Bonus Poems

I was also amused by these two poems:

Duty of the Student
Edward Anthony

It is the duty of the student
Without exception to be prudent.
If smarter than his teacher, tact
Demands that he conceal the fact.

The art on this one just makes me laugh!

Herbert Glerbett

Jack Prelutsky

Herbert Glerbett, rather round

swallowed sherbet by the pound.

fifty pounds of lemon sherbet

went inside of Herbert Glerbett.

With that glop inside his lap

Herbert Glerbett took a nap,

and as he slept, the boy dissolved,

and from the mess a thing evolved --

a thing that is a ghastly green, 

a thing the world had never seen,

a puddle thing, a gooey pile 

of something strange that does not smile.

Now if you're wise, and if you're sly 

you'll swiftly pass this creature by, 

it is no longer Herbert Glerbett, 

Whatever it is, do not disturb it.

Poetry

I recently read the book "Poems to Learn by Heart" a collection by Caroline Kennedy and was really moved by this one:

Voices Rising

DreamYard Prep Slam Team 

Jesica Blandon, Destiny Campbell, Miosoty Castillo, Denisse Cotto, and Chris Taylor 

arranged by Renée Watson

They say, 

"Life and Death are in the power of the tongue." 

And if this is so, 

Our words are oxygen.

Listen.

Let your ears breathe deeply. Take in our palabras. 

What we're about to say will save you. Listen.

Do you hear that sound?

That is the sound of a million voices rising.

Our voices rise

For Oscar Grant.

For the Black Friday massacre.

For my abuelo y abuela.

For little girls and boys.

For my mother. My uncle.

For the aborted and abandoned.

We speak for the ones who have been silenced by fear.

By choice. By ignorance.

Shame. Death.

Listen.

Oscar Grant,

My voice rises for the fight you never put up.

Tell that burning steel, "You don't belong here beneath my flesh. 

Leave. Go. Don't come back. 

My skin is not a crime."

Is it just that some things can't be changed?

How many times can the red blood of black and brown men 

be spilled on gray cement and be called an accident?

Listen.

My voice rises for the Black Friday massacre.

A modern day Guérnica.

Our voices rise for the tragedies that don't make the 5 o'clock news.

My voice rises for the children in third world countries.

No education. Little food.

Their struggles taken out of the newspaper

and replaced by articles reporting A-Rod's scandal with steroids.

By celebrity weight gains and break-ups.

Listen.

I know you have problems of your own, 

But will you listen?

Will you be different from the thousands of others 

who cast us aside because we are young?

Listen.

My voice rises for the girls trapped in four walls with men who think they're sexy.

My voice rises for the times when little girls aren't given the chance to speak for themselves.

Little girls, my voice rises over your screams 

of broken innocence.

Like glass bits in the wind,

your screams pierce my lungs.

And I know these words aren't easy on the ears.

Medicine doesn't always taste good going down, 

But I promise you --

I-PROMISE-YOU

If you hear this, you will get better.

You will get better once you listen to the sound of hope, 

of change.

It's manifestation came in a man and a mantra, "Yes we can." 

But hope was birthed through 

Me and Me 

and Us.

Poets have been pregnant with change for centuries.

We push out revolutions in prose and poems.

Planted word-seeds sowed a long time ago

are just now coming into harvest.

So listen.

This is for the future.

For tomorrow.

Our very breath is the ink that will write future history books.

Our vignettes collect voices of today so tomorrow can survive the future.

Listen.

Can you spare me your eardrum?

Keep your change.

I don't want your money.

Just your heart.

Just want your ears.

Just want you to listen.

Listen and speak.

Speak your story.

Tell someone else's.

And if you can't find enough words to plant,

Sow these.

Nurture these words 

and bring them back to me in a million quotes 

so I know you were listening.

Bring them back to me fully bloomed 

and my voice will rise to Langston and tell him

those dreams deferred are paid in full.

Listen.

Can you hear us now?

Our voices are rising.

Listen.

Put away the distractions:

The iPods, the games. 

The reality tv shows, 

text messaging and cell phones.

Listen.

Can you hear us now?

Our voices are rising.

Can you hear us now El Barrio?

Can you hear us now New York City?

Or has Sprint dropped this poem?

This one also moved me:

Liberty

Janet S. Wong

I pledge acceptance

of the views, 

so different,

that make us America

To listen, to look, 

to think, and to learn

One people 

sharing the earth

responsible

for liberty 

and justice 

for all.

