Showing posts with label ice-storm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice-storm. Show all posts

Monday, April 16, 2018

Prisoner of Winter






 After a few power-outages,  I think the worst is over, but who knows for sure, this year!!
Our 'pushed snow' pile from Sat. Sun. & Mon is bigger than any pile we had  all winter


There’s no escape from the glistening mass
Capturing earth in a prison of glass

Heave-ho, the cisterns of heaven have drained
…dances of branches ensconced and restrained

Creaking and aching beneath silver stress
Nature’s back breaking with every breath

Hope, like harpoon we aim at the sky
Begging the boreal beast to pass by

Ruffling the feathers of junco and finch
Tossed by a ruffian refusing to flinch

Mortal is helpless against elements
Casting and crushing landscapes in ice tents

Torn between beauty and brokenness, oh,
April surrenders to splendors of snow

Spring, held captive in a glass-castle dome
While Old Man Winter makes himself at home

© Janet Martin

Weather like this keeps the shutter-bug a-gasp/aghast with delight and dismay!





Mild afternoon temps have relieved the trees of a lot of their beauty/ burden!

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Sometimes I Feel Like a Foolish Virgin...or Humbly Happy


*“Sometimes I feel like a foolish virgin” I remarked as we scrambled about collecting extension cords, looking for flashlights, dashed to Drayton for gas for the generator etc.. …
but I’m so thankful, since the kids are older these storms are not quite as stressful as they used to be.
Jim usually misses out on the 'excitement'.
Due to his breakdown a few days ago he is trying to make it home in time for a
(Hopefully-will-happen) Easter dinner with his family that we are hosting tomorrow!)

 While gathering extension cords it reminded me of a power-outage, likely 20+ years ago, when our best-neighbor-in-the-world connected enough cords to reach from his generator to our house so the girls could have a night-light and listen to their 
Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round cassette to go to sleep! 
Some kindnesses we NEVER forget! 
(like coffee and hot chocolate and pop delivered to our back door, 
like come-use-our-shower-microwave-coffeemaker etc!)
Thank-you Bill and Patty!
 

That's the thing about trouble; it makes us remember…

Makes me humbly count my ‘happy’
Makes me take stock of the rest
Like the trucker on the highway
And the birdie in its nest

And the people not so ‘lucky’
As to have a ‘home-sweet-home
Makes me turn my little thank-you
Into a prayer and/or poem

Makes me contemplate ‘possibly’
How the wise keep lamps prepared
While the foolish rummage madly
…procrastination-despaired

Makes me think upon the kindness
Of good neighbors and good friends
And the second-mile stretched highways
That it seems trouble extends

Makes me humbly count my ‘happy’
Makes me try not to forget
To try harder to be ready
For the storm not unleashed... yet

© Janet Martin

'Possibly' is Procrastination's best ally!
There is one For Sure we cannot afford to procrastinate!!

*Matt 25:1-13
 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

I bought this flashlight the other day, hoping to keep mine from going missing on 'pirate ships, under-the-couch-cushion camp-outs, and other kiddo-adventures;-) 


Humbled Hopers/Grumblers


We are under a huge ice-storm warning!
Already a hellion rages at our windows, while
We put flashlights and candles where we can find them in the dark,
 hoping against hope we won’t need them!!


 It has begun so hope rearranges its 'prayer-list' and puts new prayers to the forefront...
...for safety and strong hydro-lines!

Ah, turn that dial to a sky-smile
Ice is such a hellion
Or turn the rain to snow again
And I promise we won’t complain

But now we’d settle for the nettle
Of a snowflake’s kinder cold

Nature shudders beneath rudders
Of a wild wind's wilful roar
Humbled wishing wants ‘The Something’
That we whined about before

© Janet Martin

Some reminders why we're apprehensive... 
Sinister beauty!

April 2013

 Dec.2013

 
  Feb. 2016


Mar. 2016




 We lost our beloved red  maple tree!