Mainely Write

SOL17 and Poetry Friday: Today's poetry is being hosted by Amy at The Poem Farm !  So make sure you drop by - you are invited. Sky Just after dawn dreams scatter without a trace somewhere in my brain;  Morning redolent with nature,  I hear a call so perfect -  the sound of a bird -  Is it red bird from his branch? You wait patiently;     that splash of pink  across the sky -       color into a crescendo of light just right, but fading be from the sky above like a balloon being  popped but no one hears. There is so much to admire before the sun sets; bless the eyes  and the listening ears. Last week I put up a Scavenger Hunt challenge of finding the words to a poem using the clues to their location.  The clues were listed on a padlet that can be found through the link at the top of the page, or by clicking on it in the side navigation. The poem above, is the poem I created with the lines in order, but not necessarily with the breaks

Tomorrow I will post the Scavenger Hunt Poem for Poetry Friday! Tomorrow is the last day in March.  I can hardly believe it.  March has gone by rather quickly.  Though I don't like the late snows of March that well, I do sort of hate to see it go.  I like the month of writing and reading, of visiting and having guests over.  The SOL community is such a welcoming and fun group to be a part of. (yes, I know that's a preposition at the end)  I wish it could go on forever.  But I know we'd most likely run out of steam eventually.  For those who are wanting more day by day stuff happening, there will be a new challenge that opens up on the first of April.  It is the AtoZ Challenge.  You write to a letter of the alphabet, starting with A, going in order to Z, one letter a day, starting with A on April 1.  No posting is done on Sundays though.  That way all the alphabet is complete on April 30! Here are some links if you are interested in participating.  Your link is put in t

It is almost April!  I love April. The osprey come back in the first 8 or so days of April.  I love seeing them arrive and start fussing with their hodgepodge of a log home.  The couple always arrives one or two days apart. No snow lasts for long.  Even blizzards in April melt quickly even when they are deep.  A good snow in April even helps the mountainous snowbanks in the shopping malls melt more quickly. The snowbanks now are coated in black, gray and brown dirt scooped up and plunged into the snow as the snowplow shoves it to the side of the parking lots.  They look like scoops of ice cream with sprinkles.  Or chocolate chip ice cream...or maybe vanilla ice cream with chocolate cookie crumbs in it.  Kind of. These snowbanks don't melt well in the sun for some reason.  You would think they would, for as they melt the dark dirt gets more concentrated on the surface of the snow, and dark draws the sun's heat.  But it doesn't seem to.  Those snowbanks last and last

SOL17 Today I tried to write a post about the squawking crows, and ended up writing another poem.   I'm not putting the crow poem here; it is being filed with the geese poem and a couple others waiting to see if my motivated self actually does something with them, or the procrastinator wins with another cup of coffee. Instead then, I started writing a post squawking all about me and blah, blah, blah!  You know how you think you want to say something, and then you realize it is just to hear your self talk?  That was that.  Eeesh!  I hate that.  No one wants to hear that.  So I shut myself up and deleted it.  You wouldn't have enjoyed reading it.  I didn't enjoy reading it.  Sometimes you just have to shut up. I had three long paragraphs.  And I've just deleted them.  Now I have three short paragraphs.  And I'm much happier with them. My photo of a nice winter beach day If you don't have nuthin' good to write,  don't write nuthin

This started out as a post about the crows.  But as I sat here waiting for the coffee to brew and then having to feed the cat who would not let me type anything until he was happier, I glanced at a glass.  This glass was one we got free at our mall here in our small, happy town.  I started thinking about all the free glasses we've gotten at the mall.   The Mall is a section of the transfer station, where people leave things that have not seen all the use they are capable of for others to pick up and take home. We visit this section each time we go there.  We've gotten ice cream sundae cups, bikes for the grandkids, books and frying pan lids and a kitchen table, which I am hoping to use in Friendship next month... I've brought them mugs, clothes and plant pots. Mostly we get small juice glasses.  We started picking up small glasses just for ourselves for reasonable portions of any drink.  We picked them because they felt good in the hand, and looked pretty on the shelf

