Spring Treasure ~ #008 March 2014 – Versatile Blogger Haiga/Haibun
Coins mostly collected in change from 1998-2003.
Versatile Treasure
so far i have yet to be good with awards. i appreciate the thought. i intend to respond. i never seem to quite get to it. this is most likely the last. however. in this case. i will try. with some tweaks.
1st: thank you Rebecca. i appreciate the thought. i know you read a lot of what i do. in fact i thank a number of others who have had similar thoughts as well. thank you. i appreciate the thought. and. just to be clear. this is the first time i’ve actually gotten this far in an attempt to respond to an award like this (does that count as 1 thing about myself?)—other than within my skull. please do not be offended if this is the only and last one i attempt.
Rebecca’s blog (rkb665) Windmill—Thank you.
2nd: it is hard for me to nominate people (not physically, just in my skull, is that #2 on the things about me list?). i find great blogs. i follow them. in most cases. occasionally i miss that click. however. for me, nominating is even harder than being nominated (both are a skull thing—#3 perhaps?). so. . . . if you’d like to be considered for a Versatile Blogger Award nomination (because i’d feel okay about that) let me know in a comment and i will try to figure out how to nominate you as long as you are an “excellent” blogger. it says 15 nominations. so i will attempt to go up to that number if i get 15 such indications. if not. i’m okay with that too.
3rd & 4th: the space for 15 nominations:
5th: 7 things about myself. in no particular order. and btw. every thing i create is a self portrait (as i see it). that’s true of all artists—including writers. so if you want to know things about me, you are already doing that when you look at or read my work.
1. reading started out hard for me. i did not really learn how to read until about 3rd grade (about 8-9 years old) when the teacher told my mother she had to take me to the public library and check out 2-3 books every week, any level, and read out loud to her for half an hour every night. my mother did that. and that was tough. i remember that. it was hard to read even dick and jane books. figuring out sounds was hard for me. let alone running sounds together into a word. and no way did i get through 3 books in a week at any level (other than picture books—as long as there were no words with the pictures). after the first week i was allowed only one picture book. and i worked on the reading book for the 2 allotted weeks it was given to me on check-out. two books, one being a picture book, was more than enough for two weeks for me at that stage. so that is what we did from then on as it was hard for us to get to the library. at the end of two weeks we took the book(s) back. whether i was finished or not. it didn’t matter to me if i was finished with a book or not because i didn’t understand what i was reading from page to page anyway. so i had no idea if there was a story in it or not. the picture book i’d already looked at in the half hour we were at the library. i took the picture book home (along with the reading book) because that was what i was supposed to do. i began to read by the end of that year. although at a low level (maybe 1st grade level). up till 5th grade if i got a C on a report card for any subject, in any quarter, i was doing well. mostly i got a D in most things with one or two Cs occasionally as an exception. mostly those were a C-. in 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th grades i was placed in special classes. which was an attempt to pull the students in those classes up to where they were supposed to be—or, because the faculty who had been there for a long time did not want some kids in their class—and they knew who those kids were. the “unwanted kids” were all given to one teacher. the new teacher. i was in that class in 8th grade. academically we were challenged. physically, which means in sports, we excelled. many were intelligent, we just hadn’t gotten the message about what school was about. mostly that 8th grade class was boys. about 24 boys and 8 girls. mostly i think the girls liked that (altho it was probably intimidating too). fortunately for the boys that 8th grade teacher was a young man who also knew about sports. we dominated the five 8th grade classes in all sports activities. we also dominated all but one of the 9th grade classes in sports as well. this was important to us. our academic esteem was not great. but we felt good about our athletic esteem. after that class i got better at figuring out what i was supposed to be doing in school. by 9th grade i was getting Cs and Bs and an occasional A. from then on i went up in grades to honor rolls etc. and frequently straight A grades on into college. in college i discovered i liked visual art a lot.
2. i’ve always had great compassion for animals. and i’ve mostly always been a pack member to a dog. altho once in a while i’ve had a cat. i’ve also had wild animals for one reason or another including snakes and chipmunks (not together), squirrels, salamanders, frogs, mice, ants etc. and more commonly domesticated creatures such as rabbits, chickens, birds, a cow, fish (wild and the pet store variety) and so on. i did not live on a farm. however. i liked making habitats for those creatures that needed them.
3. i’ve always been a gatherer. stones being one of my early pocket stuffers. now i often pick up bits of things on the streets where i walk. human made and lost or discarded things (as well as non-human made things too). things that might not be good for tires if a tire ran over them. . . . i have piles of that stuff. i expect to scan that stuff. in one way or another. some day. i intend to create things with it. i have ideas for that stuff. but i have not gotten to doing those ideas. yet.
4. someplace in the summers between 7th and 9th grade i discovered how intriguing a book could be. and that was fun. the world within. the worlds that opened up. since that time i’ve liked reading books. a lot. altho i am still a slow reader. i have to read slow to make sure i read the words right. otherwise the meaning of what i read is skewed. when i read however, in the best books, there is always a clear movie running through my skull of what is going on. i like that a lot.
5. i like plants on about the same level as i like animals. i’m often experimenting with seeds. and now i attempt to maintain bonsai as well. which has given me an entirely different way to appreciate stones from the early times when i stuffed my pockets with them. of course, i still appreciate stones in that earlier way too. and yes. i often have stones in my pockets even now. and i pick them up from almost every place i go. treasure.
6. coins and stamps. yes. i have gathered those at times too. for various reasons and through various kinds of appreciation. along with an array of other stuff periodically as well—like keys and even vases. if you ask. i may have it.
7. currently i seem to be gathering memories. which i am storying about or using in various ways as i create. mostly in the last few months as haibun source. i like this haibun form, a Haiku and Related Forms genre of poetry. i like it a lot. i want to create more books. that is in the works. maybe in many ways. when it will happen, is another question. i’ve decided that all my stories are true. and accurate. to the best of my ability. only the facts may be changed to protect the story and my dialogue with it.
Spring treasure
in my pocket today
blossom petals
Scanner Photography
- 8 x 12 Inches @ 300 ppi
- Digital Drawing and Painting
- Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner
- Perfect Effects 8
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 12
This is my response to the Versatile Blogger Award sent to me by Rebecca (rkb665) and others. The instructions are:
VBA Rules
If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award.
• Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
• Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
• Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
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