Back from Hiatus

It's been awhile since I have posted.  This summer has been a tough one because my work environment has become very toxic.  My friends and family keep advising me to detach but I am finding that hard to do so I am going to try and come back to the blog.

My vegetable garden has done fairly well this summer considering we had a cold May and lots and lots of rain.  The peas failed which was a disappointment because there are always enough to freeze but there ended up only being enough for a meal or two.  The asian beans, on the other hand, grew like crazy.  I froze and pickled some.

So far this summer I have made strawberry jam, strawberry vinegar, spicy dill beans and bread and butter pickles.  There are enough cucumbers for another batch of pickles so I am going to make the freezer pickles I did last year.  I received a whole bag of tomatoes yesterday from farmer Allan so I chopped them and cooked them done and ran them through the food mill.  Next step is to cook down the tomato sauce and then can it.

There isn't much food in the house because the beanies are in Los Angeles.  Tonight's meal was made out of the fridge.

Tomato Pea Shrimp Risotto

The helper

Yum yum

Beautiful spring day

It's the end of our fiscal year and one can only carry over so many vacation hours.  I did not plan well this year because I had about 2 weeks worth of vacation to take in April.  Emma and I went to Savannah for one week and I'm now taking the rest of the time off, a day here, a day there.  That's Brian you hear in the background playing his tiny violin!

I spent the morning in the vegetable garden.  I sifted several wheelbarrows full of compost and added it all to a couple of planting beds.  The potatoes are late arriving this year but the email just came from Territorial Seeds that they have been shipped.  So the bed for the potatoes is now loosened and compost worked in.  I also prepared the bed for the asian long beans and edaname.  Those were planted today along with more carrots, onions, purple beans, cilantro.  Rocks keep appearing so I spent too much time picking them out of the beds.

The first real harvest!

Mint.  Brian has been asked for minty limeade. 

Mustard Greens.  These wintered over and are about done.  I think I will saute in bacon grease.  Add a splash of vinegar.  Yum

Lettuce that wintered over.  The new seeded lettuce is coming up strong. 

Leeks!  These are beautiful.  Not sure what to make.  Either leek and potato soup or a tart of some kind.

What is in Bloom in April in Washington DC.

Sean and I took the day off on Friday and drove up to the Brandywine Valley area of PA/DE.  We had an ambitious 2-day plan but ended up only seeing a couple of places.  The first stop was Winterthur Museum and Garden.    This is the estate of Henry Francis DuPont - amazing gardens and the house has 175 rooms!  How could one possible live in a house with that many rooms.  We spent several hours there and had no time to see anything else on Friday.  On Saturday, we went to Longwood Gardens - the former estate of Pierre S. DuPont.  (I assume these men were cousins).  The Gardens are only two hours north of DC but are behind in what is blooming there.  Daffodils just coming out while the daffodils are pretty much over in my yard.  We ended up spending the morning and early afternoon at Longwood as there was so much to see so we were not able to get to the Brandywine River Museum, home of the works of NC, Andrew and Jamie Wyeth.

It's chilly in DC this morning but my yard is in full bloom.

Korean Spice Viburnum 

Creeping Jenny and Hakonechloa grass.  This area is going to get more sun this year since the neighbor cut down the Mulberry tree that was shading it.

Flowering Solomon Seal.  I wasn't sure this was going to make it so I'm very happy to see this.

 Coral Bells, Creeping Jenny, Pulmonaria (Lungwort)

Lilacs!  I cut out lots of old branches from this last fall and my intention was to dig it up and replace it with something else.  The lilac bush must have know my idea because this is the best it's bloomed in years.   It's really too hot for lilacs in DC but this one has revived.

Tulips 

 Lettuce that wintered over in the cold frame.  Salad tonight!

 Sweet Woodruff, under the Kousa Dogwood

Hostas emerging 

 Pansies from the winter

 Sorrel.  I planted it last year but didn't use it.  This year, I will cook with it.

Fothergilla 

Oklahoma Redbud. I love this tree

More Children's books

(Garden project update:  Sean said last night "you made me sound like I was building an irrigation system in your garden"  Irrigation system?!  Now you're talking.  That's one project I would give him the green light on)

Have I said how much I love working in a library?  Access to so many books.  Right now, I am working my way through all the books I have checked out and vow to not order anymore until I clean out what I have - so I am staking the Washington Post book reviews next to my desk, ready to go.

