saturdaysumup

on thursday i saw bob mould at the gravity lounge. well first i saw a concert video of him playing lots of wailing guitar in a recent configuration called circle of friends. afterwards i saw him play an acoustic set that included lots of lovely songs i once listened to repeatedly in 1991 when i lived in seattle. and then he plugged in his pretty electric guitar and did some other songs. here is video a friend sitting nearby made:



i also discovered that the same friend has a youtube of dan's band playing at his house party.



did you see me in there standing alone hugging my beer? yea, well.

on friday i had lunch at the twisted branch tea bazaar. here is a photo essay:









i think it is one of my favorite places in charlottesville.

later on friday tashi posted a poem on her blog about kimchee. it's the best poem ever.



have a great weekend!

apple pomegranate

i had apples i had pomegranates and i had a recipe for a crisp.



once it was all cooked up there was much rejoicing.



very tasty, that.



but sugar makes kids a little silly.



and we all need a little silly.

more beautiful book week(s) booty

i know that beautiful book week ended like a week ago. this is actually my seventh b. book entry, so essentially, it should be my last. but i took a bunch of my book photos all at once and i have so very many more to share. so in the vale, the beautiful book beat goes on.

today we'll talk about books written by sarah stewart and illustrated by david small. we in the house of one kidd-o and two parental units quite like the stewart/small books. the two books i'm going to show you are both about women who are wonderfully quirky and passionate about their loves. they carry on, no matter how much their interests may set them apart from others.

our first stewart/small find was the library. what's not to love about a girl who reads while standing on her head, while vacuuming the floor or while walking through a rainshower.











there is also the gardener, a story about a spunky young girl named elizabeth brown who loves to grow flowers in the countryside, but is sent to live with her crabby uncle in the big city during the great depression. the story is written as a series of letters that elizabeth writes to her parents and grandmother back home.












yea. red heads rock.

hump day haul

i had a brief bit of time today before picking up tashi, and so i ran into goodwill. in twenty minutes i snatched up these items (it's dark so forgive me the nasty photo quality).

though difficult to capture in a photo, i'm pretty psyched about this vase. it's decorated with images of watches hanging from chains. how random is that?





and then there was this silky shirt, also difficult to photograph. i could tell by the tag it was vintage, and it looked like it would fit. a vintage fit is hard to come by these days, and it was good and weird looking, so snag.

all i really saw in my quick glance were people riding on horses. well, now that i'm home, i see that there is a pack of hounds being sent out and that the people on the horses are probably fox hunters. so very virginia.





and this box. which for some reason, despite the ten pictures i took of it, is blurry. the best part about it is the inside.





oh and there is more. this super soft flannal sheet. i love the romantic images.





i mustn't leave out the dolphin. for my favorite little dolphin-lover.



and last, but certainly not least, a cookbook, feast of india.



speaking of feast, it's time for dinner.

that's it for the hump day haul. could become a regular thing. . .

day of rest

all is well. tashi stayed home yesterday, though she protested fiercely. it's a relief to know she likes school that much. but today she's gone back to the classroom, in her green hat, with her blue lunch box, and her pink backpack. i'm so relieved it was a brief spell of illness.

yesterday i had a 12 hour workday. it was the center's annual leadership lecture by a uva alum, and there was a dinner and a cocktail hour too. the lecturer was the managing editor of a very famous magazine. she talked with honesty and humor, the overriding message being, do what you're good at and success will follow. i also liked her advice for job interviews, how saying what you think they want to hear isn't always the best route. surprise the interviewers a little by mentioning something they may have never heard of. and show them that you are a fun person to be around.




the dome room of the rotunda was a beautiful place to have dinner. there was candlelight and incredible flower arrangements. the food was delicious too.

all and all a very successful evening. my work has been consumed with it since late august. and i got to take home one of the flower arrangements.



today is my special day home alone until tashi's pick up time. i need to focus in on some writing and reading. but soon i hope to make the sewing machine clunk while putting together a second bend the rules baby blanket. and i picked up a whole lot of embroidery floss the other day, so i've got to get started on the acorn faerie before the acorns are covered with snowflakes.

and oh my gosh. is thanksgiving really only a couple of weeks away?

a beautiful miss rumphius

i purchased miss rumphius by barbara cooney when i was young and single and certain i'd never be graced with husband and child. i figured, given my luck thus far, i would be single for the remainder of my days. miss rumphius was a sort of role model. she was creative. she worked in a library. she traveled the world. she loved flowers. and she lived by the sea. if i was to live a single a life, i wanted it to be like the life miss rumphius modeled.

i'm forever grateful that dan came along, and then tashi. but miss rumphius is still a great role model of independence, strength, and do-goodness.













barbara cooney has written and illustrated a great number of books and they are all excellent, at least the few that we have are. check out this link to see her complete list.

fall back

even though it saddens me that our days will be darker, i love the extra hour we're gaining today.

and someone is feeling better. she still has a mild temperature, but the headache is gone and songs are being sung. the sleep, teas, and homeopathics seem to have done the trick. knock on wood.



we don't usually go for the words-on-the-butt look, but, hand-me-downs, ya know. speaking of what we usually don't go for. . .

we turned on the tv, in order to put in a dvd, but found an intriguing show on the screen. tashi doesn't watch tv but i think we may have found something worthwhile. jane and the dragon is about a young medieval girl being raised as a lady-in-waiting. she, however, has got other plans for her future and is training to become a knight. she's also got a 300 year-old fire-breathing dragon as a friend.

the cgi animation is pretty far out, and it is co-produced by weta workshop in new zealand, the folks that had everything to do with why the lord of the rings films were so spectacular. it doesn't take much to sell me on tasteful actualization of a medieval tale. so perhaps we'll add a short 30 minute tv ritual to our week. i figure that, as she approaches the age of ten with very little tv in her life, she can handle 30 minutes a week of something that is neither ugly nor violent. especially as the cold dark winter days approach.

perhaps the apples today will keep the doctor away

today i went to the heritage apple festival with molly, but tashi was feeling under the weather so stayed home with her dad. when i returned home my little girl had bright red cheeks and a high fever. she's been sleeping on and off all day and we've been feeding her flu homeopathics. there is never a more helpless and worrysome feeling than the one that comes over you when your child is ill and sad. tashi has a great immune system and doesn't get ill often. but when she does, it's usually a doozie.

molly and i did have a nice time at the festival and i came home with a gallon of apple cider and a bag full of healthy apples. there will be more pie, cake, crisp and muffins. we ate brunswick stew while baby goats looked on, and took a thrilling hayride up hill and down dale. i love hayrides into the outback.



i'm hoping that by tomorrow tashi will be considerably improved after all the sleep she's having today. no matter what, i think it's going to be a quiet sunday of reading and snuggling.

beautiful barbara berger books

oh so dreamy. oh so gentle. full of light. i love barbara berger books. here are three favorites.

grandfather twilight is another book i purchased long before having a child. it was a must have as soon as i read it.









all the way to lhasa is a fantastic lesson in the value of patience and perseverance. the gorgeous drawings are full of buddhist symbolism and tibetan landscape.









and gwinna, a tale best read as solstice approaches. alchemical and mystical.













barbara berger has many other titles. they all glow.