january 3: “I’m trying to see this place even as I’m walking through it”
1
Early-morning chat with our Jane before her flight back to California. But oh, we miss her.
2
Huck in my writing chair, reading me the day’s entry from what has become, these past three months, our favorite poetry anthology: Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year. “Mom, listen! This poem describes exactly how I feel about January.”
January is
a clean white sheet, newly ironed;
an empty page;
a field of freshly-fallen snow
waiting to be mapped
by our footsteps.—John Foster
The moment this tome came to us last fall—a review copy from Nosy Crow edited by Fiona Waters and gorgeously illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon—Huck claimed it as his own. He has announced his plan to enter his name in the “This book belongs to ______” blank as soon as he can write it in cursive. (This melts me. The tattered copy of Alice in Wonderland I read to Huck and Rilla in December is inscribed, in the handwriting of a young Rose, with: “To Rose from Mommy, July 3rd, 2007, With Love.”)
3
Four frenzied squirrels scrambling across the pergola and flinging themselves into the overhanging magnolia tree. Clearly they don’t have a seasonal poetry anthology because their antics were straight out of spring.
4
Ron stopping by with a delivery of homemade chocolate chip cookies so delectable they would make a hobbit weep.
5
This fun art tutorial by Lisa Bardot: part of her Making Art Everyday series. Rilla perched beside me and taught me how to get around in Procreate. Boy am I glad I’m homeschooled.
(I had a little trouble with the blending. Rilla’s was one thousand times better. But hey, baby steps!)
6
While I worked on my orange (with much merriment and coaching from my daughter), Huck worked on the cursive letters he learned yesterday. How beautiful is that u, I ask you?
7
Appointment with my new primary care doctor today. She was awesome, and her office is all of six minutes from our house. For this I am profoundly grateful.
8
Overheard (Rose): “He’s the most boring serial killer, in my opinion.”
9
These lines from “Planet” by Catherine Pierce, from HERE: Poems for the Planet, a new anthology forthcoming in April from Copper Canyon Press, edited by Elizabeth Coleman:
This planet. All its grooved bark, all its sand of quartz and bones and volcanic glass, all its creeping thistle lacing the yards with spiny purple. I’m trying to come down soft today. I’m trying to see this place even as I’m walking through it.
Tabatha says:
All of your list is wonderful (those lines from Planet, nearby doctors!) but I have to wonder who the most boring serial killer is. (Full disclosure: I don’t know who *any* serial killers are, aside from Jack the Ripper.)
On January 4, 2019 at 3:59 am
Penny says:
You are inspiring me to appreciate my days more – thank you. 🙂
Your orange is delightful!
Huck;s cursive is b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.!
And I second wanting to know the most boring serial killer…
On January 4, 2019 at 5:11 am
Penelope says:
Must place library holds on these two poetry books … (mild peeve: the comment form here won’t remember my info anymore) … so hard to have a beloved far away from the nest xox … cursive = woot!!
On January 4, 2019 at 7:14 am
Lisa says:
I read your blog through Feedly and number 6 says “How beautiful is that r, I ask you?”. I was very confused until I clicked to the website.
On January 4, 2019 at 7:24 am
tanita says:
My mother was, incidentally, getting a new Social Security card when I was four or five, and I wanted one too – and so I have that sample of cursive, so, so, soooo old – from that year, when my e’s were so very loopy. I was so proud, though. I wrote my name in EVERYTHING – my mother’s Bible (whyyy?) the wall of my closet (again, whyyyy?) everywhere. If I’d had an iPad or a white board, this would have been A Good Thing.
Go, Huck!
Love that tea towel, btw.
On January 4, 2019 at 1:53 pm
COD says:
Delaney flies back to Missouri on Tuesday and she’ll be teaching summer classes so we won’t see her again until next Christmas. I didn’t really think through things when I encouraged graduate school 🙂
On January 4, 2019 at 2:18 pm
Von Rupert says:
Sob. $28. Sob. Thank goodness for the library. I reserved it, but I feel guilty about the person who has it checked out now and probably won’t be ready to return it by Feb. 2 when it’s due. If we love this book as much as I think we will, I shall buy a copy and proclaim it a birthday present to myself–a few months early. 🙂 Always lovely to wander over here to the Bonny Glen, so much to read and see, I never want to leave.
On January 16, 2019 at 2:58 pm