Delicious Aromas

The granola toasted ~ filled 

with oats, nuts and seeds ~ 

resting on the counter 

giving up the oven to 

a loaf of oat whole wheat bread. 

The aromas of spices and bread giving home the scent of other homes. This greater and short lived joy pulls all my homes out of thin air with memories from 

farm to apartments to houses

throughout the decades. 

It always surprises me when 

I can truthfully measure 

my life in decades. 

Through travels,   

  education 

     careers,

    families and friends

but aromas are home life 

inside the memories. 

No granola in the past, 

but the spices are the same as 

   the cookies, 

     apple sauce, 

       apple and pumpkin pies

from decades past. 

“Nothing awakens reminiscence like an aroma”

~ Victor Hugo, poet

(1802 ~ 1885)

Toasted

February 13, 2016

Bringing our yesterday’s 

into today is no mean feat. 

Too often we drag our 

worries along with us. 

But this bit of writing

has little to do with worries. 

It’s about toast. 

Not the toast of clinking glasses, 

but the first slice of 

toasted homemade bread.

Butter melting on crisped 

brown bread, topped with honey. 

If some worry has wormed 

it’s way into the morning ~ 

a good crunch on the toast

may take the chew out of it.

“I always like toast in a crisis.”

~ James Goss, Doctor Who: Dead Air

Author's note: photo from February 13, 2016 

I Would Have

Otherwise, I would have 

let my imagination roll 

out a carpet of poetry, 

yet the day just lived 

didn’t lend itself to such 

flights of fancy. 

Otherwise, I would have 

looked at the raindrops 

on green leaves and seen 

the mysteries in each 

glistening drop of water.

Otherwise, I would have 

raised my navy umbrella 

to the misty rain that 

gently reminded me 

of Vancouver Island. 

Otherwise, I would have 

seen the blackened crust on 

my bread as a failure but 

the tender inside was delicious, 

butter and honey spread thick.

Otherwise, a day will come 

when all of these things may 

mean nothing to me. For today, 

they are the sweet stitches 

that hold memories of today. 

“I got out of bed on two strong legs. 

It might have been otherwise.”

~ Jane Kenyon, Otherwise

*Author’s note: my poetry tonight inspired by 

the poem Otherwise by Jane Kenyon

A Day

Photo today: June 2, 2026

This is the day 

when I saw 

spring lilacs in bloom 

in a day 

fraught with potholes 

a day 

when my bread 

rose beautifully 

a day

when the wind ruined 

any semblance of hair style 

a day 

when music moved

my thoughts to calm. 

This is a day 

when life was real 

and I am grateful.

“It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.”

~ Stephen King,  Wolves of the Calla

Cathedral Area Arts Festival

Sun warm

  light warm breezes 

   music filtered through the air

    vocalists, bag pipes and dancing

Walking, talking crowds filled

    13th Ave and two side streets 

     strolling past tented kiosks

      in front of open shops

All ages and manner of dress

 Loose flowing pants or skirts

  Shorts, big floppy hats

   Strollers with tots, sleeping or curious

   one or two dogs on leash and well mannered.

My only purchases: food.

  First stop - a chicken taco

    Second stop - a spring roll

      Third stop - scuffles, 

chocolate puffed wheat square, 

  and one cinnamon bun

    Last stop: a loaf of raisin sourdough bread

My other interests:

  Pottery  

   Jewellery

Nothing forced money from my wallet!

I walked about half of the entire length of 13th Ave 

  only one short foray into one of the side streets.

Time for home!

“We were a train full of strangers, and they were all the same.”

~ Cherie Priest, Dreadnought

Oatmeal and Granola Sourdough Bread

From a flat sourdough starter 

revived & rejuvenated 

a lovely loaf of bread arose

that toasts up into 

crunchy deliciousness

“There comes a point in your life when you need to stop 

eating other people's bread and make your own!”

~ Chris Geiger, baker

Sourdough Starter Rejuveated

progress of my starter was slow, 

almost non existent. 

it had been doing well ~ sort of

Sourdough expert where are you?

“Rejuvenating Sourdough Starter”

 ~ key words in Google ~

‘starter in the fridge too long’. 

Click!

a video @moon + magnolia  

    showed me what I was missing: 

   

 use cold water rather than warm; 

    my water to flour ratio was off. 

@moon + magnolia taught me to:  

      ~ feed starter every 12 hours

      ~ use whole wheat flour - more micronutrients 

With the corrections, in a few hours, 

My jar overflowed and bubbles lined top and sides. 

I love my sourdough bread!!

Next loaf to be baked on Sunday.

“Bread is alive and sourdough is proof.’

~ Anonymous

Lost til Tomorrow

frayed sentences drift

a word ~ maybe two

for something I’ll write later 

vanished in pumpkin soup 

bubbling on the stove, 

in the flour and nuts for 

bread dough rising; 

in the brutal wind, 

on my way to take out the trash

scribbled down on a note 

lost on the kitchen table.

I’ll clear off the table tomorrow………

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. 

Learn from it…tomorrow is a new day.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson