Retired But Working (?)

 I am happy to announce that I have begun a new chapter in my life. A very apropos designation for my opening months of Retirement. 

Chapter One: get Medicare and Social Security on track, plus continue with my regular volunteer "jobs". 

Volunteering as a musician in the Boyertown Alumni Marching Unit and Concert Ensemble and volunteering for that group as co-Music Librarian and as Patron Committee Chair (well, I AM the Patron Committee - it's just me, myself, & I in that committee). These few items have taken up the majority of my life during the first quarter of the year. Chapter One is essentially complete.

Chapter Two: begin to do the things I haven't really had time to do while working more than full time at a public library. 

These include writing (poetry, prose, letters, & my blog, etc.), photography, and painting. So far, I have been collecting and collating my poetry, prose, and photos into a book. Yes, I am finally working on a volume of my Words & Art. I have amazed myself when looking through my various notebooks and computer files to choose which works I will include - there are so many!

I will try to post some sample pages here in my Blog, but it depends on what file formats are allowed. Some of the photos, poems, and prose have previously been published in this very Blog. Most of the prose has definitely come from here, but I have changed or edited them a bit over time, this way they are more up to date or have had corrections made.

Eventually, I hope to have this book published. 

Chapter Three will involve working on my painting. 

I hope to have some of my art available for sale later this year. I also hope to have some of my work entered in Juried Art Shows. 

I have ambitions. 

I think these ambitions are another form of - WORK!

Sample Pages from bk WordArt by mARTa

Please click the above link to get an idea of the book I am working on. There are seven sample pages posted on my LinkedIn page. I would appreciate it if anyone or someone would let me know what they think.

And so, Onward into this new Lifestyle!

My Visual Art: Nature Inspires Me

Much of my writing is based on the beautiful world around me, as you may have read in the poetry on some of my previous posts.         My Word Art. 

Another aspect of my "art" is photography and now painting. I have already shared some of my snapshots here. Also I have included some of my best photos as illustrations for some of my writing here on this blog.

Recently, I had some of my photos transferred to Canvas. I gave some as Christmas presents the last couple years and have actually sold a few! I have been encouraged by friends and family to display them together in one place. 

In lieu of an Art Gallery, I will start displaying my work here on my Blog. I will begin by posting a few of my Photo Canvas Art here and a few of my Paintings as well. But going forward I will create another tab on this Blog and post my Art there. All are available for purchase.          Please email me if you are interested...                        mjwpoet@yahoo.com or mjwwriter@gmail.com

The first six are Photos on Canvas and have Gallery edges so no frames needed. They are 16X20".

The bottom with me showing it is "Birches Before Autumn Field" which I finished painting in June 2020. It is 20"X24". 

I painted all the side edges even though it is only 5/8" thick. Most people would frame it, but I currently have it hanging on my wall as is and I like it that way, very 'clean' looking.

The painting is in the Impasto style so it is very heavily textured. See an edge-on image of the painting at the right.

A Meditative Challenge, Accepted & the Result- A Poem: The Blue Houses

 

Sramana Mitra is publishing a series on LinkedIn called Colors

to explore a topic that she cares deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. 

"I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it." 

She requested - urged - LinkedIn members to write what came to us as we viewed her paintings, to write what came to us based on our feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, what thoughts it triggered, in the dialog area. She was interested to see what stimulation these pieces yielded. On this day – Les Maisons Bleues, Umaria

 

 

 Les Maisons Bleues, Umaria | Sramana Mitra, 2020 

Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 6 x 9, On Paper

 

The Blue Houses

 

No longer true blue. 

A bluer than blue sky 

bleaches walls from blue to aquamarine 

to dried waterless blue shadows 

on pasty blue-ish whitewash. 

Blue houses shaded by sun-brightened thatch. 

Where are all the children? 

Inside, in the cool blue shade. 

Too hot a sun to stay out and play catch. 

Where are all the women and the men? 

At the river for water or wash, 

and in the fields working their scorched patch.   

