Showing posts with label Fence Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fence Magazine. Show all posts

Monday, January 24, 2011

Take the Long Way Home

Since the Bears ended their season leaving fans with weeping hearts, I thought I’d move on and look to the future. Besides, I can always hope “Big Ben” crushes Green Bay at the Super Bowl.

Change in script: We’re still committed to our daily walks—yesterday being our longest—6.7 miles. We walked more miles than we drove the car since we arrived back in Germany, which is much better when you consider the price of gas. This helps us save money and lose weight at the same time. It’s so easy walking around here that I’m usually surprised at how many miles we’ve done.

Sometimes I’ve taken my camera along so I could share with you.  This first one I took of a car for sale because I thought this tiny car was so cute.

These two pictures show how much it’s flooded in Hattingen. The first picture is from June 2009, and you can see the green field in front of the house. The second picture is from this past week, and the field in front is under water. I couldn’t believe the path we rode in 2009, where the picture was taken, was gone too.


I thought this was quite interesting. When we started into the forest, we came upon a little shack that you can see in the background. Here are steps and a locked fence for the shack. I think it was built to keep the thieves out...then I asked myself, "Why?". 

We exited part of the forest for a little bit that opened up, and I was able to get a shot of the sun starting to dim and an airplane path in the sky.

This picture looks like a field of amber.

We finally made it up to the castle ruins, but then my camera died out. 

On another walk though, I did capture this picture of a broken tree. I thought it was cool the way the tree branch rests right next to the trunk.

Hope you all have a great week.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A Blessed Day!


Today, the love of my life received wonderful news, which paves the road to our future, and I received great news regarding my poetry.  A month ago, I entered the Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) 2010 Unified Literary contest.  The winners are published in Fence Magazine along with the participating Canada and Kenya journals plus a free trip and tuition to participate in the 2010 SLS Montreal and/or SLS Kenya programs, or Vilnius, Lithuania in 2011. 

A few days ago, I received notice of the contestant winners, but I was not one of them.  Then today I received an email stating, “Our judges were strongly impressed with the work you submitted, and we are pleased to offer you an SLS fellowship, in the amount of a 20% tuition waiver.”  The email also explained the number of submissions, 1200 and additional information regarding each program, although it was that line that stopped and made me cry.  I felt such joy to read those words, to know someone believes in me and my works.  The fact I didn’t win the contest didn’t matter after knowing my poems were held in high esteem.


I’m not saying I wouldn’t have wanted to win, but I’m filled with gratitude for such wonderful words, offer and an opportunity to allow my writings to flourish.