While the United States Congress and Sonia Sotomayor began their display for the American public, and the Tour de France cyclists discussed the possibility of a strike at the start of stage 10 in Limoges due to their objections to a proposed radio ban at stages 10 and 13, Lend-A-Hand Senior Writers paraded themselves among the famous  — Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Marianne Faithfull, Iggy Pop, David Hockney, Yoko Ono  — through a stunning exhibit of portraits by the late Robert Mapplethorpe, photographer.

‘Portraits’, an exhibit currently showing at the University of Arizona, Center for Creative Photography, allowed each of us a moment to peek through Mapplethorpe’s lens. His self-portraits offered a glimpse, too, of a life cut short by an untimely death.

Although it may not appear (by our serious portraits) that we had a good time, we did! The show was informative and interesting– a dramatic exposition. Later, we hopped the elevator to see the Ansel Adams and other photos, upstairs. Then it was off to Bentley’s for refreshments and chatter. Wonderful afternoon! We plan to meet again this Thursday morning, this time at the Mid Valley Athletic Club, just south of Broadway, on Tucson Blvd. We’re signing up for Silver Sneakers! More to come. . .

The Master Gardener

The Master Gardener grows his plants from seed. Four or five tiny seeds gently placed in a small peat moss pot, sitting on a plastic plate with plastic covers. No doubt, a recycled plate from the bakery.

The pot sits inside on a sunny window ledge, waiting for a solar rain to fall. Gently, it does fall.

Watched over as one does the family, one day a tiny green sprout appears. Growing taller, stronger, day-by-day, one day the plant is too tall, too strong for the cover to remain on. One day the plant will move outside to a place of its own.

The plant stays inside, cool, if it’s too hot outside – warm, if it’s too cold outside.

The Master Gardener feeds the plants fertilizer when it is time. He uses the best kind and he knows the difference.

The Master Gardener talks to his plants and the plants grow taller and stronger. One day there is a surprise: tomatoes, watermelons, and more to eat. Nothing tastes as good as home-grown.

The Master Gardener is proud of his plants. He should be. He enjoys watching over them, day by day.

Lucky are all the folks to whom he gives a sample.

Only one thing the Master Gardener does not know. Only one question  he cannot answer: “What do seeds think when they are growing?”

The Master Gardener takes care of our Earth. He is a master of gardening – a true Master Gardener.

You need him – well, need I add,

Thanks, Jim.

“The Seed”

“Hey! What’s all that shaking?” Somebody’s opening the bag.

“Oh, wow, daylight!”

“It’s so crowded in here”

“Whoops. We’re being poured out. I guess I’m going in the dirt. I hope it’s warm in there. Last year it was cold. I just laid there for a long time. When it’s warm, I start to grow right away. All I need is sunshine and water, and T.L.C.”

“I hope I’m a beautiful plant this year. There are a lot of us, and so many colors: coral, red, purple, lilac, white, yellow, pink… even green. In about six weeks I’ll be a colorful flower – me and a couple-hundred of my buddies.”

I’m so happy to be a zinnia seed.”

Notes

A wonderful meeting packed with writing and sharing, a little yoga, and, of course, food! Michele presented us all with a writing exercise that caused us to think about economizing our words, to become succinct and then very specific about our thoughts. Excellent!

We shared our writing, which was naturally the highlight of the afternoon. Liz, our newest member, shared her thoughts about the groups’ recent experience at the De Grazia studio.  Betty, Ruth, and Jim also wrote about the trip. Betty read a crisp reflection on the Winterhaven Fourth of July celebration, and her piece called ‘A Nightmare in Reality’ … which it was! If you could only imagine being stranded in 103 degrees F… .

Planting seeds for all of us, Jim wrote and read his quick piece personifying seeds (a great pleasure, as always), and simply by coincidence, Betty had written a piece about Jim called ‘The Master Gardener’! Could it have been planned any better? Read and enjoy them both here. Then, let us know if you think they planned their work together, or if the two just happened to be thinking along the same lines.

Ruth has added Chapter 9 to her book. She taught us what was meant by the expression “born under the veil”… Do you know what this means? She read the chapter’s first draft to us, and says would like to work on it a bit more — so that it more to her liking. You will all have to wait patiently to find out about ‘the veil’ and the new adventure before it will be posted here. Unfortunately, Ruth’s elbow still pains her from her fall. The pain affects the speed and duration of her writing, which she does all by hand.

To check out new work by individual authors, click here.

Betty

• Nightmare Number 2
• Winterhaven Fourth
• A Nightmare in Reality (Or… Help!)
• The Master Gardener
• De Grazia Museum in the Sun
• Elderly
• Alone Again

Jim

• Life On A Windowsill
• “The Seed”
• Gardening for Stupid People
• Dreams?

Ruth

• My Trip to De Grazia

My Trip to the Country (book-in-progress)

• Chapter 7- I Broke the Sewing Machine!
• Chapter 8 – Wading in the Ocean

Liz

• My First Commercial Air Flight
• Art

Michele

• Bicas at 4p.m.

We have a good time!

Summer Session has begun… but it’s not too late!

Senior Writing Project

Lend-a-Hand: Neighbors Helping Neighbors

2848 N. Mountain Ave

Tucson, AZ. 85719 248-6882

For further information on joining this writing project, or for transportation to the writing group’s meetings, please call one of the following people:

Michele 248-688

Lesley 777-6038

Sherri 204-5668

… And so we did. Two of us could not, for one reason or another, make it on our fieldtrip, but three of us did and we had a spectacular experience. (Yes, we missed our friends and spoke of them during the entire excursion… we even brought them souvenirs.)

Spottings of the Northern Cardinal and several other birds were noted at our lunch spot at Tram Stop No. 6. We met a few people there, as well.

Two of us took off our shoes and waded in Sabino Creek. The water was warm.

We had a jolly ride up and back on the Tram and wandered about the Visitors’ Center in the cooler air. Perhaps the evening spin up the Canyon on Laura’s birthday is in order!

Notes

Ruth is Back!

What a lovely surprise to see Ruth at our meetings, once again! As some may know, Ruth had broken her elbow in a fall and has been slowly but surely recuperating. The fall apparently hit hard so it has taken a while for Ruth to get back in the swing of writing her book. Be sure to read her latest chapter, “Wading In the Ocean”!

Jim reports that he has been having fun with writing stories from ‘given’ words. He and Laura’s son have been exchanging lists of ten words each, only to compose short vignettes with those very words. “It’s tricky stuff,” Jim tells us, and he enjoys it immensely. He read two.

Betty’s daughter Wendy has returned to NYC, so Betty writes “Alone Again”, a heartwarming piece about all that’s changed. She also talked about the harrowing journey home for Wendy… a nightmare of weather too bad for flying and airplane delays.

Next Monday we will be on a fieldtrip to Sabino Canyon; our tram ride is in order, along with a picnic lunch; more on this upon our return.

NOTES

Back at our usual meeting place, Lend-A-Hand Senior Writers conducted business as usual… well, almost! We discussed changing the time and or date of our upcoming Tea, but decided to leave things as they were. We talked a bit about what we could do and say to encourage other Seniors to join us. We’ve decided to offer a writing game and talk about our experiences in the group during the Tea. How better could we encourage others!

Jim and Betty both read their latest work, which had obviously been prompted by our recent trip on the City bus to Downtown Tucson and the Main Library. You can read and enjoy these under New Work on their individual pages.

Speaking of field trips, Jim brought a list of ideas for future excursions we might take and Betty set a weekly itinerary that included something for us to do each morning. I know of no better writing prompts than our experiences with the world! So, we shall go and we shall do, and at the same time we’ll read and read – all about the world and, in that way, ourselves. Then we shall write!

Next week Ruth will be back with us and we will meet in the usual place to do some long awaited catching up.

American Library Association’s celebration of National Library Week, Sunday, April 12 through Saturday, April 18.

Today’s meeting was an outing to the Tucson-Pima Main Library, Downtown. We took the SunTran city bus (well, most of us did), and the drive was just a pleasure. It was a lovely breezy day – not too hot and just perfect for our short walk to the Café 54 on Pennington Street, for lunch. It was there that we discussed Wilke Collins, our future writing excursions, pick-up trucks older than Laura, the neighboring City High Charter School, and the delicious tomato-basil soup on the bill-of-fare.

While at the library, Jim picked up a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and a flyer containing a short history of Tucson’s downtown area. It was full of surprising and interesting facts about local buildings and the businesses they replaced. Jacome’s Department store stood where the new downtown library now does – Steinfeld’s not far away. The old Main Library was located in the same building as the Children’s Museum does now. Betty recalled window shopping at Cele Peterson’s and parallel parking on downtown streets, long ago.

Our next meeting will be Monday, April 20th, at the Church.

NOTES

March 30, 2009

Fresh air, luscious fruit, great conversation, and wonderful writing, shared; can you beat that combination? I think not.

Lend-A-Hand Senior Writers’ fieldtrip to Green Things Nursery was simply a brilliant afternoon experience – a gentle breeze graced our company under the ramada where a table had been set for us. Thank you, Jim, for your suggestion to have lunch in such a lovely atmosphere.

The writing we shared was equally captivating: Betty’s piece on the environment (Earth Night) stirred much talk about sustainability and using our common sense to reduce waste contributions. Laura brought up several authors currently writing about similar topics. Jim’s latest vignette, Games People Play, is posted on his page – wartime, childhood memories, and well worth the read (as usual).

So good to get together and to have Sherri back with us after her absence last week. Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 6th. In the meantime, it’s the usual trip to the library on Friday. Thanks, Laura! You are truly beautiful! (and your fresh pear pie: seductive!)