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

Sepia Dust

Sepia

Compost builds soil

Sepia tones in potted succulents

Earth structure

Rock sifter for road to ranch this machine is 30 feet tall and three trucks long

Dust to dust

 dust you shall become

Sepia tones cuddle fish grisalle 

Moved to the ranch.

debt free 

Life turn

No more $7568. monthly mortgage.

No more Homeowner Association. 

Arboreal lights in the sunset?

Painted a future.

can be

Hips burn

Now a cow bell announces guests.

Now miles pf dirt road driveway. 

Is Pinterest homesteading easy?

Buried beloved dog,

under tree.

Times turn

Today peanut butter rat traps.

Today haul huglekultur logs

I washed chicken baby butts?

Dust to dust

dust you shall become

Sepia tones cuddle fish grisalle 

horse shoes, antique iron

Ancient mortar pestle found in riverbed where I now live

Copyright June 20, 2016 Caroline Gerardo
Images taken on my iphone 4

Joy Arises

Joy Arises

Recite rosary daily.
Sleep is not with me.
Opened memory boxes hidden in the garage.
Attempted to lighten my load of belongings.
I photographed their muddy artworks,
throwing out the dog eared originals. As I lingered
over my children's photos - pictures of ponies and
streamers in gold green and auburn revealing
- colors of time.
Boxes worn.
I cut down to two tattered boxes.
Label: "IMPORTANT FRAGILE"

Piles of trophies, sports jerseys and awards
posed for pictures. Filed them in icloud and
Google photo in case I lose sight of the images.
Thirty Yearbooks now in storage for
my kids homes of their own. When I peeked,
I couldn't recall the names signed with faces.
"Hey buddy you are great!!!" Love,Tanya.

High School reunion is marked on my calendar.
Hope to make it to my first one this year in July.
Will I match peoples names with their images?

A boy promised take me to prom then never showed up.
I know his name, not saying it, never hold in
your mind an unpleasant event.
Let it fly and begin again.

Happiness isn't dusty boxes or antique silver.

Letting go half the things I filled in my house.
Grateful.
A big gesture to
mark this change.
Downsize to a simple path.
Not juggling two jobs, writing at dawn, fighting
with tenants to do what's right.

A joy gift to mark my new life.
I placed an advertisement on #Freecycle with pictures of
my family room furniture. Freecycle is a website where
members post their requests or offer free items.
It Read:
All this for you. A single mom deserves these.
Borrow a truck or two and strong helpers.
Be prepared to accept everything.
Don't text me. Call to make arrangements.
Many texted, emailed and few called.
Each with their requirements.
"I can come next week, but I only want the
antique table." - I didn't answer.
"Will you deliver to me?" Nope.
"Is that a real Tufft table?" Yep.
The right call arrived. I gave them
my address. She asks, "what do you want in
return?"
"For you to be joyful."
They arrive with two funky trucks.
Grandmother's chairs, dining table, ikea
sofa with two new covers, mid century modern
coffee table, Tufft table not in great condition,
Regency writing desk, and linens flow from
my house to their vehicles.
The daughter jumps up and down.
Their excitement makes me giggle.

I am lighter. Ready for my new life.

“It is in the nature of things that joy 
arises in a person free from remorse.”
The Buddha (Cetana Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya)

Caroline Gerardo copyright c   May 3, 2016

Life's A Rush

Life's A Rush  Caroline Gerardo

Day break

Life's a rush

passing lane 

robin fell from cloud

red breast signs of cheer

a greeting of spring

  boys are prettier

 digging the front garden 

What got him?

 a crow 

West Nile 

 drought

peaceful, 

yes full

saving cibachrome 

appears less sad

iphone 4 is my camera

shopping for a drone

to fly.

Soar

dart and carbon wind

speed will stabilize

high above the lake

where gnats swarm

my robin need only

open his beak

to enjoy

a fill of 

mossy

life

Caroline Gerardo copyright 2/29/2016   Lake Kaweah

Chores On The List

Life is busy.

My daughter is away. She can be a

cyclone with her ADHD. 

Dust keeps piling. 

Chores remain. 

I was up this morning at five. 

Early summer fog disappeared. 

Sunlight starts around 5:47 AM.

"Stick to the list." I tell myself.

Time robs in bits and pieces.

I'm halfway through the revision on paper.

I read aloud at the kitchen table in the early hours,

and again at night after my work.

Doubting every adjective...

A break in the garden to water steals

an hour, just a second to pull some weeds.

The washing machine waits for me to figure out

how to repair the dogs (the little clips that spin the

big drum). Intuitively I know how to fix it. The center

agitator is pulled off. It waits for me to allocate a couple

hours to the fix. Perhaps hand washing and visits to

a Laundromat are more foolish than penning it into a schedule.

Wish I had the excess cash I once had to hire a guy.

On the weekend I rented the commercial carpet steaming machine.

"You have four hours to return it perfectly clean." The kid said.

"No problem I have only three hours to get 3400 feet of white

carpet sanitized."

He looked at me funny. A teenager at Home Depot . Probably

never lugged a fifty pound machine upstairs, certainly never

worried about getting things done efficiently, maybe never

fussed over word choice and never thought about a sentence

while the smell of bleach and carpet shampoo wafts about.

The dogs are going to stay outside more this summer. 

"You can be so happy napping in the gazebo." I told our Golden

Retriever. Her eyes understood. Her feelings bruised.

"I'm one of the children. You can keep the other dog terror in

the gazebo." I swear she was speaking in my dream last night.

This morning my son said, "Leave a list for me Mom."

I nearly cried.

I am so blessed.

  

Porthole in the Lighthouse

Saint Nicholas patron saint of Sailors. His head fell off.

Notice the wire structure...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lucky-Boy-Caroline-Gerardo-ebook/dp/B0064FOCZO 

Drive in Writing Your New Life

This white canvas represents the remainder of your life.

Please fill in the blanks with important information.

Tell me about how it feels to hold your only child,

 share the fading sorrow of losing your first goldfish,

dare to try something, and fail horribly; then get up,

smile while we work until our legs cramp at night.

Create stories to make us

stay up all night with a flashlight.

Together

we can fix it.

Ask me,

I will pray

for your courage,

wisdom and

a little fortune.

Copyright Caroline Gerardo 2012

Planning Write It Down.

It is spring time for cleaning, polishing and sharpening my pencils for great writing.


This is not my ordinary blog post. I am making it public.

With all the demands in my life, I need to write out my goals and stick to a schedule.

There are six key areas for my five year and one year plan:

Spiritual, Financial, Health, Writing, Family, and Fun.

1. Spiritual Life

I have grown closer to God by daily prayer. The rosary comforts me when doing the most menial tasks. I feel closest to Him when I am gardening. I will add ten minutes of meditation. This daily meditation is a big request. My life is packed with work, writing and raising two children alone. As the weather warms, I can sit outside and have this silent time.

2. Financial

I will monitor my stocks each morning for an hour. When I read about trends in the market, I can determine timing on buys and sells. I am not going to purchase commercial real estate or residential for three more years, as I believe the worst is not yet over. My house is upside down and I must continue to work full time. I must market my mortgage origination business to sustain my children and myself. I will keep to my budget. I need to save $ X dollars (number withheld because this is public) more for Carson’s college fund. In order to do this I need to put ten percent of my earnings a year into his accounts for the next five years. Blair’s college fund is completed. I want to purchase the video equipment she is eyeing for her possible explorations for her career. This is likely a large Christmas expense. I also want to send her to some film school this summer. I want to put the maximum into my 401k each of the coming five years.

3. Health

After surviving the big C, I need to be mindful of my health. The huge stress of the personal loss this year has worn upon my cells. I am buying organic produce. We have organic vegetables in our garden. I do not eat red meat or pork. I need to exercise six days a week. Walking, really hiking two days with my camera and three days running or something aerobic. Avoid stress, laugh at life and smile at everyone. Attitude is the key to health.

4. Writing

I want my writing to be my full time career by 2015. I will complete four more novels by that date. I will have a full time agent who assists me in marketing the work. I want to write well and reach a large audience. This entails a following of two hundred thousand. Publishing business is shrinking in these economic hard times. Art will be seen as an unnecessary commodity. My work must be general fiction, and genre specific as well. Focus on the novel, full-length work. I enjoy short fiction and it is fun to write flash but there is no financial market for poetry. I am expanding my reach in social networking, but it is slow brick building. Keep positive, write 4000 words a day. Do not whine about editing.

5. Keep my children healthy and learning. Teach them by example. Lead them to great things. Show them beauty in the sky. Talk about love and show everyone kindness. Take care of my Mom, she is getting frail. Spend time listening to my Mom. Talk with my siblings who I love so very much. Be helpful to those I hold dear.

6. Walk to the beach more and get in the water- this combines a couple goals. Light the fire at night and the Jacuzzi to hear the ocean with the lights all off. Joke with my children. Enjoy the people at work. Share some baked things I make with the office. Build the team at the office to be working together. Vacation plans in the US to visit independent bookstores. Get together with friends who are happy. In the past I did volunteer projects and fundraising for fun, I am not going to focus on this going forward. I am running an idea in my head to invite authors to come stay a weekend and brainstorm edit and help each other. I have the blessing of a beautiful home and amazing location, I can share that alone as a gift. Be creative in all things. Blair and I bought all the parts to make a chandelier out of Kerr jars, and the wine bottle wind chimes. Make things and give them to others. Paint, take photographs, cut flowers from the garden and put them in the house and give them to others. Laugh much more.