Interesting Things

And I’m off!

It feels a bit weird to be heading off to a conference when I am still coming to terms with my Dad’s passing but what can you do?

I put lots of things on pause over the last month but there are still things that must go on and stuff that must be done and heading off to a professional conference is one of them.

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends and colleagues and taking the sessions I registered for.

But I still kind of wish I didn’t have to be away from home quite yet.

A photo of the wing of an airplane and a cloudy sky as seen out through a passenger window.?
A photo of the wing of an airplane and a cloudy sky as seen out through a passenger window.

I like this tree

On my walk yesterday, this tree was blooming? budding? growing?

And it just looked so cheerful and hopeful that I had to take a photo.

I know that this is a completely ordinary tree doing it’s completely ordinary thing but I was grateful for it yesterday and that’s worth celebrating.

A close-up photo of a branch of a tree with a bud that looks kind of like a raspberry and a bunch of green tufts where the needles or leaves will be. ?
A close-up photo of a branch of a tree with a bud that looks kind of like a raspberry and a bunch of green tufts where the needles or leaves will be.

Was this bird spying on me? (I kid!) (mostly)

Yesterday, I saw this tiny bird (zoom in on the top of the tree) while I was out for a walk.

A photo of the top part of a couple of evergreen trees. In the upper most branches of one is a small, gray or white bird.
Image description: a photo of the upper branches of two evergreen trees with blue sky behind them. in the spindly upper branch at the top of the photo is a small grey or white bird.

Nothing about its shape or size or actions caused me any concern but when it said. “Tweet, tweet!” , like a person doing a very poor imitation of a bird, my suspicions were raised.

Nice try, spy-bird. Nice try.

PS – Before you send someone to do a wellness check: Yes. the bird sounded like a person saying tweet. No, I don’t actually think it was a spy.

Like ducks!

When I was a kid, we use the phrase ‘like ducks’ to indicate that someone was bullshitting.

“My Mom gave me $20 bucks for candy!”

“Yeah, like ducks she did.”

Nowadays, I just call bullshit.

But I still like ducks!

Two ducks cross a suburban street
The view from the driver’s side of my car as two ducks cross a suburban street (There is a pond not too far away, they must have been on a little adventure.)

Plans for May

I’ve been writing a poem a day in April, which has been great fun and I have been really surprised to discover that I can express myself well in that genre.

(And by ‘express myself well’ I mean that I am saying what I mean to say in a way that is pleasing to me. That’s different than saying that my poems are good. Some are good and some are ok. And both are grand by me at this point.)

I’m going to take a break from daily poetry though and do a story a day in May (along with Julie and the team at, you guessed it! Storyaday.org

Will I write a perfect publishable story every day in May?

I will not.

Will I write something vaguely resembling a story every day in May?

I certainly will.