This is the lounge where Kate lay

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Yesterday was warm and so dry that by the time you finished hanging
clothes at one end of a clothes line, you could start taking them down
at the other end. I know, because I hung out the first laundry on the
line that Steve had put up that morning.

Today, we get this:

Chaise longue in snow

which has inspired this:

    This is the lounge
        where Kate lay.

    Notice the snow
        that lies on the lounge
            where Kate lay.

    Note there’s no sun
        to melt all the snow
            that lies on the lounge
                where Kate lay.

    Note all those clouds
        that cover the sun
            so it can’t melt the snow
                that lies on the lounge
                    where Kate lay.

    See all the flakes
        that fall from the clouds
            that cover the sun
                so it can’t melt the snow
                    that lies on the lounge
                        where Kate lay.
   
    See the girl in the house
        behind all the flakes
            that fall from the clouds
                that cover the sun
                    so it can’t melt the snow
                        that lies on the lounge
                            where Kate lay.

    Why’s she tearing her hair,
        the girl in the house
            behind all the flakes
                that fall from the clouds
                    that cover the sun
                        so it can’t melt the snow
                            that lies on the lounge
                                where Kate lay?

What
I didn’t manage to get into the rhyme—okay, it doesn’t rhyme, so I
guess it’s not a rhyme, but anyhoo—the important thing here is that I
was out on that chaise longue yesterday. In shorts! A lot of
the time I was sitting crosslegged, tapping away at the computer on the
rectangular table and defending my ice cream from the cats, but “lay”
sounded better than “sat,” and all those details just made the line too
long.

The forecast shows clouds and a 50% chance of snow or
rain for all the next week, with nighttime lows dropping below
freezing. Oh goody.

16 Responses to This is the lounge where Kate lay

  1. It may be frustrating but it looks lovely – especially the perfect shapes on the stools. (I like the round one best!)
    Lucy

  2. I think it counts as a rhyme: a rather good one, too.
    Sat would have rhymed with cat, splat (the sound of an ice cream hitting the floor), drat (the sound of Kate yelling at the cat), hat (needed to avoid sunstroke or, indeed, snow), gnat (in case you had been bitten), rat (which might have distracted the cat) and bat (with which you could have whacked the rat).
    Among other things.
    This poetry lark is a doddle once you get going. Shakespeare, Longfellow and Wordsworth had it easy.

  3. Oh … Kate … you are worse off than I am girl .. I’m sorry to hear the weather is so crappy there. I won’t tell you about ours this weekend .. but it does involve some planting .. I hope it turns around for you soon !!

  4. Then I shouldn’t tell you that we are going to get into the 80s this weekend should I? *Daphne runs and ducks from the snowball coming her way*

  5. I’d call it a poem – but them, what do I know about poetry anyway? ;)
    I love how our common language differs! Here lounge is the room where you sit (or even lounge around) and watch the snow falling whereas you’re showing us what we’d call a lounger. But then lounger wouldn’t scan so well or sound so wistful would it?

  6. PS – I’m in shorts today and appear to have tidemarks around my neck and legs where the sun lay.
    Oops – missed. Chuck another snowball if you dare ;p

  7. Kate,
    what can I say except I’m sending warm vibes through the ether, aimed at melting away all the snow and heating the earth so that spring may arrive for once and for all. A heat wave today on the East Coast, just cool air here, so I must wrangle the loooong hose around the beds of thirsty plants.
    btw, helper is no more. Sigh!

  8. And I thought we had the bi-polar version of mother nature here! First blazing sun and 90F+ temps and then pea-soup hair frizzing fog. Your mother nature is crazier than mine! I do love the rhyme that she inspired. ;)

  9. It was 24*F here this morning, ice was covering everything. It’s the end of April for heavens sake. It’s supposed to be in the 70’s here at the end of April! I’m ready for some global warming to come my way.

  10. The artist’s eye, Lucy, is a wonderful thing. And I quite agree about the shapes. (That’s actually why I photographed them; the frustration is just for show.)
    James, I appreciate the support but don’t quite follow the logic: it’s a fine rhyme if I’d taken the time to use one or two words that would flutter like birds (or settle like turds?) on the clean white page that recorded my rage even if it was a computer screen and not a piece of paper and in spite of the fact that I hadn’t in fact used them? (The words.)
    As I say, I don’t quite follow. But you’re right about the poetry lark.
    Yes, Joy, it’s a sad day for us gardening folk. My parents in Toronto report fair weather there, so I assume the same’s true for you.
    No, Daphne, you shouldn’t. Have I mentioned that I’m coming out east this summer? Security may wonder about those insulated suitcases filled with snow.
    You’ll note, VP, that I didn’t seek your opinion of my little ditty before publishing it. I leave you to draw your own conclusions, oh Queen of Bad Poetry.
    Here a lounger is a fellow disinclined to work, and even worse is a lounge lizard, a polyester-clad fellow disinclined to work who spends most of his time in sleazy hotel bars with disco balls, probably in Miami.
    Shorts, huh? Brag, brag. And what are “tidemarks”? Tan lines?
    I hadn’t been planning a trip to Britain, but who knows. It may be hard getting those suitcases full of snow through secruity, but I’ll manage.
    I remember those S.F. days, Alice. No fog to dampen the plants? I guess that’s June…
    Sorry to hear about the “helper’s” defection. I’m not all that surprised. Maybe he’ll be replaced by someone more helpful.
    Holy cripes, Michelle, YOU HAVE EDIBLE CARROTS ALREADY. Your cullings are the size of my best efforts. Excuse me while I go in the back room to sob.
    I usually welcome newcomers, Lee, but given your skate-boarding escapades and near brushes with the law, I feel a more cautious greeting is called for: Hello. I extend suitably luke-warm sympathy to a fellow sufferer from unseasonably cold weather, though in my case it’s more the warmth than the cold that’s unseasonable. As for wishing for global warming—I know someone who expects to make his fortune off T-shirts reading “Montanan’s for Global Warming.”
    –Kate

  11. If it’s a consolation, we had temps in the 90s last weekend (friends turned on the AC, though we’re not wimps like that) and now it’s barely 60s and very windy, temps in the 40s at night. After a weekend too hot to lie on the hammock, it’s now way to cold. I do, however, plan on the hike (and won’t need snow shoes). Hope it all settles soon.

  12. Tan lines they are ;)
    And if you come to Britain, you’ll be welcomed with open arms with or without suitcases full of snow

  13. And I thought we had crazy weather here in Texas. Poor Kate.

  14. It was 90 here in NE that day. Which is too hot. Which is too hot for me. Which is too hot for me but not for you. Which is too hot for me but not for you when you get snow in late April. Which is insane.

  15. Hi Kate.. was just poised to say hope the weather will be lovley for you in May!
    I am sure it will!
    Val

  16. Yes, Town Mouse, that is some consolation; if I’m miserable, I sure don’t want anyone else to be happy. Nineties is too hot. Sounds as if you’ve been having weather swings as abrupt as ours.
    VP Thank you. Be careful what you wish for.
    It’s the same swings, I gather Deb, but since we’re further north, when the pendulum swings from hot to cold, we get snow.
    Benjamin— Nineties in Nebraska in April? In Texas I understand it, but in Nebraska? Wierd.
    –Kate

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