Blueberries and more

Blueberry

Beautiful beginnings,
bountiful buds,
brilliant blossoms,

bumblebees birth
bright blue berry bunches,
“blue-licious” blueberry bushes,

beautiful!

** ** **

I grew up with the luxury of blueberries fresh-picked from backyard bushes lovingly tended by my father and mother. Of course, I took them for granted and didn’t appreciate the intense flavor treat each bite birthed in my mouth until I left home and walked into the artificial equivalent found in grocery stores.

Try though they may, even the organic, local foods only stores get shipments that are not the same as fresh picked and eaten at prime ripeness. It wasn’t until I landed in Oregon some ten years later that my taste buds were reunited with the pleasures of juicy blueberries. Here I could go to U-pick farms and gather buckets of them for freezing and eating. When I moved into a home where ten mature blueberry bushes lined one edge of the backyard, I was in heaven.

The bushes need so little attention and the harvest was bountiful enough to share with neighbors, co-workers, and the resident deer, and still have more than enough to satiate my love of this little blue berry.

I’ve once again moved and no longer experience the ever-present fresh berries, but I know where to find them and no longer take them for granted.

April Fool's Day Foolishness

April Fool’s Day and I wonder if I am the fool this year, taking on a blog challenge when sporadic entries represent the sum total of my blog’s history.  The challenge? To post a blog a day for one month (taking only 4 days off) and use the alphabet as my guide for each day’s focus. From A to Z, each letter of the alphabet, what do you mean to me?

My non-blog writing involves the “Art of being Alive” as I explore the underbelly of ordinary in search of its hidden essence. Some days that means a poem or three dances on my screen. Other days might lead to tales of mystery, humor or relationship.

Writing about real life through unusual lenses fascinates me and that will hopefully come out in the posts I generate for this month’s blogging challenge, a mostly improvised serenade danced along a path through the Alphabet.

Take today (please do!). I’ve rarely looked forward to the first day of April, couched too frequently in the Angst of humiliation. I always tried to be the first with the “joke” of the day, throw others off their scheming plans to catch me off-guard. “See,” I would try to explain. “I know what day today is, so don’t play your tricks on me.”

I grew up with an older brother in a family that found embarrassing jokes outrageously funny. Of course, that meant I married a man who enjoyed the same cruel (in my mind) delight in demeaning humor. One outcome of all those fooled and foolish years became my attempts at training my children to ignore the day, or at least stay on the sweet side of fool’s day tricks. Though I achieved some success in this effort, I remained in the minority, my reluctance to engage in ANY type of joking on April First seen as symbolic of my status as an “old fuddy-duddy.”

Let me quickly add, however, that I’ve met many people over the years that enjoy a good joke, a trick of the eye, a sleight of hand that triggers mild embarrassment but remains gentle. Humor – ah, perhaps a good topic for day number eight!

Was today’s blog a joke? No way. Or was it? And how will you decide?

Happy (?) April Fool’s Day.

A-mazing APRIL  (an acrostic poem)

Antecedent extraordinaire

Pushes winter’s final

Remnants away,

Induction ceremonies set

Let spring’s bouquets display

One day and counting until the month-long challenge begins. So how am I preparing? I created lists of themes and discarded most. Plotted the letters on a calendar and promptly lost the list in midst of the clutter on my desk. Focused on writing stories and poems for classes and fun. Played music on my saxophone. Studied music theory. Avoided serious preparation. I am a jazz fan at heart and improvisation becomes my plan.

A couple days of sun provide natural healing energy and after a week that began with stomach flu, I needed them. I love watching the neighborhood cats stretched out in the same rays I enjoy, burning away winter's heavy coats and perhaps tired joints and muscles. My own cat, now fifteen, spent most of winter sleeping on a heating pad and now gets to split her time between natural Vitamin D sunshine and that still-available heating pad.

Rain is promised for tomorrow and the rest of spring break. That's typical for northwest Oregon. On the plus side, there's plenty of snow in the mountains for all the cold-weather and white-powder addicts. You can probably tell that I am not one of them. I like my comfy home, settled before my computer, cup of coffee to keep me company.

getting ready to start a blogging challenge during the month of April. The idea is to post a blog a day for 26 of the days during the month of April, following the alphabet, A-Z as guides for the day's post. The challenge was originated by Arlee Bird, Tossingitout.blogspot.com and there are already more than 900 bloggers ready to participate this year. This will be my first year.

Carrots, Eggs or Coffee Beans Movie

Carrots, Eggs or Coffee Beans Movie: All of us at one time or another have experienced a difficult situation, had setbacks, or dealt with our share of disappointment. Most things that happen to us on a daily basis we can't control and I can honestly say (with conviction) that it is not what happens to us that matters but rather, how we choose to respond.

Only 13

lost boy

gang vortex wins

school smile hides home pain, dark

choices, late nights, drugs; gunshots cut

life short

@ judy Beaston

November 13, 2011