The 2011 Rear View Review
The following year review was done by excerpting the first line or two in one post of each month from last year. You can click on the name of the month for a full accounting.
January: Stuffy nose. New purple robe. Warm weather repose. I’m planted on the porch like a seed craving sun with my weekend writings, a juxtaposition between the very real possibility of uranium mining in Virginia and sustainability through local food movement in Floyd.
February: A dialogue circle is a microcosm of the larger circles of family, community and world. In circle, we each bring a piece to the woven living art of conversation. But is it the right piece? Is it true? How does my piece affect others?
March: I’m the kind of person who likes carrot cake more than chocolate and Motown more than rap.
April: In my bright turquoise crocs that someone left at Joe’s sister’s beach house and my dirty green gardening shorts, I walked with my weekend houseguest down our long gravel driveway singing “in your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it,” stopping first to pull down a branch of an apple tree and sniffing the rose scented blossom.
May: Here at our Getaway in the Outer Banks of North Carolina mailboxes are shaped like whales and dolphins and oversized crabs, mermaids, and flip flops are stapled to the sides of houses.
June: My husband Joe’s workaholic nature has taken a toll. He’s promised to change his ways and I think the fact that he bought an adjustable lounge chair and a blow-up bed over the Memorial Day weekend is a good start.
July: The Moon gets top billing / in a black tie night / In a star studded ballroom / it shines a high note of light
August: These days I have to chase the sun further out into the yard to warm myself in the morning. There is barely a petal of purple left on my butterfly bush and my bare feet are covered with socks. I can’t tell the difference between cricket and grasshopper song, but I wonder when did they drown out the birdsong and what sound will I hear after they are silenced.
September: When I woke up Sunday morning after going out dancing two nights in a row and saw the wrist band around my wrist, I thought for a split second that maybe I’d been in the hospital.
October: Sometimes I get nostalgic for my pink suede bell bottom pants and the maroon Indian print bag with the mirrors on it / or the gypsy scarf that I wore as a shawl and sold at a yard sale in Texas because we had to stuff everything we owned into one U-haul trailer when we moved to Virginia in 1985.
November: This year’s Thanksgiving season began with the traditional ‘over the river and through the woods’ drive to Zephyr Farm (1 mile) where my son Josh, my husband and I had turkey with all the fixins, including my friend Jayn’s award winning mock mince meat pie that I wait for all year long.
December: Walking on the rows of our garden like an astronaut looking for life on the moon, I discover a few volunteer kale plants that have survived the morning frost. I transplant them into the cold frame, pick a batch of remay-covered Swiss chard and harvest what’s left of the parsnips with a shovel, soaking and scrubbing their long muddy tubers in water.___________2010 Rear View Review is HERE.
January 17th, 2012 9:19 am
I like it!
January 17th, 2012 2:30 pm
Collen!!
LOVE this post. All the best snippets of 2011. Gee — is it really 2012 already??
Wow, don’t know much about uranium mining anywhere.
“How does my piece affect others?” Awesome attitude. I try to be conscious about mine too.
TOTALLY with ya on the carrot cake and Motown — especially if the cake is made from whole wheat flour and sweetened with honey. Oh yeah.
Flip flops stapled to the outside of houses — how cool!!
Love your July moon ballroom poem.
I remember that October post very very well, as you may recall. 🙂
Wonderful astronaut December poem too.
now… off to make and post YOUR sidebar button, then take a bath.
xo
January 17th, 2012 2:41 pm
How you ever decided which posts to choose from each month, is pretty miraculous. You have a very rich life Colleen….And I bet you could choose many more days from each month…What A Great Idea!
January 17th, 2012 3:35 pm
There, all I had to do was move one cow a tad to the left, and voila — a sidebar button for “Loose Leaf Notes” is finally up, whooohoo.
Now I will officially x and o you! 🙂
xoox
January 17th, 2012 10:06 pm
This was a fun way to do it. Your post conveys the energy and wonder of your life. Beautiful.
January 19th, 2012 2:31 am
Great year-end wrap-up, Colleen!
January 19th, 2012 11:14 am
It could almost double for a 13 Thursday if I numbered them!