beautiful book week: nature's children

i got carried away again. here are some more favorites from tashi's collection:

elsa beskow is always a hit. below is children of the forest.






and also by elsa beskow, the flowers' festival






i found this little book, garden folk, in a dusty thrift store bin. it can't be found on amazon, and there is no author mentioned in the book anywhere. it is publication from england, and seems to be an older tale.






at the back of the north wind, written by george macdonald and illustrated by jessie willcox smith, is a classic. dreamy, poetic, quiet, deep, mysterious and alarming. it is a masterpiece, meant to be to be read over and over again.






and i'll end with the story of the root children, by sibylle von olfers. another great tale that flows with the seasons, and keeps one looking between the blades of grass.

toy tunes

have you ever heard of cocorosie? they make me happy.

beautiful book week: faerie

i just found out about beautiful book week! this excites me to no end. but how do i narrow it down? perhaps this week i will do tashi's books and next week, my books? please bear with me as my camera may not do a beautiful book justice.

let me begin with beautiful faerie books (you didn't really think i could keep it narrowed down to one book a post did you?). faerie is a favorite subject around here. i purchased this first book long before i was a mom. a fairy went a-marketing is written by rose fyleman and illustrated by jamichael henterly. it's pretty dog eared from lots of love.







and then there is child of faerie, child of earth written by jane yolen and illustrated by jane dyer. so lovely, and faerie is spelled as it should be.









next is good night, fairies written by kathleen Hague and illustrated by michael hague. there is so much detail in these drawings, and a red capped sprite hidden in every page.







ok, i'll settle down now and include just one more. in fairyland by richard doyle was a gift from tashi's aunt barb. it's full of classic faerie images. tashi had stickers and temporary tattoos of these images before she was given the book. thanks barb! it isn't available from amazon, but this is.







we have many more faerie books, but i would be here all night posting them! i promise not to get so carried away with each beautiful book entry. i do so love these books. as tashi outgrows her picture books i feel especially nostalgic about them. i don't think i'll ever outgrow them.

could it be hat season?

tashi made me this hat! yes, my nine year old daughter. she gave it to me one hot day at the end of her third grade school year. i've been waiting for just the right weather to reveal it. today wins. there is just enough cool breeze and overcast sky to pull on this beloved crochet cap.

since i now work part time, i have at least one weekday to myself. sometimes two. i am promising myself i will not doddle this day away. i have a terrible habit of finding that, come pick up time for tashi, i've accomplished very little with my day. one's day shouldn't be comprised entirely of composing a blog entry, visiting favorite links, chatting with the husband on aim, petting the cats and perhaps doing laundry.

there are so many things i want to do with my time, that i sometimes find myself paralyzed. i had to attend a work related meeting this morning, so already, my day is compromised. here are some of the things on my to-do list:

edit india manuscript, for the twentieth time
read the handbook of poetic forms, and practice all of them
make tashi's halloween costume
figure out how to finish off my knitted scarf
clean out the closets, exchange summer clothes for winter
research poetry journals and where i might submit
embroider the acorn fairy
make curtains
start studying the tarot again
continue to educate myself as a doula

and the list goes on. but those things are at the top.

an apple a day

yesterday we went to the graves mountain apple harvest festival. it was a gorgeous day in the gorgeous mountains and i came home with enough apples for pie, crisp and cake. tonight i made pie.

his holiness the 14th dalai lama receives the congressional gold medal

almost a week later, i'll post some photos of our little excursion into dc. it was a fun trip, and always an honor to bask in the radiance of the dalai lama.






we were not sitting close, but i cropped the photo a couple of times. that's nancy pelosi to the left of the dalai lama.

resolution

thanks folks for the empathy offered after the last post. one of the great gifts of childhood is the ability to live in the moment. it didn't take tashi or her friend long to put the blog invasion behind them. i of course took down the mean words. and i also exchanged a few emails with the culprit. he was a reasonable person, and illustrated his side of things: he has so many people linking to his photos that, if had to pay for server space, he'd be paying thousands per month. the operative word here is, "if." i asked him to at least change his message, as innocent undeserving children don't need to be called names. he agreed to do so.

