Pretty Words by Elinor Wylie

Pretty Words

Poets make pets of pretty, docile words:
I love smooth words, like gold-enamelled fish
Which circle slowly with a silken swish,
And tender ones, like downy-feathered birds:
Words shy and dappled, deep-eyed deer in herds,
Come to my hand, and playful if I wish,
Or purring softly at a silver dish,
Blue Persian kittens fed on cream and curds.

I love bright words, words up and singing early;
Words that are luminous in the dark, and sing;
Warm lazy words, white cattle under trees;
I love words opalescent, cool, and pearly,
Like midsummer moths, and honied words like bees,
Gilded and sticky, with a little sting.

Elinor Wylie

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I made this when my only granddaughter was born.  Quote by Brian Andreas.

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How To Triumph Like A Girl by Ada Limón

How To Triumph Like A Girl

Ada Limón

I like the lady horses best, 
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest, I like
that they’re ladies. As if this big
dangerous animal is also a part of me,
that somewhere inside the delicate
skin of my body, there pumps
an 8-pound female horse heart,
giant with power, heavy with blood.
Don’t you want to believe it? 
Don’t you want to tug my shirt and see 
the huge beating genius machine
that thinks, no, it knows,
it’s going to come in first.

from:  "Bright Dead Things" by Ada Limón

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                                                       NEW BOOKS!

Bright Dead Things:  Poems by Ada Limón

Boxed Set:

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

Night Sky With Exit Wounds:  Poems by Ocean Vuong

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     Little Debbie getting some lap time...it ain't easy when you're one of four kitties...

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An early Happy Memorial Day to those who served/serve our great country! I appreciate your sacrifices and your patriotism!!!  God Bless You!

xo,

Marion

This and That...Joys of Spring

          My favorite old tee-shirt by Kiki the Artist.

                   New record:  11 Angel Trumpets on the same day!!  Wow!!!! 

      Lemongrass by my patio door...repels mosquitoes!!!

       Brand new Bleeding Heart Vine.  Magical!!

        I love flowers more than I love most people...

                         Mother Nature rocks!! 

     How amazing...a flower within a flower...

A new Willow, a Corkscrew Willow. I hope it lives...

 Me and Mama having a laugh, the weekend before Mother's Day.

                    Almost all of my Blythe dolls...

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And, I leave you with a few thoughtful quotes:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984

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"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured." - "Shantaram" By Gregory David Roberts, a magnificent read...

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Moonlight bright

through my

bedroom window

slowly fading

into

a perfect

lunar rug.  ~Marion

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The only problem

with Haiku is that you just

get started and then

  ~Roger McGough

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A Prayer in Spring

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Moon Talk and Spring Talk

Okay, I'm a moon person...and it's no wonder...I was born in the sign of Moonchild on the full moon, slap in the middle of hurricane season.  Yes, these lunar facts have shaped my personality. I'm not a superstitious person...not very superstitious, that is.  I plant by the moon phases, but that's nature.

  This is a little piñata I bought from an Etsy shop.  I had to have this creative little moon...

I don't/can't sleep much when the moon is full.  I watch the moonbeams and moonlight as it softly glows through my gauzy curtains onto the floor.  I inevitably get up and stand at the window and search the bright night sky until I spot the Moonlady, and only then do I feel comforted and lie back down to doze.

Ah, my Angel Trumpets feed my soul...sweetly scented night bloomers...

As Summer nears and Spring winds down, I marvel at creation and nature:  the Moon, seeds, flowers, the weather, and the joyous, perfect synchronicity of it all.  When the frogs start croaking and singing in the middle of a cloudless, warm afternoon, I know it'll be raining soon.  Frogs don't lie.  It's clouding up right now and I heard the toads/frogs talking to me just this morning.

I've been outside a lot this week watering my container garden, planting kale and lettuce, meeting turtles, listening to frogs and communing with the dragonflies.  I will always be in awe of these creatures of water, earth and air.  Dragonflies are born and then live a year under water before climbing out to earth to spread their wings and fly.  It's magical.

It took 15 shots to get this picture today. He patiently waited....

                         My Siberian and Red Russiak Kale was up in 2 days!!!

                 Same with my Queen Lime Red Zinnias.  I'll be transplanting these...

Found an old garden journal from 1997.  Every herb I planted is still thriving 19 YEARS later!

Red Dinner Plate Hibiscus, so easy to grow & returns every year!

New Hibiscus, grown from last year's seeds. 🌱💚

My first Early Girl tomato lives up to her name...

Moonflowers are climbing up, up, up toward the sun...

I made a seed trade with a lady I met on Instagram.  Planted two days ago & it's already sprouting!

..and, of course, some beautiful words to inspire from poet C. D. Wright's "Deepstep Comes Shining".

Indigo Blu (Blythe) arrived from Hong Kong with that amazing blue hair!

                My new favorite coloring book...

                        Colored with gel pens...

Dragonfly love---colored with gel pens & Prismacolor pencils.

xo,

~Marion~

Do something you love that brings you joy!  Gardening feeds the body and the soul! 🌱💚🌱💚

Who Am I?

                I am a lifelong bookaholic...

Daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, wife, cousin, niece, sister-in-law, friend, Christian, Zen, seeker...

writer, poet, reader, diarist, giver, lover, book reviewer, book collector, collage artist, jewelry maker, doll maker, crafter, crocheter, nature photographer, gardener, Moonchild, doll collector, artist, cook, baker, herbalist, seamstress, quilter, bird watcher, Hummingbird caretaker, music lover, tarot reader, I Ching student, rune reader, dream interpreter, tree planter, cat-rescuer, homemaker, notary public, bookkeeper, legal secretary, blogger...and more, so much, much more... I've spent all my life learning and growing.  I've taught myself 90% of the things I know:  the arts, crafts, gardening, photography, etc. through reading books and trial and error.  A new friend recently said to me about gardening:  you must be a Ninja to garden because you'll kill more plants than you grow.  I knew this from my own accidental Ninja kills, but I loved the way she worded it.  Many people give up after the first few plants don't sprout or bloom or are eaten by bugs.  Never give up!  Gardening is a metaphor for all of life...

Being a Mother has been the most rewarding, challenging, exciting, frustrating, creative thing I've ever done.  I have no regrets about the sacrifices I made to raise my children.  Mothers must put their children first...they didn't ask to come here, we brought them...we chose to give them life... They are our own beating hearts... Being a grandmother is the second most rewarding thing on earth.  Grandchildren are our future...they are life begatting life...and the epitome of joy.

Life is not about merely standing still (although there is a time to stand still), but about growing, experiencing, discovering, laughing at yourself, forgiving yourself, loving with all your heart and soul and being broken...then picking up the pieces and carrying on.  An old proverb says, "Fall seven times; stand up eight."  It's my motto along with, "This, too, shall pass."  

Wishing all you mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day!!  xo, Marion

              My baby Moonflowers...just starting to vine

Gerbera Daisies, revived with organic sea kelp, a super fertilizer.

My Canna in the late afternoon sun.  Magical!!!!!!!

Night to Dawn by Marion

       Molly in my Gerbera Daisy, the color of her hair.

                                The Monster High girls hanging out.  ;-)

                              Blythe Doll sisters

   A visitor to our yard yesterday.  I think he's pretty old.  We put him back in the woods.

           My old insomnia personification poem...