3/4 April haiku

I'm up against what feels like a pretty big deadline right now (I have a paper due on April 30, not for a class, but to submit to a journal) and it's kind of crushing me right now. But this evening I got to stay at home with the little kids while Andrew took the middle kids to the church for their activities because our big kids are in Europe (and because Benjamin remembered at the very last minute that it was career day and he was supposed to ask his dad to come talk to the kids about what it's like being a professor). 

So instead of writing, I went on a long, dawdling walk around the block this evening, braided a crown of clover flowers, and drew with sidewalk chalk. 

And I don't really regret it because it was time well spent. 

I wrote a couple of haiku about our day today and also have some to share from this past week. They're certainly rushed poems because, as I mentioned, I have a deadline for another project that is sapping my time at the moment.

April 17

invisible fog—

humidity hovers

dew point rising

April 18

like the hydra

I cut unwanted stems down—

they grow back two-fold

April 19

silver minnow

brought home in a jar

swimming circles

April 20

overnight

the temperature drops

80 to 60

April 21

fruit flies gather

suck cantaloupe rinds inside

saran wrap prisons

April 22

dogs, kids in a heap,

the garbage truck rolls by

bark, cry, scream, whine

April 23

round clover heads

too robust for wishing

picked by the fistful

or, because I couldn't decide

robust wishes

clover spreads invasively

polka-dot lawn

and a bonus poem, because Benjamin

magnifying glass

a leaf sends smoke signals

to the sun

You can't really see the smoke in this picture, but if I were feeling more patient (or less pressed for time), I would upload the short video I took where you can see the smoke wisps coming off the leaf. 

And here's Phoebe, who walked the whole way around the block, coming across her first patch of clover (which she often calls "pover" instead).

There's a house on our block with a rather large yard and a huge garden—like as big as the one my aunt has on her farm—and I'm so afraid they're going to put up a fence and block our view of nature. I hope they don't but I'm afraid they will (because they were out there measuring things). 

We were picking clover so close to the sidewalk that it wouldn't be fenced off either way, but it's all the trees and wild, open spaces beyond that my eyeballs crave...

Alexander was helping Phoebe pick clover.

She was so happy to have every flower he picked for her.

Then we crossed the street where we found even more clover:

And this huge wad of oak tree gunk (it's literally just loads and loads of catkins; allergy season is in full tilt over here):

Here's Phoebe in her crown that I made for her once we (finally) arrived home:

And here she is drawing under the light of the street lamp (which is giving off a remarkably similar glow to the setting sun in the clover pictures):

She's drawing Baba (the baby puffin from Puffin Rock). She thinks he's adorable and loves to use his catchphrase of "Baba boo!" I'm not sure this looks very much like him, but she was intently adding (and describing) details as she added them.

She was thinking about Puffin Rock today not because we watched that show (we didn't watch any shows today), but because we went to the library and checked out a book called When the Fog Rolls In, which features puffins (not so much in the story, but in the illustrations). So she had puffins on her mind.

Here's one last picture of this sweet, silly girl:

And one more of Alexander, equally sweet and silly:

I'm sure Alexander would also want me to include this picture of him jumping off a neighbourhood sign: