A Year with Mrs. Appleyard - March

Mrs. Appleyard doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to expressing her feelings about the month of March! 

No matter how often she encounters this month, she thinks she’ll never live through it. Sometimes she doesn’t care whether she does. Just what it is about March she doesn’t quite know. It blows grit in your eyes, but other months are windy. Its predominating colors are gray and brown, but so are November’s, and she rather likes to see the shapes of trees and of hills without color or even whiteness to distract the eye. March is no colder than January, yet it sets more joints aching. It is only three days longer than February, but it seems endless.

Although I've never given this month much thought, I realized when I read her words that I feel much the same way. You know I love winter. But by March I am kind of ready for a change, especially after mid-month when spring officially begins. Only once in a very great while have we had the warmth of other climes in the latter days of March. Mrs. Appleyard writes of women ‘buying spring coats, though well they know that in New England you can’t wear a spring coat until June and then it is too hot.’ To me, and apparently to Mrs. A. as well, it feels rather like a month that must be gotten through rather than lived in.

Death of our dog Sadie

Mary Oliver says in her book Dog Songs

And it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old - or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.

Our beloved Sadie was put down yesterday afternoon after months of up and down health problems. During the up times we kept hoping she could come back, and during the downs we felt such despair. Yesterday we took her out walking just a little bit.

My poor old girl. How I miss her.

Today's poem by Katharine Tynan

Slow Spring

O year, grow slowly. Exquisite, holy,

The days go on

With almonds showing the pink stars blowing 

And birds in the dawn.

Grow slowly, year, like a child that is dear,

Or a lamb that is mild,

By little steps, and by little skips,

Like a lamb or a child.

Katharine Tynan (1859-1931)

Spring officially began in my neck of the woods at 6:45 pm

Today's song/Carrickfergus by Van Morrison and The Chieftains

I wanted very much to post Van singing this in a live performance, but the one I found was too fast and upbeat for this very sad song. This is from the original recording. Here are the lyrics so you may read them while the song is playing. The video follows.

Carrickfergus

I wish I had you in Carrickfergus,

Only for nights in Ballygran,

I would swim over the deepest ocean,

The deepest ocean to be by your side.

But the sea is wide and I can't swim over

And neither have I wings to fly.

Oh, I wish I could find me a handy boatman

To ferry me over to my love and die.

My childhood days bring back sad reflections

To happy times spent so long ago.

My boyhood friends and my own relations

Have all passed on like the melting snow.

But I'll spend my days in endless roving,

Soft is the grass and my bed is free.

Oh to be home now in Carrickfergus,

On the long road down to the salty sea.

And in Kilkenny it is reported

On marble stones as black as ink,

With gold and silver I did support her

But I'll sing no more till I get a drink.

I'm drunk today and I'm rarely sober,

A handsome rover from town to town.

Ah but I am sick and my days are numbered

So come all ye young men and lay me down.

The Rude Visitors by Gail Chislett

The Rude Visitors
by Gail Chislett
illustrated by Barbara Di Lella
children's book 1984
finished 3/12/15


There aren't words to express the special joy that comes from reading a book to Hazel Nina that I used to read to her mother. Margaret doesn't remember this book, and I'm sure it is because she was Hazel's age when I read it to her. It is one of my very favorites, and now it seems that it is also one of Hazel's. On many days, she walks over to the shelf, takes it off, and brings it to one of us to read. She plops herself up into a lap, and happily sits quietly absorbing this witty and wonderful book.

The delightful dedication makes me think there really was a boy named Bram back in 1984 whose mother wrote a book featuring him as the main character.

The Rude Visitors is about little Bram blaming imaginary (or are they?) animals for all the misadventures of a toddler.

The illustrations by Barbara Di Lella are so engaging, with both black and white, and color drawings. She makes Bram and his friends very appealing to young ones and their adult readers. I'm happy to say the book is still in print. If you are a parent or grandparent of a young child you will both love this book, and like Hazel Nina, want to read it over and over again.

February Reading

5. Bee-bim Bop 

by Linda Sue Park

illustrated by Ho Baek Lee

children's book 2005

finished 2/2/15

I wrote about this here.

