snow, and a temperature of 10 F, that’s -12C. Happy April 20. While colder than normal, snow is not uncommon around here in April, or even May. And then, I checked my email. This morning’s Ragtag Daily Prompt is Encephalopathy. Yikes. I do know the […]

Happy Birthday to A Quirky Fellow

Today is Ziggy the cat’s twelfth birthday. He’s only been with us a year and a half, and like most cats, he’s well established in our lives. I didn’t want to get more cats after Lucy passed at age 20. Her brother Jules had lived to 19, so I know well that this can be […]

Percolate

When I hear the word percolate, coffee comes to mind, as a percolator was the standard way of making coffee when I was a child. Even though my parents didn’t drink coffee at home, it was the morning beverage of choice for adults in my friend’s homes. In restaurants, it was omnipresent. Back then, a […]

OVER

I. over it had enough no more stop the violence now we are over it II. two eggs over easy its a classic breakfast order upsetting for hens III. overdone way too much says who? who are you to say its just your opinion IV. Sure I’m fine with that It doesn’t matter that much […]

Noise

I’m sound sensitive. I have been all my life, which made growing up in a household with 3 younger siblings challenging. I often retreated to my room (I am grateful I had my own room from the age of 8), closed the door, and read. I think I also learned to ignore household noises, and […]

Mallards

One of the things I love the most about where I live is easy access to open space. There’s a bike/walking path behind my house. I can go out the back gate and be on my way. Turning left, I’m heading east. One path will eventually lead downtown and to my office, another, with a […]

Late Lilacs, or Life is What Happens While You’re Making Other Plans

Earlier this week, Tuesday, I had started this post, about lilacs, inspired by their emerging flower buds noted on Monday’s walk: Lilacs are one of my favorite spring flowering plants. Their fragrance and colorful blooms are a delight. Like many seasonal treats, their blooming season is short, and I’ve come to recognize that this brevity […]

Knowledge

Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream (from HMS Pinafore, by Gilbert and Sullivan). Another way of putting it is that one doesn’t always know what they think they do. Or, as been so well demonstrated during the pandemic, knowledge needs updating. Learning, I believe it is called. A very small […]

J is for Jeans

I’ve worn blue jeans most of my life. As a younger child, I wore whatever Mom bought for me, sometimes horrible “girl” jeans, with a side zip and no pockets. By junior high, I knew more of what I liked, and by the time I hit high school it was 1970 and girls were finally […]

Never Eat Inferior Ice Cream

Never Eat Inferior Ice Cream. We’ve used this quote for years at my house, attributing to Walter Kerr, a New York drama critic of the late 20th century. With a relatively brief search online, I haven’t found it attributed to anyone. Good advice, in my opinion, whether applied to ice cream or other foodstuffs. If […]

H

H is for horseradish, hospital and hope also hands, hearts and home hook and ladder hoop and hula hangers, hopscotch, hockey, hill hops for beer and bunnies but not for scotch horrible rhyme, best not to watch. homo, hetero hare and hair and heir hiccups and hairballs no raindrops or roses my heads random droppings […]

G is for Grief

Grief. This time last year, I was struggling with grief. It had become abundantly clear that my retirement dream of spending at least half the year traveling, some of it overseas, and some of it in my van, was under major revision. A year previously, my partner BA had suffered an acute attack of vertigo. […]

Flowers

In the A to Z April writing challenge, today’s letter is F. F is for Flowers. As the rhyme goes, April showers bring May flowers. True enough, and here in Colorado, the showers may be either rain or snow. We had a little bit of rain yesterday, and the forecast suggests we may get snow […]

Eagles Downed

This appeared yesterday in my Facebook feed from Barr Lake State Park: It is with great sadness that we have to report that our nesting bald eagle tree fell down. We got a report from a park visitor this morning. Park staff responded immediately to see what had happened. The nest was destroyed and two […]

Duty and the Resent-o-meter

Duty. It’s an interesting concept. I tend to think of it as doing something simply because it needs to be done. Over the years I’ve come to recognize that I may have become a bit skewed in my sense of obligation or perception of duty. Perusing Merriam-Webster online, I find: Obligatory tasks, functions, conduct or […]

C is for Corona

Corona means crown or crownlike structure, and it is the gaseous outer rim of a star, normally visible only during a total solar eclipse, as shown in today’s featured photograph. This past year, we’ve learned much more than we ever wanted to know about coronaviruses, and one in particular, that which causes the Covid-19 illness, […]

Blogging from A to Z: B Blogging, Boulder, Birds and Baking

In her blog, Write Along with Me, Lois Roelofs mentions Blogging from A to Z and I like the idea; perhaps it will get me out of my non-writing mode. I haven’t been able to “officially” sign up, but I’m going to start anyway. The challenge is to write using the letters of the alphabet […]