Category: Nature

Nothing to Laugh At

~ Christine Goodnough ~ Leave a comment

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is PROTEST

For my response I’ll give you the first two verses of this four-verse epic by Edgar Guest.

NOTHING TO LAUGH AT

‘Taint nothin’ to laugh at as I can see!
If you’d been stung by a bumble bee
an’ your nose was swelled an’ it smarted, too,
you wouldn’t want people to laugh at you.
If you had a lump that was full of fire,
like you’d been touched by a red hot wire
an’ your nose spread out like a load of hay,
you wouldn’t want strangers who come your way
to ask you to let the see the place
an’ laugh at you right before your face.

What’s funny about it, I’d like to know?
It isn’t a joke to be hurted so!
An’ how was I ever on earth to tell
that the pretty flower which I stooped to smell
in our backyard was the very one
which a bee was busily working on?
An’ just as I got my nose down there
he lifted his foot an’ kicked for fair,
an’ he planted his stinger right into me
But it’s nothin’ to laugh at as I can see.

😦

From his book, The Collected Works of Edgar A Guest
© 1934 by the Reilly & Lee Company

Prairie Sunset

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 12 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is BARK

I considered this from various angles, now here’s my response:

Prairie Sunset

I may have journeyed far and wide,
viewed many sights of worth;
I still call a prairie at sunset
the prize-winning scene on earth.

A ring of fire as the sun dips low
blushing the clouds on high
while waves of mauve and coral
wash over the western sky

In the dusk the bark of a coyote,
a nighthawk’s winnowing flight,
the sleepy coos of mourning doves
as twilight turns to night.

Is 60kmph Breezy?

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 7 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is BREEZY.
Sue’s Jibber Jabber prompt is SEE

Our weather was doing “breezy” earlier this morning. Now the wind has stepped up some and to me it seems more like “gale.” What do you think? Would you still call winds 40 kmph with gusts up to 60 kmph — 26, gusts to 39mph — breezy? Or downright windy?

With dark gray clouds moving in, it feels like we went from June to the end of September in a day. However, looking out my window I see the lilacs are in bloom and robins are foraging on the lawn. When I was out I heard wrens singing from branches beside their little birdhouses. And I have a number of itchy insect bites after my planting session yesterday. So there’s no doubt about the season.

Years ago the poet Helen Hunt Jackson wrote:
O suns and skies and clouds of June,
and flowers of June together
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather.

To each his own, they say. Bug bites notwithstanding, I’ll take June.

H. Tulips

A Blooming Wonder

~ Christine Goodnough ~ Leave a comment

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is BLOOM

Where we live, this is definitely the season for blooming. Flowering trees and shrubs, including the chokecherries in the woods beside us, are blossoming in preparation for another summer of production. Spring bulbs are blooming; gardeners are setting out bedding plants.

However, my mind went to another kind of blooming. I’m sure you all have stood on a sunny day and watched the cumulus clouds above you expand and change.

Cloud.AlexasFotos
Image by Alexas_Fotos at Pixabay

I have, and I find observing that process of change fascinating. Before my eyes they seem to bloom. Little white lumps spreading up and out — it’s like watching the time-lapse of a cauliflower developing.

Thoughts are like that in a way — at least mine are. I see a writing prompt and ideas start to form. This morning I chanced to hear another blogger and fellow Christian speaking about the importance of sharing facets of godly wisdom by means of storytelling, and brainwaves started to billow. (Click here to listen to his inspiring talk.)

Thinking of sharing our inspirations, and how ideas and wisdom circulate, I wrote this verse two days ago:

She left a thought that echoed;
her friends bounced it around.
It wasn’t meant to shake the world
but still it seemed profound.

It resonated with her friends
and spread from ear to ear;
whenever it seemed fitting
someone was bound to hear.

It spread to their descendants
this bit of wisdom kind;
it lightened many labors,
eased many a troubled mind.

They were not so outstanding,
those words that soothed one fretter,
but her homespun bit of wisdom
made all our lives the better.

Take care everyone, and don’t be afraid to share your bit of life-learned wisdom today. Who knows but what it may bless many other lives.

Of Spider Webs & Goose Down

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 1 Comment

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is GOSSAMER.

If you’ve taken the time to check out this word over at Merriam-Webster, you’ll find that it has an interesting etymology. Gossamer comes from “goose summer,” a time that would roughly correspond to our Indian Summer. And not because they were flying south, but because they’re at their plumpest for the roasting pan.

Gossomer was also the Middle English word used to describe filmy cobwebs floating through the air in calm clear weather, apparently because somebody thought the webs looked like the down of a goose. If you see them in the early morning on the grass, wet with dew, you could almost think of down.

Today we use it as a rather poetic synonym for thin, light, flimsy, filmy. As in:
The weary travelers sighed for some break in the heat, but the gossamer wisps above offered no relief.

Potluck Offering

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 7 Comments


robin joins
our impromptu picnic
brings the sushi

🙂

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Messin’ and learnin’…

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