At the Feet of Mr. Wilbur, Who Helps Me Journal

I mentioned my intention of studying this book of Richard Wilbur's poems.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience. For the first time in my life I'm studying literature I love, only for the pleasure of the study. I don't have to teach anyone, make a quiz, study sheet, or test. The pressure is removed, and I can relish the sheer excitement of deciphering his words. I'm annotating the book, and it will be a mess by the time I'm done.

 

It's difficult to pick any favorites. Wilbur forces me to research, to hunt up information on the sack of ancient Palmyra, for instance, or unearth some hardly-read lines from a poet named Thomas Beddoes. Otherwise, I won't understand what he's saying. The breadth of Wilbur's knowledge is thrilling, and I sit at his feet learning, a student again after 30 years. 

Excerpt from Beddoes' work, a short dirge upon Sibylla's death.
I had to add it beneath Wilbur's poem.

I've begun reading Tolkien's The Silmarillion again, and I painted a bookmark just for this book. I think I'll do that for all my books, as I read them.

locations from the map in the front of the book

I liked this photo of some containers with dried herbs in them, so I tried painting it. I wish I could do a sloppier, more vague painting style -- kind of a swoosh and dab effect. 

for the Autumn Journal

After I finished, I spilled a little of Adam's red ink on it, so it became a bright rose, front and center.

It's November in the Autumn Journal. I'm painting more pumpkins.

One down. Two to go.

I've enjoyed the Autumn Journal so much, Adam made me a Winter Journal.

stiff felt cover

pocket with blotting paper

Christmasy colors

I'll embroider a snowflake on the outside, as I did a gold leaf on the Autumn Journal.

I've thought of a name for this journal, which comes from a portion of a Richard Wilbur poem.

 

Lastly, I put my blog poems (find them all in the tab bar above, under poetry/short stories) into a small Adam Book also:

front of the book

back of the book

This would be so much silliness to most people, but Adam and I both love books and the written word. We were both literature majors, and both study God's word too. It all ties together. In our world, book-loving is an inexpensive habit, but so rewarding. 
Oh - Mr. Wilbur! Allow me to give you a few little tidbits of his, just lines that show his delightfully creative mind:

Speaking of abusive, vocal atheists, he says they "hurled terrible taunts at the vault, ripped down Jesus' banns and widowed the world."
(Ah! What a thought!)

Speaking of an angry sailor in a storm, he "hove an empty quart into the stomach of a wave."

And from a longer poem that is still sinking in, a description of the sea: "From powdery Palmyre, the tireless wind, braided by waves but cradling to this shore ...."

These are tiny, passing images and snippets of ideas that he sprinkles in his poems. The meatier things I'm still chewing on.

Autumn Beauty, Christmas Shopping

Is your weather chilly at last? Ours is. I didn't quite get the heat turned on last night, and it was a four-blanket night! The watercolor above is for my Autumn Journal. 
I'm listening to Christmas music -- John Rutter's Star Carol album on my iTunes :)

Adam has had a hard day. He began by clearing out the back of the garage in preparation for making that space his new concrete-leaf-making studio. It will serve the purpose well. But then he went to finish the repair on our eaves that causes the living room ceiling leak. (He's putting on some special tape, followed by a tar/fiberglass mixture.) While on the ladder, he noticed another leak, a leak from our kitchen sink that was going down the outside of the foundation. (Sigh. Oh, the joys of a cheap fixer-upper.) He is handy at all manner of work, but plumbing is certainly his least favorite. He's spent the afternoon tending to that, with several trips to the hardware store.

We went to the beach yesterday with Beau and Trixie. Here are a few photos:

Trixie went for her first shots today.
The vet says she may well be part Pom.

I knit on the ferry.

 We ate lunch at a well-recommended place: Royal James Cafe in Beaufort on Turner St. We had  peeked in there last year, but decided ... no ... it looks like a bar.

 Well, it is a bar ... but not at 11:00 a.m. I must say, that burger was the best burger I've had in years. I kept mentioning it all day long. A double cheeseburger for $3. Small fries for $2. Can't beat that! They only put onions, mustard, and "chili sauce" on the burgers. Chili sauce is sweet, sauteed onions. It's like the most delectable Krystal burger you've ever dreamt of, for those who grew up with Krystal burgers as I did -- but bigger, moister, yummier.

 I mostly sat in my chair and stared at the sea.

 I've now purchased my Christmas books! Here they are:

 The Silmarillion was supposed to be for Adam, because his copy mysteriously disappeared with one of our children departing for college. The day after this one arrived, I saw him walk into his office and return with his own copy! Ah well. He'd bought it at some point, so now we'll have two.
My local Michael's art store no longer sells any watercolor sets with half-pans - a "travel set." But the store in Morehead City still does, so I got one for me for Christmas (from Adam) - with a 40% off coupon :)

 This one has different colors, and more, than my current set, which is running low.
I found this gorgeous cast iron Asian tea pot, brand new, at the local thrift store. It's for Anna (for Christmas, of course). I already showed it to her to make sure she would like it.

 I truly am trying to get Christmas shopping done early, but some family members are so hard to shop for. You know who you are! If you don't want socks again ... you'd better let me know what you need or want.
Keep those autumn lights burning, ladies.

 Dig out your favorite warm socks and sweater, light a candle or three, do whatever creative thing you do, and notice the new slant of light that happens this time of year. Find a nice winter movie, make some popcorn, and snuggle on the couch for the evening.

Bye-bye for now!

Back to the Books

 I shared this photo on facebook, but wanted to show it here too. This was the sky on Tuesday evening as we drove to church. Flat places like Pamlico County may lack mountains, but we have lots of sky!
As promised, I'm digging into Richard Wilbur's poems each day. "Lightness" was today's reading. 

 He's so, so good. I can't imagine having that kind of talent and that kind of poetic discipline. Oh, and that's another bookmark I dabbled.

 I decided to sketch a feather, since my chickens leave hundreds lying around :) I think I need to practice some more.
I put it into my Autumn Journal, next to a passage of Scripture I've been musing and praying over, for some friends going through difficult times.

 I like having various pages in this journal. It'll be fun to read back on them in a decade, don't you think?
So -- a page for our hoped-for tea garden. And a page about what we did on Sunday at church.

I'm back at the prayer shawl group on Thursday mornings - yay!! I've missed that quiet, friendly hour each week with sweet ladies and lots of yarn.

Afterward, I sat by the river and took this photo. I miss the river, I do. But the farm is a very fun replacement. Adam and I strolled around today, looking at what's growing (peas - again! and willow trees!) and we made fun plans for the future. That's one of the sweet activities for couples to do, I think -- just talk about your hopes together.

I've not been enjoying facebook lately. I don't want to give it up altogether because I have so many dear friends there I don't want to lose track of. But it only takes a few people speaking rudely, being unkind or thoughtless, being mean, to nearly ruin my day! So I think I will back off of my interaction there, and spend more time with my blogging friends, who are consistently kind, supportive, and considerate. You ladies are a classy bunch!

So that's what I meant by "back to the books." Off the screen a bit, reading more, studying poetry, journaling, walking the farm, reading the slowly dwindling stack of books on my desk. I do love how books and blogging go quite well together. We love to share what we're reading, don't we? 

Oh! Do you have time for one more thing? If not, that's okay, you can dash away. But this book I'm reading, Touring Through France by Elizabeth Shackleton, is so very fun. She's bubbly and delightful, just the type of writing voice you'd think would belong to an intrepid woman traveler in a car in 1924! Here's a passage I loved, describing a little cottage in rural France (Briton) at that time:

"Here the men had flat black hats tied under their chins with brims rolled at the side and the women were washing on their knees in the dooryard puddles. One with whom we stopped to talk, looking at her flowers growing under the drip of the eaves, asked us into her house. Her one room had one iron-barred window, the door to the front and a way out at the back. The floor was bare earth, hard trodden and clean. Two fire armoires of dark brown oak, waxed and well-kept, stood against the back wall. Their long, gracefully cut escutcheons shone like gold in the room. A high-set oak table, long and narrow, topped with a three-inch oak plank, stood near the window, its top so set as to slide back and forth and allow a hutch below to be reached. Two long-legged benches of oak had rests for the feet and low backs of turned wood. The overhead beams showed and the whitewash was on the back of the unplastered outside stones. The fireplace was several inches above the floor and let out smoke into the room when the door stood open. In one corner a built-in bed looked like those in remote corners of Scotland, with openwork doors which could be drawn shut, thus excluding the bed from the room. A yellow cat, an old dog, and a child hanging by her mother's skirt gave a homey air to it all, a sort of enduring sincerity like the heavy oak table. It was all going to go on for a very long time. On the fire a three-legged iron kettle, the chaudiere, -- our word chowder comes from that -- had something good simmering in it."

The author's photo of women washing clothes in the puddle in front of a cottage

If you're still reading, you are a trooper. I love such vivid, detailed description. This is less than 100 years ago. The oldest lady in our church would have been 7 years old at this time -- but this house has dirt floors, a fireplace for cooking, a single room, no back door - just an 'way out.' And doing laundry in a puddle outside? Isn't it fascinating how much life changes? Mrs. Shackleton thought it would go on and on like this. Another war was around the corner. And then technology would change us all. Perhaps this is another reason I want to go "back to the books"; I love the older lives we find there.

Whatever you're reading, I hope it is just as fun!

Painting and Poetry

For the Autumn Journal ~

I may use this as the background photo for my next blog banner:

A new poem for today, as a feel of autumn is finally in the air.

I painted it first, and then traced it lightly with pencil,

but it's still difficult to read.

(So I've typed it underneath.)

So here it is, typed out for you to read more easily:

The Golden Cry

Without the sun and shadow both,

The dappled light would not delight.

I watch it flicker on the wall

As afternoon fades into night.

The midday of my life is here

And dusk is clipping on its heels.

This Autumn is my favorite time

Of shadows stretched on yellow fields.

O, lengthen all the Autumn days!

Expand the years of quiet peace -

Now hold me, Love! I hear above,

The insistent calling of the geese.

Autumn Journaling, Sept. 28th

I'm back in my quiet art/craft room, journaling and listening to Pandora classical guitar. Today, I'm painting. It is the most calming thing I can do, combined with cups of tea and guitar music. Here's what's in the journal today:

 I like both the pumpkin and the leaf. They turned out well. I still debate about outlining in black, but for now I'll leave them unmolested by ink.
I also wrote a quick page about today's activities:

I adjusted the idea shared by Marcie at The Quiet Country House. She made columns, but I did boxes for today. She had different categories, but I liked these four: Inside, Outside, Myself, Others. So -- What we did inside the house, what we did outside the house, what's going on inside my head, and what we did for others. It's only 3:20 now, so the day's not done, but it was helpful to write it down.
Update: Sept. 30th now. Here's some nice, relaxing watercoloring I've been adding to my journal this weekend:

If you're doing a journal, how's it going?