
Widower’s Song #4: This Urn
It held her ashes,
waiting until daffodils
came for them in spring.
Then it held one last bouquet
of her favorite flowers.

– above post (on phone) or beside it (on desktop). –

Widower’s Song #4: This Urn
It held her ashes,
waiting until daffodils
came for them in spring.
Then it held one last bouquet
of her favorite flowers.

While shopping for food on the Monday before Thanksgiving Day in 2019, I noticed an especially good poinsettia with the salmon pink leaves edged in pale yellow that I like. Too early for a Xmas decoration? Yeah, but this plant’s not so glaringly out of season as the older choices of bright red or stark white.

In the morning on Thanksgiving Day itself, the plant looked even better and insisted on being photographed. Between shots, I noticed ways that the plant fits in with giving thanks after all.



Yes, I am posting this small Thanksgiving celebration a little late. One reason is that I let things rest a while and then edit again before publishing. The other reason is that the wheels turn slowly at my age. That they still turn is yet another reason to give thanks.
While the juxtapositions collected by Mitch Teemley are all clever and funny, the ballerina/tulip photo is special. Because their stems keep growing and tend to flop over, tulips are tricky in flower arrangements. It’s one of life’s (littler) lemons. The ballerina/tulip photo makes lemonade.(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)
(Click on any image to enlarge it, or to begin slide show)


Memorial Colors
Lavender salutes
red, white, and blue of our flag.
Pride and gratitude.
Words ~ Pic and a Word Challenge
As Susie left home to start a new life with Dale, her mother watched and wondered. Would the mixed marriage work?
Aware that sharing her worries would be unwelcome and unheeded, Mama let her words of warning remain unspoken and unheard.

Wisely, Mama kept silent despite having words to say. Unwisely, some people run afoul of Wittgenstein’s Laws by breaking silence despite not having any sensible words to say.

A-B1-A-C-A-D-A-E-A-B2-A.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Close Up or Macro











Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vibrant Colors
I like the synergy when a few good things up their game by working together, as with peanuts and chocolate. When they do not clash, bright colors can work together in vibrant synergy.
Pink and Green:

Magenta and Yellow (with a bee):

With help from blue and green, the pink and yellow flowers in the following photo team up to illustrate a deep truth about statistics. Really.
Outside of CFFC, I posted the photo along with a beautiful image found on the web that espresses the same deep truth in another way. Both ways have no equations, no jargon, and no saturated fat. Click on the photo to see the details.
Carpe Diem’s Quest For A (New) Masterpiece
#3 the quest continues
My latest haiku came quickly when I saw a superb photo by Cee Neuner. While I gave the haiku a title to make it intelligible w/o the photo, I also requested and received permission to share the photo in a post.

I often look at things from an odd angle. Red trillium plants like shade, grow low, and have flowers that face downward. Now is your chance to get a from-below view of a red trillium flower, in a mix of reflected and transmitted sunlight:

Figuratively, I sometimes “look” at a neat little thing from an odd angle to shine some light on a messy big thing with a subtle similarity to the little thing. For example, there is a parallel between the history of a little word puzzle’s instructions and the history of a big idea in economics.
Some of my photos with prominent reds were used outside of CFFC. The following images link to posts that use them in ways that may be surprizing. Can U guess what ideas they illustrate before following the links?
As Susie left home to start a new life with Dale, her mother watched and wondered. Would the mixed marriage work?

Other floral threesomes can illustrate a poem and a point that go beyond flowers. The following images link to earlier posts that use them. Can U guess what the posts are about before clicking on the images?
I used 3 clusters of rhododendron blossoms to illustrate an abstract haiku.
In about 40 yrs of making bouquets from the many daylilies in my yard, how often have I seen 3 flowers blooming on just 1 stalk? Exactly once, on the left in this bouquet.

With 3 separate stalks, the commonplace floral threesome on the right is a freebie, beyond what my title promises. Buy 3; get 4.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Flags or Banners
Late May in my part of the USA is a time for blooming rhododendrons and several days of observing Memorial Day in various ways. On 2018-05-30, I found good conditions and a good angle for a composition with my new flag and old rhododendron. Tho not a color many would choose for a flag, lavender goes well with red, white, and blue for Memorial Day.

Memorial Colors
Lavender salutes
red, white, and blue of our flag.
Pride and gratitude.

The Pink Rebel is actually a Thanksgiving cactus (if U want to draw the distinction). It earned its nickname by blooming when it damn well pleases, with no special treatment from me. I keep the soil moist all year, with a little diluted fertilizer in the water. The plant gets as much light as my window will give it, with no enforced darkness or coolness. Experts say a Xmas or Thanksgiving cactus so treated is unlikely to bloom at all, let alone during the daffodil season. But unlikely things do sometimes happen. Don’t bet on when or where.

… were her favorite flowers, so cheery and dependable in early spring.

I scattered her ashes among daffodils.

Carpe Diem #1402 Daffodils (one-bun)
Basho (1644-1694) mourned the death of his friend and teacher Tando with a beautiful sad haiku:
© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
falling to the ground
a flower closer to the root
bidding farewell
Chèvrefeuille presents his own beautiful variation on this sad theme in the CDHK episode
Carpe Diem Weekend-meditation #14 Revise That Haiku
and challenges readers to “revise” Basho’s haiku in the same spirit:
© Chèvrefeuille
tears flow
falling to the ground
autumn leaves
My response honors Tando’s influence on Basho (and hence on countless haiku poets) with imagery like Basho’s but a change in the metaphorical correspondence between the 2 people and some parts of flowering plants. As he weeps, Basho also resolves to carry on.
Elegy for Tando
Flowers fall,
but seeds will ripen.
Some will sprout.

My previous posts about waiting for autumn were not CDHK responses. My response to
Carpe Diem #1227 waiting for autumn
(Aki tikashi, Aki wo matsu)is to update and reblog them. They fit the prompt better than anything else I can offer now.
Soon after the wild daylilies have finished blooming, another flower in my yard turns to prophecy. The pale blue blossoms are long gone, but a few of the leaves on a few of the plants have another calling now. For about a day, they prophesy the next season.
Prophet for a Day
Wild geranium
(just one leaf for just one day)
turns in high summer.
As happens in many years where I live, late August of 2015 was a sneak preview of fall, the year’s best season:
Days are still too warm, but more are dry and breezy while fewer are hot and humid. A few cool nights lead to chilly mornings, and I suddenly notice that my garden flag with a picture of phlox is out-of-season. The roadsides have goldenrod and purple loosestrife now.
Virginia creeper is turning, as are some red maples in wet areas. Nearly all the healthy trees are still green, but there is a hint of yellow in many of those greens. The process will slow to a crawl in September; I will spend much of that month grumbling when the weather backslides and thinking “C’mon! C’mon!” when I look at green leaves.
October
Bright sun and cool air;
azure skies and pumpkin pies.
Leaves fall in glory.

My photo is 100% serendipitous. Click here to see Cee Neuner’s beautifully colored and composed photo of (assisted?) nonconformity among mums.