Fall Simmer

I love Fall

Simmer garlic, onions, peppers and squash...

Vegetables picked before I let the chickens out at dawn.

Shush don't point to poultry there's feed in the lower garden.

You'll find it strange if I tell the names of the chooks.

Dixie is a speckled Sussex. She's first. 

Dixie leads a chick band, though she isn't the largest or a rooster. 

Dixie is the daughter of my neighbor's male from his rogue visit.

Yesterday I picked the last pumpkins up from the raised beds, 

they stand guard outside the front gate. 

Chickens will eat pumpkins before Halloween if inside.

Last night coyotes yelped and hollered at three A.M. 

With mag flashlight in hand, 

I went out to have a meeting with them.
They know I have a shotgun.

"Want me to drive down to the barn and settle this?" I yell.

They gather, silent. No snickers about my nightgown.
Answer came from Dr's barn in the canyon where 

puppies cry and the big dogs growl.

Ursula Major and Minor point towards

solar lights in the valley below. 

Glow shares from stars to crescent moon,
platinum against a cloudless dome.

Coyotes look up with me in that moment.

The pack's paws crunch on ash leaves,
scattered on rocks, now become softer.

Coy wolves leave without argument. 

"Try luck with bucks grazing in the oak grove," 

I whisper to their long gone tails. 

Copyright October 8 2016 Caroline Gerardo

Recipe:

3 garlic cloves cut very fine

1 whole onion (type you have) chopped well

1 bell pepper chopped up (more coarse than the first two)

1 carrot chopped fine

saute above in cheap olive oil on medium about a tablespoon of oil

1 cup chopped squash - you pick the type - but peel it

add squash to saute and cook a minute

add 2 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock (don't tell my chickens about the stock)

tablespoon thyme leaves yes not teaspoon

1/2 teaspoon oregano

tiny sea salt to taste start with 1/4 teaspoon depending if stock is salted then none

tablespoon of soy sauce

hot peppers to taste (this amount and type up to YOU)

Allow to simmer

do you have a hot soup blender? use it to cream half the soup

You don't have a soup blender then use your fork best you can

If you like creamy add 1/2 cup greek nonfat yogurt at the end just as you serve

slice basil in threads and place about a tablespoon on top

Yummy soup is ready

Happy #NationalFarmDay

My neighbor's pen

Little Lakes Poem and Videos

Little Lakes Fly Fishing

Slabs of Kimberlite press ribbon of quartz.

Ultramafic rock lines bridge over Little Lakes.

Volcanic eruptions formed hidden diamonds, as

lovers under covers, puppy streams between

dogs like water get into fissures.

Tie flies before Rock Creek hike.

Mosquito Flats creates feed for trout. 

Every minute of climb a new pool:

Marsh Lake, Heart Lake, Box and Long Lakes

Early Explorer sans poetic imagination rule.

Climb faster than Big Horn sheep - jewels are yours.

Ruby and Gem Lake side trips deliver glacier schools

Swim with Paiutes and tourists but for

heaven's sake don't scare the fish.

Puppy swimming back in Little Lakes

examine for Golden Trout

Caroline Gerardo September 2016 copyrights 

for poem, video and photographs are mine.

Grateful For Glow of Love

Chat about the day.
You wait on me, dinner from La Serena grill.
Relaxation.
A movie together smolders into shared passion.
The sounds of traffic blur by the call of the surf.
Ocean dances rhythmically under the grateful firmament.
She gives Christmas lights, before the holiday, all free.
It is Fall.
Sweet gum leaves dry to take flight
only to be spilled crunchy into the fire.
We bake an atmosphere of crimson cinnamon.

I return home to an existence of frightening darkness. 

You have an early morning. 

I make my getaway on the spine of leaves 

or I will fail and stay within your rose colored bed.

Outside, the moon opens a bowl low 

waiting for the cereal of stars to fill her up. 

Dipper shines low in the northern horizon. 

Polaris finds her way over the glimmer of ocean. 

My car rear lights require new bulbs. 

Santa Ana winds whistle offshore. 

They paint the sunset dusty scarlet, 

make the night sky open deeper. 

Heaven grants seer ability to pierce through minds.

Grateful for the glow of love.

Happy Thanksgiving 

Caroline Gerardo

Paintings on left are Van Gogh Autumn Trees
The crescent moon was out over Laguna Beach last night
I wish you all a moment of reflection for the simple
gifts we are given.
Love,
C G

Indian Summer

Writer's desk

A clean desk

is no good omen.

Give me piles of notes

memos about preventing ants

Red sunrise 

Vane points hurricane

Barometric pressure between 

send in the fifty third Squadron

Hot Autumn nights 

Cautantowit caught off guard

Smoky destruction ahead

spells the fortune cookie.

Orange Red  Sunrise photo by Caroline Gerardo

Indian Summer by Jozef Clemonski 1875

Notes:

Yes I know it is so not politically correct to even say "Indian Summer." I'm part native and find no

offense in sports teams using the image. Lawsuits in general only benefit attorneys. 

Kautantowwit or Cautantowit is the Algonquin god from the southwest... 

Temperature here climbed back up. I long for cool evening walks. I can't wait to wear wool. My sweet gum is already turning, she is confused. When can I set a Fall hearth? Is it dry and hot where you live?  

Sentimental

Sentimental

 

Taking a break from working, usually marching through duties keeps me from running off the railroad tracks, but I keep returning to that funky thing I called “sentimental.” 

 In response, you said, "that can mean many things- ."

 

"Yes I know. I’m not maudlin but back looking, sometimes with glasses that color courage. "

 

"Sentimental what?"

 

Normally I think I can do anything, and instead I today want to write this weak whiny poetry and curl up somewhere and ache. I’m flopping in emotions. Telling you about my experience as a girl was both cathartic and ghost stirring. You are an amazing friend and I am happy that I trust you.

What you shared with me about your life makes me want to create a magical story that heals everything, knowing that is dumb, but plinking away on the keyboard at it anyways. I have a pretty good aim with a 22 at a tiny tuna can from afar.  At this time, I'm braving and  trying to change the universe with one more drop, one last fallen leaf saved with glycerin and painted new.

Needing a hug and want to thank you kindly for listening but going to leave this unsent, unspoken. Fall is my favorite time of year, but Catholic Confession seems to be tugging me down some Roman aqueduct.

Therefore, I’m driving to Claremont to climb up Mount Baldy and doing either Devils’ Backbone and/or the San Antonio Falls Loop by myself late today. The trees are shaking their Fall leaves and I’m sure to get some lovely photographs, and I pray write something brilliant.

My ex-husband is picking up the children for once in a Harvest Moon. I let go that past a long time ago, but God knows in the next life he'll pay.  I’m not telling the kids about me going overnight with just a day pack and sleep roll. They get weird about me hiking by myself. I stand tall at five foot one, crossing my fingers knowing the doing makes me feel invincible. Call out the reinforcements if I lose my way.

Mapping the Novel for November

The Road Ahead, Caroline Gerardo copyright October 2011

Embarking upon an adventure, my team is ready, the cupboards and garage refrigerator are full who else is doing Nanowritmo? I have my plans, my note cards of research, the composition book full, the white story board – well it is waiting for all the information to unfold. I would label myself a very organized “pantser” as I do not know the ending until I am done. I allow the story to direct me in the first draft.


Here is my plan: 65000 words by November 24th. I will have not a full first draft but a rough without an ending, or perhaps three ending ideas. That is over three thousand words a day, a pace I have managed daily but I include blog posts as warm ups, poetry and shorts in my count. I will only work on the novel. I have a couple titles in my head, and this too is subject to shift.

My children have agreed to take on the feeding of the pets (in Laguna Niguel we have two dogs, two turtles, an elderly flop eared bunny and yes the hummingbird feeders need attention). They agreed to split up a couple of my chores so I can get up at five and start my quiet hours of writing at the kitchen table. It is in the morning I get the most productive writing done. I don’t have the luxury of a silent space to work in. Yes I have a room of my own, (several) but being a single mom with no relief I can’t lock myself away. My team has come upon the settlement that we don’t watch television, mom writes with her gnarly baseball hat and they read or complete homework. We play games and are intensely competitive to work for goals. Nannowritmo is just as serious as when my son and I had the month long chin up challenge. I build up to eleven, and I felt really strong about it until I suffered tendonitis, but that’s another story.

So who else is doing Nano and what challenges do you find ahead? What will you do if the laptop fails or there is a power outage for days? Let us share our triumphs and cheer each other on to the finish. How will you balance your home life, your day job and will you remember to pay the cell phone bill? I will be limiting my online reading, less blogging, but I will chat about progress and check on you by twitter.

@ cgbarbeau is my handle



Caroline Gerardo © copyright 2011

Proud Mom

Photo 8-28-2011 copyright Caroline Gerardo


Family Prayer


It is almost Fall
My favorite season
School starts in a week
We will fly down to California
Summer locked down in the prairie ends
I will miss the skys in Wyoming at daybreak,
Long rides on Shorty into the National Park across the river,
and I'll give Big Rainbow tomatoes (heirloom) fireworks in a basket to the neighbor.
I look forward with great anticpation to the days ahead, when my middle child attends High School.
The games we play, "what 'cha thinkin of?" when we reveal our true hearts as a team family together bind.
I anticipate with amazement Carson's soul growing as a strong oak tree sharing his spirit with earth.
I thank God for my blessings, for three children who I treasure more than I can speak.
Will the barn owl be here when we return before Halloween?
It will be fun to surf again at Monarch Beach,
and catch sunlight dancing in the foam.
My great fortune is wherever
I am with my children
and God is home.