Patchwork Prose and Verse
The cold front rolled into middle Georgia on Friday night, inviting us to watch movies and be lazy with our three dogs for the weekend. It isn’t often that we’re quite this relaxed and lazy all weekend, but we gave in and did not resist the urge to pile up the blankets and fire up Netflix.
So we did.
Recalibrating
lazy dog weekends
piling up and sleeping in
~ recalibrating ~
Denise Krebs of California is our host for the final day of the October 2026 Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can read her full prompt here. She writes:
I invite you today to find a seventh book anywhere and join me in a fun discovery.
Process
I looked to the seventh shelf, seventh book from the left, and plucked Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge by Gladys Taber and Barbara Webster from the bookcase. The seventh sentence: Even when the mortgage reared its ugly head, we never regretted it and now it is fine to know everything is paid for, our forty acres – although how can man own God’s earth? – and the 1690 farmhouse, and the barn, even the pond, and presumably that cricket chirping endlessly on the hearth is also ours.
I chose a tanka for today and can split the last two lines into two more if I decide on having 7.
Merely Caretakers
how can man own God’s
earth? impossible, for we’re
merely caretakers!
and let’s be real ~ we pretty
much suck at that simple task….
For more information on Gladys Taber and her cozy books, check out A Reader’s Almanac with Celeste on YouTube and search for Gladys Taber’s Cozy Seasonal Books episode. I tried to embed the link here, but sharing has been prohibited by the owner of the channel. Gladys Taber’s books are like stepping into a painting by Currier and Ives and living there for a little while in the days before the world went sour.
Matt Forrest Esenwine is a New Hampshire-based author of a dozen children’s books and our host today for the third day of the October 2026 Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can visit the website and click on Open Write to read his full prompt.
Matt shares his process here:
Here’s all you do: pick an object, any object (most boring object ever – or not!), and begin thinking of ways to describe it. Once you have your list, scan through it and see what words/images/feelings you are drawn to. That’s your basis for your poem.
I’ve been decoupaging candles with pressed wildflowers lately – something my mother taught me how to do, and it keeps her memory close. I decided to write a haiku about the ones I have created. While I’ve been creating some flameless ones for my grandchildren from their birth month flowers to use as nightlights, I think smaller ones placed as seating card holders at a wedding reception would be a lovely wedding favor for guests to take home after gracing the tables with light during the gathering. They look wildly romantic, and the ones with faint pink take my breath away.
Wildflower Candle
decoupaged candle
glowing warmth of wildflowers
emanating light
New Nightlights for My Granddaughers
I’m decoupaging
birthday month flower candles
flameless, as nightlights
The weekend wasn’t without rain (4 inches, according to our rain gauge) from the hurricane here in middle Georgia, but by Sunday afternoon, the temperatures were too pleasant to stay indoors. I brought my paints outside and enjoyed some time sitting on the porch. It was a wonderful time to get a jump start on painting some postcards for next month’s poetry exchange. Some weekends are largely unproductive in terms of getting things done that need to be done. This was one of those.
And that’s okay.
Seventy degrees
Watercoloring weather
Sunday afternoon
I used to love making pressed flowers for bookmarks and decoupaging plain white candles and decorative soaps when I was younger. My mother taught me how to take newspaper and fold it to match the pages of a heavy book and use that as a press. About six weeks later, we’d use tweezers to take the petals and stems and arrange them over a flat surface using Mod Podge. I think our hobby started back in the day when women carried hexagon-shaped wooden purses decoupaged in collage, with tortoise-shelled handles. Macrame purses were all the rage at that time too. As I was looking for some photos of the ones I’d possibly blogged about before, I did a quick search and discovered I had created a list of 50 things I planned to do in retirement from November 2024, and pressing wildflowers was one of them. How did I forget that list? Check it out here. The dream hasn’t changed much!
During the middle of last week, I called my sister in law to see about coming to get some zinnia clippings from her wildflower beds to press between old newspapers. Off I went, clippers in hand, and came home and pressed a paper sack full of greenery and flower petals I’d collected. In 2008, I participated in a teachers’ study along scientists doing research in the field in South Georgia, and I became the owner of my own plant press and field guide for the plant studies of native species. Still, I use newspaper and not the fancy acid-free white poster-thickness paper that we used throughout that summer in Americus, Georgia at the Jones Ecological Research Center.
For the first time, I’m pressing fresh basil, since a recent bouquet gift had an abundance of this fragrant herb. One thing that never changes: native Georgia ferns are my go-to greenery in any arrangement.
I’m marking my calendar for mid-November to check the plant press and create some decoupaged pillar candles for a Thanksgiving centerpiece. As we have lost mothers over the years, we light candles to remember them on Thanksgiving, and this year I have something other than the plain white tea lights in glass jars in mind. 🙂
pressed flower bookmarks
begin with fresh clippings of
native Georgia ferns
pressed flower candles
begin with birthday flowers
to remember moms
After participating in Postcard Poetry Fest during July, I signed up for a smaller group of poetry postcard exchanges for each month of the year. It’s been thrilling seeing all of the ways that members of the group share art and poems. So far, I’ve colored postcards with color pencil, created fabric design postcards and made fall scrapbook sticker poems. I’ve also bought flower fairy postcards and written Have You Ever poems to go with them. I have a local friend who is diving in feet first, and she’d asked me to share some of the poetry ideas of others, so today I’ll do that! Postcard poetry ranges from plain white 3×5 index cards with nothing but black ink and a handwritten poem to elaborate collage work to vintage postcards to the traditional Wish You Were Here cards from various points across the globe. Each brings its own special smile and gets its own spotlight mailbox moment.
Here are some photos of postcards I’ve both sent and received. Proof positive that the smallest gestures, even the size of a postage stamp, can brighten someone’s day in unexpected ways.
If you are interested in becoming part of this group, Barbara Robinette has shared the following information for group members to pass along to others. I hope you will consider joining!
From Barbara:
The Purpose of the Postcard Poetry Group: To form and maintain a poetry community among poets by sharing our poems on postcards on a monthly basis sent through USPS mail. We need to continue to get the word out that we exist. Please invite other poets you know to join PPG by emailing
Barbara Robinette at rosablue722@gmail.com:
By the 30th of each month, I will email everyone the next month’s Name and Address Listing. Rules: Send 1 postcard to 3 (or more) poets of your choosing in either group. If you receive a card from someone you did not send to, please reply with a card. Hopefully, this makes sure everyone receives a postcard poem.
For the month of September, Rattle’s ekphrastic poetry image was the piece below by Frahn Koerner. Find more about the artist here.
What Will Tomorrow Hold?
one foot in
the portal of now
a fluttering
of new life within
stirs, forms,
timestamps passage
into a future realm
what will tomorrow hold?
When we drove a little over half of Route 66 in June 2024 with my husband’s brother and his wife, we took a lot of pictures. One theme emerged early into the trip: brothers on benches. Bethany and I would be shopping in a store or ambling along to check things out in the small towns along the way when one of us would suddenly spy the brothers deep in conversation on a nearby bench. We’d snap a photo just to timestamp the moments of our slow-paced trot across the nation, where the scenery changed by the minute but the desire to just sit and talk never did, no matter the GPS point.
Such is the case this weekend in the mountains of North Georgia on our getaway to celebrate Bethany and Kyle’s birthdays this month. The brothers are still finding benches, no matter where we go. And we’re still capturing the moments in pictures. It’s the conversation and not the landscape that remains the constant.
Brothers on Benches
brothers on benches
solving all the world’s problems
no matter the place
Retirement officially began for me August 1st, and each second and fourth Friday, I’ve begun reflecting on the first year of retirement in two-week windows and what it’s like in this new chapter of life. At the beginning of my first week off, I used a green spiral notebook to make a list of all the things I wanted to do — something enjoyable each week, blending in some new hobbies and routines as well. Friends and family who are still working seemed genuinely curious about what I would do with each day, and that’s what gave me the idea to plan and reflect on the course of my days and adventures. I remember my late father’s words, on retirement: You don’t retire FROM something, you retire TO something, and you’ll be busier than you’ve ever been. He was right, but the busy part is optional, like wearing real clothes on most days instead of my preferred loungewear. And I like having that choice.
Here are some things I’ve enjoyed in my first official eight weeks of retirement, with each being described in detail in previous posts :
1. Mahjong 101
2. Rag Quilting
3. Morning Walking
4. Yoga
5. Friends of the Library Book Fair –
6. Local Bookstore Book Club
7. Summer Reading Poetry Book Club
8. Postcard Poetry Fest
9. Wayfaring to FDR for camping
10. Wayfaring to Margaritaville for a concert
11. Mahjong 102 and Free Play
12. Zinnia Arrangement
13. Fabric Postcards
14. Porch Sitting
15. Lounge Pants Spree
16. Novel Writing with Nick –
17. Kindred Spirits Book Club –
18. Barnes and Noble Virtual Book Club
19. Re-vamping the Reading Room
20. Office Cleanout
21. Monthly Small Postcard Group
22. Watercolor Postcards
23. Labor Day Camping at F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia
24. Dolly Parton Tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee
25. Stafford Challenge Small Group Zoom Meetings
26. Stafford Challenge Writing Workshop
27. Mahjongg Group Formation
28. Almost-Birthday Pedicures with my Sister-In Law
29. Lunch with Friends
Here are the the most recent things I’ve added to my list of 100 Things I’m Enjoying in Retirement:
30. Camping at Vogel State Park – We camped in the North Georgia mountains near Neel Gap along the Appalachian Trail. We managed to avoid the “problem bear” that had been frequenting site 52. Whew! We enjoyed sitting outside in the cooler temperatures and listening to the stream that ran behind our campsite.
31. Hiking the Appalachian Trail – I attempted this one, but took it off the list after setting out thinking that if Grandma Gatewood could do it, so could I. After a mere 36 seconds, I realized I was wrong. Even our recent hike to check in when we went to F. D. Roosevelt State Park took it out of me when I tried hiking mountainous terrain. I like flat, home-based, safe treadmill hiking best.
32. Daytripping for Lunch and Small Town Adventuring – My husband and I experienced Blairsville like locals by visiting the county library to ask where to eat and what to see.
33. Mahjong in Blairsville, Georgia – After realizing it would be challenging to go for days without playing Mahjong with a group, I reached out to a group leader in Blairsville for information on their open group play and joined them for a few hands, even Mahjonging with a consecutive run and getting to pick a trinket (a tiny seal) from their treasure box.
34. Kindred Spirits September Book Club – We read The Sideways Life of Denny Voss by Holly Kennedy as our September selection and set a date for a January getaway to a cabin for some girl time pajama reading.
35. Hosting Open Write – One writing community that sustains me is the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. I enjoy writing with them monthly and also hosting a couple of times a year as well. I hosted one day during the month of September and will host again in 2027 during April. My reading and writing communities mean so very much to me.
36. Fall Baking – I was having the ladies over to play Mahjong on the first day of fall, so to welcome autumn, we celebrated with fall foods. I baked pumpkin bread and banana walnut bread, and I even wore my favorite fall apron! The whole house smelled of cinnamon and spice, and the vibe was that kind you wish you could keep all year long. I’ve always wanted a slow-paced fall baking day just to call a baking day.
I’m freezing some of the pumpkin bread to take with us to a cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. We’re leaving on Saturday, and we’re going on a special excursion that I’ll share on the next Retirement Adventure countdown……
At the end of the second month, I’m more than a third of the way through my list of 100 Things.
Does this mean I need
to slow down?Heck, no. Not this
girl! Full steam ahead!
