29 September 2023 (choosing)

choosing family . . .

waxwings gather among

mountain ash berries

5 May 2022 (niece)

my niece

blooming in her own way . . .

birch catkins

13 February 2021 (masks)

masked walk

I mistake my niece’s eyes

for my sister’s

8 October 2020 (rainbow)

family phone call

my niece interrupted

by a rainbow

19 February 2020 (silverware)

With apologies to my mother:

family dinner

I find fault

with the silverware

June 16: Family Crow

Crows with their fledglings.

My father points them out

while we're driving.

Posted with Blogsy

December 25: Christmas moon

Full moon on Christmas

made magical by dawn mist--

I miss my family.

Posted with Blogsy

November 26: Thanksgiving Day

Before the family feast

I beat a nine-year-old

at the Game of Life.

Posted with Blogsy

August 2: Visitors

Three skunks tumble
along the newly-mown path.
We three watch from inside.

April 6: March Madness

Watching basketball

the cancer patient

aligns all his pill bottles.

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February 20: Birthday

The Chinese Year of the Sheep began yesterday, and today I begin a new turn around the sun. The way a new year begins always feels auspicious. I have a good feeling about this one. We celebrated Chinese New Year with tea and dumplings in a sunny Portland cafe yesterday, and again last night with more dumplings (and cocktails) with good friends at Empire. This morning began with breakfast on the go from Standard Baking Co., which I ate while tromping around the frigid Portland waterfront looking for white-winged gulls with a birder friend--an outing puncuated by calls from my mother and sister singing "Happy Birthday." The white wings of Iceland Gulls shone in the sun, seals surfaced nearby, crows chased a Red-tailed Hawk overhead, a Peregrine stood sentinel on the Casco Bay Bridge, and all is right in my world.

A new year starts well:

coffee and croissant,

gulls along the snowy pier.

Update: And my birthday closed with a brilliant conjunction of the young Moon, Venus, and Mars in the southwest sky... All signs point to yes.

Posted with Blogsy