I've really been enjoying looking at books by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.  Everyone is familiar with the their mythology books .  Between our collection and Catholic University's collection, we have many of their books.  Ola

is the story of a Norwegian boy, Ola, and his many experiences exploring the people and countryside near his home. Some of his adventures included getting caught in a tree, visiting a traditional Norwegian wedding, and an encounter with a dragon.  The illustrations are wonderful - for some reason, I have a fascination with Scandinavian culture which usually manifests itself by reading Swedish psychological mysteries (I have branched out to Norwegian and Icelandic mysteries!  See Jo Nesbo and Yrsa Sigurdardottir).  Maybe it stems from my roommate Chris when I was a senior in college.  He was Norwegian and his grandfather, Jackrabbit Johannsen introduced Cross-Country Skiing to Canada.

The next d'Aulaire book I have read is Children of the Northlights.  This chronicles the life of the Sami people.  It was written in 1935 and I wonder how much life has changed.

Here is a site that has lovely pictures .   The d'Aulaires (presumably relatives) have a Facebook page that also posts

The next Caldecott Medal winners are 1945: Prayer For a Child by Rachel Field and illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones.

This is a prayer that Ford wrote for her own daughter and published posthumously because Ford died in 1942.  I think this book is definitely one of its time.  Right at the end of World War II and people need a little sentimentality in their life.  I don't think this is the type of book that would even be considered today for the medal which is not criticizing the book but just a comment on how picture books have changed so much over the years.

In 1946 the winner was The Rooster Crows by Maud and Miska Petersham.

This is a book of Rhymes and Jingles that we all grew up saying.  A part of a clapping game I did in grade school is in here - who remembers Miss Mary Mack?  Included in here is Ring around a Rosies; One Potato Two Potatoes; Here is the Church, Here is the Steeple; Fuzzy Wuzzy was a Bear.  I thought everyone was born knowing these rhymes!  I certainly don't remember reading them anywhere.  Do kids these days even know these?

In 1947 the winner was The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard.  

yes, the author of the beloved Good Night Moon.    When I first read this, I assumed this little island was somewhere in Maine (seals and kingfishers abound) and reading a little about her life, she did have a house on Vinalhaven Maine.    The illustrations remind me of Robert McCloskey's.  Leonard Weisgard also had an Honor book that year, Rain Drop Splash.  I'll have to take a look at that one. I know we have all the Caldecott winners in our collection but not sure about the Honor Winners.

Garden Projects

"why do all my projects make you stressed?"

Those are the words that Sean asked me last week, while we were at the community garden workday.

His projects make me stressed because I am a simple woman with simple needs.  Sean is a complicated man with big ideas.  So when I asked him to fix my garden gate, that translated into a visit to Community Forklift for inspiration.  We bought a huge, thick piece of wood along with a screen door and some grandiose plan to build an architectural marvel in my garden.  When he mentioned renting an auger, I said enough is enough, I AM A SIMPLE WOMAN, NO AUGER.

So, last Saturday, while I was helping to weed around the blackberry bushes, Sean was installing a new door.  He used a shovel to dig the hole for the post (Danny, my garden neighbor asked if he used cement at the bottom of the hole - every one tries to help out in the garden!)

 Thank you honey, you did good.

Since last fall, I have been collecting wine bottles.  I have a cadre of friends saving them for me and finally, I have pictures to show what I am doing.  Not sure how it's going to work out but as I told Penni, the garden manager, it's an experiment.  If it doesn't work, I will pull out all the bottles and try something else.  I am planting the bottles to create borders around the garden beds.

That boxy trellis you see?  Another one of Sean's grand ideas.  I said, build me a trellis for my long beans and I got a box!

Favorite Caldecott books this week

My friend and colleague, Alex, tells me that our library does indeed have every Caldecott winner.   Good news as I continue the goal of reading all of them.

Turns out, the next two winners are in our collection at home.  When the kids ran out of room in their bookshelves (Emma has 3 bookcases in her room - along with piles and piles of books all over the place.  Brian has one bookcase - he is ruthless in weeding his books - no attachment to them at all), I bought a bookcase for my room and moved all the picture books there.

There is a system to this madness.  The first two shelves are alphabetical by author.  The third shelf is full of random non-picture adult books.  The 4th shelf is all the signed books or books given and inscribed by friends and family.  The first 1/3 of the 4th shelf has all books that have a character named "Emma".  Every Christmas, my Emma gets a book about an Emma.

 That 4th shelf represents 16 years of attending ALA and getting books signed by authors to Emma and Brian - often there is an illustration with the signature.  Some authors represented on that shelf are Judy Sierra, Simms Taback, Peter Sis, David Shannon, Paul Zelinsky, Richard Peck, Jon Scieszka and Tomie DePaola.  I don't think my kids realize what a collection of signed books they have.

The last shelf are again random books with some of my old favorites thrown in.  In that first row are a series of books called "Companion Library".  Two stories in one book - you finish the first story, then turn the book over and upside down and read the next story.  Over several years, my grandmother gave these to me as presents.  They were published in the early 60's by Grosset and Dunlop.  I loved these books and read them over and over.

 Behind these books, on that shelf are my Nancy Drews.  I LOVED Nancy Drew.  I wanted to be Nancy Drew. I devoured these books.  I wanted best friends like Bess and George.

Another favorite book I read over and over and over is on this shelf.  It was given to me by my 2nd grade teacher (whose name I can't remember at the moment).  I lived in Bristol, CT and attended Mary Callen Elementary School.  That school is no longer but the book remains.  From Sea to Sea.  It's a collection of stories about children.  It was published in 1945 by the Silver Burdett Company.  

Anyhoo, back to the Caldecott books.  In 1942, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey won.  Who doesn't love this book?  This is one I have in our home collection and it was given to Emma by Auntie No No and Uncle John in 1998.  It must have been a gift for her first birthday.   Auntie No No is really Auntie Finola but Emma wasn't able to pronounce Finola when she was little.

I was living in Boston when the first set of ducklings were installed in the Public Garden and I have brought my kids to see them and crawl all over them.

In 1943, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton won the medal.  I did not read this book when I was young but I did read and love Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by the same author.  I loved a TV show called Captain Kangaroo when I was young and he always read a book with Mr. Greenjeans on his show.  Mike Mulligan was a favorite of Captain Kangaroo.  As an aside, I always thought it would be fun to put together a bibliography of all the books that were read on that show - I would have to track down where the episodes are.  Back to Virginia - the Little House is also in our home collection and I adore this book.  The story, the illustrations, everything.

In 1944, Many Moons won the award.  Its story is by James Thurber and its illustrated by Louis Slobodkin.  This book I never heard of and checked it out of the library.  Like the d'Aulaires,  something in my brain tickled about the illustrator.    He illustrated A Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes which we read in my mother/daughter book group many years ago.  I also thought of the book Caps for Sale by  Esphyr Slobodkina.  No relation but weird they were working at the same time and had such similar names.

This is really a lovely book about a princess, her father the king, his wise men and a jester.  The princess wants to hold the moon in her hand and no one but the jester is able to help her attain this wish.

It's been fun reading all these books.  Only 7 more decades of books to go!

Caldecott Medal winners

The nice thing about working in a library is you can have new journals routed to you to read first.  Even though I don't really choose books for the kids anymore, I still like to read Horn Book.  It's a magazine for those who collect Children's literature but it's more than just book reviews.  There are wonderful articles to read.  The last issue had an article about the book Mei Li by Thomas Handforth.  This book won the Caldecott Medal in 1939 and the article goes on to explain how it was the first book that featured illustrations on their own - not just incidental to the text.  (The 1938 winner was Animals of the Bible by Dorothy P Lathrop).  My library owned the book so I took a look and then decided I wanted to see all the Caldecott medal winners.   (I need to ask Alex, the overlord of the children's collection if we own all the medal books - if so, how convenient for me).

In 1940, Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire won the medal.  I am horrible with remembering authors and book titles but when I saw these authors, something clicked in my head.

The illustrations were familiar and then it hit me.  Greek Myths!  Norse Mythology!

My kids devoured D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

This was back when Rick Riordan's series about Percy Jackson was first coming out.  Emma and Brian read those series and then wanted more.  They are experts on Greek Mythology.

Next up was D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Mythology

These are wonderful books.  I need to pull them out of the shelves and re-read them.

Turns out, there is a Facebook page called d'Aulaire's Children's Books.  I don't know who maintains this page but it's full of illustrations of books and pictures of the couple in their studio.  Wonderful.

The next Caldecott Medal book (1941)  is They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson, who also illustrated  Ferdinand the Bull.  It's a story about Lawson's parents and grandparents - being used to the colorful picture books of today, this is a bit of a let down but I am no judge.  I am certainly having fun looking at these book.