6. The Bachelors of Broken Hill - book 14 in the Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series

by Arthur Upfield

mystery 1950

kindle

finished 2/3/15

The Widows of Broome (January Reading) and The Bachelors of Broken Hill are a little set. They differ from the preceding books and are alike to one another. They both involve deeply disturbing psychological cases for Bony to solve. We learn of some very weird people along the way. They are much more like modern mysteries which, to my mind, sometimes offer a few too many details that I don’t need swimming around in my mind. But still both are excellent chapters in the Bony books.

7. The Clue of the New Shoe - book 15 in the Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series

by Arthur Upfield

mystery 1951

kindle

finished 2/9/15

The Clue of the New Shoe brought Bony out of the town into a more rural, less populated environment. This time he is along the sea investigating a body found buried in a lighthouse wall. Australia is so varied in landscape, and each book shows the reader something new. I really wish I had the time to write a single book report on each book. 

8. Belle Prater's Boy - book 1 in the Belle Prater series

by Ruth White

young adult fiction 1996

kindle

finished 2/13/15

9. The Search for Belle Prater - book 2 in the Belle Prater series

by Ruth White

young adult fiction 2005

kindle

finished 2/14/15

I don't know how I missed these two books. Exceptional writing and stories. They are set in 1950s Virginia. There is a wonderful sense of family love, and a good sense of society in those days.

10. Howards End is on the Landing 

by Susan Hill

nonfiction 2009

reread

finished 2/14/15

I wrote about this here.

11. Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good - book 10 in the Mitford series

by Jan Karon

fiction 2014

kindle

finished 2/18/15

I am so very happy Jan Karon is going on with this series. It was such a treat to catch up with the Mitford folks. All my old friends were there at different stages and situations of their lives. The author has said there’s another one coming along. She also said that Father Tim will be alive as long as she is writing. Very reassuring for this reader. I will read this series as long as the books are written. These are real people with real troubles, and with real joys.

12. Cocaine Blues - book 1 in the Phryne Fisher series

by Kerry Greenwood

mystery 1989

kindle

finished 2/22/15

I’ve been reading about this series on blogs for a long time. I’ve watched a few of the televised programs called Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which are on Netflix Instant. So finally I read the first in the series, and I liked it so much that I’ve already bought the second one. Phryne has her own web page here so you may read all about her. I really liked the characters in the Melbourne Australia of the 1920s. You know about my new found fascination with Australia from reading the Napoleon Bonaparte series by Arthur Upfield, and this is a great addition to my ‘education’ on this topic.

13. The Vanishing Houseboat - book 2 in the Penny Parker series

by Mildred A. Wirt

middle grade mystery 1939

kindle

finished 2/24/15

I’m surprised at how much I enjoy these books for young teens back in the 1930s. They are exceedingly well-written with good use of grammar and language. The plots are intriguing, and the characters not at all one-dimensional. I wrote a little bit about the other two I’ve read here. As I said then, I am so impressed with the trust her father puts in her - he expects her to do the right thing, and she does. And when something unexpected happens, he understands. It is very good parent/child relationship. Much kindness and generosity is shown. Penny is a good role model.

What I Learned From TV - March 8

Each time I do a post about What I Learned From TV, I’ll begin with the explanation from the first posting:

Now that my kids are grown, and Tom has retired, I’ve been able to go back to my natural sleep pattern which is to stay up late and get up late. Tom’s natural rhythm is just the opposite. So, he’s the lark and I’m the owl. And what this owl does in the late hours is watch television- not in the traditional way but through Hulu, Netflix, TunnelBear, and Acorn TV. Most of the shows are British, though I am a great fan of a few American television shows, and have been watching some from other countries now that we have TunnelBear. Some of these shows Tom will watch in the mornings, but some of them are all mine. So, when I hear a great quote from a show I know he’s not going to watch, I’ll leave him little post-it notes near the computer keyboard. I had a notion this morning to begin a new ‘letter topic’ called What I Learned From TV so I can put up some virtual post-its for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy. Some are funny, some are educational, some are wise.

From The Café:

No one knows anyone’s [phone] number by heart anymore.

And isn’t that the truth. I have been the queen of remembering phone numbers my whole life, but no longer. I don’t even know my kids’ because they are under ‘favorites’ and I just click and voila, my phone dials. A little bit sad, I think. As Joni Mitchell wrote all those years ago, ‘something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.'

From Bones:

Cell phones carry 10 times the bacteria of a toilet seat!