Quote du Jour/Katherine Mansfield

Now’s the time when children’s noses  

All become as red as roses

And the colour of their faces

Makes me think of orchard places

Where the juicy apples grow,

And tomatoes in a row.

From Autumn Song

by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

May Reading

I realized that if I want to jot down what I’ve read in 2014, I’d better get going! My May reading was quite, quite wonderful. Because I am so far behind, and because I don’t have as much time to write these days, I am giving short shrift to some wonderful books. If I could I would write whole posts on each book. 

23. Summer Lightning

by PG Wodehouse

fiction 1929

Kindle

finished 5/6/14

The month began with my favorite writer, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. I’m wild about the Blandings books. I find Lord Emsworth and Co. to be the most delightful fictional acquaintances. Summer Lightning is the third in the Blandings series, but honestly the PGW books can be picked up anywhere. Lord Emsworth’s younger brother who has quite a checkered past is writing his memoirs. There is fear among all his contemporaries, as they wonder if their own youthful adventures will be in the book. 

24. Disappeared - book 1 in the Inspector Celcius Day series

by Anthony Quinn

mystery 2012

Kindle

second reading

finished 5/10/14

I decided to reread Disappeared as it had been a while, and I wanted it fresh in my mind as I read the second in the series. I am very interested in the Northern Ireland of the post-troubles. It is clear that those days are not forgotten. They echo and reverberate. Men who were young then are now old, but their fervor and anger are as strong as ever. Such a good book.

25. Border Angels - book 2 in the Inspector Celcius Day series

by Anthony Quinn

mystery 2013

Kindle

finished 5/14/14

This one, though excellent, was a bit harder for me to read since the subject was the trafficking of young girls from Eastern Europe. You may read a great interview with the author here.

26. Fifty Candles

by Earl Derr Biggers

mystery 1921

Kindle

finished 5/17/14

I’ve put off reading this for a while because it was the only Biggers book I hadn’t read. I’m so sorry he didn’t live longer to write more. Such a good writer. Though I read it last, this book precedes the Charlie Chan mysteries. 

27. Little Fur Family

by Margaret Wise Brown

children's book 1946

finished 5/19/14

written about here.

28. News From Thrush Green - book 3 in the Thrush Green series

by Miss Read

second or third reading

fiction 1970

finished 5/25/14

I love Miss Read. I love Thrush Green. I love the characters and the stories. Some of my most pleasant times have been in a Miss Read story.

29. Roast Mortem - book 9 in the Coffeehouse Mysteries series

by Cleo Coyle

mystery 2010

finished 5/29/14

Another fun entry in the series. Not my favorite, but only because I don’t like reading about arsonists/fires.

Today's picture, and Product placement/socks

My Old Farmer's Almanac calendar's offering for this day is

Wear mismatched socks to bring good luck

And today Hazel Nina showed up in these socks!

They come from a terrific Vermont company called Solmate Socks whose motto is

Life's too short for matching socks

Today's Song and Pictures - October Light

One of my favorite songs is October Light by Robin and Linda Williams. There isn't a video of them singing it so I'm going to share the words, along with some photos of my own October light. There really is nothing like it. This evening there was a gentle rain falling as I took the pictures, and soon a rainbow appeared.

Each day we walk upon the hill

to watch the setting sun 

play on the trees and fields until

it falls and day is done.

Yellow, orange, blue, and rose  

The colors neon bright.

The evening sky is all aglow

with this October light.

We sit together in the swing

Our faces to the west

and talk of what tomorrow will bring

and what today has left.

We trace the dimming day

as dusk breaks to night

So we don’t miss a single ray

of this October light.

Oh, the long, dark shadows eulogize

the sun fleeing southward in the sky

‘cause there ain’t no saving daylight

when the tenth month comes around.

September memories take flight

as heaven’s lamp turns down.

So we feast on eventide

‘cause November’s chilling bite 

is waiting on the other side

of this October light.

The evening sky is all aglow

with this October light.

We don’t want to miss a single ray

of this October light.

October Light

Robin and Linda Williams

from the album Deeper Waters

For the fans of dogs!

If you are like me and you see a dog in a movie, you immediately want to know if the dog is going to be okay. I don't want to watch anything where a dog dies. And now there is a website for dog lovers called Does The Dog Die.

And here is a great graph, which I perhaps shared here another time, for book and dog lovers.

Product placement/baby food

It’s a wonderful time to be a baby! When my kids were little there weren’t any organic baby foods. And now, there are wonders beyond wonders. Any fruits you can imagine. Interesting combinations like bananas, apricots, and baby rice. Amazing offerings like vegetables and beans. If you click on any of the links below you can see the huge range of products available. 

Ella's Kitchen

Plum Organics

Earth's Best

Stonyfield YoBaby

and one I didn't happen to have on the shelf when I took the picture - Happy Family Brands.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - October

It worked out wonderfully today that three dear girls and their babies were here to be in the monthly garden picture! Margaret and Hazel Nina; Estée and Campbell Walker; and Margaret's friend for over 30 years, Ana and Roman Henry. As you might imagine, I was in heaven all afternoon.

Today's picture(s) - Me and Hazel

Today's song/A Summer Song by Chad and Jeremy

Tonight at 10.29 ET, fall begins, and I thought this a perfect way to say goodbye to summer.

Ken Burns' new film - The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The seven part series begins tonight on PBS at 8pm ET. Tomorrow, it will be streaming on PBS here. And it will soon be available to buy on DVD. I'm so excited to see this!



On Thursday there was a wonderful interview with Ken Burns on the Diane Rehm show, which you may listen to here.

Inspector Lewis returns!

In case you haven't heard! October 5, 9pm, PBS.

April Reading

Hmm, I wonder why I am just now getting to post about the books I read in April.  Could it be that on May 6 our grandson, Campbell Walker was born, and also that day Margaret went back to work and we began taking care of Hazel Nina three, and then four days a week?! I'm going to try and post as often as I can, and get these monthly book notes up to date. Then I plan to visit my blogging friends, and catch up with all your lives. 

These book notes are not going to be anything brilliant, believe me! 

17. Miracles on Maple Hill

by Virginia Sorenson

illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush

middle grade fiction 1956

library book

finished 4/6/14

I wrote about this in a separate post here. 

18. The Whistling Season

by Ivan Doig

fiction 2006

library book

Kindle

finished 4/8/14

I tend to not read literature about the western US in the early days. I’ve just never had much interest in cowboys and bars and brawls. But I decided to give this a try, and I was thrilled from the first pages. I loved this book. It isn’t about any of those three things I mentioned. It is about a very rural place in Montana during the time before the first World War.  A man’s wife has died and he is just barely holding things together, trying to raise his three boys. It is told by one of the sons, about fifty years later. The reader learns about life in those days, and particularly the school system. I hung on every word. The language is poetic, the story fresh, and the characters so familiar and yet unusual at the same time. I’ve never read anything like it.  

19. Weeds Find a Way

Words by Cindy Jenson-Elliott

Pictures by Carolyn Fisher

children's book 2014

finished 4/10/14

I wrote about this here.

20. Leave It To Psmith

by PG Wodehouse

fiction 1923

Kindle

finished 4/21/14

I’ve read most (all?) the Jeeves & Wooster stories, and some of the Blandings stories but I hadn’t read any Psmith. The ‘P’ is an affectation added to make him stand out from the other plain Smiths in the world. It is, of course, silent, but in my brain I always call him ‘P - smith.’ I found this a bit more of a serious, straightforward sort of tale (well, as serious as PGW can get!), and really enjoyed it. It is the last of the four Psmith books. I actually chose it because it is part of the Blandings series, and I'm trying to read them all in order. I've said it before - one really could spend one's reading life just reading Mr. Wodehouse. If I had a second lifetime I might do just that. Even his lesser works are better than most writers' 'great' books. Telling the plot to this book, or any Wodehouse, would take a week, so suffice it to say, I loved every minute of the time I spent within the pages of Leave It To Psmith.

21. Nest

by Jorey Hurley

children's book 2014

finished 4/21/14

I wrote about this wonderful book here.

22. Blandings Castle and Elsewhere

by PG Wodehouse

short stories 1935

Kindle

finished 4/29/14

As the title implies, some of these stories are set at Blandings, and others are not. The Blandings tales come chronologically between Leave It To Psmith and Summer Lightening. There are a few Mulliner tales, and one standalone about a favorite character, Bobbie Wickham. I love Lord Emsworth of Blandings, and wish Wodehouse had written even more about him. He is a perfectly drawn English eccentric. I have a book of the Mulliner stories called The World of Mr. Mulliner, and though I've read a few of them, I keep thinking I'll do as PGW himself suggests in the preface:

A word of warning. As regards the medium dose for an adult, I would recommend, as I did in my Preface to "The World Of Jeeves," not more than two or perhaps three stories a day, taken at breakfast or before retiring. Don't try to read the whole book straight through just so as to say you've done it. Nervous people and invalids of course be guided by their doctor's advice.

I've got the book out, and intend to do as PGW says!

What I Learned From TV - September 6

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 New Tricks:

One of the characters has been trying to drink less tea, and is spoken of as being ‘on the wagon.’ Another character says:

“If she’s truly ‘on the wagon,’ she’s been sentenced to death. Condemned prisoners being taken from Newgate to be hanged at Tyburn were allowed to stop off at a pub for one last drink before being put back ‘on the wagon’ for the final part of their journey to execution.”

From The Café: 

My mum’s new therapist is working wonders with her bi-polar. Half the time she’s really happy.

And another one from an earlier episode of New Tricks:

The head of a natural history museum says,

“People visit the museum three times in their lives - once with their parents, once with their children, and once with their grandchildren. We are constantly trying to have them visit more often."

Hazel Nina at 9 months!

Hazel Nina is a girl in motion these days! Most of my pictures are blurry because she does.not.sit.still. Margaret weighed her yesterday and she is now 13.8 pounds, up from the 2.2 she weighed at birth. Last time she was measured, she was 26 1/4 inches. She has grown 12 1/4 inches in these 9 months. Our family miracle for whom I give thanks each and every day.

An August Evening at the Movies - Ida

This beautifully photographed film begins with Ida about to take her vows to become a nun. The Mother Superior tells her that before she does so, Ida should visit her long-lost aunt. Ida is an orphan and the aunt is her only relative. The nuns appealed to the aunt many times over the years to come and take Ida away from the orphanage. She never replied. Ida has no interest in the venture, but does as she is told. 

Her aunt Wanda is just about the polar opposite to Ida. She drinks, smokes, and picks up men at bars. We learn that ten years back she was quite a prominent judge. Wanda tells her niece about the mother and father she never knew. Ida’s mother was Wanda’s beloved sister. Having been brought up Catholic, Ida now finds out that she is Jewish. Wanda and Ida go on a search to find out the circumstances of the parents' deaths during the war, and where they are buried. 

The time is the early 1960s, and the place is Poland. The film is shot in black and white, and we see the desolation, the crumbling buildings, the isolated farms. There are many silences in the movie. The viewer actually sees the characters thinking. It is such a relief from all the talk, talk, talk that surrounds us. I thought Ida was very moving, and visually stunning; a truly wonderful film.

Ida is a very personal film. We see these women, each bereft in their own ways, dealing with lingering hatred of the Jews. There isn’t a lot of kindness shown to them, and when it does appear, it is from the younger generation, for whom the war is ancient history. There is some wonderful music in the movie - pop, jazz, and classical. 

There is a great interview with the director, Pawel Pawlikowski here. It is available on DVD from Netflix next month. 

I first heard of Ida in a review in the New Yorker, which you may read here. The piece is brilliant, with much information about Poland. The official film site is here. And there is a beautiful review here.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - September

The other day I told my sister-in-law that my iPhone camera is the best camera I've ever had (and she feels the same way), including the expensive one Tom gave me for my 60th birthday. It was not entirely satisfactory, and I wrote about giving it up and getting another one here. In a while, that one also stopped working well, and I got yet another camera, a Canon, which seemed pretty good. But I love my phone camera so much that I never use the 'real' camera anymore. However, I did decide in January to use it for my afternoon garden photos. I think they came out alright, until today. The sunlight is at a different angle and the house looked glary and garish. I took many pictures, trying for a good view with the same result. So I thought I'd try the iPhone. And what a difference! In addition to the quality of the photographs, I love the way I can snap picture after picture without pause.

September's garden with the Canon camera

And with the iPhone camera

Tom used the brush cutter today to clean up the flower gardens. And now comes the raking. I think I'll wait till spring to divide the day lilies, as I did this year. Before the cutting I harvested some catnip for the kitties. Raya had to have some every time I walked in with a new batch.

Other than rhubarb and chives, this catnip is the only thing we harvested this year. I haven't missed the vegetable garden. I've found everything I needed at my local Co-op store, and didn't even visit any farmers' markets. The other day I stood in the middle of all the local produce and just marveled that this bounty was available. I wrote about our decision to give up the veg garden in May.

A new Jan Karon book!

I am on Goodreads, though I don’t write reviews or even comment on my friends’ reviews very often. I like using it as a kind of notebook to keep track of what I want to read. The other day I got an email from them which said:

#1 New York Times—bestselling author Jan Karon returns—and invites you to join her again in Mitford in Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, on sale September 2. Here’s a special message from Jan to you, her loyal readers:

Dear reader,

Here's hoping that you will be moved to much laughter—and a few tears—as I surely was when writing Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good. My characters are flesh and blood to me; I regard even the worst of them with love, and believe this is how God thinks of us, his own wayward, restless, comic, striving and endearing characters.

Of the twenty-three titles of my books, this is my favorite. I believe it expresses in just five words what we all long for.

Warmly, 

Jan Karon

I am incredibly happy about this. I love the Mitford series. I love the characters, the locale, the stories. Recently I’ve been thinking about the books, and how nobody talks about them anymore. For those who don’t know, they were HUGE in the 1990s into the 2000s. Anywhere people were talking about books, you would hear or read Jan Karon’s name. They had a religious basis, but not in a pushy, ‘i am right’ sort of way. Her main character, Father Tim is an Episcopalian priest, and try as the Episcopal church might we are just not really good at evangelizing; at drawing attention to ourselves. In general, we are a humble bunch which probably goes a long way in explaining why we aren’t such a powerful force, or a big church, in this country. I haven’t gone to church in a long time, and I do have other beliefs besides Christianity, but still I am, as they say, a ‘cradle Episcopalian’ and the church is in my heart and soul and mind, even as I don’t attend services. 

Anyhow, I am just so thrilled there is a new book coming out. I've missed this town and these people.

Today's picture/Campbell Walker

On Friday, we went to a wonderful family get-together, and toward the end dear Campbell Walker decided to take a wee nap.

Today's picture/Hazel Nina as Minnie Pearl

When I was a girl, I was quite smitten with Minnie Pearl. I loved it that the price tag was still on her hat.

I thought of her today when Hazel Nina's new fall hat arrived in the mail, and I tried it on her to make sure it fit. I can't help but think that Minnie Pearl would have loved this picture.

Can you see her new teeth? Two on the bottom that came this month!

Terrific story about a new children's bookstore

Curious George store owner takes model to Boston with Make Way for Ducklings

By Marc Levy 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

http://www.cambridgeday.com

A Faneuil Hall store based on the book Make Way for Ducklings is being prepared for a September opening.

What worked in Harvard Square with Curious George is about to get a major test across the river as entrepreneur Adam Hirsch opens Make Way for Ducklings – the world’s only store based around the beloved children’s book by Robert McCloskey.

The store is being called a pop-up, and is expected to open in Faneuil Hall in September, with a grand opening celebration in early October, filling space left by a shuttered Orvis outdoor-clothing shop. It is expected to be open at least through spring 2015, and longer if the concept works as well as it has in Cambridge with H.A. and Margret Rey’s Curious George monkey character.

“We’re a small mom and pop shop. Who knows how receptive people will be to the idea? We have our delusions – we think it’s a perfect fit, but let’s find out,” said Hirsch, who took over the Curious George real estate at 1 JFK St., Harvard Square, opening in April 2012 as the World’s Only Curious George Store after the Curious George & Friends book and toy store had been closed for about a year.

The Curious George store is “doing fine,” Hirsch said, crediting support from the local community and saying he hopes the store will still be in place for decades to come.

Year of Making Way

But that seems modest for the owner of one store of less than 1,300 square feet who is about to take on a second site of around 5,000 square feet in another super-expensive location. To get there, Hirsch had to convince the McCloskey estate, Faneuil Hall owners Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. and of course himself and his wife, Jamie. (The Hirsches live in Roslindale and have three kids.) The process has taken about a year.

The McCloskey estate was quick to climb aboard – Hirsch said the toughest part was making contact – what Hirsch described as a “wonderful opportunity to raise the profile” of a classic that has been on children’s bookshelves since 1941, inspired an annual spring kids parade and draws families regularly to the bronze duckling statues installed in the Public Garden by sculptor Nancy Schön in 1987. “It was a perfect fit. It made a lot of sense, and they loved it,” Hirsch said.

The New York-based landlords also drew praise. “They’ve been incredibly supportive,” Hirsch said. “We would not be here unless they were willing to take a risk. Our job now is to open up a store that’s going to knock their socks off.”

The store is an a roughly 5,000-square-foot space vacated months ago by other outdoor-clothing retailer Orvis.

The formula

How much of a risk is the Make Way for Ducklings store? Hirsch seems to have a winning formula.

Real estate: While the World’s Only Curious George Store is in Harvard Square, which draws 8 million visitors annually, Make Way for Ducklings is opening in what’s been ranked the seventh-most visited tourist attraction in the world, where it’ll be the only children’s bookstore option for 18 million visitors a year. (Harvard Square isn’t on a lovehomeswap.com list of tourist destinations cited by The Boston Globe and Bostinno, but would tie with the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., at No. 32.) “I know our model will succeed best in the best locations,” Hirsch said.

Exclusivity: Hirsch won exclusive branding rights from the Rey estate and set about creating Curious George toys and merchandise that literally couldn’t be bought elsewhere, and he’s doing the same with the Ducklings brand. “We have an opportunity to bring ‘Make Way to Ducklings’ to life in a grander way,” he said. “One difference is exclusive merchandise.”

Creating a destination: Hirsch’s stores are designed to be interactive, with frequent events and cozy reading nooks, and to feel less like a bookstore than an experience. “We create unique destination stores,” he said, noting that the previous Curious George shop in Harvard Square store was primarily a bookstore and not what he considered a model for success these days. The original, 15-year store and his own are “as different as two stores can be with the same branding.”

Of course, with four times the space to fill in Faneuil Hall, Hirsch plans to have some Curious George items on hand, as well as material from other internationally recognized children’s authors with local ties.

The store will have books and merchandise for “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle (who lived in Northampton and has a museum in Amherst), the “Busytown” books by Richard Scarry (who was born in Boston) and the works of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield and has a sculpture garden there).

Make Way for Ducklings will be at the end cap of the North Market Building at 8 North Market Building, Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. Information is here.