My Little Cat

Posted on May 27, 2011 by literarylee

My little cat
Is such a puker,
She messes rugs
And ruins Euchre.

Posted in Original Poems | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Life Literary on Twitter

Posted on May 27, 2011 by literarylee

The Life Literary has a Twitter presence.  In the right-hand column, you can see the two most recent Twitter posts, called Tweets.  Clicking on the heading, “The Life Literary on Twitter” will take you to Twitter itself where you can read all past Tweets.

Twitter provides a great opportunity to practice concise writing.  Scribblers like me use up 140 characters very quickly.  I enjoy the challenge of making it both beautiful and brief.  It’s amazing what words you can take out of a sentence and still keep it interesting, descriptive, punchy.

I’m also using Twitter to try to introduce this blog to a larger audience.

How to Use This Blog

Posted in Blog Guidance | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Gold for the Taking

Posted on May 26, 2011 by literarylee

I’ve never seen the river like this before.  Here at a wide stretch just south of the airport that sits on its banks, the water is a huge, swollen lake, ponderous from a week of rain.  The ample waters reflect the newly risen sun’s gold, amplifying its brilliance.

I gaze.  I write.  I remember.

Posted in Daily Sentence, Whitecaps on the Potomac | Leave a comment

Click the Title (To read the whole post)

Posted on May 26, 2011 by literarylee

Sometimes when you arrive at a post, you won’t be able to see the full article.  On the home page, for example, you may see just the first paragraph or two.  When you click a category under the Categories list in the right-hand column, you will only be able to see the first few sentences of the whole article.  You can read the entire post by clicking the title which is a link to the entire article.  Also, at the end of a partial post, you will see a link that says “Read More.”  Clicking that will also take you to the entire article.

How to Use This Blog

Posted in Blog Guidance | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mum’s The Word

Posted on May 25, 2011 by literarylee

Like I need another garden project.

I already tend three gardens,  Smith, Jones, and the Lorelei, over the course of a season that lasts almost eleven months out of the year.  I figure I grow 50 or so different types of plants.  I still oversee my seed starting operation under lights in the living room.  Even with all that, I’ve been eagerly anticipating this new project since last year.  Six gardens with a hundred types of plants wouldn’t stop me.  I’m propagating mums.

This endeavor grew out of a big disappointment last year, but ultimately is rooted in Fall, 2009.  We had just moved to our new ground-floor apartment, complete with a little garden space not yet named the Lorelei.  Early in October, a couple of weeks after moving in, boxes still in the hall, pictures and curtains not yet hung, I bought three chrysanthemum plants to set outside our door.  The Alexandria Market is full of mums in the fall, bright orange and yellow, magenta and white mounds of prettiness.  These first flowers helped make our new house a home.

Project Mum

Continue reading →

Posted in Garden: A Love Story | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tags (Help for finding a topic)

Posted on May 25, 2011 by literarylee

Look at the tiny print at the end of every post in this blog.  After the phrase, “Posted in:” you can see the phrase “and tagged,” followed by a list of words or phrases.  For every post I include tags, my attempt to provide words that might lead people, searching for topics on the Internet, to The Life Literary.  Some tags I write to be funny or to reinforce the point of the essay as I did with a couple of the tags for this post.  Hopefully most will help readers find what they are looking for.

How to Use This Blog

 

Posted in Blog Guidance | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Duck 8

Posted on May 24, 2011 by literarylee

 

Down in the mouth

(Duck Series Gallery)

Posted in Duck Series | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tabs/Pages (The Blog’s Guideposts)

Posted on May 24, 2011 by literarylee

These are across the top of the page, directly beneath the header.  The tabs are guideposts for this blog: they point the way to the various content.  You could also think of them as a high tower.  Climb up (click a tab) to get a view of what all is available, to take a look at the overall landscape of The Life Literary.   Some tabs will tell you what the blog is about.  Others will lead to specific articles.  Still others will help you explore the ideas behind The Life Literary.  Here’s what they contain:

Home – This tab takes the reader back to the main page.
How to Use This Blog – This page contains information about how to actually navigate the blog, how to use it, what happens if you click a particular link.  It’s like the blueprint, showing the reader where everything is, or at least how to find it.
Philosophizin’ – If you’d like to know the ideas behind The Life Literary and answer questions like, “Why this blog?” and “What’s all this about?” click this tab.
The Ideas: Adding Words to Life – One of The Life Literary’s jobs is to give many ideas about how to add beautiful words to life.  Here you will find links to articles about memorizing poems, writing, conducting literary parties, playing with words, and much more.
What I’m Reading – Go to this tab to find out what articles and books I am reading now or have read in the past.
What I’m Writing – This page contains brief descriptions of and links to the things I’m writing now, from Whitecaps on the Potomac, essays about life in Washington, to Jerusalem Letters, tales from three years living in Jerusalem, and a lot more in-between.

Posted in Blog Guidance, The Life Literary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Refreshing Cool Drink from the Garden Hose (A Toast to Smith)

Posted on May 23, 2011 by literarylee

I’m a Happy Gardener right now.

This spring, I have not been able to visit Smith as much as I’d like.  I often don’t get home from work until 6:30 and by then it’s too late, or I’m too bushed from a long day and a long commute to get ready, drive the three miles to the garden and have a decent amount of time to tend it, before having to return home and get cleaned up in time for supper, by that time not any earlier than eight or eight-thirty.  So far, I’ve mostly spent a few hours each week-end tending Smith.  Driving to that garden a week or more after I last was there, I am usually a little concerned, a little anxious about what I will find when I get there.  A week is too long to be away from a garden, especially in spring.

This past Sunday, however, I was pleasantly surprised.  Smith looked great.  To be sure, I needed to pull weeds, mostly what I hadn’t gotten the last two weekends.  I only needed to pull a few Pernicious Weeds; maybe I’m finally getting them under control.  Tomato plants: healthy and vigorous.  Pepper plants: some look great (a few even have blooms!), others look okay, none looked bad.  Corn: about three inches tall and 80% or what I planted, growing.  Spinach and lettuce: good.  Garlic: gangbusters.  We even snacked on fresh-picked peas, so sweet and tasty they’re like the candy of the garden.

Smith: Lookin' Good!

Continue reading →

Posted in Garden: A Love Story | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Categories (Buckets for articles with similar topics)

Posted on May 23, 2011 by literarylee

Categories – These are listed along the right-hand column of the page.  Maybe you don’t want to read about literary events or memorizing poems.  Perhaps, you only are interested in one topic I write about, like my life in Bombay or Jerusalem.  Perhaps you’re a fellow gardener and only want to read the collection of garden essays and notes called Garden: A Love Story.  Maybe you are a duck aficionado and only are interested in the category called Duck Series.  To go directly to the content you want to read, simply click on the category you’re interested in to see everything I’ve written about that topic.  Take a minute to scan down the list of categories in the right-hand column of the blog page.  Also, look at the end of any post at the tiny print that says, “Posted in___” to see how I categorized it.

How to Use This Blog

Posted in Blog Guidance | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment