Corn Plants - Watching Things Grow

Morning Cornfield

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This morning, driving home from bringing our daughter to where she volunteers at Messinger Woods, I stopped on our road to take this photograph.  Living out in the country, I am continually amazed by the changes in the landscape.  In early summer, I especially love these lines of corn.  They remind me of lines on notebook paper.  It's a gift to live in one place for a long time, to see the same scenes and colors, to love them more each year.

The expression "knee high by the 4th of July" to describe good corn growing always comes to mind when we drive by cornfields.  And while this yardstick is no longer the standard for corn growth, the line does live on in many of us.  It's fun to say!

Sometimes I smile to hear our children (12, 14, 15) talk about noticing much younger children growing up so quickly.  How can it be that I am old enough to have children who are old enough to notice children growing?  Time fools us sometimes, and today's poem is a simple rhyming comparison of the growth of corn to the growth of a child.

If you'd like to read about how corn grows, visit The National Gardening Association.

Jone is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Check it Out.  As I always say, check it out!

May you notice a few beautiful growing things today, wherever you live and whatever your season.

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B is for Bluegrass - Dictionary Hike

BLUEGRASS

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's word - "bluegrass" - gave me a couple of possibilities.  I could have written about bluegrass music, which I like very much.  But I decided to write about the bluegrass plant instead.  Can you believe that I never realized that it even IS a grass?  Golly, there are 250 varieties of bluegrass, we have it in our pasture, and I didn't even KNOW about it because I always just thought of "bluegrass" as music!  Our family loves Cherryholmes, a now-disbanded family band, so maybe this is why!

Opening the dictionary to a random word opens up my writing self.  I am determined to learn from the word offered, to let my poem turn on its gifts.  Today's word whispered, "Smush words together, Amy.  Smush 'em!"  I like the way that blue and grass squish themselves together.  Compound words are so cozy, so I made some of my own here - all with color words.  This is something you can try too - just squeeze those words together if they seem huggy.

Today is Day 2 of the Dictionary Hike!  Should you be interested in following through the alphabet, I am keeping all of this month's dictionary-inspired-alphabet poems in the left-hand sidebar. So far, I have felt quite lucky with my words.

Who else is taking Dictionary Hikes?  Well, Mary Lee and one of her students are dipping into dictionaries.  And Lisa left an ANCIENT haiku in yesterday's comments. (I hope she does this every day and encourage you to check.) Linda is writing daily poems too, and she may also use the dictionary as occasional inspiration.  If you do so, I welcome you to share in the comments!

Don't forget...it's down to the Final Four in Think Kid, Think!'s March Madness poetry tournament.  You can vote, and bring it to two here!

And now...a bit of bluegrass to introduce today's giveaway!

Today, over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am tickled to be hosting Janet Wong as she shares her process and office. Janet has generously offered these four books as a giveaway for today's post readers. If you leave a comment in this post or in today's (April 2) post over at The Poem Farm, you will be automatically entered into a drawing to win. This drawing will close at 11:59pm on Thursday, April 5. Please leave brief contact information in your comment so that I can let you know if you win!

Thank you, Janet, for this fantastic collection which includes: MINN AND JAKE'S ALMOST TERRIBLE SUMMER, THE RAINBOW HAND: POEMS ABOUT MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, ME AND ROLLY MALOO, and APPLE PIE 4TH OF JULY.

Please share a comment below if you wish!

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Rams in Snow & Rams for Sale! - #293

Rams Wait for Manicures

Photo by Amy LV

Mark Trims ReRa's Hooves

Photo by Amy LV

ReRa's Apple Branch

Photo by Amy LV

It is so cute to watch our sheep walk in snow.  They walk single file...all in a row...making skinny little paths.  Way in the background, you can see a bit of one such path in the above photo of waiting rams.   We have been known to get out there and stamp down a few extra paths, just to make their lives easier.

Today was "hoof trimming day." Flipping each ram on his back, Mark clipped twenty-four ram hooves.  Clip...clip...clip!  Above you can see ReRa with a branch from the apple tree.  Sawing the branch, Mark said, "It's just like getting a lollipop after a haircut!"

We have three Icelandic Sheep for sale right now.  If you are interested in purchasing Icelandic Sheep, please check out our sheep pictures here.

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