Author: Becky

Photo Friday, No. 929

Current Photo Friday theme: Market

Outdoor urban farmers’ market near St. Thomas University, taken September 2014. These markets are scattered throughout Houston as part of Plant It Forward (PIF). The organization empowers refugees to develop sustainable urban farming businesses that produce fresh, healthy food. PIF secures land, trains and mentors farmers, and facilitates sales to local markets. PIF farms are cultivated with sustainable practices that enrich the land and support the surrounding community.

Abyss


I didn’t date the poem below, so I don’t know when I wrote it. Can’t even be sure what prompted it (other than its suggestion in this book). It’s possible I’ve put it on this site before without using the right tag to find it again. If I don’t remember sharing it, I feel confident no one else will, either!

I was glancing through different places where I can find poems I’ve written, including the “Write The Poem” book, and I realized how often the below phrase, taken from a source on Instagram, is true of my poetry.

“They” say real people from our lives who we write into fiction don’t recognize themselves. I think that’s possibly even truer with poetry. As a form of self-expression, we can generalize in writing things we don’t want a specific person to hear. In my case, it’s usually to express my own pain without causing pain to someone else. Sometimes, however, my lyrics may be coming from one of my characters instead of myself. There are a lot of voices in my head. That can make it tricky for readers.

I’ve known other writers who use words as weapons, most often in essays, but sometimes in their fiction and poems (songs included). How we choose to express our honesty often reveals more about the writer/speaker than the “target.”

ETA: I just learned today is National Poetry Day. Timely.

Mushroom House

Too many days of death and disaster in the world. Wars. Politics. Hurricanes. I’m weary.

Tonight I needed to do something to wind down before bed. Despite having a shelf packed full of coloring books, I looked online for free downloadable coloring pages, knowing something would be easy and appeal to me sooner or later.


“Kawaii Mushroom House” from momlovesbest.com. When it was finished and I went to put it in my book of collected coloring pages, I realized I didn’t color at all in September. Movies. Books. Life. I’m glad I did this tonight. Sometimes a person just needs a cozy little fantasy.

Regarding my creative output, October’s the month I post every day on Instagram, which is not at all my usual practice. Every October for years, I’ve brought out the skeletons Lord Cuttlebone and his nephew Ambrose to pose them in photos. We’re two days in now. Music is my 2024 theme. Even if you clicked the Instagram link on the right and got to my feed, when I do that, I’m not hearing the music I add to the posts. I can only hear it when I access Instagram via my phone. I don’t know what’s up with that.

Sunday Sundries

Inspired by another Word Search Puzzle, I pulled books from my shelves that feature some of my favorite cartoon characters. I think for most of the early part of my life, Peanuts would have been the cartoon or comic I knew best. Since I’ve featured Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and friends many times, many ways on this website, I don’t feel at all bad that I don’t have any Peanuts books. (I do have a set of cartoons I took out of one of my mother’s books from the 1960s, but I’m not sure where those are.) My Christmas ornaments, old refrigerator magnets, and many other random items feature Peanuts characters. Even the housewarming present our realtor gave us when we closed on Houndstooth Hall was…

As an older child, I read the comics in our Sunday newspapers: Dagwood and Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Family Circus, Prince Valiant, Mary Worth, Dennis the Menace, Pogo, Heathcliff, Garfield, Boondocks, For Better or Worse–the list could go on, because I read all of them in the paper, even the ones that weren’t funny or I didn’t really like/appreciate at that age. OH, and the Love Is couple!

When I became friends with Lynne at age twelve, I was introduced to comic books, because she had so many: Archie and the full Riverdale cast, Casper and Wendy, Little Lulu, Richie Rich, Pink Panther.


Later, these became some of my favorites, which is why I have books of several: Doonesbury, The Far Side, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and Foxtrot. Some of of these, and some from the categories listed earlier, I still read via my Instagram feed.

Below is the puzzle that started me on this topic, and from its list, I read these (not already mentioned): Cathy, Dilbert, Mutts, Hi and Lois, Marmaduke, and maybe a couple of others.

Do you still read or follow cartoons, comics, or the funny papers? Which are your favorites?

Saturday fun

Last night as I was falling asleep, forcing myself not to think about the chapter in the Neverending Saga that has given me so much trouble, my brain suggested, “Fix the chapter BEFORE the one you’re working on.”

So I went back and eviscerated that chapter. Time will tell if it was the right choice, but I pondered my next move, next chapter while I played this game.

I finished in record time because author names will always jump out at me. If they’re there to find, that is. I worked longest looking for “Bronte,” until I finally glanced at the word list and realized Bronte wasn’t on it.

Something is wonky with our cable today. Since Tim isn’t home tonight, Tom and Eva went to his place to watch the Alabama-Georgia football game with Pollock. Meanwhile, Debby’s watching it at her place. I was in the mood for a little baking, so I took them both a sampling of my results.


Sausage and cheese balls are an ideal snack for football viewing. I have a big salad to eat, but I’ll definitely eat some of these, too.

Time for me to get back to see if changes in Chapter 14 will help my progress on Chapter 15.

These hurricane updates

It’s so hard to watch the updates on Hurricane Helene and think of all the friends and family we know and love in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Coastal living and climate change are a scary combination.


Hurricane Helene view from International Space Station/X via Reuters

ETA on 9/28: Asheville, North Carolina, photos show unthinkable damage from flooding.

Home at the movies, etc.

Recently I read an article featuring a well-known actor/director/filmmaker because I’ve always loved not only watching movies, but learning about the creative and business aspects of making them. This particular article wasn’t about this person’s celebrity but was more focused on how independent film  processes, particularly marketing and distribution, have changed from last century to this one. The way I use this kind of information fictionally has included many facets of filmmaking, especially in the Neverending Saga in all its iterations through the decades. Sometimes my writing spills over into fictional television and live theatre. But primarily, the Saga includes two independent filmmakers woven into many of my other characters’ plotlines.

Including August 10, the day I decided to spend the rest of summer watching RomComs (mostly on my own DVDs, but at least two streaming), until September 22, when I declared RomCom Summer at an end (44 days?), I watched fifty-nine movies. It turned out not all of them were romantic comedies, and some were sadder than I remembered. Two of them I’d never watch again; that reflects no judgment as to their merit. Odds are all movies can’t appeal to me, and both these movies were first-time views for me.

In normal times, I wouldn’t dream of watching that much of anything–movies, television, videos, or even listening to podcasts (I rarely do podcasts; I’m not sure why). However, these weren’t normal months, and rather than constantly berate myself for the reasons why I couldn’t/wouldn’t write, I scheduled those movies around appointments, errands, dog care, household and family responsibilities, and a few hours-long phone calls with a couple of friends.


During this time, I’d also picked up two word puzzle books. Though I flipped through them and picked puzzles at random, over time, I realized I was defaulting to movie-related puzzles. Between the two puzzle books, there are many more movie-related puzzles remaining, as well as tons of other subjects, that I haven’t done, and this at least was slightly less passive entertainment. While I did film-related puzzles, I was also thinking of future writing for my Saga characters.

In fact, to deal with my frustration over daily news stories, I actually created my own puzzle. It took a few hours over three days, and I won’t share it in a public forum, but behind a cut, I will share the movie and theatre puzzles I completed from these books. You’ll likely see future completed puzzles if I relate them to photos I have or activities around Houndstooth Hall.

Continue reading “Home at the movies, etc.”