MARCH SO FAR

March

2019

Calendar 

by Valerianna Claff

"The act of painting for me is ritual and prayer, an invocation to the spirit of the wild places to mend the broken threads of our belonging."

Thirteen haunting water color paintings
available at
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RavenWoodStudios?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

~*~

Friday March First
Coming back from a trip to Trader Joe,
Plumes of white smoke billow across the sky.
What from and Why?
Unknown

~*~

Saturday March Second
Light snow overnight

Drying Sage for burning

To the post office with Monthly bill payments
Noticing as I strolled with my companion cane
The View that Is

Remembering
The view that once Was

So much Loss
*
Cooking at Home, though my appetite is suppressed, I know I must eat.
><
Local news informs me of several exploded sewer covers on fire in Queens, with one setting wires overhead sparking. Everything had to be turned off while police, fire and con Edison work to extinguish the blazes and restore the neighborhood. The photographs are terrifying. I google Manhole Fires and find this has been going on all over town for years due to the erosion of salt used to melt snow. There have been deaths and injuries. Enough. I turn away from news.
*
8 p.m. 
Below me a party erupts and grows.
Heavy on the base music vibrates my wall and playful shrieks set the little Pomeranian barking hysterically.
11 p.m
I slip a note under their door:

Oppressive!
Intrusive!
Please turn the base way down.
Be kind to your neighbors.

Shortly, argumentative conversation drifts up and the music is lowered but, the base still invades, exacerbating my sinus pain. Just as I was preparing to make the 311 official noise complaint call,
they were gone.
 S-I-L-E-N-C E
I plugged in to my earbuds to Listen:
Krishna Das Satsaing

Live from Kripalu via my Face Book
*
You can Listen if you Wish
https://www.facebook.com/KrishnaDasMusic/videos/591081461363798/UzpfSTEwMDAwNDM1NjcyOTYwOToxMjUzMTg0NjA4MTcwMDg1/
*
Outside the back alley window,
a Mourning Dove Coos

https://youtu.be/u0LKPT1u1E8 
*
I've been unwell too long
 just keep pushing through

Flu late December with MD consult, exhaustion through January, Rallying and failing through February. Postponed trip to Massachusetts twice and now I wonder if I'll make it on the rescheduled 19th?
><
Current Helpers
plus steaming with herbs
 
My unmade Bed with Heating Pad.
Although we have Heat, I need more.
Ice-pack on my eyes. I succumb to sleep.

~*~

Sunday March Third
Sunny Morning

STORM
It opened with sleet at 5:30 p.m. and continued through 4 a.m. Monday morning. Schools are closed and folks are being urged to stay home, though it looks to me not to be the giant we were expecting-5 inches in the Metropolitan area. It's already melting odd my fire escape and our street was cleared throughout the night because of the police precinct.

 Meanwhile, I'm quite a bit better. Still sniveling and sneezing but no more sinus infection or ache.

Thursday Mammal Muse LAVENDER, HEMP and LEMON BALM

Mammal Muse

Collage "Forever" by N.A.

1.
Lavender, Hemp, and Lemon balm

Lavender, Hemp, and Lemon balm

there's the charm:

 braids are made,

a moment 's frozen.

It's warm inside suspended time.

A waking dream, what isn't seen,

what can't be cloven:

whole cloth well woven.

"Whats mine is thine and thee is mine,"

the warp said to the woof.

Now, babe is cradled, soup ladled

from every pot, and every time.


A waking dream, what isn't seen,

what can't be cloven:

whole cloth well woven.

2.

Snail Mail Delivers A Gift
from Deanna

Linen Silk - Velvet Silk - Habotai Silk

Inspired me to dust off some Acrylics
with thoughts of a banner scarf to come

My  cluttered studio in half light,

awaiting the wandering worker,

but for tonight,  an old tune,

  'parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme",

Sleep, and dream.

3.

"The Elfin Knight"

 A traditional Scottish folk ballad
of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences,
and the commission to perform impossible tasks.

This version is from the artist Joel Frederiksen.

He says:

Are you going to Nottingham fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there;
For once she was a true-love of mine.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Without any seam or needlework
For once she was a true-love of mine.

Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Where never spring-water nor rain ever fell
For once she was a true-love of mine.

Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born
For once she was a true-love of mine.

She says:

Now he has asked me questions three,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
I hope he will answer as many for me;
For once he was a true-love of mine

She then goes on to to pose a challenging task:

that he find her a house between the ocean and land

to plow with an oxen horn, and  build her a garden on.

You can easily guess the ending: One thing led to another.

You could write your own version.

But first, here is the best version ever, made more sweet
because it took place in my back yard!
Thank You Deanna