Fall Garden

October 24, 2024

It's time to clean up the garden and put the pond to bed. There are a few warmer days coming up this week, and I want to get the pond drained while we have those warmer temps. That way the froggos will have time to find a better place to hunker down for the winter. Every year there have been frogs hanging out in the bottom of the pond when I emptied it; I can't assume this year will be different. And the pond will freeze solid over the winter, I have no doubt about that.

Also the tomatoes and most of the flowers are done. Ok, we did get some new blossoms on the tomatoes, and the nasturtiums are still blooming, but the growing season is over. 

The Black Beauty tomatoes were beautiful, but not as tasty as the Rose de Berne, but I think I'll try a completely different variety next year. Now that I've had some success. 

Beets were not a success and I do not know why. Same as last year's lettuce. Maybe I'm a little too haphazard when sowing them?

The pawpaw seedlings are growing well. I hope to keep them well protected this winter and plant them in the ground late next summer.

Time to start thinking about what to grow next year! Beans of some type, I think. Maybe a fast growing watermelon and some kind of squash or pumpkin. MAYBE some corn...??? No I don't think I am ready for that. For sure, I want to map out some gardens and wild areas and plan for more "taming" of the woods.

Beets

When we went and purchased our tomato plants this spring, we also purchased some beet seeds.

April 27, 2024. Tomatoes and beets purchased.

We planted about half the seeds when planting the tomatoes, but we didn't really get any thing. A few leaves, but no beets, and not enough greens to even add to a salad. I never even took pics of them.

August 31, 2024. No beets yet!

On August 25th, after most of the heat had settled down for the season, we tried again, planting them in the pool garden. They should have germinated by September 11th.

September 12, 2024. Still no beets.

We didn't see them by then, but it had turned a little colder than anticipated, so we were patient.

September 22, 2024. Still nothing.

Another ten days and still nothing. 

September 27, 2024. I think the garden is done.

How long does one have to have patience? I think I'm not getting any beets. :(

Finally!

 After waiting and watching for what felt like forever, our tomatoes are finally ripening and ready for picking!

On the left, Black Beauty; on the right, Rose de Berne.

Although I tried, they didn't get consistent watering, thanks to several major rain storms, some of which lasted for days. Even with the cracking, there was no spoiling and still plenty of fruit!

Cracking can happen when the plant is heavily watered, particularly after a drought.

Although I just love the color of the black beauty tomatoes, the flavor of the Rose de Berne is so good!

Tomato sandwich for dinner!

Messages from the Universe

I've been trying to learn this lesson for many years, but I guess now is the time that the Universe *really* wants me to remember it.

First, my calendar page for August had this quote on it:

Instead of laying down a list of expectation for what your life should be, you can participate in the ongoing discovery of what your life was meant to be. ~ Thomas Kinkade 

Then, a friend on Facebook shared the following image with her thoughts:

This shift in thinking helped me ... shift how I approach my work.

It shifted me away from goals and towards trajectory and curation. Curation is gentle. It shifts with circumstances and allows one to continue with the work regardless of how people treat you, regardless of circumstance.

Curating with loving intention. That doesn’t mean always gentle. It does mean finding a way back to love over and over. It does mean focusing on what I can create rather than what others are or are not doing.

Sometimes love looks like defending the vulnerable, standing up for the oppressed, and speaking truth when it isn’t comfortable.

 And today, reading emails from the last two weeks, I find this pdf coloring page from Amy at the Coloring Book of Shadows, a 3-card, reflection tarot reading for Lughnasadh:

1. Sacrifice: What haven't I received that is a blessing in disguise?
2. Patience: What is worth waiting for?
3. Gratitude: How can I find peace in what I already have?

via GIPHY

Is the Universe sending any messages your way?

Have you met my friends?

 Just look at these lovely creatures.

I love them so much.

Planter Painted

Last spring, I decided to paint my planter box. So I took a lot of measurements and did a lot of math to figure out how much paint I'd need of the colors I wanted. Then I had a hard time finding the right exterior paints in the right sized containers in the right colors. And all of a sudden it was winter! So the project was paused.

This spring, when the weather warmed up a little, I went to Walmart, picked out some cheap craft paints in the colors I wanted, and just started slapping paint on! I thinned it out so it would be more like a stain than an actual layer of paint, and I love how it looks!

The spring flowers in the box are pretty much done for the season, but I don't want to cut them down  until they've dispersed their seeds, since I thinned them so much last year. However, I've planted some summer flowers amongst them, which will hopefully, before too long, fill everything out nicely. The frogs have even found the pond already!

My next project is getting the garden along the house all mulched and easier to tell from the lawn.

Happy Mother's Day

 

Mommy & Me, August 19, 2023

This is the woman who raised me. She did her best. I love her to the moon and back. ♥♥♥

Hoppy Easter!

 If you're in the mood for some bunny-themed art, check out my RedBubble shop!

A Year of Morning Walks

Last year on March 19th I took my first daily morning walk. It went something like this:

Sunday, March 19, 2023, 7:52 AM

It wasn't the first morning walk I had taken, but I am surprised that it wasn't the last. Every day we've walked, I've stopped at the end of the driveway to take a photo, or several, to post on Instagram & Facebook. (Originally I was posting them weekly here, but after the photo-inserter tool stopped connecting to my Google Photos, I moved to IG, cross posting from there to FB.)

Wednesday, August 9, 2023, 6:39 AM | Photo credit to Jacqueline

We didn't walk every day: if it was raining too hard, we wouldn't go. It's one thing to get cold -- we can handle the cold for the short time it takes to do our walk -- but it's entirely different thing to get cold and soaked through. That kind of cold sticks for the whole day.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023, 6:44 AM

The hardest days to go were when it was DARK and cold. Sure it got dark in the fall before Daylight Savings Time ended but it wasn't too cold yet, so not too hard, but the days in December and January, when the clouds blocked any light, when the temps were below freezing.... Those were the days I didn't want to leave my cozy bed and wander about outside. It almost seemed pointless.

Tuesday, December 26, 2023, 7:44 AM

But the dark mornings made these gloriously light & color-filled morning all the better. And the benefits to my mental & physical health are worth it. The purpose of taking the walks when first waking up is to get those photons into my eyeballs, to signal to my circadian clock that about 16 hours from now, I need to get sleepy and go to bed. And it has done that. It's also been a mood booster. I might not like getting up and going to work, but taking just these few minutes before jumping into the hustle & bustle of all that really seems to make a difference.

So I plan to continue these daily walks when I first wake up, but after Tuesday, I won't be posting them every single day anymore.

Rum Raisin Rice Pudding on Peach Halves

 When I was little and went to my grandparents' house for dinner, we always had a little dessert afterwards, ice cream, cookies, Jell-O, or a pudding, kind of like this one, rice or tapioca with a canned peach half on the bottom. I don't know how she made hers, but I looked through several recipes and picked out bits & pieces I liked to come up with something that would use only what we had on hand and would still feel like a fancy treat.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons of uncooked rice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
canned peach halves (2 halves)
1 tablespoon raisins
1 tablespoon spiced rum
cinnamon

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, bring milk to a boil.
2. Add rice and stir well.
3. Cook covered with lid cracked for 40 minutes - 1 hour over low heat, stirring every 15 minutes or so.
4. While the rice is cooking, soak your raisins in the rum.
5. When the rice has cooked for at least 40 minutes, add the raisins & rum to the rice and cook for 5-10 minutes more.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla.
7. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow sugar to dissolve and flavors to blend.
8. Put the peach halves on the bottom of a bowl or dessert dish.
9. Spoon the pudding into dishes and sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon.

The finished puddings!

I divided them into the very same leaded crystal glasses my grandmother used to use and set them in the fridge to chill. After dinner last night, I had one. SO GOOD. And so nostalgic! But with an upgrade! Tonight I beat a little heavy cream into a topping and had the second dish. (My family doesn't like the texture, so it was all mine!)

Topped with homemade whipped cream!

Let me know if you had rice pudding on peach halves growing up and if you still make it!

Fall Out Boy Fanart

Last month I started playing around with some small-sized watercolor paper that I was given in a Sketchbox the year before and made these Fall Out Boy icon images.

I realized this morning that I never posted the finished paintings anywhere!

I tried to have it uploaded to my RedBubble, but it's been taken down already. :'(

Sadly photos and prints don't do the Opera Pink or shimmery inks any kind of justice. I still love them all though.

Happy Lunar New Year!

I've just posted my latest State of the Artist post on my Patreon! The first for 2024! Come see what I've been up to!

Diana *BunnyKissd* Bukowski on Patreon