Floated

Once more

The blank screen stares

Unblinking and white

Waiting 

for an idea

A meaningful thought

A charming metaphor

Anything - even this wandering

Journaling floated it all away

Breakfast calls much louder.

“The wonderful thing about writing is 

that there is always a blank page waiting.

The terrifying thing about writing is 

that there is always a blank page waiting.”

~ J.K.Rowling

Despite

Despite a more than occasional nibble from passing deer and brisk west winds threatening to blow delicate flowers away, a quite cool June has melted into the heat of July reviving my little ‘vegetable garden’. Baby tomatoes, one jalapeño (there were two more) and a couple of beans have hesitantly grown with more promised. I do believe that some mesh and my bamboo fencing have deterred most of the deer croppings. After all, there is quite a buffet in Victoria besides my little bit of greenery. Keeping the soil moist annoys squirrels, but does prevent small craters from appearing out of nowhere. Despite these little challenges, I am still committed to picking my own vegetables from my own small garden.

“The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.”

~ Michael Pollan

For Rylie Rose'Marie

A Rose was born

to join the throng

yet she will sing 

her very own song

From far away 

this great-grandmother thrills

for the day when I hear 

her very own cries and trills.

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.”

~ T.S.Eliot, Four Quartets

Natural Beauty

gauzy sunshine caressed

elegant deep purple clematis 

draped gracefully over 

silvered fencing ~

nature’s commitment to grow.

“There are always flowers for 

those who want to see them.”

~ Henri Matisse

Glory Be

Glory be to these faces

turned up to the sun

while roots knit them fast to the soil.

Delicate stems bend with the wind

nodding a gentle welcome to 

birds, bees and passersby 

“Always have something beautiful in sight, 

even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.”

~ H.Jackson Brown, Jr.

Tidal Pools

Laughter echoed softly in the windowed verandah of Oak Bay Beach Hotel, rising with the tide of photos and videos to splash us all with the loving chatter of stories and tales of far away grandchildren ~ 

  newborns and toddlers,     youngsters and teens.

Already in from our walk, 

we knew that outside in the sunshine, joggers, cyclists and dog walkers energized sun-heated streets and sidewalks. They would pass an immaculate golf course, spread with grace and elegance above the ocean, where only a gentle doe and her spotted fawn grazed, safe and quiet before golfers flocked in.

A light breeze from the glittering ocean and

dappled sunlight through old elms and oaks

cooled the late morning air 

on this very fine Monday morning.

“You don’t need to be the tide to rise and fall, 

you don’t have to be a wave to touch the shore; 

just be a little sand-grain and feel them all.”

~ Munia Khan, poet

In Between

I didn’t have the words ~

they were nowhere to be found

 - the in between words 

wedged between rocks and roots.

A closer look with squinty eyes?

Tiny flowers bloomed bravely,

feathery roots deep in rocky crevices clung ~

Forgotten words vow to grow once more.

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, 

is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

~ Kurt Vonnegut