Painted sky

I think the sky and water here are more sophisticated than I anything I can imagine.

After my mother died, I wrote a poem about her and my kids. Her part:

I keep wondering
what the art supplies are like
and if you work on sunsets
or mountains
or lakes

The rest of the poem is here https://drkottaway.com/2021/09/23/painting-angels-2/.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: sophisticated.

Air and water

I took a wonderful limnology class at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in college. The study of inland aquatic ecosystems, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, wetlands and so forth. I loved this course because it is such a generalist course. We talked about the chemistry of water, the physics, the ecology, the geography. The plants and animals, microscopic to bigger than us. And lakes that freeze, the ice floats on top, because it is most dense at 4 degrees C and less so at 0 degrees C. This oxygenates the entire lake as the water turns over until the entire lake is 4 degrees. Tropical lakes do not do this.

The photograph is of the Salish Sea, so not an inland space. The liminal space for me is the surface, the border between water and air. Sometimes swimming, if air and water are both warm, it’s hard to feel the exact liminal space, wet skin in the air and then the water.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: liminal.

Early morning

A friend and I go down to coffee and walk out on the dock, on a fabulous sunny morning. The Northwest Maritime Center and the water are photogenic and lovely! All of the colors in the polarized light are just beautiful and it is almost warm.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: photogenic.

East Beach

I hiked East Beach on Marrowstone Island yesterday. The wind was howling! It was not warm, but I was dressed in a foul weather sailing coat and rain pants and hiking boots. Gloves and hat. Ready for spring, right?

It was beautiful. I was alone on the beach. I did slip once and bruised my left hamstring! How annoying. I should leave a dashboard note of which way I’ve gone.

I did find some agates. I did not stay out for more than an hour, too cold. I walked into the wind so I was warmed coming back. Here is the prettiest agate.

What a fabulous hike! I was glad I’d guessed right for outer wear. The beaches always feel ten to twenty degrees colder, especially when it was windy. Does Marrowstone Island qualify as an esoteric destination? At any rate, I love it.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: esoteric.

Shattered

Is the wave, the water being shattered?

Or is it really the rock that is shattered, bit by bit, over time?

Stone shaped heart

your heart is an agate
clear stone

you have won
sort of
you think

but I am water
I am waves
I will smash you against the other rocks
and wear you down

I am water
I carve you like a laser
you wear my name
carved in your stone shaped heart

it is already written there
on your stone shaped heart
faint, because water wears slowly

water wearing stone
over time

________________________

written in April 2022

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: shattered.

Stitch

I like to play with word cliches
Geraniums red and chrysanthemums white
As I wander busy through my day
Delphiniums blue, all are dark at night
Least said, soonest mended
Except for murder, rape and pillage
Loose lips sink ships, war ended
Sinner gossip round the village
Time will mend a broken heart
A stitch in time will save nine
You’ll never finish if you don’t start
Mend that heart and change the rhyme
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Your love grows daily, what a wonder

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: absence.