Year Two - One Sentence A Day
fairy houses, a Northern Flicker, heart-shaped leaves, and bare feet
This month marks the one-year anniversary of sharing One Sentence A Day. Instead on focusing on an idea that I am too busy, I double down to find the time to slow down, to observe, and to be present. Writing one sentence a day is a simple gift to myself.
➡️ Flashback to April 2024 - last year there were catapulting snow fleas, robins planning and invasion, and morning walks that smelled like cotton candy.
One Sentence A Day - April
1. Farmer’s Almanac April saying: “If the oak is out before the ash then we are in for a splash; but if the ash is out before the oak we are in for a soak.”
2. When there is an excess of eggs from the henhouse, dinner gets simplified into scrambled eggs paired with a loaf of homemade stollen bread.
3. Some days I get lost in research; today’s amazement is from photos that look into the ear cavity of a Northern Saw Whet Owl.
4. Now that the snow has receded in most low elevation places, the leftovers from a desperate winter remain – broken bird nests, uprooted trees, wads of leaf litter, skinless bodies, skeletal parts, and a three-point deer antler.
5. As much as I enjoy watching the birds at the feeder, it is time to anticipate traveling hungry bears.
6. Even the most rigorous environmentalist will drive to a trailhead. We are all sources. (Charles Wilkinson, Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest, p 239)
7. I sat outside, not for the first time this spring, but the first day without a fleece lined hat.
8. This dripping wetland feeds a crooked scribble of a brook to the northwest.
9. Streams of light part the trees of maple ridge.
10. A hazy ring surrounds the nearly full moon creating an optical illusion of shadows that radically enlarge her boundary.
11. Airport travel is a lesson to be yielding in a wave of humanity.
12. The small arboretum I visited today had a fairy forest and now I want to build fairy houses to space at random on the property for a game of seek and find.
13. When it is not spring at home and you visit southern places, flowers in a parade of colors is a word much better than joy.
14. When I tipped the log I found the first yellow-spotted salamander of the season.
15. Male wood frogs announce their arrival, and willingness to mate, with a loud clucking noise that continues for hours—morning, noon, and night.
16. Today I had a singular goal—do not slip on the ice of the low trail that is now the high trail, do not slide in the muck, and do not abandon a boot mid-step.
17. Trout lilies poke their elliptic maroon speckled leaves through the decay of autumn leaves.
18. To identify a Northern Flicker is to know she dresses like a hip grandma—leopard speckles, too much foundation, and a black bib.
19. My nuggets produce ample eggs, still I use marshmallows for a bit of multi-colored decorative Easter participation this year (they were pretty but sort of gross).
20. Too frustrated to replace my expensive muck boots, I think I’ll wear my bright yellow chicken designed garden boots for a while.
21. It was the shadow that grabbed my attention, and I ran outside to count the nuggets and then played oversized momma until the hawk flew away.
22. All About Birds tells me that a “Winter Wren delivers its song with 10 times more power than a crowing rooster.”
23. Marsh marigolds have heart-shaped leaves with scalloped edges, each touched with a hint of purple in the olive hue, diagonal veins, and little capillaries shooting off the main lines.
24. Walking amongst paper birch settles me like being united with an old, very much missed friend.
25. Someone has been feeding the bears bird seed.
26. The beech leaves have the same blue pallor as the recently deceased.
27. Fog – rain – owl pellet – mist – ready to flower trillium – sleet – peeper’s peeping – mist, again – hobblebush buds – snowflakes.
28. The snow stake would have been a more appropriate tool of measure for yesterday’s precipitation.
29. The coyote on the game camera looks like he could use a comb.
30. Bare feet in the grass.
Many of these list items feel like they could be the beginnings of poems or are already poems! I especially loved "The coyote on the game camera looks like he could use a comb."
I love the idea! Such a simple yet magic way to get to writing, creating, expressing, no matter what.