i'm ready to put that incident behind us.

lessons learned the hard way

one day my daughter asked me if she could have a blog. she loves to write and i figured that, with comments disabled, it was a pretty safe place for her. avid blogger that i am, how could i say no without sounding like a hypocrite. it's not like she was asking me if she could drink a bottle of beer.

i always stay close when she is at her blog (and she very rarely is at her blog). in fact, she asks me to type while she dictates the words to me. i don't allow her to surf, and we only look (carefully) at the silly animal videos on you tube. she doesn't even have her own email address.

today tashi begged me to let her show her blog to a friend. i wasn't so sure. tashi and her friend go to waldorf school after all, where electronic media in the lives of children is frowned upon. but with nothing but cats and dolphins on her blog, i figured it was ok to share it.

so we were scrolling through the little pink innocent blog when suddenly tashi asked, "why does it say you bandwidth stealing fuck?"

i almost fell over. she's never said the f-word.

i asked her what she was talking about and she said again, "it says you bandwidth stealing fuck!" oh my, she has now said the f word twice, with a friend present no less. and then i saw it. what was previously her profile photo, had become the words: you bandwidth stealing fuck.

the picture in my daughter's profile had been of a happy leaping dolphin. she loves dolphins. we pointed to the url of a photo we found online, through a google image search. this is common practice, or at least, i thought it was.

oh so tech innocent me. at least the dolphin photo wasn't replaced with a really creepy porno shot.

still, i felt like a total creep was staring out at us from where once a dolphin swam. tashi felt invaded, and confused as to how and why someone would do this. and tashi's friend will probably associate blogs with this forever. and i have to explain it to her parents tomorrow when they pick her up from her overnight. yea, i was letting your kid online without your prior approval. blech.

so the lesson here is, if your child has a blog, be careful what they link to. because a very unfriendly, insensitive, immature person on the other side might change the image to something that makes everyone feel a little bad.

b is for baby blanket

blanket in a box


baby in a blanket

thank goodness

the makings of a simple meal

organic swiss chard from the farmer's market


brown rice, stir fry with chard and peppers, sauted tofu


peeled & cored


decorative gourds and edible pie

song, faerie, and spiritual leader

yesterday i found this cd by vashti bunyan on the used rack at our local record store chain. i was psyched as i've been hearing a fair amount about her. she has a wonderful, mesmerizing, child-like voice. very hypnotic 60's lullabye stuff. yet another beautiful sound endorsed by joe boyd. apparently this cd went no where when it was first released in the late 60's. but people are now catching on to her. i unfortunately missed her live performance with vetiver here in charlottesville last winter. oh that hurts.



i also received in the mail recently this wee wonderfuls stitchette pattern of the charming acorn fairy. i look forward to some enchanting embroidery.



today we will be picking tashi up from school and driving directly to the nation's capitol. the Dalai Lama will be receiving the congressional gold medal tomorrow and we're going to join in the festivities. dan is going to be busy helping out during the day, so tashi and i will be swallowed up in a sea of thousands. i'm a bit wary, but looking forward to the adventure, and to hearing what this beacon for peace has to transmit in the city where a lot of really bad decisions for our country and the world are made.

and tonight, i think we may just get to eat some momos!

bend the rules blanket

well, i finished it!



i think it might be more of a broke the rules blanket. . .

it was fun! not only is it the first time i've sewn a blanket, but the first time i've sewn scallops. for me, the scallops were hard. i'm not a natural at sewing around a curve and into crevices. but having done it once, perhaps when i do it again, and then again again, i'll do a better job.

when you look closely, there are many flaws. but from afar, it's not half bad.



coming to you soon, suzanne, if this little baby will give it up (she knew about it already, so i'm not ruining a surprise)!

pumpkins for sale

the smiling pumpkin is for keeps!