Ciao bella (haibun – puente)

As I was waiting for my son to visit last night, I was preparing my late dinner, steak and rapini and grabbed my notebook that I kept on the counter and scribbled these thoughts with fondness.

Rapini

(puento)

sorting rapini

watching water boil, missing

bella’s kitchen.

~reminiscing where foul don’t always fly~

hear the geese fly

aiming for cottage country

honk honk honk

In my thirteen years living in Toronto, I made amazing friends and colleagues. I miss many and sorting the rapini while the water was coming to a boil, I could not help but be reminded of that weekend I spent mostly in Bella…Maria’s kitchen. She cooks like most Italian mothers do…with abundance of love. She taught me by having me take part in making a cannelloni from scratch! {the sauce as well} (which I hurried to practice upon arrival on Montreal soil) then prepare a decadent dessert, tiramisu and watching her prepare rapini. My hips do not allow for the dessert too often but rapini is a new favourite that replaces my love for spinach and broccoli…now it reminds me of juicy food and succulent conversations with Maria. Je t’aime bella, cia mia cara.

Classic Tiramisu

(haiku)

Ciao Bella!

Maria knows best

feeds bellies with succulence

“mangia mangia”

What I also discovered living in Toronto was that not all feathered species like to fly. Many parks are filled with geese and ducks who are fed all year long…don’t really care to leave this great home. They seem to have taken residence and do not bother to fly south winters.

I still love to look at the geese who usually fly in the shape of a giant V with the leader at the head, coming and going from Canadian towns. However, I found these Toronto geese less intriguing but more intrusive with their pompous attitudes, blocking some majour intersections in the Lakeshore area while motorists had to literally stop while a family led by Queen goose mother decided to cross the street! I suppose it is funny now but in some parks especially at Centre Island, it may not always easy to find a clean spot to lay your red checkered tablecloth for a romantic picnic.

Canadian geese – Toronto

(haiku)

Toronto Geese

roaming,head high

lawns become their giant

chamber pot

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/21

Soil (haiga)

months of drought

scorching sun kills

the soil

mother earth weeps our folly

for causing global warming.

Written for: Heeding Haiku with HA – Consider the Soil

Shawbridge Creek (haibun)

I spent many summers when I was a young child at Kilarney Cottage in Shawbridge (Prevost) Quebec in the Laurentians. My great grand-father O’Donnell immigrated to Montreal from Ballybunion, Ireland before the Irish famine; he built this cottage for his family of seven children.

My great-aunt took over hosting when her father passed. There was a creek where we spent hours hopping from rock to rock until we reached a pool of water and where I first learned how to swim. There was always something to explore in that creek. The cottage had 15 rooms and my great-aunt always hosted many friends and family that came from Montreal. Thank goodness the sound of the creek at night buffered the loud sounds of adults partying until the wee hours.

My aunt (father’s sister) did this painting of the creek years ago and I am so happy I still have this as the photos never gave it justice. This painting is only a glimpse of this long creek that led to mini cascades of water falls and one huge pool of still water. I still hear the sounds of that creek and the ice-cold water, brrrr.

hear the rapids
foaming swirls
creek

jumping rocks,
dodging frigid water
splash

lazy days
lying on our big rock
fingers paddling

fall asleep,
water flowing
white noise.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/19

Submitted for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #494 Creek

In memory (haiku)

June 18, 1982

In memory of Fred,

a great man, friend, husband, father

miss you.

You loved me

like your own,

thank you.

Canyon (haiga)

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon

panoramic view

breathtaking.

mystic breeze

whistles in the shade

telling tales

sun shines

canyon awaits

twilight

spirits roam

whispering legends

coyote howls.

Submitted for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #492 Canyon

Strawberry (haiga) Carpe Dieme Haiku Kai #501

At Carpe Dieme Haiku Kai, Challenge #501 Strawberry, Kristjaan has written an extensive post on haiku on strawberry and more importantly on the reference to Strawberry Fields Forever and the Beatles. Illustrations, music video and ending with a lovely song that we all remember John Lennon singing “Imagine”. With this theme in mind, here is my humble contribution.