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Duh, it has been more than 3 months since my last entry. Let’s start easily. Some of you may have read this. (More “news” soon.)  WOW & Whew! That worked well. My birthday pictures.

 

BIRTHDAY REPORT, MARCH 2017 – FIESTA LATINA, ARGENTINA

We took the bus to Villa Elisa – ½ hour, see poem. I’ll delete line breaks to save space.

SCENES FROM VILLA ELISA

those birds sing   so earnestly   at 4 a.m.

guests for lunch   sisters long separate   peace lilies in a vase

this long green beak   piercing eyes of indigo   orange crown flashing

this bird-of-paradise   this bloom

against grey sky   jacaranda purple   more royal than ever

as we say goodnight   on the sidewalk   two snails kiss

Franci Louann   November 2007

Second Prize, Kisses and Popsicles Contest 2009, www.pandorascollective.com

Sent with 2^nd set of three poems when deadline was extended.

Published in the Royal City Poets anthology 2012 (Silver Bow Publishing)

Gee, I’d forgotten – I have translated that one into Spanish/castellano.

I felt we could count on Natalina’s family for a good fiesta. I suggested El Boyo restaurant, just across the plaza. Natalia/Naty/Nati? reserved a table for six, for the 8-30 setting. Her dad Enrique and his partner Susana would join us.

Natalina and José prepared lunch for us three. They were cutting a very long piece of beef. Some went to the freezer. Our steaks were grilled on top of the stove. The meat was extraordinarily tender. I asked what cut it was. Lomo, tenderloin, filet mignon! We had enough for seconds. This was served with roasted potatoes and carrots and mixed salad, both with basil, my favourite addition. I felt loved.

By the way, when Natalina or Carmen prepare a meal, I’m usually so overwhelmed, I forget to take a picture. So I have a photo halfway through Natalina’s lunch for me. Yes, of the second serving of lomo.

At El Boyo I ordered pasta – ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach. The sauce was crema with ham and mushrooms. For “appetizers”, someone had ordered deep-fried calamari (there were gorgeous big succulent pieces) and French fries. Stella Artois and Lopez Malbec were our beverages (with water for Natalina).

Susana tipped off the waiter and a tall slice of ice cream cake appeared with a candle for me, when we were done. As people clapped and sang, I got three wishes. (I was thankful that we shared that dessert.)

After dinner, we went back to Natalina’s, where I knew there was a cake in the fridge. It was a huge package that had arrived that afternoon. I was pleased to see that a tall candle was responsible for its height. This was a meringue and raspberry cake with dulce de leche filling, served with cider in tall celebratory glasses. Delicious.

We overnighted with Natalina’s “Sheraton treatment” – she even irons her sheets. For breakfast I enjoyed the rest of my pasta and another piece of birthday cake, before we returned to La Plata.

I LOVE LA PLATA

me gusta La Plata   me encanta La Plata   I love La Plata

with its plazas   its trees, el verde, the green                                 

       linden trees   tilia   la ciudad de los tilos   city of linden blossoms

streets are numbered   avenidas wider

       las diagonales   mas misteriosas   the diagonals, more mysterious

the locals know   walking the diagonals   saves time;

we foreigners   are cautious

       la ciudad de las diagonales   city of diagonals

Plaza Moreno is central   the largest, longer

with its giant cathedral   Italian style   built a century before

Museo de La Plata   dinosaurs from Patagonia

some of world’s best natural history   since 1888

me encanta   La Plata

       Franci Louann   December 22, 2011

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Plata

Last year my age was evenly divisible by both five and ten. I like to celebrate those days in style, but we just couldn’t do it, as we’d had a death in the family. My sister Mariann’s partner of twenty-five years, Lloyd, had died the year before. Lloyd and I were born in the same year. We had celebrated many birthdays together. He had been generous.

So this year I wanted a “Fiesta Latina” and that’s what we had. Last year was a good year for me. I liked being that age.

Mariann and I are close in age. Next summer, July 16^th, she will have that same “evenly divisible by ten” birthday. I hope that we will be able to celebrate in style.

Franci Louann     March 10, 2017

THE 50^th BIRTHDAY PARTY – remembered, cinquains

at my fiftieth   spontaneously I invite   everyone born in my year

to join me in an unrehearsed   cancan / chorus line dance

one man, one woman and myself;

I forgot   they both have   “hip issues”—   I don’t mean trendy

this is a touch of mortality   not to be confused   with morbidity

encouraging   humility

Franci Louann   March 29, 2007

Here we are in La Boca, where the tango was born.

SCENES FROM BUENOS AIRES

 

the airport crowd—familiar faces surprise us;

our driver, eyes blue-green as a rare lake

 

spring in Buenos Aires, some cherry blossoms, will there be more?

Recoleta, the artists´ market, our first souvenirs

 

at Florida and Lavalle the music entrances—why your smile across the crowd?

later, my camera gone

 

at the internet café, a power failure, my dos pesos refused;

confusion at the bank machine—a man asks, are six hundred pesos ours?

 

a kiss on Córdoba—young lovers, spring afternoon;

rainy day on Córdoba—that red shirt—half-price? no

 

Mother´s Day     a young man sleeps in a doorway

at the orchid store, they are filling a taxi with flowers

 

Avenida de Nueve de Julio   ninth of July, Independence Day;

world’s widest street—strong wind at kiosk—we all pick up post cards

 

Monument for the Victims of Terrorism by the State

by the wide brown river, where some disappeared

 

two red umbrellas at Nueve de Julio—we need two green lights to cross;

long hair before us—ebony, brunette and blonde—a ‘shampoo commercial’

 

jacaranda blossoms—tiny purple trumpets blanket plazas

pigeons hide in dark branches

 

narrow sidewalks—walking is like the tango

would lessons help?

 

Franci Louann   October 2007 – March 2008

Argentina   travel   nature   trees    flowers

Argentina’s independence was won on July 9, 1816.

Honourable Mention Kisses and Popsicles (spring) contest 2009,

www.pandorascollective.com

Sent with 2^nd set of three poems, when deadline was extended.

Mary, in every nativity scene, wears a hijab. Well, maybe it is technically a “veil”. Women have had to wear head-covering in churches until 1981, sometimes just black lace. I remember school day tours of cathedrals, when we were required to put even just a “Kleenex” on our heads to show appropriate respect.

Recently a friend was purchasing Christmas ornaments for a tree for the Domestic Violence Response Team. Different colours were packed together. She decided to get purple and silver, “their colours”. A couple were standing there in front of the tall stack of decorations. The woman, who was wearing a hijab, asked my friend (in perfect English) why she had chosen those colours. That woman went on to explain that this was their first Christmas in Canada. A Christian couple had given them a tree and they wanted to decorate it, without offending those friends. They wondered what colours they should select. My friend said that they should choose the colours they liked best – that this is what Christmas is all about. The woman smiled, reached up and took a package of turquoise and silver balls.

This is a true story. Josie just told it at our Century House Association chairpersons’ meeting. I gave her a standing ovation and a hug afterwards. I think it would be good for our whole country if this story could be shared from coast to coast to coast. (Some new immigrants are going “north”, yes?)

A funny but sort of sad comment to finish is, in my rush to share a moving story, I misspelled “hijab”. This proves that I probably hadn’t even said it aloud. (I often say, about most words – if you can say it, you can spell it.) I need to pay attention and practice Arab words.

December 1st is my day to mount my first solo art show at the New Westminster library, main branch, in the upstairs gallery. 6th Avenue, between 6th & 8th Streets. (Not that I expect that I will ever have another art show…) Hope you can “show up”. They liked my “Santa Series”! The selection committee […]

via “Show-up at the NWPL Corral”… — Franci Louann

December 1st is my day to mount my first solo art show at the New Westminster library, main branch, in the upstairs gallery. 6th Avenue, between 6th & 8th Streets. (Not that I expect that I will ever have another art show…) Hope you can “show up”.

They liked my “Santa Series”! The selection committee knew of my poetry and invited that as well. I just happen to have ekphrastic poetry, inspired by my own artwork.

In addition to the Mr & Mrs Santa portraits, I’ll have my “Two Dimensions”, inspired by the “Wait for Me, Daddy” photo. That, my first framed piece, was accepted for the inaugural Community Gallery show at the Anvil Centre opening in 2014. (The original has sold.) I’ll also present some framed originals from my “Mia Series” and some portraits of friends and family.

“Mia” – that may have been the name of our model in my only life drawing experience. I didn’t know that the initial two-minute poses were for “warm-up”, so I was done in two minutes. I am your occasional visual artist, preferring felt pen on cream card stock. On some few occasions, the muse has visited. (I wonder if she will ever visit again.)

My “Blue Santa”, BTW, has astonished me so far. Was informed that our city would like to purchase use of the image for their holiday card for the Parks & Recreation Department. The cheque is in the mail? You may see him & his friends in my gallery here at my blog. Thanks for visiting (& thank you to Mrs Claus who invited me to do their portrait).

 

Earlier this year I “confessed” at Beacon Unitarian that I had “submission-phobia”. People were astonished. Thanks to a little support from some Beacon members, I have been making more artistic submissions.

My poem on a Shakespeare theme, “Life as a Mortal Coil”, won second prize in the Burnaby Writers’ Society contest.

My  contour drawing, “Mr & Mrs Santa #3” (in blue), was chosen by the City of New Westminster for its holiday card for Parks and Recreation use.

The “Santa Series” (six drawings) will be part of my first (& probably last) solo show at the NW library this December. Christmas art cards are $2 or 10 for $15. You may see these at Century House Artists’ Fair on December 3^rd. The drawings are here in my Gallery.

I did say that I would finish the story about that horse in the photo in my last post. This giant Percheron (I’m 99% sure of the breed) is  one of many that I have admired at the stables near Burnaby Lake. It was a rescue horse, not wanted because it was “the wrong colour”. The new owner had to get a custom-made saddle and bridle for her steed. She can be seen riding around the lake with a friend on a much smaller equine companion. I love this story. I think this is one of the biggest horses I have ever seen.