Post Number 401

The most recent post within this blog, Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge, was number 400 in nearly sixteen years. That's a rough average of twenty-five posts each year. My sixteenth anniversary running this blog will be February 11, 2022.

This blog will probably continue. At the least, I will be adding my pictures, just as I have been doing of late. I used to write more before I went public and attached my name to this blog. I felt less inhibited prior to going public. Although I don't know whether anyone from where I work ever reads this blog, I have been writing less and sharing less of myself.

What free time I have had during the past year has been going toward my own writing. Covid for me has made me more productive as a poet. I feel compelled to write as much as I can. 

One of my poems, by the way, has been nominated for both Pushcart and Best of the Net. 

This emphasis on poetry will be reflected when I describe the books that I have been reading this year. 

I have chosen the picture included with this post because it looks forward.

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I visited a nature refuge. It was once named Squaw Creek, but the name has since been changed to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. During this time of year, the refuge is mostly a home to snow greese and bald eagles. At 250mm, my telephoto lens doesn't capture as much detail as a 400mm lens, but I am adding a few pictures, nonetheless.

If this nature refuge weren't three hours away, I would like to visit it more often in the fall and spring. The number of snow geese and bald eagles has increased significantly since Thanksgiving, according to the latest waterfowl survey. I particularly like hearing the clamor of thousands of snow geese as they gather in one section of the refuge. It's a sound that will stay with me.  

Chapbook Contest

Choeofpleirn Press, the press that my wife and I created, will be offering a poetry chapbook contest in 2022 for those poets who have not yet published a full-length collection. The deadline for submitting chapbooks is April 30, 2022.  Laura Read, author of Instructions for My Mother's Funeral, Dresses from the Old Country, and the chapbook The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You, has agreed to serve as judge. More details can be found at the following link--https://www.choeofpleirnpress.com/poetry-chapbook-contest

Autumn Color_2021

Many of the trees in the area where I live were particularly colorful this autumn. I have captured some of the color in the pictures appearing below.

Best of Choeofpleirn Press 2021

The Best of Choeofpleirn Press 2021 is now available at Amazon and through our website. This issue contains the winning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and art. It contains the finalists in each genre as well.

Rushing thru the Dark

Our first issue of Rushing thru the Dark is now available through Amazon as a publish on demand periodical at the following link. Copies in pdf can be ordered directly from our website (https://www.choeofpleirnpress.com/bookstore) for $6.00.

This issue contains nine one-act plays, one screenplay, and thirty poems.

Sunflowers_2021

I recently managed to visit one of the local sunflower fields. The sunflowers started blooming during the Labor Day weekend. In an effort to avoid the crowds, I waited until this past Thursday to spend a few minutes getting pictures of the sunflowers. 

The farmer at this field doesn't use pesticides, so there was no risk of being exposed. He grows these sunflowers for bird seed and doesn't harvest them until November. It was difficult finding a path through the sunflowers because there were so many of them. 

I just wish that the sunflowers that I planted in one of my flowerbeds had done as well. This eastern flowerbed of mine apparently gets too much shade in the afternoon.

Peonies in Bloom

I neglected to add pictures of the peonies growing in the yard earlier this summer. These pictures date from May. 

Glacial Hills Review Available

Our first issue of Glacial Hills Review is now available through Amazon as a publish on demand periodical at the following link. Copies in pdf can be ordered directly from our website (https://www.choeofpleirnpress.com/bookstore) for $6.00.

Enjoying the Cumulus Clouds

I found a new place to walk. Using the pedometer on my phone, I discovered that two laps around this small lake at the veteran's hospital makes up 1.4 miles. It was particularly picturesque when I was there recently because of the clouds.

Speeding Down a Hill

If I were a kid, the hill pictured below would be where I ride my bike. I was so reckless once, when I was thirteen or fourteen, that I rode down a hill without placing my hands on the handlebars. It was great until I hit a manhole cover and went tumbling over the front, landing on my chin and hands.

Exposing Oneself to Chemicals

I recently discovered that a local grocery store stocks their bottles of Roundup near the boxes of pasta. I tried to post the picture that appears below in a local group on Facebook, but the moderator wouldn't accept it. Apparently, it isn't important to bring to the attention of other people what risks accompany shopping at one of our local stores. It amazes me that Roundup would even be sold at a grocery store when that product can be picked up at a hardware store or at WalMart (which wisely stocks Roundup far away from its groceries). 

I'm the kind of person who avoids exposure to chemicals whenever possible. I never have used pesticides or herbicides on my lawn. It's unfortunate that my neighbor sprays a chemical, possibly Roundup, along her fence line so as to inhibit the growth of weeds. That practice of hers has kept me from planting a garden.

My yard seems to like the absence of chemicals because I recently had wild garlic flowering in a few spots but nowhere near the fence line that I share with my neighbor.

Glacial Hills

In planning the upcoming issue of Glacial Hills Review, my wife and I made a short trip through northeastern Kansas. It was a cloudy day and didn't provide as many photo opportunities as we had hoped. We need to return to that area sometime soon. We didn't make it as far north as White Cloud, which overlooks four states--Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. I am adding a few of the pictures that I took during this most recent trip and during the trip to White Cloud.

Poem in Apple Valley Review

One of my poems appears in the recent issue of Apple Valley Review. Go to this link to find my poem. 

One thing I have struggled with over the years has been capturing my Air Force experience. This poem of mine has gone through several previous incarnations in an attempt to capture this experience. 

Snowfall in Late April

The Kansas City area had a late spring snowfall earlier this week. Some of the towns north of the metro area had about four inches of wet snow. According to the National Weather Service, it's "officially the largest snowfall this late into spring on record in Kansas City. It is also tied for the 10th latest snowfall on record."

Most of the snow had melted from the trees by the late morning. There was still snow on the grass until a little later in the afternoon. 

From what I have seen, the trees and plants have survived this late snowfall. 

Because it was a wet snowfall, it was particularly pretty.

Pear Trees in Bloom

The pear trees overlooking the Missouri River are in bloom now, too. Spring where I live is a particularly pretty time of year because of the flowering trees.