Still Life with Pooh and Beatrix Potter

When I rearranged Isabella's room to fit in her new bed, this little night stand which had been tucked away behind my rocking chair had to be moved to make way for the crib. It acquired a new prominence in the room and I was inspired to create this arrangement: One of the table lamps we received as a wedding present, our volume of The World of Pooh, Isabella's San Damiano crucifix that used to hang over her bed but the nail came out of the wall (probably because we used to take it off every night so she could kiss Jesus) and I've never rehung it, a little metal container that originally was a fruit basket for Bella's birthday and which is the perfect size to hold our collection of Beatrix Potter books. It made such a pretty picture, I just had to share.

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The Art of Beatrix Potter

I don't have clear memories of reading Beatrix Potter as a child. I do have some vague feeling of familiarity with The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Benjamin Bunny and Two Bad Mice, so I must have read them at some point. In any case I had enough familiarity and fondness that I wanted to introduce them to my children and sometime after Bella was born I bought The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter.

Miss Potter with Renee Zellweger introduced me to Beatrix Potter's biography. And I was quite impressed by her insistence that the books be of a particular size and be laid out in a certain way. Inspired by that knowledge I set out to acquire as many as I could of the small books published by F. Warne & Co, Potter's original publisher. This turns out to have been a wise move for it seems to be the small format of these books which draws Bella to them.

So Beatrix Potter has been on my brain quite a bit, as any frequent reader of this blog can tell. The other day I discovered The Art of Beatrix Potter on my bookshelf. I think I've had it for years and years, probably since before I moved to Massachusetts; but I don't remember when or where I acquired it. I suspect it was a gift from my mom. In any case, with Bella's new found obsession with all things Beatrix Potter, it caught my eye and I decided to pull it out and take a look. Honestly, I don't know if I ever read it or did more that a cursory flip through when I first got it. At least I have no memory of any of the book.

This is a beautiful volume, a treasure whose value I didn't appreciate until now. It isn't primarily a history or a biography, but a collection of her artwork with notes that introduce each section that do give some biographical context for the work.

It is divided as follows:

Part One: Her Work as an Artist

• Early Work


• Interiors


• Houses, Village Scenes and Landscape


• Gardens, Plant Studies and Still Life


• Microscopic Work and Drawings of Fungi


• Animal Studies

Part Two: Her Art in Relation to Her Books

• Imaginary Happenings in the Animal World


• Early Ideas for Illustrated Books


• Her Books-- Some Preliminary Sketches and Finished Work


• Miscellany


• Photographs of Hil Top and Sawrey Associated with Beatrix Potter and Her Work
  

As I page through this lovely 400 page book with over 300 reproductions in color and monochrome (I dare say more than half of them are color), visions of future school lessons dance in my head. I can see myself using this volume in conjunction with art lessons and as part of an in-depth study of Potter as an artist and author. It would also be handy in conjunction with inspiring nature study and nature notebooking.

Posted by: Melanie Bettinelli on Sep 06, 08 | 5:29 pm | Profile

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Recently Read

The Hunger Games is a science fiction novel aimed at the teen/young adult market. It is part Survivor (Yeah, I watch Survivor; it's one of my guilty pleasures), part gladiatorial games and part devshirme (the systematic collection of non-Muslim children as tributes by the Ottoman Empire). Well maybe that last is a little stretch; but maybe not either. The premise is that after some sort of catastrophic collapse of the United States a new government formed in North America, centered somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. A rebellion occurred and was brutally quashed and the survivors in twelve outlying regions now are subject peoples forced to participate in a deadly lottery once a year. From each of the twelve regions a girl and a boy (between the ages of 12 and 18) are chosen who will be forced to participate in a winner-take-all fight to the death Survivor-style. That is, they are all dropped in some wilderness and must compete for access to a limited amount of food and supplies in addition to the last-man standing takes all death match. It's all televised, of course, and some behind the scenes games makers rig the environment to boost ratings and force dramatic encounters between the various "tributes". The winner will be given free food and housing for life and his or her province will get extra food for the year, which is huge because they are generally kept on subsistence rations.

The heroine of the tale is sixteen-year old Katniss Everdeen who chooses to take the place of her younger sister who was chosen on her very first time out in the lottery. The story is fast placed with many flashbacks to her life before the games, developing her into a complex character as well as exploring the social and economic implications of living in a totalitarian state. It's a coming of age story, but also --perhaps?-- a romance. A little grim at times and might be too much for some more sensitive souls; but the violence is never over the top and never graphic. Most of all a page turner I couldn't put down.




This was the second in a mystery series by Linda Greenlaw, a Maine fisher woman turned author who was featured in the novel, The Perfect Storm. I've never read anything else by her though Dom has read The Lobster Chronicles.

Evidently in the first novel the heroine, Jane Bunker, moved from Miami, where she was chief detective on the Miami-Dade County police force to be an insurance inspector in a quiet town in coastal Maine. In this novel she stumbles across an empty boat and later finds a dead body. It's a fairly standard mystery novel with some fun Maine color. I enjoyed it but it didn't stand out particularly.




The Staggerford Flood is the third Jon Hassler novel I've read and seemed a much slighter story than either Staggerford or North of Hope. I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away. Interestingly it brought together characters from both of those earlier works and evidently from many of his other novels as well. Perhaps I should have read it after reading more of his works since it seemed to me part of the pleasure in the tale was meant to be seeing one's favorite characters fromt he various works crossing paths in an unexpected way. The central question that troubles the scrupulous Agatha McGee is a lie that the (perhaps too lax?) priest, Fr. Healy, shrugs off. An intresting juxtaposition of personalities that I'd almost have lied to see developed further.

As with Staggerford, I think I'll need to re-read this one later to come at it from a different perspective. I suspect it will grow on me.




The Glass Harmonica is an odd combination of genres: historical novel and science fiction, flashing back and forth between Eilish Eam, an Irish orphan and street musician in 18th century London, and Erin Rushton, an American and professional musician who lives in Seattle in 2018. The two women are linked by the glass harmonica, or armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin and by some sort of psychic connection as well.

The science fiction elements didn't always work for me. I felt that the social changes should have been put further in the future than 2018, I think it will take more than ten years to make American cities so unrecognizable. (The book was published in 2000.) And it felt like unnecessary window dressing. I wasn't clear why it had to be set in the future rather than the present and the class conflicts introduced in 2018 seemed strained. And I wasn't at all clear as to why a servant girl in 1760s London would have been buried in a private residence rather than in a cemetery. But otherwise the story was interesting.



I'd never read David Copperfield until now. It took me more than a week to read. Few works of fiction can sustain me for so long. That's one of the great things about Dickens, you really get to spend some time immersed in his world.

This was evidently Dickens' favorite of his novels. I enjoyed it, though many of the plot twists were entirely too predictable. I think Bleak House still maintains pride of place as my favorite Dickens novel. Though that may have more to do with the circumstances surrounding my first reading of it. Thanks to Mrs. Hastedt's high school English class, Bleak House is one of my favorite novels of all time.

David Copperfield offered an interesting reflection on marriage and the importance of choosing one's spouse wisely that would be interesting to read in conjunction with any of Jane Austen's books.

Let's see, so far I've read Great Expectations, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, and Our Mutual Friend. I've seen Nicholas Nickleby on television; but can't recall if I've actually read it. I think The Pickwick Papers will be next on my to-read list. Whenever I happen to pick up a copy.

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Today we are reading

about the life of Mother Teresa.




Truth be told I am abbreviating it a bit, this book is a little text-heavy for Bella. But if we keep coming back to it, we may well work through most of it today. I must confess that, though I love Mother Teresa, I've never sat down and read about her life. I have absorbed some of the essential facts from various articles I've stumbled across online, especially when the most recent controversy about her dark night erupted. I am learning something new today.

This book is lovely. There are a few typos and some slight errors; but I love, love, love the illustrations.

I do wish I had some clue as to how to pronounce her birth name, however. I feel foolish every time I stumble over Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. (Well, I get the Agnes part...)

I have an especial devotion to Mother Teresa after my sister-in-law sought her intercession for me when I was diagnosed with uterine cancer last year. It turned out to have been a false positive; but I firmly believe that her intercession was instrumental in carrying me through those dark days while I waited for the tests to come back. We received a beautiful novena booklet from the Missionaries of Charity that Bella loves to have me read to her at nap time, though we haven't read it in a while. Dom also has a relic presented to him by some of the Missionaries when they visited our parish.

Charlotte has some beautiful Mother Teresa coloring pages here. We may print one out later today.

Who is Jesus to me?
Jesus is the Word made Flesh.
Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is the Victim offered for our sins on the Cross.
Jesus is the Sacrifice at Holy Mass for the sins of the world and mine.
Jesus is the Word - to be spoken.
Jesus is the Truth - to be told.
Jesus is the Way - to be walked.
Jesus is the Light - to be lit.
Jesus is the Life - to be loved.
Jesus is the Joy - to be shared.
Jesus is the Sacrifice - to be given.
Jesus is the Bread of Life - to be eaten.
Jesus is the Hungry - to be fed.
Jesus is the Thirsty - to be satiated.
Jesus is the Naked - to be clothed.
Jesus is the Homeless - to be taken in.
Jesus is the Sick - to be healed.
Jesus is the Lonely - to be loved.
Jesus is the Unwanted - to be wanted.
Jesus is the Leper - to wash his wounds.
Jesus is the Beggar - to give him a smile.
Jesus is the Drunkard - to listen to him.
Jesus is the Little One - to embrace him.
Jesus is the Dumb - to speak to him.
Jesus is the Crippled - to walk with him.
Jesus is the Drug Addict - to befriend him.
Jesus is the Prostitute - to remove from danger and befriend her.
Jesus is the Prisoner - to be visited.
Jesus is the Old - to be served.

To me --
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All,
Jesus is my Everything.
Amen.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for us.

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Magic Healing Socks

In one of the Green Gables books, Anne famously vows that she will not speak baby talk with her infants. Of course, the actual experience of motherhood undoes her resolution and she finds herself engaging in the habit she formerly despised. Now I have seen studies which suggest that baby talk, or motherese as I've also seen it called, is actually beneficial to babies, that a high pitched tone is what they naturally respond to and as such is programmed into the way mothers interact with their children, and that the special way of talking that all adults take on with the wee ones has been found to be instrumental in infants' acquisition of language. And so I never made any such resolutions. (Though I have made a concerted effort to also talk to my infants and toddlers using full complete sentences, proper grammar and correct pronunciation, modeling correct English as well as indulging in the sort of speech that little children love.)

But I have had my own set of preconceptions that the actual experience of motherhood has dispelled. One of them was that children's faith in the magical properties of mother's kisses and bandaids as a panacea for almost any bump or scrape or cut was the creation of silly mothers. Now I have discovered to my chagrin that in fact it is Bella herself who has endowed my kisses and bandaids with healing powers with absolutely no encouragement from me whatsoever.

However with her latest obsession, magical healing socks, there was a little nudge from Dom.

The other night Bella acquired another monstrous splinter while running about barefoot on our back porch. (If we were not planning to move I might complain to the landlord but as he is being wonderfully patient with us on the matter of a lease which expired in June as we continue to search for a new abode, I think I'll just enforce a rule that she must wear shoes.) In any case, after our experience with the last splinter she got, I knew to expect that she'd insist on renewals of a bandaid and medicine and put up a fuss over bath time for several days after the injury had healed to my satisfaction. And indeed even though she was running and jumping and dancing around the block the next day, she still fussed and fretted about bandages and screamed over getting into the tub.

The other thing is that she has a wee bit of a sock obsession. Even on the warmest days of summer, she insists that she must have socks before going to bed. So somehow the other night I came in after Dom had dressed her in her pajamas and found that he'd declared that her socks were "magic healing socks" and would make her "scrape" all better. She's now taken that as an article of faith and both yesterday morning and this morning she has insisted that I put her magic healing socks back on after she dressed for the day. She wore them under her sandals today even when I was sweating and her face was glowing red with running about outside.

Now I wonder how long this is going to continue before she gives in and admits that the "scrape" is better and that she no longer needs magical footwear.

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Happy Half-Birthday!

Sophia is six months old today! I can't believe she's already been with us for half a year. And yet I can't imagine our lives without her.



Thank you, God, for my beautiful girl.

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"I feel tired... I'm just going to go to bed"

Well the bassinet/cosleeper we got when we were expecting Bella (not that she slept in it very much) and which Sophia has been occupying for the last few months was recalled for safety reasons. Which prompted a mini-crisis: Do we buy a new bassinet, which Sophia will only be able to sleep in for another month or so? Or do we go ahead and graduate Bella to a toddler bed and move Sophie into Bella's crib?

The question was settled by the fact that Target didn't have bassinets in stock at the store. So although Isabella was quite distressed as we left the store with no bed-- "Get a new bed for Phia!" she repeated anxiously-- after we left Target we went and acquired a new toddler bed for Isabella.

Which prompted the declaration: "I'm just tired, I want to go to bed," as we pulled into the driveway.

I foolishly tried to put the thing together by myself. After much heroic stifling of curses I managed to get it together.... and then realized the side slat was upside down and the safety rail couldn't screw in. And so I had to dismantle half the bed. I waited until Dom came home to try to put it together again.


"That's my new bed!"


Then we had the grand rearrangement of furniture in the nursery as we tried to figure out how to make everything fit. And then throughout the evening Bella kept declaring that she was tired and just needed to go lie down in her new bed. And of she'd go and pull the blankets on and rearrange all her stuffed animals and dollies and pretend to sleep.


Bella in her new bed.

Since about a month after Sophia was born she's been climbing in and out of her crib using a step stool. And during the day she'd sometimes climb in to play and climb back out all by herself while I was with Sophie in the other room. But even when we began leaving the side down, she'd never climb out of the crib in the nighttime or even in the morning. I'd go in and find her screaming about a dropped dolly but she'd wait until I went in to climb down and rescue her toy. So I'm curious to see whether she'll continue to stay in bed until I come in tomorrow morning.

Also, I'm also curious to see how Sophie does in the other room. I don't really feel ready to have her sleeping so far from me. But unless we'd bought another bassinet there really was no other solution as our room is too small to allow for a crib. Oh well, somehow I'll survive all these changes.


"I'm just sleeping."

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Once Upon a Time....

Impatiently wanting me to read to her while I fussed with the baby, Bella opened one of her "Trix Potter books today and began to "read" to herself: "Once upon a time," she said.

I don't recall which book it was she was reading, I think it was either The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse or The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck; but I am positive it didn't begin with those words. In fact, I'm not sure which of the Beatrix Potter books does. Still, somehow Bella knows that's how a proper story should start.

She also knows to say "The End" on the final page. Whether it's written there or not.

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Reader Question: Finding New Books

Anne writes:

Do you have a list of books that you plan to read to your children? Or a list of books somewhere on the blog that you were fond of as a child? I ask because my little monkey just turned 3 and is a big "reader" and i find that I am unable to keep up with his insatiable desire for new books. He doesn't like to pick them out from the library [I don't know why] and I find ones that I've picked out aren't that great [I chose at random to try new things]. I find that your book reviews are very helpful and so I am now hoping that you can help me and my little reader!

Anne,
The short answer is I'm sorry I don't have any such list, though I'll put it on my list of things to do.

I do feel your pain though. We don't go to the library partly because I also feel like its such a hit or miss proposition. The few times we've gone I've been overwhelmed by the rows and rows of picture books and never felt like I could find the few golden nuggets among all the dross. And also because we simply have enough books here-- and are constantly getting new ones via Book Mooch-- that we haven't yet felt the need to supplement our home library.


The longer answer (since I know that's not very helpful.):

While you're waiting for me to write more book reviews or to compose a master list of recommended books, you can check out my Amazon wish list for Isabella. Any book that I see recommended or reviewed that looks like I might be interested in getting it sometime I throw up there. (You can also look at my Book Mooch wish list, which does have some children's books I didn't bother to put on the Amazon list; but it also includes both children's books for Bella and adult books for myself and is a lot less choosy.) Of course those lists don't include books we already own.

I've been trying to work on cataloging the children's books we already own; but that got stalled out when we moved last summer and i haven't added any books since. Probably won't pick it up again any time soon. But maybe one day.... In the meantime, you'll just have to wait until I'm inspired to write reviews of the books we're reading.

For additional inspiration, however, I highly recommend Cay Gibson's book A Picture Perfect Childhood, which has many great book lists. I've been meaning to write a review of this book for a while but I keep getting sidetracked. In the meantime, you can check out her blog here.

Another good source of inspiration for me has been Elizabeth Foss' Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home, which also has a great many book lists. Even if you aren't planning to home school, it's a wonderfully inspirational book about how to enrich your child's educational experience. Also check out Elizabeth's beautiful blog, In the Heart of My Home which I've frequently raided for book ideas. Check out the great lists in her sidebar.

And while I'm thinking of bloggers who recommend good books, be sure to visit Melissa Wiley in the Bonny Glen and the UK Bookworm.

And if you missed this discussion about books back in June, there were some good titles thrown out.

Readers, feel free to chime in with your suggestions for good picture books. And good places to find out about books too. I know I'm missing some blogs and some books with good lists.

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"Mommy, Take a Picture of Phia"

Bella's wish is my command.

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Expotition around the Block

Sunday coming home from a day trip to Maine Sophia had an exploding diaper. Last night I noticed that the car seat cover had a big spot on it. So I put it in the washer to soak overnight and today I'm finishing the wash and drying it. Which means we can't go out.

So when Bella asked to go for a walk I had to consider. Sophia's really still too small to sit in the stroller on her own I still put her in the carseat/carrier which snaps on to the stroller. So for a change of pace I strapped Sophie into the front carrier and grabbed Bella's hand and we set off for a trek around the block on foot.

Bella thought a walk sans stroller was a great idea and hopped and ran and stopped to sit on walls and to pick flowers and acorns and sticks and rocks and pine cones.... we should have brought a bucket as her hands were having trouble juggling it all by the time we returned to our own gate. It was nice to circumnavigate the block at a toddler's pace. And Sophia seemed to like it quite well. When a car raced by with its music blaring Bella stopped to dance her bouncy-squatty little toddler dance. She was very good at holding my hand when we came to a stretch of the road with no sidewalk and we had to walk in the street.

I tend to think of going for a walk like setting out for an expedition. Packing the girls into the big double stroller, stocking the bag with snacks and a sippy cup and preparing to be out for a while. I forget that something a little smaller and more spontaneous is possible, that going around the block can be as much of an adventure as a longer walk.

Tomorrow we will have a real expedition, though. We've just been notified that the bassinet/co-sleeper Sophie is currently using has been recalled. So we'll have to cart it to Target to exchange it. That should be fun with the two girls.

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Bella-isms

Today Bella identified The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse as being one of her 'Trix Potter books. I guess she does notice when I begin each story by announcing the title and author.

* * *

She came into the kitchen as I was preparing a salad for tonight's dinner and said, "Mama's making a recipe." Yes, a very complicated recipe.

* * *

At bed time she started pulling on her chin and announced to Dom, "I have a beard!"

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New Vegetable of the Week: Purslane

Following our plan to try something new from the farmer's market each week, this week we bought a bunch of purslane, which is evidently something of a nutrition powerhouse.

Wikipedia says:

Although purslane is considered a weed in the United States, it can be eaten as a leaf vegetable. It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe and Asia. The stems, leaves and flower buds are all good to eat. Purslane can be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked like spinach, and because of its mucilaginous quality it is also suitable for soups and stews....

Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular than any other leafy vegetable plant. Simopoulos states that Purslane has .01 mg/g of EPA. This is an extraordinary amount of EPA for land based vegetable sources. EPA is an Omega-3 fatty acid normally found mostly in fish and some algae. It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, and some vitamin B and carotenoids), as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Also present are two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betaxanthins (noticeable in the flowers and in the slight yellowish cast of the leaves). Both of these pigment types are potent antioxidants and have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies.

100 grams of fresh purslane leaves (about 1 cup) contain 300 to 400 mg of alpha-linolenic acid. One cup of cooked leaves contains 90 mg of calcium, 561 mg of potassium, and more than 2,000 IUs of vitamin A.

I made a tasty purslane potato salad, loosely adapted from several recipes I found via Google but have since lost. Anyway, my recipe can be found here. It was a huge hit and kept well. I made it on Saturday night and Dom and I polished off the leftovers at lunch today. See the recipe here at our cooking blog: In the Kitchen with Bella

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Labor Day

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Today's Walk

Ah music to my ears! As I paused on our walk this afternoon to snap a photo of an unusual flower, Bella exclaimed: "I hear a cricket. Chirp, chirp, chirp." Indeed there was a cricket chirping nearby. Thank you, Eric Carle and The Very Quiet Cricket, my daughter just made her first insect identification. I am so proud.

Also on today's walk I helped Isabella to collect her first bucket of acorns. I'd realized while reading Pooh stories that she didn't know what Piglet's "haycorns" were, so I located an oak tree and within a minute had found a dozen little brown-capped nuts. She was so pleased she carried them around in her bucket and ran to show them to her daddy when he came home.

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Found!

Getting out the box of next size baby clothes for Sophia. I'm finally graduating her to 3-6 month clothes.... she'll be six months next week. Don't know why it's taken me so long to admit she doesn't fit into most of the 0-3 month stuff. I guess a couple of the dresses were on the larger size and of course onesies stretch wonderfully. But this stuff fits so much better.

And I finally found the green night shirt I lost this past spring. The one that was so comfortable to wear while pregnant. Yeah, I packed it in with the baby clothes.

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"A Most Terribly Tidy Particular Little Mouse"

I've started calling Isabella Mrs. Tittlemouse, after her favorite Beatrix Potter character. This morning offered up a classic example of her extreme tidiness. I'd given her some slices of cheese in a plastic bag and when she finished them she went to the kitchen garbage can to throw the bag away. But she discovered that I'd taken the trash out to the curb this morning and forgotten to put a new trash bag in the can. So she headed to the shelf by the door where we keep the trash bags so she could get a replacement bag before she threw away her trash. I found her there tugging a bag out from the box.

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100 Species Challenge: Magnolia

It's taken me some time to get going; but here is my first entry for the 100 Species Challenge.

I was positive that the tree in our yard was a variety of magnolia, but I didn't know what species it was. And I discovered that Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species (Wikipedia: magnolia). So I had a little detective work to do. I do know that it isn't the same as either the magnolias I knew from Texas (magnolia grandiflora) or the ones I'd seen in Boston (I think those are the hybrid Magnolia × soulangeana or saucer magnolia).

I think ours might be a Magnolia tripetala, commonly called Umbrella magnolia (wikipedia article here, and pictures here).

Wikipedia says:

Magnolia tripetala, commonly called Umbrella magnolia, is a deciduous tree native to the southeastern United States in the Appalachian Mountains region. Umbrella magnolias have large shiny leaves 30-50 cm long, spreading from stout stems. In a natural setting the Umbrella magnolia can grow 15 m tall. The flowers are large, 15-25 cm diameter, with six to nine creamy-white petals and a large red style, which later develops into a red fruit 10 cm long, containing several red seeds.

These trees are attractive and easy to grow. The leaves will turn yellow in the autumn. It is also sometimes known as 'Umbrella tree'.

Pictures I took this spring and last fall. I thought I had a picture of the flower, but I guess not.

Fun facts about magnolias:

• The genus is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.



• Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles.



• Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals. The term tepal has been coined to refer to the intermediate element that Magnolia has instead.

Other links with pictures: Duke, Virginia Tech. Tree Topics

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When Beatrix Potter Meets Margaret Wise Brown

We were reading Goodnight Moon this afternoon and Bella pointed to the "old lady whispering hush" and said, "That's Hunca-Munca. Her name is Hunca-Munca."

A very curious leap of logic. Especially since the old woman is a rabbit and Hunca-Munca is a mouse.

Maybe because, like The Tale of Two Bad Mice, Goodnight Moon also features a dolls house near a fireplace?

Bella went on to say, "She wants to go in the house." and "Hunca-Munca sweeps the floor."

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Not at All Well

Something about deciding to go to the doctor sent me over the edge. I was coping, not feeling great but coping. Yesterday and today I have felt really, really, really sick. Every muscle in my body aches and my skin feels as if some gnomes have been creeping into my bed at night and rubbing me down with sandpaper. (Sophie? have you been playing with daddy's tool box?) If I didn't have the two wee ones to watch over I'd have spent the day in bed. And the antibiotics seem to be upsetting my digestive system as well.

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Resolved

I finally broke down and went to the doctor this morning and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. I think I've had it for about a month now, since I had a cold back in June.

The thing was that unlike previous bouts with bronchitis, I haven't been coughing constantly. Just four or five times a day I have a long asthmatic-type coughing fit. What finally convinced me to get it checked out was when it began interfering with Sophia's sleep.... I'd just get her to fall asleep and then I'd start hacking and I'd have to begin the whole process of soothing her again. By which time I'd be wide awake and unable to fall asleep.

Now at least I'm getting it treated with antibiotics and should be getting back to better health. Why am I so stubborn? Why do I hate going to the doctor so much? Why does it take me so long to take care of myself?

But the girls had a nice visit with their cousins while I went to the doctor and then we stayed for lunch, came home late for naps and had a troubled afternoon. When we finally did sleep, we slept until after five. Just in time to get up for dinner with daddy, say goodbye as he left for a meeting at church and then back to bed. Which is where I should be going.... Goodnight, sweet ladies....Goodnight.

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Sorrel Tart

The sorrel tart was a huge success! I made it with green onion and shallot. It had a wonderful lemony flavor, very delicate and so different from the spinach quiche I make, though the recipes look quite similar.

I served smashed new potatoes and a green salad on the side. I reserved a few of the sorrel leaves for the salad, added some arugula, an heirloom tomato, radish, avocado, cucumber, and goat cheese. It was so good it almost didn't need a dressing; but I served it with a homemade Italian vinaigrette with a dash of lime. A great showcase of our late-summer farmer's market haul. We popped open a bottle of white wine, a crisp Savignon Blanc that was perfect.

The only negative was that it took me forever to pull it all together and poor Sophia was cranky gassy and poor Dom was stuck trying to soothe her. But I seemed forgiven for making him mind the screaming baby when we sat down to eat.

And sorrel is my favorite new ingredient. I'll be buying more in the future.

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The Moon is at the Market

As we pulled into the parking lot at church this morning I heard Bella chanting in the back seat: "God bless the moon and God bless me...." So I joined in and recited the whole rhyme and then asked if she saw the moon. "I don't see the moon," she replied. "The moon is at the market. The moon flew away."

We saw the moon yesterday morning when we were at the farmer's market. I suppose it is logical to conclude that it stayed there.

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Dancing at the Farmer's Market, the Video

Isabella dances at the farmer's market from Domenico Bettinelli on Vimeo.

Dom writes: The musician, Oen Kennedy, was playing his guitar and we stopped to listen. Isabella started dancing and clapping and laughing along. After this video, he started another song and it wasn't until he was some way through that we realized he was improvising as he went about Bella dancing and playing. At the end, he hinted that the CD he is recording now might have a bonus track inspired by the improvised song.

Of course we signed up for his mailing list!

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Dancing at the Farmer's Market

This is the high season for fresh goodies at the farmer's market. Today we got ripe raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, early apples, heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, Thai basil, mint, cilantro, arugula, French sorrel, new potatoes, and of course cheese. And Dom bought a beautiful bunch of cut flowers.


fresh cut flowers from Dom

I had Sophie in a front carrier and she tried to help me pick and eat the produce and the bags I placed it in. She was bright eyed and cheerful and won many smiles.

Bella and I polished off the raspberries before we were even done with the shopping. She loves them as much as I do and shoveled them in as fast as I doled them out. It was a contest to see which of us could eat more. I tried to be fair and give her as many as I had. When they were gone and I gave her a handful of blueberries she looked quite disappointed. She ate them slowly and almost grudgingly.

After we'd made the rounds we settled down on a little grassy lawn to enjoy our booty and listen to some music. There is always someone there playing, a different musician or group every week. It occurred to me today that this is Bella's first and thus far only experience of live music. As I settled down on the grass my first impression of the young man strumming his guitar in a tie-died shirt was a little dismissive. It sounded like the usual hippie "make love, not war" stuff I've come to expect. But Bella begged to get down and was soon spinning and hopping and dancing her little toddler dance on the green grass. And then the song ended as the young man with long hair began to introduce the next song, which he said was called "Ook." He told a story about himself when he was about ten months old, not even walking yet, how he'd play with a pile of records and lift his favorite one up in the air and utter the one word he knew: "Ook." His word for music. It was a fun little auto-biographical song, the title track, he said, on the album he's currently recording. And nicely appropriate considering Bella and the other small children laughing and clapping and dancing on the grass. (Well, ok, Bella was really the only one dancing; but there were several other children listening and one cute baby clapping.)

And then he began a song which was even more apropos: "I love to dance," he sang, "I love to spin... I love to fall down on the green grass...." Charmingly fitting while Bella danced and bounced and clapped along with the lyrics. Gradually I realized that he was making the song up as he went, composing a tune for the day and for my delighted dancing daughter. "I love the blue sky... I love dogs..."He was never obviously watching her any more than anyone else in the crowd, but the lyrics spoke to her nonetheless and to her enchanted parents watching.

At the end of the song another plug for his mailing list and the new CD. And he said that there were fourteen tracks and then added that there might be a few bonus tracks.... inspired by today. After that how could Dom resist going and signing up for the mailing list? Thanks to the wonders of Google and a husband who both talks to strangers and remembers names (though this one was unusual enough, I'd probably have remembered it too), I even discovered his website OenKennedy.com where I learned that he was a music therapist at the Perkins School for the Blind where my sister-in-law once worked. You can listen to samples of his two albums and buy them there. So that's my plug for the cool musician who made Bella dance.


French sorrel

So now I have to figure out how the heck one cooks sorrel. That was the new item we decided to try this week. It has a surprisingly strong lemony flavor. Google to the rescue again: I think this sorrel tart looks like it might be fun. Perhaps for brunch or dinner tomorrow with a fresh garden salad.... I'll put a little sorrel aside to toss in the salad with some arugula and romaine and use the rest in the tart.

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