The brilliant colors of these anemones make me happy! Sadly, I forgot what the “greens” looked like in early spring and pulled up many new shoots. Oops! I will remember for next year though. Despite ME, they grew brilliantly. So joyful!
Photo by Angie Quantrell
Yakima Valley
where did you come from?
you pretty pinks and purples,
garden beauty reigns
beauty reigns by Angie Quantrell
photo by Angie Quantrell
Yakima Valley
I have no memory of planting these gorgeous garden queens. In fact, the colors are so brilliant the flowers seem artificial. But they are real, bugs and all. And apparently, prolific seeds and all, because these returned from last summer, and the summer before that. My best guess is there must have been some seeds in the packets of wildflowers I once spread hither and yon. They grow crazy all summer, and then by late summer, bam, crowds of beauty.
Joy. My word of the year. I’ve been finding joy, conversations about joy, unexpected joy, memes and verses about joy, joyful thoughts, actual joy, songs about joy, poems, faces that express joy! What a joy!
I took this photo at night with my phone camera. The stars were so brilliant, but it was quite breezy and the sunflowers danced to the rhythm of the wind gusts. Still. The stars were gorgeous pinpricks of light, and the movement of the sunflowers so graceful. I love this photo.
Photo by Angie Quantrell, Yakima Valley, summer night
How Do You Haiku?: A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates
Written by Danna Smith
Plumbago Press
September 1, 2023
Happy book birthday to How Do You Haiku?: A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates! Congratulations, Danna! I’m so excited to read this book.
Not only because I was one of the contributors (I am truly honored to included) . . .
(the following list is taken from Danna’s book page on Amazon)
Includes haiku by contributing poets Kate Coombs, Nancy Etchemendy, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Raven Howell, Linda Hoffman Kimball, Amy Losak, Bobi Martin, Angie Quantrell, Sydell Rosenberg, Lee Wardlaw, and Linda Whalen.
but because I LOVE haiku. I love writing haiku, being outside in nature, finding amazing natural wonders, taking photos, and coming back home to pen haiku about my discoveries.
PLUS. This is a how-to book. With templates. Whoohoo! What a great resource!
Amazon Blurb:
An excellent resource for at home or in the classroom
From the author of Peek-A-Boo Haiku (Simon & Schuster) comes a haiku how-to handbook. Haiku is a Japanese poetry form, but it’s more than just a short, three-line poem. It’s an opportunity to slow down, go outside, and experience the world in a new way. Haiku is a “snapshot” of a moment in nature (if you blink, you might miss it!), and it’s a powerful way to show compassion for all living things.
This book will help you understand haiku so you can create poems with powerful words and images. Each chapter contains examples from Japanese haiku masters and current poets. The included activities and templates will guide you through fun ways to “haiku,” including painting poem stones for your garden (Kuhi), creating haiku comic strips, and writing group poems with your friends (Renga). How Do You Haiku? This handbook will show you how— step-by-step.
Congratulations, Danna!
Danna Smith is a poet and award-winning author of over twenty-five books for children.
When she was young, a pencil was her favorite toy. She grew up weaving words into silly poems or stories that sparked emotion. She wrote her first poem when she was eight, her first short story when she was ten, and her first picture book draft when she was seventeen.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, she currently lives and creates in beautiful northern California wine country.
Read more about and get your copy of How Do You Haiku?: A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates.
Find Danna:
It is so true. The meme where one day, the zucchini is tiny but the next it is ginormous. I searched my garden 2-3 days before this day. Nothing. Maybe a tiny fingerling. One at the most. Then comes this day. BAM. Eight fully ready to eat zucchinis.
Also tomatoes, wax beans, and green beans. I wasn’t even planning on harvesting. But once I saw the zucchini, I knew I was overdue.
Lunch was this. So delicious. I would eat this every day if the tomatoes and rustic bread always tasted so good. A little butter, spicy brown mustard, tomato slices. Done.
And for dinner, we had a two-bean, fresh corn off the cob, red onion, cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and balsamic salad. Yummy! Don’t you just love summer garden meals?
But I need some more recipe ideas for the beans. I can’t keep up with them. I give them away, eat a ton, freeze a few (not a great option since we live in the RV-storage space is at a premium). We’ve had stir fry, meat packets including beans, and potato bean onion ground turkey soup.
Ideas please! What is your favorite fresh green bean recipe?
move! gotta see, look!
time for hunting, you’re blocking-
where’s that tasty bird?
tasty bird by Angie Quantrell
Monet, the hunter
Yakima Valley
Photo by Angie Quantrell
Yakima Valley, WA
I grew up reading those cartoons and comics that featured characters shining a magnifying glass on something on the ground with the sun shining through the glass. A fire always occurred! 🔥At the least, SOMETHING felt the heat.
Well. The grand and I left this tripod magnifying glass in the shade on my wooden potting bench. Wouldn’t you know, I walked by later with the laundry basket and smelled smoke. What??!!! Sure enough, the shade was gone and the sunshine glared brightly through the glass, burning my bench!!! Eek! Note to self: Keep magnifying glass shut up in the shady TARDIS (my tool hut).
And just look what showed up a few days later in my honey’s The Far Side Gary Larson Desk Calendar! Hahahahaha
Be careful out there people!
the beans are going
crazy-climb, bloom, grow, dangle
veg for every meal
crazy beans by Angie Quantrell
photo by Angie Quantrell, Yakima Valley
sunflower world dwarfs
ghostly guest, wrinkled yet strong
eerie paper bug
paper bug by Angie Quantrell
photo by Angie Quantrell
Yakima Valley, WA
P.S. Does anyone know what this paper bug is actually called? Because of the massive forelegs (for its size), I wondered if it was a relative of a praying mantis. But the rest of the body doesn’t seem to fit that category.
Love, Laughter, and Life 