SOL#17 This morning as I took the dog out at the cold, gray crack of dawn, I could hear the geese gathered past the trees, at the foot of the hill, at the river.  They were murmuring in those low almost human "voice in the distance" sounds they make.  It sounded as if they were quietly taking attendance.   "I'm here.  You there?" "Yup, I'm here.  Where's Joe?" "Joe, who?" "You know." "Oh, yeah.  He's here." "I'm over here." "Hi, Joe." "Babs with you?" "Yeah, she's here." "All here." "Yup, all here." And then quiet. They must have determined that they are all accounted for after the dark night. No coyotes had supper here last night. Then there were the crows. They'll have their day here tomorrow. Have a good day.  Touch base with friends today.  Make sure they know you are here and all is right.  Then take a nap. I wr

You may have already seen this if you visited Michelle Barne's blog this week.  She has a challenge to write an ode to an inanimate object at Today's Little Ditty this month. I happened to be sitting in the kitchen beside a big box of tissues when the call for an ode came through.  Those tissues seemed open to the idea for an ode just for them. So I oded them.  I also acrosticated them. Guidelines for the Ode to an Object: Choose an object (a seashell, a hairbrush, a bird nest, a rolling pin). It should not be anything symbolic (such as a doll, a wedding ring, or a flag). Write five lines about the object, using a different sense in each line (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Then ask the object a question, listen for its answer, and write the question, the answer, or both. An Ode to a Tissue (and an acrostic) T he faintest whiff of clean, starched sheets   I n white, you lie flat, stiff, well pressed, waiting as S haking fingertips flounder, feeling

Today is Poetry Friday, and Catherine is hosting at Reading to the Core . The game is afoot! I'm posting the Scavenger Hunt I quickly put together when Tabatha Yeatts thought maybe I could challenged me to make an online version of what her very gifted and talented and obviously LOVING daughter did for her birthday!  I cannot help but steal a good idea, or fall for a challenge, so I did.  See here for historical, birthdatical references... 🎂 Click on the cake! To post clues, I stole Michell H. Barnes idea of using a padlet.  She uses one for people to post poems, I thought it might work for a Scavenger Hunt.  Let's see! I will be posting POSTED a second scavenger hunt on the padlet, too, after some poems become available through the Poetry Friday linkups today.  So if you have done the first scavenger hunt and want more, there will be IS a new one very soon ! If YOU want to make a hunt for the rest of us to solve, create your own box on the padlet wit

SOL17 (if you were here earlier, Blogger messed this up big time... or Padlet did.  This is alllll new...and good.) It is Thursday and my husband is on his way to the Social Security office AGAIN.  We have tried and tried to get our SS untangled, but they keep tangling it up again.  We get letter after letter from them explaining how much we aren't getting THIS time, and how much they are taking out for the prior months (that they've made mistakes on).  I did not know that retirement was going to be a full time job at the Social Security office, but so far it has.  And it seems to be a money loser. I'm hoping when their fixes to their mistakes finally catch up with their paperwork that they will repay the back-pay money they took out.  I'm not too optimistic about it.  At this point, I'll be happy to simply stem the flow. I can't tell you how weird it is to both be retired now.  It is both weird and scary.  We shouldn't be scared; we prepared for this.

