Good Globe Everyone Everywhere all over the Worlds from Team Blue in Virginia.
Here the coffee is hot. The weather, at sixteen degrees F outside, is not.
But my boots came yesterday. Things are Okay, and that’s the way we like it.
Yesterday, I got my haircut. It is cut in a lightly layered pattern, which allows it to fall over the back of my head in curls, with a lightly feathered look on the sides.
I’m probably not doing a great job at describing. It is cut so that it curls just above my collar, and the best part is that it stays out of my face without me needing to pull it up into any sort of hair tie.
I got so sick of having to keep up with those things. Then, standing for at least 5 minutes with my arms up and behind me became a painful chore I dreaded each day.
The hair I’d loved as a girl had to go. I knew it but had a tough time letting go.
Finally, yesterday morning something snapped. And I declared “Enough! Is Enough! One of us must go. Hair or me.”
I won.
I’ve not had a chance to run these through an AI describer, but if you wish, you’re welcome to do so.
I feel great. This morning, when I got out of the shower, all I had to do was dab a little hair jell onto my fingers, shape my curls and done.
It took less than 2 minutes and there was no scurrying to find a hair tie. No standing with my hands up and behind me until the pain came. It’s glorious!
It cost ten dollars, with a five-dollar tip and I didn’t have to leave the building.
Yesterday afternoon I got pictures done and then slipped in on the last part of bingo. We were already down there, so I figured, why not?
After bingo, we made our way outside into the deep freeze and Blue did an extra bit of business.
Whenever we’re having extreme weather, I try, when possible, to get extra breaks in. Most times, a dog will go. I do that because there are times when I need Blue’s relief time to be a bit earlier in the evening so I give free water all day in his bowl, but after his evening feeding, I begin to limit water, which means I fill the bowl so that only a slight bit of water covers the bottom of the bowl. Then I dump a few ice cubes in and that’s all the water I allow until the next day.
In the extremely cold temperatures, the outside areas become deserted as the time for the doors to be locked draws near. I feel it’s best we are not out later than 7:30 or 8. I prefer 7 to 7:30 but that takes careful managing during the day. We have been doing it this week.
Blue works a lot for me even if we don’t leave the apartment property. When we leave our rooms, he is always in his harness and working so he does not mind. After he goes out for his last time when it’s cold and dark. HE can be found curled up asleep in one of his many soft beds.
As I sit here in the warmth of quilts, pillows, stuffies real and toys snuggled round me Blue stretches, then curls himself around my legs, and snoozes until the Alexa rings 7:00 AM
I will be glad to see spring.
I will be glad to see spring
I’ve had enough of cold
I will be glad to see spring
feel the lovely weight of sunshine on my face
takes us out of this place
this place of winter
of cold
of death
of old
I long to remove
to remove and renew
hear children playing in the park
laughter
squabbles
giggling
screaming
running of feet
sounds from spring come to life
later when the band plays
the sun’s gone down on another beautiful day
the sky is velvet
covered in stars
planets
Jupiter
Mars
Moonshine
lights the way
down into sleep
hear the pronouncement
spring is near
hear
babbling of the creek
when morning comes and the sun rises again
another day of spring emerges
yay
ready to grow
live
win
spring comes
we begin again
☀️🥰🍨👏💖☀️’
AD: Wild With Life A Collection of Mother Earth Poetry
Wild with Life
A collection of Mother Earth poetry
by Charles Portolano
Editor of The Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry
Knowing I am wild with life
but once
on this gift we have been given,
this precious gift that we have
been given guardianship of…
“These poems are written by a seasoned poet who has reached the pinnacle of his art with a recognizable and moving voice. The sections of the book invited me instantly in to share their secrets: WHERE TREES RUN WILD, WILD WAYS OF WATER. THE WILD AMONG US, OUR WILDEST TERRAINS, LOVING THE WILD, and SAVING WHAT’S WILD. The underlying driving force is of course the notion of wildness and all that we have lost by destroying it.
Charles edits the highly-successful nature journal, THE AVOCET, a must for nature loving poets and writers.”- Christine Swanberg, Poet Laureate of Rockford, Il.
“In Wild with Life, Charles Portolano has deepened his engagement with the natural world he began so movingly in his earlier works. It is a noble, ambitious, and moving work.”- Joel Savishinsky – Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus in the Social Sciences, Ithaca College
Just $15.00, which includes postage, for 90 pages of pure love for our Mother Earth.
Please make out your check to The Avocet and send to:
The Avocet
P. O. Box 19186
Fountain Hills, AZ 85269
To contact us: cportolano@hotmail.com