Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Poetry, for starters

    It’s pretty easy for me to get ensnared in outrage these days. But pragmatism suggests that it makes more sense to choose appropriate emotional responses, rather than react to every little (or big) thing. I’m returning to my morning ritual: starting the day with poetry rather than news.

    For that, The Poetry Foundation provides an easy option: Their emailed daily newsletter delivers a poem. These poems can be contemporary or classic and they choose from a global list of poets. Today, they offered an emotionally rich poem from British author D.H. Lawrence. Lawrence holds a place in my heart because he wrote about sexual intimacy in a way that doesn’t feel salacious to me. (Lady Chatterly’s Lover).

    I didn’t know that Lawrence had also written poetry, so this piece was a fine surprise, a messy moody evocation of unexpected emotion.

  • Delicate strong

    Last summer, I took a stem cutting from a neighbor’s beautiful climbing white rose, dipped the stem in rooting powder, stuck it in a little soil in a clear plastic takeout container, watered it, put the lid on (key to maintaining the moist environment starts need) and set it in a window.

    It grew roots and added leaves and in about two months, I had a viable little rose start. I put it in this blue pot, set it out on the deck, then forgot about it and it nearly died from lack of watering. But didn’t quite die. I cut off all the withered parts and it grew up again.

    Then winter arrived and my attention turned indoors. When the spate of hard freezes hit us last month, I moved the more delicate potted plants from the deck into the garage, including this rose. There had already been a few hard freezes, hard enough to crack the side of this pot (designed for indoor, not outdoor use). But this delicate looking guy turns out to be strong.

    There’s a great article about how some plants survive hard freezes on the United States Botanical Garden website. (Side note: Anybody visiting Washington D.C. should visit the botanical garden. It’s a lovely oasis on the capital grounds to decompress after a day of gawking at the wonders of DC).

    I love that this plant survived my early neglect and winter freezes. Here’s to things that survive despite all odds.

  • I support Ukraine

    I believe in support for Ukraine. I trust President Volodymyr Zelensky and support his leadership of his country. I stand against Russia’s invasion. I stand against Putin.

    It’s not enough for me to post a flag and express a sentiment on my blog. If anyone has ideas about how to help muster visual global support for Ukraine, I am all in. If there are 10 friends willing to go to DC and stand in front of the White House with a Ukrainian flag every day for a week, I am all in. If we started, I think others might join us. But even if nobody joined us, I would still do it. I just can’t sit around anymore.