-mARTa weller 7/29/2020

My thoughts on the painting are mostly presented in the above poem, however, I also took a leap and imagined that the country where these houses were situated was a hot country. A country where the languages spoken might include French. And even though I never took French in school, I figured Bleue was Blue and most of us know that maison means house. I also imagined Umaria was a place name - which sounded foreign to me - an American. After I wrote the poem I looked up the name Umaria and found it was a district of Madhya Pradesh and is the district headquarters of Shahdol Division in India. I felt pretty good about my thinking processes! I also was pleased with the poem I ended up writing on a relatively spur of the moment!  

 

Book Review: "Picard: The Last Best Hope" by Una McCormack

 

This was an excellent book and a must read for anyone who watched the first season of "Picard" the TV series on Netflix. You may ask why - and I will explain.... The TV series started off with Picard retired and living on his family's vineyard in France. But it never goes into the reasons for his retirement. In fact he doesn't seem to be happy as a retired Admiral.

This book by Una McCormack starts with Jean Luc Picard on a boring day relaxing on the vineyard thinking back to how on earth he ended up in this boring situation. Therefore it begins before the TV series events and goes back to the events prior to his retirement. You learn much more about the situation with the Romulans and the work at the Daystrom Institute.

If you have not seen the TV series, it doesn't matter, this is a stand alone and has NO SPOILERS about the TV show. In fact, I almost wish I had not seen the TV series before reading this book!
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys SCI FI and knows anything about the world of Star Trek.

Book Review: Villette by Charlotte Bronte

I may be a little presumptuous in saying I am reviewing this classic work by this classic author, but I only just this August read - actually listened to the Audio Book - Villette on my drive to & from work.  

The reader did an excellent job. However, I will need to reread it in print form because so much of the dialog is in French & unfortunately I barely know any French! I took Spanish in school. So now I will need to read it with my computer by my side to translate many of the passages. But the book was excellent. 

 

I really enjoyed it and found myself talking to Miss Lucy Snow as I drove because she was taking too long to figure something out or she needed to get a hold of herself and work on her confidence. She kept putting herself down. 

 

Of all the Bronte sisters's work, my favorite is still Jane Eyre but Villette is right up there. It really presents an understandable image of the plight of a young woman of this period (mid-1800's) who, having lost family, is now in straightened circumstances.

Back Finally with another BOOK REVIEW

After a LONG Long Time Away...

I am finally posting again and I will try to do better. I'm not promising a "regular" posting but I hope "periodically" will work out.

Of all the books I have been reading over these intervening years, I have to say I have been most excited about a series by an author a co-worker and I discovered this past summer. I love mysteries and I love historical novels so you can figure I would really be excited to find a book series that incorporates BOTH! That describes Ann Swinfen's series "The OXFORD MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES".

Sadly, I learned that my newest, favorite-est author passed away this summer, just as I discovered her books. Happily, she has written quite a few books - more than one series - and the series are all historical novels!

The book in the image at right - "The Bookseller's Tale" - is the first in the Oxford Medieval Mystery series. After I have read all those (there are six and I have read four) I will begin the other historical novel series she wrote - "The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez" of which there are nine. The image above are from the Ann Swinfen website where you can find all kinds of information about her and her books. http://annswinfen.com/

I highly recommend the Oxford series to anyone interested in the period of time just after the Black Plague ends in Britain. Ann Swinfen explores, in a continuing storyline, the different aspects of life in a Medieval village from a Bookseller to a Merchant to a Huntsman, etc. and also all classes from rich to poor, businessman to cleric, and she even throws in a few spies and political intrigues. 

If anyone else has read any of Ann Swinfen's books, I would love to hear your thoughts. And if anyone has had the opportunity to read books written along a similar vein by other authors, I would love to read your recommendations! 

Poem ~ Nature's Gems

~ With Photos ~

Nature’s Gems

Raindrops and dewdrops

Glittering icy crystals

Natures delicate gems

Decorating, transforming

Dreamy heavenly blossoms

Common dandy seeds and

Dazzling frozen needles

poem- 7/25/2015 - mARTa weller

photos 2013 & 2014 by mARTa