SOL17 - 22 Hey, Hunters of Slices , Hunters of Poetry!  I didn't have any idea of today's post until last night, late.  Oh, and I just found my "Ode to a Tissue" posted at Michelle H. Barnes Today's Little Ditty .  Hope you can visit her.  It's tear-jerker - well, in a way... Whilst reading last night instead of going to bed as I was supposed to be doing, I came across a cinquain Mrs. Surridge on her blog, Stuff , wrote about her pillow (I'm sorry, Mrs. Surridge, I don't know your first name!  I've looked and looked for it.  I feel like I should know you better!). Her pillow was soft, fluffy, good for lounging, very welcoming - such a nice "friend" when you are in need of relaxation.  It was a lovely read. But then she just had to ask, "Does that give away what I'm thinking?" "Yes, I believe I know what’s on your mind" - sleep! (as I should have been doing right then); but then, came the "aha" mo

SOL#17, Day 21 - It is World Poetry Day!  And one day into Spring!  So there has to be a poem today.  Today there will be two poems then, in a fashion. First, today I am sharing a website that I used pretty frequently with my first graders, and then some with older students when I taught technology at the elementary schools. ReadWriteThink I am sure that teachers have been here before.  But just in case you haven't, here is a treasure trove of Poetry and Writing resources and tools.  I used to use the interactive parts with my students in computer lab, as a whole group activity in the room, or in a writing center.  I also just like to play around with it myself.  There is a cool "found poem" part that has a large word bank with the option of creating your own "magnetic" word to use.  Then you can save it to work on later, save it as a .pdf or email it. My poem today is a found poem from 6 blogs today.  As I was visiting I pulled out phrases from each of

#SOL17 number 20... And it is officially Spring today... Just look at the beautiful sun glistening on the waves...the white caps... Snow banks at the parking lot, shining in the sun ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ And here is another shot.  Note the way the waves break on the shore. Looking out across the school ball field ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ And here you can see the reflection of a mast of a sailboat on the glassy, calm waters.  Ball field light pole reflection on frozen snow ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I love how the waves rush in, crashing at shore's edge. Plowed banks silhouetted against the frozen field, trees against the sky ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What?  Aw... snow?  Really?  I thought it was spring! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The sun shining on the snow, melts it just a bit and then it refreezes.  It is not the fluffy stuff of shouting "Merry Christmas".  It is not packy.  It is packed... solid.  It is icy. Yet, also because the sun is stronger now, it is melting

Two Writing Teachers brings us the Slice of Life Challenge for March.  This is #19.  Thank you for all the inspiration and opportunities! (My post a few days ago - the jealousy post - kept nagging at me.  I had good thoughts for that at one time; they had to do with the signs of spring that I can see.  I think this was it:) Signs of spring? In Maine, there are none to be seen outside except maybe the longer days.  We are still deep in snow.  It is still cold.  I need boots, winter coat, etc.  I still keep extra warm stuff in the backseat in case the car breaks down on the side of the road.  It will be a cold wait for help, or a cold walk to anywhere, so we still have emergency stuff in our cars. But our mailbox has delivered signs of spring! We got our hardware store flyer in the mail, and there are rakes on sale (and NOT roof rakes for the snow).  These would be the ones for raking up those dead leaves you missed in the fall.  They would be for the clumps of grass and ro

I got up at 6:30 and started brewing the coffee.  Then I sat down to write my SOL .  Strangely enough, my dream came to mind.  I don't often remember my dreams now.  I used to write them down and I remembered them pretty well.  I haven't remembered one in a while.  It is funny though that when you do start to write them, more comes to you.  It did for me as I wrote this.  I first jotted down parts that were clear, then the sequence and more details became clearer.  A dream not written down evaporates.  I wonder if it goes into a vault that we just can't access easily again, or if it just dissipates and can't be reassembled.  Anyway I captured this one as best I could.  I dreamed last night that: We were at my mother-in-law's house, but it wasn't hers, it was more like my childhood home.  My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, husband, and an infant were staying there.  It was early morning and we were going to have breakfast, but my brother-in-law wanted to go ou

