Category Archives: Digital Art & Photos

Pets – A Photo Montage for Cees Photo Challenge

I have never entered one of Cee’s Fun Photo Challenges before, but the topic this week caught my attention. I live in a ZOO! Well not literally, but I do live with a menagerie of fury, feathered, scaly critters. So I couldn’t pass this one up. I present to you my “babies”. 🙂

Henry

This is Henry…our first English Mastiff. We lost him 2-1/2 years ago and I still miss him everyday.

merlin

This is Merlin. Born on Labor day…days before 9/11.

Sebastian

And Merlin’s Litter Mate, Sebastian.

Casey

Casey…a refugee that we found on the side of the road in 2005 at about 4 weeks of age.

MrBean

This is Mr. Bean, a Sun Conure and our “watch” bird. Nobody steps on our front porch without Mr. Bean letting everyone know about it!

Maxwell

This is Maxwell, who is THREE YEARS OLD TODAY! 🙂 We adopted him the summer before Henry left us. After months of trying to console him, we decided he needed a buddy…

Winston

…so we rescued this handsome fellow, Winston, who will also be 3 in July. He had been abused and abandoned at only 6 months. We work on rebuilding his broken trust every day.

Flash

Meet Flash. He’s a Russian Tortoise that we inherited after a family member could no longer care for him. As you can see, he is spoiled at our house!

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And finally, this is Lucy…I mean Ms. Lucy. She is the official queen of the house. We rescued her last fall after her family surrendered her to a high-kill shelter. She is blind and deaf, but that doesn’t stop her from getting around AND showing the big dogs who is boss! At 16, the Vet believes she still has 4-5 years to be spunky. We’ll take it!


Robin Red Dawning

Every morning before the sun comes up, I see this fellow on my neighbor’s roof. This is a little digital painting of a photo I took of him. He is quite comical and has grown accustomed to me. Sometimes he tilts his curious head as he glances at me. I think that I would miss him were he not there. I wonder if he would miss me. I wrote a little Senryu poem about him. I consider him one of those momentary graces that wait for me to discover them each day. I’m so glad that I’m paying attention. 🙂

robinonroof

Robin Red Dawning

Robin on the roof
every morning before dawn
watching me watching.

kat ~ 3 May 2016
(a Senryu Poem)


Tempests and Tempers

darkening gloom, tempers ignite
a tempest looms as bitter words spew
billowing clouds poisonous venom
swelling with rain unleashing rage
a thunderous deluge taking no prisoners
flooding the earth slaying the soul

kat ~ 2 May 2016
(A Cleave Poem)


So This is Grace – A Bref Double

Magnolia

My little Magnolia tree, bursting with buds, soon to experience her first blooming! I am reminded to pause this first day of May, in the presence of this grace and others, to count my blessings. Sometimes I get so busy, caught up in the cares and worries of life, and I forget. I forget how wonderful life is. I forget to notice the treasures waiting for me in each moment.

i’ve grown accustomed
to fragrant spring blooms
to woodnotes and rain
to sweet morning dew

i’ve come to expect
sunrises and sets
star dusted night skies
moons full to new

rather ungrateful
my sad life’s beset
with busyness, soon
my time will come due

though I may forget
grace always makes room.

©kat – 1 May 2016



Shi Sai Sunday – A Look Back in Re-Verse – 1 May 2016

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Happy May! It is Sunday time to look back as I do each week in a Shi Sai poem (a new form I coined yesterday that explains the odd collection of lines you see below…each one a favorite taken from this past week’s previous poems). I’m liking the new look of my Sunday post title. 🙂

It has been a busy week, complicated by a few days of being down, thanks to the generosity of my coworkers who love to share and who insist on coming to work when they are sick! That is certainly not me. When I am sick I like to crawl under my covers in a darkened room and sleep until whatever it is that I have has passed.

At any rate, I am relieved and quite excited to have completed my daily poem and new poetry form challenge to myself for the month of April. (I had no idea that it was a thing when I decided to give it a go…so I didn’t link to any similar challenges.I wasn’t being antisocial…just oblivious.)

I like today’s Shi Sai (Re-Verse). The week was indeed quite magical. There were several new poetry forms to learn, close-ups photos of flowers, celebrating the freedom flight of my garden faerie, and a successful google search for the mystery writer who first penned the word of the day on Friday. Not to mention, on a side note in cubicle world, I cracked the equation codes for an elaborate spreadsheet my boss asked me to develop…Haha! Bet you didn’t think this right-brained dreamer had it in her did you? That said, my first love will always be words. My relationship with numbers is, let us say….complicated!

And as the week came to a close…a rant. It was good to get the words and feelings out of my head so they wouldn’t fester there and cause me to do or say something I might regret…but I am generally a positive person. I try to live my life simply, respecting and having compassion for others. Life is too short for ugly. So the line for the poem below could only be the one I chose. Grace is new every morning after all. And I still hope.

Simple pseudo-handles work just fine.
waxing poetic perfection in words
graced in amaranthine blush
There once was a faerie held captive in clay,
if I were a faerie…it might look something like this!
as you looked away, blushing
when she was young and flowers bloomed… 
Sleep on waves of red velvet
birdsong, wind-tossed forest whispers…
turn to ash aching for warmth
souls revealed line by beautiful line
The truth is just a breath away.

~kat 1 May 2016