Luanne Castle: Poetry and Other Words (and cats!)

Lots of ideas for blog posts have crossed my mind lately. Then they have kind of walked in reverse back out of my mind. Everything seems “deeper” than I can handle currently. You should see how cute Kana is sleeping next to me, by the way. I figured out how to keep her from annoying Tiger who sleeps in the corner of the window seat: I put a big piece of two way tape across the opening where Kana would lie to ~~intimidate~~ comfort Tiger. Tiger can walk over the tape to get to her safety spot, but Kana can’t lie there without discomfort. So far, so good!

I just noticed that the two hibiscus bushes that flank my front door have gone in different directions this year. In the past, they looked very similar. But look at them now! Let’s call this one A.

And this one will be B.

Hibiscus B has a thick head of dark, glossy leaves, but few blossoms. Hibiscus A is rich in blossoms, but the foliage is lighter-colored, less shiny, and sparse.

Maybe something went awry in the gardening (see my live-in gardener about that).

Or maybe it’s a metaphor. If we’re busy making leaves, we don’t have enough energy left for blossoms. And if we’re sprouting blossoms like crazy we neglect our leaves?

What have I been up to lately besides work? Well, more work. And some writing. And doctor appointments–catch up time of the year, ya know.

Only question is: am I producing leaves or flowers right now?

I’ve got some writing projects going on right now that have time constraints. Writing my book is mainly an open-ended, not-time-schedule-driven endeavor, but other writing must get done by the deadlines (real and self-imposed). Still, I can’t write for too long a period at a time as I get burned out really fast. Lucky for me, it’s spring and there are a lot of reasons to pull out my camera.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store with my husband. While I followed him out (he had parked after dropping me off, so I didn’t know where the car was), I caught sight of the church next door. The sunlight was shining through the super-cool and at-risk-for-demolition thingie on top of the building. So I pulled out my always-handy camera and started snapping shots. When I was done, I kept walking to the car. That’s when I heard a honking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind me. It was hubby, watching me walk mindlessly in the wrong direction.

When I got in the car laughing hysterically at myself, he (lovingly) said, “You’re such a nerd. Who do you think you are? Georgia O’Keeffe?”

I said NO because everybody knows that Georgia O’Keeffe was a painter and photography model, not a photographer. (Ok, I admit that’s just me being a smart mouth. I am–as you can see–no photographer, but I am a nerd with a camera, and that’s all I aspire to be).

In keeping with O’Keeffe’s paintings of flowers and of Arizona, here are the flowers I saw this week: