Alice Gerard

reflections on unexpected change Late in March, I had chosen my theme for both the Apri A to Z blogging challenge and the Ultimate Blogging Challenge, also scheduled for April. I was planning on going on lots of walks and taking lots of photographs, which I would then share. But I was unable to follow […]

little round paintings Today, I am starting on a new art challenge. I got these four tubes of gouache paint to play with for the month, along with a larger container of titanium white acrylic gouache. The colors of the four tubes are: hummingbird blue, peony, myosotis blue, and light ochre. This is my first

or “help! a poet has taken over my brain!” ZaNila Rhyme is a modern poetic form created by Laura LaMarcha. It features at least three quatrain stanzas with a specific rhyme scheme and syllable count. I think that I will title it “What creates the bad in a bad dream?” Who is the monster in

storytime with Berry Bear (guest blogger) Look for more stories to come from Berry Bear, who promises to be a guest blogger on occasion! He is planning all sorts of fun adventures and can’t wait to tell you more about them. He thanks Lia and her great grandmother Martha for all of their attention to

Today’s word is xiaoshi. It’s a Chinese form of short poetry that has been called the Chinese haiku. It is usually written as a quatrain. A quatrain is a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes. The xiaoshi is a style of poetry that dates back to the 1920s. It presents seemingly unrelated

alice’s april art challenge… On the first of this month, I received a box in the mail with a few art supplies and 20 sheets of 4×7 inch (10.16×17.78 cm) hot press finish watercolor paper in a little block. A block is when the paper is attached on two sides. In a usual tablet, the

an interview with… me! I’ve been participating in blogging challenges for a while now, and I have noticed that many of the same people come back again and again. It’s really great because I’ve discovered that I am building relationships with other bloggers, even though I’ve never met them in person. So, when, on Sunday,

Sometimes, on a cloudy day, you can smell the rain that hasn’t come yet. You can feel the heavy dampness in the air. And it feels okay to stay inside and do some creative project that you’ve been working on for a while or one that you let go of because you were just too

The grayness is gonewhen bulbs burst forth with colorsweet early springtime. Daffodil facesshine yellower than the sunearly afternoon Sunshine is sweeterwhen you’re with your favorite friendsafter months indoors I hope that you have a good and sweet week. Try to take time to enjoy nature!!! What sort of plants do you see where you’re living

fun with archaic words can old words become new again? Sometimes, words just disappear from the language. For some reason that’s unknown to me, people just stop using these words. When they were used, all of the now-archaic words had meaning and were used very appropriately. Over the passage of years, the words were forgotten