Slice of Life and Poetry Friday Post.  See Two Writing Teachers and Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge for more great links! "I am not inspired for writing green yet.  Maybe a tad jealous. We are so snow covered and cold, even the spring Jo-Ann Fabrics flyer feels out of place!  Tomorrow's post maybe!" This was a comment I made yesterday.  I quickly copied and pasted it here yesterday.  Then I came back to it this morning and realized I hadn't copied or written where I'd left the comment.  Oh, well, at least I still have the idea! Maybe. I'm not sure where I was going with that.  Wish I'd written just a bit more to jog my memory as to the points that were on my mind at the time. Do you ever do this?  You must.  You are writers.  Writers write down their ideas that come to them at inopportune times so that they will remember them.   You can probably tell the age or stage of a writer by what they do when an idea comes to them. If you are new t

This is a slice of moon...I mean... this is a slice of life post.  It is what I posted this morning over at Laura Purdie Salas' 15 Words or Less . The moon followed us in the car a few nights ago, and I remembered when I was a child and thought it was following us as we drove at night. I’d just stare at it and try to figure out how this was happening. I was enthralled with the night sky, and still am. The Stray Moon Look what followed me home! May it sleep on my bed in darkest nights? …Please? The moon before the storm on Monday night, was bright and almost full as it followed us. On the way home through the night and into Tuesday morning, the sky became lightly cloudy and lit up the sky in a general way - like putting a lampshade over the bulb.  You couldn't see the source of the light, but the sky, though dark, wasn't as dark as the silhouettes of the trees and buildings.  We could still just make out the trees all night, right into morning.  T

Slice of Life #15 . The storm has stormed through.  Window plastered with snow It was piling up nicely...over a foot... and then it got a bit melty and freezy and now there is a crust and it is shrunken a bit.  But there is still plenty.  Still over a foot, but now with a layer of very packy snow.  The plow came through late this morning and made banks that can't be shoveled, nor can the snowblower handle them.  So we are going with what we've got.  The sun is shining, so I'm sure it won't be long before the snow is much lower, the branches will lift again, unburdened by the snow they are holding, or the snow that is holding them. My husband has announced that we WILL be going to Starbucks today.  One day confined to the house is enough!  Out we go! This morning, while awaiting the snowplow, I checked in on Mrs. Frazier's, Mrs. Simon's and Mrs. Surridge's classroom bloggers to see who I had not visited yet. Yesterday, through the storm, I read man

Yesterday we made an unexpected trip to NY and back, and tried to beat the storm home! We did it!  Here's our weather map and our dot... we arrived here at 4:35 am a mere 24 hours after I first woke up yesterday morning! We weren't sure if we were going until 3 pm yesterday.  If we did, we would have to hurry!  The storm was slated to start in NY at 6 am today, and at 9 am for us in Maine.  We made only one stop each way.  Ok, maybe it was two each way.  Short stops. The trip was quiet.  Not too much traffic on the road even though nothing had started.  Lots of salt trucks out preparing the roads for the storm.  There were signs flashing of the coming storm.  New York warned of the snow storm and said to "Avoid Travel".  Massachusetts said "Snow storm." and banned "tandem trucks and special permit vehicles" from the highways.  And Maine simply said "Winter Weather expected. Plan ahead."  In Maine, I guess we expect to have winte

I woke early at about 4:30 am, checked email, and then closed my eyes again. I thought about getting up and making coffee.  I didn't.  I stayed in bed a while longer just relaxing and enjoying the fact that I didn't have to get up yet. I fell into a light sleep, and finally got up about two hours later.  I still did not make coffee, but I did start commenting on classroom blogs. For the past week almost I have been trying to get to each student blogger and leave a poem, one classroom at a time.  It started as a whimsy of an idea to comment on a few students in Mrs. Surridge's class, but then realized I can't stop at just some of them...that's not fair. Oh, dear.... my brain was starting up in its storm mode.... why not challenge yourself to see if you can write a few lines of poetry that would somehow relate to their writing that day and do it for each of her students? So I did.  I was so excited about the challenge of it, and that Mrs. Surridge said the stude