Low fog

I took this on New Year’s Eve on a walk with my kids and old friends in Maryland. We fooled around in a park. I like the low fog hanging in the trees, always further away when we walked to it.

Seesaw, Margery Daw, Jackie shall have a new master
He shall have but a penny a day, because he can’t work any faster.

That is the version of an old nursery rhyme that I learned from my mother. There is more about it here.

I am going through and starting to delete old blog posts and photographs to make room for the new ones. Not one of my stronger talents!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: seesaw.

Wait

I came close but no cigar
I want a mind that I can love
hand holding mine in the car
I send a quiet prayer above
Love of nature, kind to friends
not afraid of their own dark
Lust to learn until their end
willing to risk to build an ark
Curious but not controlling
Not addicted to booze or drugs
Intense at times and others strolling
Opinions, laughter and lots of hugs
My heart open yet I don’t faint
I think I am waiting for a saint

_____________________________

I wrote the poem yesterday, but I have used up my memory in wordpress and now I need to go through and delete things. Any advice, Martha? I know you did it. It seems that I have to delete the post and the photograph, or is that not true? Advice welcomed.

I search my photographs for gloves and it comes up with two: foxgloves! Well, strictly speaking, that is a form of glove, right?

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: glove.

Made it!

Sol Duc and I made it home on Thursday, 325 more miles, arriving happily to the house in Grand Junction. I got ready to take her for a walk later and stepped outside: snow! We went over 7 passes driving from Port Townsend to Grand Junction and some smaller peaks that did not have the altitude marked, but didn’t get snow. On the last night a big storm was rolling in from the south east in Colorado and from the west in Utah. I thought, whew, I may just make it.

We did and I took the photograph yesterday morning before driving to work. Just a sprinkling, more as I got to Palisade, but not on the roads. It warmed up and melted through the day.

People have told me that Grand Junction does not get that much snow. That may be relative, that it might not be much compared to Denver, but a lot more than Port Townsend. I have no clue! We will see.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: unexpected and no clue!

So far

I made it to Brigham City last night. That was a long driving day, 503 miles. I tried to stop in Snowville, but the motel would not take cats.

The only weather resembling a deluge so far was from Seattle until I crossed Snoqualmie Pass. It rained and rained, sometimes heavily. Once over the pass, the rain disappeared and we lost the ocean smell again. Dry and more trees and desert and wheat. I counted mountain passes, six so far that listed the top altitude. Some had smaller passes between, three more. The first one yesterday had ice patches so I stayed in the right lane with the trucks. Less ice.

One more day, I hope.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: deluge.

Day denouement

This is the sunset yesterday as I arrive in Pendleton, Oregon to stay the night. The first stage of the journey done. Sol Duc is ok with the car as long as it is not moving. When it moved, she objected, for much of the first hour. She stops when I sing to her, so I worked my way through many of the old folk songs that I learned as a child.

And today, dust and ashes with the news.

We will go on, though. Even as discrimination worsens.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompts: denouement and dust.

Ready

Cats don’t graze, right? Well, they do, though not on grass. Sol Duc likes to have at least two small meals during the day. I portion out her dry food in the morning and give it to her at intervals, two or three.

We are getting ready to head out again soon, back to work. Maybe Sol Duc will realize what a long car ride means. She knows something is up today and has been sticking close to me.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: graze.

Chorus again

Rainshadow Chorale sang the Rachmaninovff All Night Vigil yesterday and we get to sing it again today! It is so gorgeous. Exhausting too. The rhythms are unfamiliar, the measures are all different lengths, the time changes all over the place and it’s in the formal Church Slavonic language from 1915.

I still loved singing it and will enjoy it today. Here is the 12th of 15 movements.

My daughter took the photograph in March, 2020, before lockdown.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: chorus.

Return again

Return again to friends and home and stumble
My house wraps around me familiar then grief
There is so much grief here: death makes us humble
Mother, marriage, sister, father, time a thief
Has stolen them and more to come, a long lived life
Means loss on loss. Memory wells up, deeps swells
We thought we would be different, wise, no strife
Yet the world burns, children bombed in warring hells
Our children know our failure and our malice
We thought we’d be adults and show the way
Our intentions of a wired on-line palace
Yet anger and greed now rule the day
As a child adults are drunk confusing fools
Now my adult children wonder why we are such rigid tools

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: rigid.

More bizarre than Sasquatch

Sol Duc and I went for our walk together yesterday. This is a yard across the street, with the grass all pressed down where someone slept recently. Local deer or Sasquatch?

Meanwhile, I think the nearer we get to the election, the more bizarre I find our culture. I don’t suppose Make America Great Again has anything to do with modeling courtesy, kindness, setting a good example, lifting others up. It’s more like the drama of a “reality” show, where all the boring bits of life are edited out and it’s all drama and people getting frustrated with each other and confrontation. And speaking of discourtesies, the other party sent me a text and email, “Earth to Katherine”, wanting more money. I am offended, deleted and blocked that one. What IS this? Are we so addicted to action movies, “reality” shows, drama, violence and video games that our politics imitates them? When will people grow up?

I hardly watch movies or television series any more because honestly, no one on any of them is any more mature than Elmer Fudd. At least Bugs Bunny is funny. And the things “based on a true story”. Right, let’s add some more dramatic moments and more conflict.

I think I would enjoy Sasquatch more.

Thank goodness for my cat.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: bizarre.