I took this picture in my friend’s yard. To me, it was a symbol of renewal. I don’t know what bird built it or if it will ever be used again, but it was beautiful in its starkness. There is beauty in simplicity.
Spring begins, by the calendar, this week. The weather has been unseasonably warm this winter. And with the good always comes the bad – wild fires. They have devastated western Oklahoma lately. But what is devastating to the farmer is a time of renewal for nature.
In keeping with the title of my blogs this year, Something New, I watch nature with a keen eye. My jonquils are dying as my tulips are blooming. I’ve done some spring cleaning in the gardens, but my aging body doesn’t work all day like it used to. I must do it in shifts. Unlike the burned prairies, I doubt my body will renew itself.
A friend and I walked the block-long Art and Food Truck Festival on the still-bricked Maple street in front of Creative Arts of Enid and Leonardo’s. We soaked up the art, sunshine, music, and food as we browsed our way along. I met many friends along the way.
I came home to geranium plants on the front porch – a gift from a neighbor who said “they were on sale.” Thank you, I know they will be lovely all summer.
My husband and I sat on the patio late in the afternoon – dragging out last year’s lawn chairs we sat out back in the sunshine until time to cook a late supper. He’d been traveling for most of the last week and it was a time for renewal for our relationship. The brilliant red of a cardinal on the fence stopped the conversation.
Renewal. Spring is a time when winter has ended and the hot winds of summer have not hit. It is to be enjoyed to the fullest. Time a for a renewal of the spirit.
What did you do this first weekend that was almost spring?
I’ve been in a pulp fiction kind of mood lately. I’ve been re-reading Legends of New Pulp Fiction published by Airship 27 and looking at all the great writing styles. I can’t wait for the New King Kong movie, Kong: Skull Island to come out this week. I think I’ve seen all the Kong movies.
Yesterday was the inaugural Enid Author Fest held at the Enid Public Library. It was a great event! Excitement was in the air as we met other authors and the public. Books were read and sold and friendships renewed – or new ones begun. 
We made new friends and read from our books. The public enjoyed the casual feel of the event as authors read and books were perused. 
It’s coming! The very first Author Fest presented by the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County and the Enid Writers Club will be held on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Forty Oklahoma authors have signed up and will take over the downstairs library that Saturday morning. Many will read from their work and will have their books with them for selling and signing. The fest will be held from 10 am to 3 pm.
It’s coming! The very first Author Fest presented by the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County and the Enid Writers Club will be held on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Forty Oklahoma authors have signed up and will take over the downstairs library that Saturday morning. Many will read from their work and will have their books with them for selling and signing. The fest will be held from 10 am to 3 pm.
My sister once told me she watched me reinvent myself again and again. I reinvent myself, I thought? I had no idea I did that. I guess I get bored easily and want to try new things, but I never thought of it as reinvention.
I needed to get out. Friday was my birthday and I said I wanted a tour of northwest Oklahoma. I needed to see the rolling hills of the prairie, the rocky canyons of Roman Nose, and the lakes of Oklahoma. We made a day trip, took the dog, and traveled from Enid, to Roman Nose, Canton Lake, and then back up to Salt Plains. We made a stop in Fairview for lunch at El Maya (highly recommended) and then back home. The sun shone and the wind blew (it was Oklahoma after all) but for February, the weather was perfect.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be – mountains, beach, desert, in the middle of a forest, or the heart of a big city? Many people would say the beach with the constant ebb and flow of the tide, sea birds screeching overhead, and the smell of saltwater.
A friend gave me a thank you gift after I provided them with food post-op. I never know whether to send a thank you note for a thank you gift. If I do, will they respond in kind and where will it all stop? But it is lovely to look at and reminds me that spring is just around the corner.
Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site 