Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 31
February 10, 2022
Postcard for a pine tree
Today I went out to mail a letter, walking through the woods, like I did the day I dropped a card by a pine tree. It was much warmer today, but the path through the woods was still covered with ice. If I had been wearing ice skates, I could have sped along it, my own tiny Rideau Canal.
On the way back from the post office, the clouds were thickening and the wind picked up, and I worried about trees falling on me. I never used to worry about this in the woods, but winds that bring down trees are m...
On the way back from the post office, the clouds were thickening and the wind picked up, and I worried about trees falling on me. I never used to worry about this in the woods, but winds that bring down trees are m...
February 6, 2022
the secret of the pashaphone
One of the luxuries we have maintained is a landline. It's a great way of keeping spam off your cell phone, and it's always charged. Not only have we kept the landline, we've kept a corded phone, which means we don't need any wireless capability for it, which means it doesn't stop working if we lose wifi or power.
For the longest time we had a Panasonic corded phone, but eventually it failed. When Wakanomori went to get a replacement, the only thing that was available was a Panasonic knock-off:...
For the longest time we had a Panasonic corded phone, but eventually it failed. When Wakanomori went to get a replacement, the only thing that was available was a Panasonic knock-off:...
February 5, 2022
Oops--accidentally locked all my entries
Hello friends--I haven't deleted my journal or gone entirely private!
I was trying to batch edit some entries to make them private and somehow managed to make ALL of them private when I didn't mean to... and it apparently takes a little bit of time for DW to process the edit, so until it does, you won't be able to see anything, but I promise the entries will come back.
... Which feels very self-important to say--like I think my entries are All That and you're all waiting for them! But one friend d...
I was trying to batch edit some entries to make them private and somehow managed to make ALL of them private when I didn't mean to... and it apparently takes a little bit of time for DW to process the edit, so until it does, you won't be able to see anything, but I promise the entries will come back.
... Which feels very self-important to say--like I think my entries are All That and you're all waiting for them! But one friend d...
January 30, 2022
wind and snow
My attempt to influence the wind's snow sculpting didn't work super well, but I do have a few photos to share.
Here are a couple of before shots. One was of a mound of snow from shoveling...
You can see behind it a piece of wood and a lawn sign. Those were my other ventures. The piece of wood didn't do much of anything, but the lawn sign worked a little. Here's a close-up before shot of the lawn sign:
And here's an after shot, taken this morning, of the same sign.
If you click through and enlarge, ...
Here are a couple of before shots. One was of a mound of snow from shoveling...
You can see behind it a piece of wood and a lawn sign. Those were my other ventures. The piece of wood didn't do much of anything, but the lawn sign worked a little. Here's a close-up before shot of the lawn sign:
And here's an after shot, taken this morning, of the same sign.
If you click through and enlarge, ...
January 29, 2022
Spells for a funeral
A Twitter friend tweeted a post that said "Explaining a funeral to a 5 year old. He wants to know if the priest will 'do spells.'" She said in reply, "I would hope so!"
So I wrote this:
With this spell I do create
A chalice made of feathers
To hold your grief so softly
And uplift and honor it
and with *this* spell I do create
A lantern for the light
Of memories of the deceased
Carry it home with you
And may its shining comfort you
In other news, it's still snowing, and now the wind is whirling the snow...
So I wrote this:
With this spell I do create
A chalice made of feathers
To hold your grief so softly
And uplift and honor it
and with *this* spell I do create
A lantern for the light
Of memories of the deceased
Carry it home with you
And may its shining comfort you
In other news, it's still snowing, and now the wind is whirling the snow...
January 28, 2022
cold days
This past week gave us plenty of cold days for frozen bubbles. I blew one beautiful big one that floated up past my neighbor's pussy willow tree and eventually snagged in the upper branches of my apple tree:
(The black blob in the sky is a crow)
Tangled up
One day I decided to walk a birthday card to the post office--to get there I chose a path along trails and through the woods. There were many animal tracks. This photo is from a different day, but it gives the sense of the busy traffic:
Eventually...
(The black blob in the sky is a crow)
Tangled up
One day I decided to walk a birthday card to the post office--to get there I chose a path along trails and through the woods. There were many animal tracks. This photo is from a different day, but it gives the sense of the busy traffic:
Eventually...
January 20, 2022
Into the red
Needed to get as close to the red as possible this evening. In the photos you see pink, but trust me: there was red.
By degrees
Deeper in
Deeper still
I carried red home inside me
comments
By degrees
Deeper in
Deeper still
I carried red home inside me
comments
January 17, 2022
What if I? (the grocery store song), by Molly Grace
I love college radio. This song, "What if I?" by Molly Grace, played on WMUA--UMass Amherst's college radio station. I heard it when I was in the car in mid November, and the DJ was talking about the song, was talking about going to high school with the singer--I think he may have even said he had been in a band with her?
Anyway, I just fell in love with it in one listen, ESPECIALLY when it got to all the store names. If you're in the northeast, you're sure to recognize several of them.
I transcr...
Anyway, I just fell in love with it in one listen, ESPECIALLY when it got to all the store names. If you're in the northeast, you're sure to recognize several of them.
I transcr...
January 15, 2022
Free Calls
On Thursday I picked up Wakanomori from the airport--he's back from the UK. We stopped around 7 pm at a rest stop on I-90, and as I was coming out of the bathrooms, I noticed a Verizon payphone, and on it, this remarkable sticker.
It starts with a blessing and a prayer, then turns to special needs: a job, help with Social Security and EBT (for people overseas, this is government food assistance), and then on to the lesser financial deities.
After snapping the photo, I wandered back to the table wh...
It starts with a blessing and a prayer, then turns to special needs: a job, help with Social Security and EBT (for people overseas, this is government food assistance), and then on to the lesser financial deities.
After snapping the photo, I wandered back to the table wh...
January 7, 2022
Divine ancestor meet-cute
I really enjoyed the Netflix documentary A Última Floresta (The Last Forest), directed by Luiz Bolognesi and cowritten by him and Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, about the present-day situation of the Yanomami people in Amazonian Brazil and Venezuela. Davi Kopenawa Yanomami is a Yanomami activist who helped get a law passed to protect Yanomami land after gold mining predations in the 1980s led to a fifth of the population dying from mercury poisoning and other sicknesses. The presidency of Jair Bolsona...
