Sleep Has Won

I've let my body decide to take the opportunities for sleep when needed.  I've been a sparse blogger on both sites.  The RA is flaring up and with a trip this week, I've decided to take a safe route and not push to keep up on prompts and poems.  I have plenty of inspiring themes though and may dive in tomorrow when we have a layover. For Justin and Natalia, I'm reading everything you write. I have a few ideas for posts swirling in my head so look out when I decide it is time to catch up!

Nature Doesn't Look at a Calendar

54

Write about changing seasons, that very particular time in the year cycle when it is not Autumn yet, but already passed Summer… Natalia has provided an interesting idea for day 54.  For more prompts, click HERE..

 

Nature clearly doesn't bother to look at a calendar many times during the year.  If it forgets to look in the fall, and pretends it is still summer, I won't complain a bit. We had the most glorious of all Septembers and it appears October is trying to match Septembers tone.  The days start out crisp and cool-but not cold.  It is not the cold where you suck in wind and your throat hurt, but the coolness that feel like you are sucking on a tin of Altoids-refreshing and cleansing. 

 

There is still plenty of green all around us.  Our yard is lush and long and almost looks like someone was out with a can of spray paint the green is so deep.  We are getting a touch of the yellows and orange, but not enough to be thinking pumpkins and turkeys yet. While lounging pool or lakeside in a swim suit and daiquiri by my side doesn't quite see to fit, spending a couple hours on the deck in lounge chair with a light sweater and either a book or my computer perched on my lap is not only doable, but entirely pleasurable.  Five weeks into the school year and I haven't had the morning argument once yet about grabbing a coat because it is too cold outside for just shirt sleeves. 

I am a four season kind of gal. While we get the early spring days that tell us winter will soon be a distant memory, the lack of color, the remnants of brown and grey, and the dirtiness of the last of the snow, masks the warm feelings.  Someday I want to to be able to pick how long the seasons last, by moving my destination to suit my preference, but for now, I am happy in this 5th season of Sumfall. 

 

7 minutes

The Island Village

53

Write about a village, real rural countryside. Do you idealize it as many writers and poets have done? Or, as Agatha Christie, see its dark side? Rise and Write is back and I am having fun again.  

The Island Village

I fell in love with the Bennett's Island series of books written by the late Elizabeth Ogilvie.  The first book I ever read, The Season's Hereafter, when I was sixteen started my love for Maine and Island communities. Besides being a proper Anglophile, I am a Maineophlie as well, and spent my high school years dreaming of going away to college in Maine, and getting a job for the summer in a quaint fishing village just off the Maine coast. I learned years later that Seasons was actually part of a series of books, that originated some twenty years earlier, with a story line told in book one through a flashback to pre-depression, 1920's glory, moving into the depression.  

In both books, I learned about the island village, which consisted of the various family houses, the little store, fish buyer, and post office all in one, and the little school. In book one, read more than a decade later, I learned the back ground story on most of the main characters.  I grew up with them-came of age with them.  I suddenly understood the references in the newer book.  There actually were nine adult books in all.  Three focusing on the main family, really the eldest daughter, then three more focused on newcomers to the village, and three more, that incorporated the next generation in more detail.  The last was written towards the end of Ms Ogilvie's life.  She wrote some children and young adult novels set on the island as well.  Of course, I read them too, and enjoyed them with my daughters. 

Bennett's Island is the fictional version of the real island known as Criehaven, where the author spent many summers.  The island village was in her blood, and she chose to immortalize in her beloved books.  You can see picture on the Internet of how the village looks today, though I believe there are no year round residents any more, no school, and no store at all.  However, nearby  Brigport as it is called in the books, but is really Matinicus, still has a thriving, if not tiny year round community.  Spending a week on either Island is on my bucket list, though Matincus is probably more likely as it actually has accommodations. That is the wonder of a good story teller.  They create such a vivid picture of something, you want to be there.  I want to be whisked away to another time, another place, and be absorbed in the island village life each time I pick up one of her books. 

16 minutes

What's behind the door?

52

Write about a door – wooden, glass, heavy, tall, Dutch door, garage door or a magic door (Open, Sesame)…

OPTIONAL: Work on your fiction and share. Read more about Rise and Write here.

What's behind the door?

I have little envy of the Real Housewives of any where. Their lives seem chaotic and filled with ridiculous drama that if not scripted,which I highly think it is, you couldn't make up.  The weekend get aways at 5 star hotels and personal chefs-who care!  I can meet up with a friend, a real friend, any weekend for a walk around a neighborhood and a stop at a coffee house, and sit down to a homemade pasta dinner. No, if there is anything I envy is the always immaculate and spotlessly clean homes.  Of course these homes are camera ready at all times, and come with cleaning personal.  I would love to live in a house in which I do not feel the need to keep certain doors closed at all times. 

 I know most people have the room of doom, the clutter room, the space with a head case.  I seem to have many of them.  Closed doors are my friends. I can spend a whirlwind fifteen minutes and get my immediate walk in space tidy enough that I don't want to crawl in a drawer if my mother in law shows up, but if she opened those doors, I might burst into tears. Those doors are meant to stay shut, unless I or a family member open them. A few months ago, we wrote about door knobs. Like my door knobs these are basic house grade doors-nothing unique.  But when they help hid my clutter, or my unmade bed and dirty laundry strewn shamelessly about the room, they became my ally.

6 minutes

Beauty Queen

This is prompt 51 in Rise and Write.

Write about a queen. Is she a real figure in history or a fantasy character from your favorite fairy tale? Is there some thing about her you find admirable or enviable? Is there something that you dislike about her or her status?

OPTIONAL: Work on your fiction and share.

Beauty Queen

I've not been into the whole pageant Queen lifestyle but the last six months, I had a bit of interest.  the daughter of a woman I went to high school with was crowned Miss Minnesota about six months ago, making her the state representative for the Miss America competition.  I followed her mother's post of her daughter the pageant Queen, and even watched the television program.  She looked stunning in her 10 seconds of national fame, being able to announce her name and a bit about the state.  She did not make it into the semi finals, so other than a crowd glimpse, that was all.  I must say, I do not understand what the criteria.  There evening gown, physical fitness-what they now call the swimsuit  competition, evening gown, and a random question.   That I found completely  random.  Two girls received questions on such hot button topics as gun control and Planned Parenthood, while another got a question on Tom Brady's participation in the deflated football.  I watched to support my former classmate, her daughter, and community, but I think I am done.  Good for the women that truly enjoy this kind of competition.  It is not my thing, but if they enjoy the challenge, more power to them. 

Five minutes!

Toes

50

Write about fingers (or toes). Do they belong to your character? Are they lean and long “artistic” fingers, or short and chubby? All of them in place? What are they good at?  I am back and will try and keep my end of the bargain, even if I only write 5 minutes a day.  Here is the rest oft the Rise and Write prompts at Out of the Writers Closet.

Toes

Toes are the most wonderful and the most silly of all body parts.  To look good poking out of a great pair of sandals, they need to be trimmed, buffed, and manicured, and ideally painted a fantastic shade  of color.  I have no patience for any of that nonsense, so my toes always look  unkept, and dry.  I was born with a partial web between my toes, just plain odd. I got them form my mom's side of the family and passed this lovelye trait to my son and youngest daughter. 

But, the opposite of weird grown up toes, are sweet and adorable baby and toddler toes.  What is better than seeing those first little toes on a newborn baby? I love to see the foot print of baby's, and see the toe print uniquely tied to that precious new human.  No two will be alike.  How fantastic is  seeing the curling toes as the toddler uses his toes, in a chimpanzee  like manner, to help grasp the floor as he steadies himself learning to walk. 

As the weather gets colder, I'll see fewer toes in my Midwestern home. I can guarantee you though there will be those hold outs that will wear open toed shoes until snow is on the ground. Not me.  I want my toes to be nice and snug.  Unless of course, I can slip away to a nice southern beach. 

8 minutes