The return and this and that (and cats of course)

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Mary Beth Frezon

First off, shout out to Katie at the Jewelry Repair Center in Schodack. I took a chance one day and stopped in to see what could be done about my crystal pendant. I’d gotten it in 2006 to commemorate getting a quilt into Quilt National for the first time and had worn it ever since. Alas, the wire wrapping was breaking and it seemed it might be getting too loose to wear safely.

Turns out Katie had recently started there and did wrapping. I went back another day to meet her and look at examples of her work and we kind of came up with a loose plan. About a week or so later I got a message that my crystal was ready to be picked up.

I couldn’t be more pleased and will be glad to go back there for more! Also worth knowing that they have a book swap table – for leaving/leaving with a new book or few.

This beautiful Gardenia was enjoying and filling the air at Jimmy D’s Diner in New Lebanon. It lives inside the diner during the winter months and blooms a little. Mainly it enjoys everyone’s attention in the off-season.

We had a few days of ninety degree weather and the cats were rather limp.

Posted in cats helpful cats, gardens and flowers, In the neighborhood, life around us, taking time to look, the creative process | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The return and this and that (and cats of course)

For the quote box

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Mary Beth Frezon

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness. — John Ruskin

And this:

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately. — John Ruskin

Posted in Do the Work, From the Quote Box, note to self, the creative process | 1 Comment

Day 30 NaPoWriMo 2022

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Mary Beth Frezon

I didn’t get the new plants potted in their big pots but I did go out and sit with them this afternoon. In front of me was the warm yellow of the daffodils still holding court in the front garden.

April is ending
surrounded by daffodils
waiting for peonies

the local plant place
sorting annuals friday
we eagerly buy

geranium pots
waiting to be transplated
to their bigger pots

this afternoon I
splashed watercolors around
red, pink, green for May

Posted in Do the Work, en plein air, gardens and flowers, haiku, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Day 29 NaPoWriMo 2022

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Mary Beth Frezon

The penultimate day of NaPoWriMo has arrived. It’s time. We’ve all got things to do. But it’s still a little sad to see NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo wind down for another year. We might be nervous on March thirty-first but April always finds its groove.

Good news though – Mom and I went to a local nursery and came home with some beautiful annuals. Specifically I got a good supply of geraniums and will get those potted up and ready for those days when I need something close by to paint. Also got some catnip plants and pinched the tops of them much to the cats’ delight.

March into April
<much poetry happens here>
April into May

April almost done
we have nibbled all the words
and drunk all the things

just one more bite then
and another before May
turns us toward spring

Posted in cats helpful cats, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, haiku, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Day 28 NaPoWriMo 2022

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Mary Beth Frezon

I went to see a talk that was supposed to happen in April 2020. Then it was rescheduled to September 2020 and then April 2021 and then… Well and here we all were at Proctors in Schenectady and out came Neil Gaiman and said – this feels so weird. Indeed when he asked how many had bought their tickets for April 2020, it seemed most of the audience put their hands up.

We were his first stop on a tour to make up all those postponed and rescheduled tour stops (except one at the NY Public Library). He read stories and poems and chatted and answered questions that had been submitted on white cards.

God speed you Neil Gaiman as you “ricochet across the country” many times. Thank you for making it to Schenectady and you’re welcome back any time.

The theater is loud
then a nervous surge passes
Waiting for speaker

Two men behind me
Pontificating on jazz
And dueling concerts

No speaker has appeared
The crowd buzz continuing
So glad to be out.

Afterwards two men
walking behind me dueling
over other talks.

PS someone somewhere in the audience tried to make some weird announcement about having created an algorithm to do something or other. At first I wondered if it was part of the performance – Neil hardly flinched. A couple people allowed loudly that we didn’t care. She started to repeat her message starting with her name and Neil said – look, I’ll be honest, if you do that, you’ll be torn limb from limb… No one laughed and silence resumed and Neil resumed as though nothing had happened.

Pretty amazing stuff right there.

PPS. I got my new fountain pen. It was indeed the one that had been sent to someone else by accident just as I’d gotten their pen by accident (just a mix up in outer sleeve on the packaging). However the other person, once having removed the pen from the plastic wrapper realized the problem and didn’t proceed. My apologies to you unknown zoom nib writer – I was too excited and didn’t know what “Z” stood for.

Posted in Do the Work, fountain pens, geeky stuff, haiku, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, reads, the creative process | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment