Radishes and Prayer Wheels: Looking for Something New

Seen on my walk: a startled Little Library

These are strange times. Maybe even startling times. Are we all doing a few things we’ve never done before? Sure we are. Social distancing? New to me.  Zoom-ing instead of having a cuppa coffee with a friend? Never heard of Zoom before all this.  Wiping down the groceries before adding them to the pantry? Never done that before, definitely not, nope. Strange, strange.

Seed packets a little worse for wear….

But also, for the first time in my life, I’m planting a kitchen garden: broccoli, kohlrabi, gold and red beets, orange and red carrots, radishes, four kinds of peas (I’m sure there’s a poem in that list somewhere.. or there will be by the time the seeds germinate.)  Before sundown tomorrow I’ll have the cilantro, parsley, basil, and lettuce in. If I have room, I’ll spread some snapdragon seeds. The sun’s been out – there’s been no rain in our neck of the woods since April 1st –  that’s seventeen days! (Even the weather is doing new things!) So I’ve been in my garden with a shovel, a hoe, a bucket for the weeds, a sieve for the dirt, a trowel, some twine, and my seed packets.  I’m not just thinking about planting flowers and vegetables – I’m doing it. That’s new.

I’m  also going for (not just thinking about going for) a daily neighborhood walk.. My  post today is filled with some of the strange, sweet, mysterious, hilarious and beautiful things I saw as I walked three blocks north on Williams St., two blocks west on Illinois, five blocks south on Henry, two blocks east on Washington, and two blocks north again on Williams, back to the Little Yellow House that my husband and I call home. There were a few detours down alleys, to be honest. Irresistible. I love alleys.

Little Yellow House – my home base.

I wrote a poem after I came home from my walk. That often feels like the right thing to do if I’ve been looking carefully at the world around me. If you’re looking for something new to do and you’ve never written a poem, how about using some of the photographs I took as a springboard to a poem of your own? If you have kids at home who are looking for new things to do, how about getting outside with them, walking, photographing, going home and writing stories or poems of their own about what they saw? Try for the littlest or strangest or most unusual discoveries you find, things you only see if you linger a bit, things you see up in a tree or at your feet, on a fence post or down an alley. And please, share them with me in the Comments section below.

Is it a spaceship – or is it a butterfly ?

A Buddhist prayer wheel – “Always spin clockwise.”

Bicycle in a tree (sign supporting local whistle-blower, Dr. Ming Lin)

A gate made of animals….

Three ceramic balls in a cement leaf….

Bottles (and a glass chicken!) on bare branches…..

A flower-filled sink in the dirt…

Lightning hits the sidewalk….

Red fence, white blossoms….

Goose and Duck waiting for the rocks to hatch….

Message from our neighbors (notice the yellow house, blue door….)

Sometimes it’s comforting to stay inside and do familiar things. Other times, it’s exciting to try something new. Plant some kohlrabi and carrots, or head three blocks this way, five blocks that way, savor the creativity of your neighbors, take a few photographs. Then write a poem.