Planning the planner(s)

This year I have been using a Happy Planner as a journal rather than the dotted Wordsworth & Black notebook I used in 2021.

I bought a new planner for 2023 a little while ago but hadn't decided quite how I was going to use it.   I don't need a planner as such as all my appointments etc are on my phone and the calendar in the kitchen.

I spent some time watching videos on YouTube which show how different people use their planners.  Many of them are into something called Frankenplanning where for each month you take a section out of anything up to 7 planners!  I think that's taking it a bit far.

Having said that, it was my intention to only have one planner/journal for 2023 but the way it's looking there may well be three.

Firstly, there's the main one in which I shall record what has happened each day.  This is how I've used my planner/journal this year with a page at the end of each month with photos of some of the things that have happened.  I did start blogging about it but stopped taking photos of my journal pages in June.  The pages are a daily vertical layout.

I think this year I might include photos on the weekly pages rather than putting them on a page at the end of the month.

The second planner/journal has pages with a horizontal layout.

And it has this cover.

However I am going to swap out the cover to this:

I'm going to use this as a journal to record my thoughts mostly on what I read from this book which I actually bought in August 2021 but haven't used.

I hope to include other thoughts about life in general.  Or not, as the case may be!

The third one is this pretty wildflower planner which will have a variety of pretty lined paper in it.  I am going to use this for the journaling of a course I have signed up for with Fibre Arts Take Two called: Essence of Identity with Donna Watson.

I'm also going to include with this photos of my creative work and list the materials used and the size etc.  I also want to start writing about how I made each piece and what techniques I used.  I'm hoping this will lead to understanding the piece of work which will inform the next pieces I make.

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you will know that I choose a Word for the Year.  As I write this I'm still not sure what that word is for 2023.

However come back next week to find out how I get on with choosing the word.  And whether that means a 4th journal!!!!!

Thanks for  joining me today.

Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

Thank you for joining me during 2022.  I hope you have a happy Christmas and a great 2023.

See you there!
Bernice

Poetic words

I spent a very productive couple of hours on a Write Poetry zoom call run by Sara-Jane Arbury.  You may remember me mentioning her before when I wrote about Shape Shift Words.

We did 3 exercises.  In each Sara-Jane introduced us to a poem, talked about its form, language and punctuation and set us off to write a poem of our own.

(c) Frederick Yang

The first poem was Considering the Snail by Thom Gunn.  My version:

Feline Considerations
Hidden.
Camouflaged.
Stripes echoing the grasses’ light and shade.
Perfectly still. But
totally alert to movement of its prey.

Ears pricked.
Eyes watchful, unblinking.
Poised.

Slowly one paw stretches
and touches down silently
as the next paw moves
and the next!
Slow, yet coiled.
Eyes on the target.

A sudden burst of rippling muscle
surging, pursuing the hapless prey.
Flapping feathers, frightened squawking
The feathered prey fights for freedom and
soars to the safety of branches high above and
jeers and catcalls at the losing stalker.

The cat stalks back to the shadowy grasses
his inner tiger dissatisfied. But,
there’s always another day.

The second poem was Root Vegetable Stew by Myra Schneider.   I can't find a copy online for you to see.  It was about cooking and about putting roots down.

My version as you will see is not about cooking:

Meals
I don’t cook. I heat up food.
Foil trays and frozen vegetables
brought from the supermarket of my husband’s choice.
Our evening meals based on use before dates
served on warmed plates
perched on trays.

We eat.
We watch the cooking shows.

The third poem was Amulet by Ted Hughes.  We were supposed to write about a creature but firstly I couldn't think of one and secondly this format is really, really hard.  Anyway you know my thoughts fairly frequently turn to canals, so here it is:

Roar
Inside the city’s roar, the canal’s silence
Inside the canal’s silence, the coots nest
Inside the coot’s nest, the hatchlings rest
Inside the hatchlings rest, the grasses sway
Inside the grasses sway, the fishes play
Inside the fishes play, the water moves
Inside the waters’ move, the narrowboats steer
Inside the narrowboats’ steer, they enter the city’s roar.

Well done if you've read this far.  I'm very impressed.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice