Honeyanne

insults and kisses and abbeys - oh my!

Jane Austen. She is my hero...ess. I admire her every time I open one of her literary masterstrokes. She was a brilliant writer. Her sense of humor was ever so subtle and yet, ever so pointed. She mocks like a lady. A friend once remarked that she imagined Jane Austen could insult someone in such a way that they thanked her for it. Unfortunately my best come backs are, "Oh yeah?! Well... You stink!" Oh Jane, if only I had a particle of your charm and burlesque.

So, I read Northanger Abbey recently. I watched the movie last year (starring Felicity Jones and JJ Fields) which has my favorite on-screen kisses EVER. Emma & I kept rewinding the kiss over and over and over...anyway... As I read the book I kept tripping over words trying to scramble to the kissing scene (which isn't in the book I'm afraid). I found it maddening how John Thrope and his horrid sister Isabella insisted on getting in the way. I loved how they annoyed me - it was a most delightful vexation.

   

It is said that Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's lesser novels but I don't know why - except if lesser means not as long as Emma, Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice. It's short but no less brilliant, playful and anticipatory (did I use that in the right contexts? I'm trying to use new words but I'm not sure if I've got the hang of it - do tell me, dear reader, if my grammar is working properly).

Do take the time to read this lesser but no less captivating work of art. And then when you have finished, huddled under blankets on the sofa at 2:00 am, run out and get the movie...well, wait until the sun comes up...or you can watch it here immediately! Happy Abbey-ing!

chitty chitty bang bang

 
 

Okay, so here's to show just how much I don't know about pop culture. Ian Fleming is the writer of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang- probably one of the most winsomely written british adventure books I've read in a long time - this I knew (as his name is on the front page). What I didn't know (until I googled Ian Fleming today) was that he is the creater of James Bond. 

I'm not a James Bond fan - never read the books and didn't think much of the movies - but after reading Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I have got to get my hands on Casino Royale!  I completely love his style.  No doubt how he writes for adults and how he writes for children won't be the same but I am curious.  Quite curious.

I am in love with Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  It is NOTHING like the Disney movie - it is much better.  He speaks directly to the reader, which is a style I am personally trying to perfect in my own writing - and he does it with such masterful charm.  It is a brilliant read-aloud book and has earned it's place in our family library's keeper pile.

how should one read a book? by virgina woolf...

Well, for starters, one should read Virgina Woolf...

I'm "in love" again.  I know, it happens so often but the other day I stumbled (tripped even) into this critical essay written by her and now I eat, breath and bleed Woolf.  She has such a way with words - everything she writes goes "tumbling in the misty depths (of my) mind".

I want to share a few words from the beginning and end of the essay in the hopes of enticing you to read everything else in the middle...

"The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions."

And,

"I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards - their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble - the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."

If anything, she has pursuaded me all the more to read and read and read.  Not just fiction but memoirs, biographies and more poetry. 

Her childhood education, because of illness, consisted of her father's library - where she had free range to read from the greatest minds.  Her father had quite the literary mind and Virgina was well acquainted with many of his peers (all literary minds too).  Wow! I envy her schooling and dream about my children spending hours amoung stacks of poetry and prose. I dream of saying, "Go dress for tea child, Mrs. Woolf is coming for a visit." (On second thought, that would be rather creepy as Mrs. Woolf has been dead for 7 decades - but you get my point, don't you?) 

 

As I was reading about Mrs. Woolf  I couldn't help but feel a small pang of sadness for my own daughter who is busting her butt to maintain a 94% average at school.  As I sat in my own library, which has been carefully and thoughtfully gathered,  I looked at all the classics sitting in the dust on my shelves.  Tansy, who has a taste for good literature, has no time to read these lonely gems.  She is too busy doing homework and for what?  A 94% average?  What is that, really? 

It is a marvelous accomplishment and I am very proud of her dedication to her studies but why eat crumbs when the buffet is at your feet? 

She said to me just the other day, "Mom, my friends were talking about how smart I am because I have the second highest average in grade 8.  I don't want to be smart. I want to be wise."

I could have lost my eyeballs had they not been attached to my head - all I could reply, "If you read great books I'm sure you could learn some deep stuff..." 

"I don't have the time, mom."

I know, sweet girl, I know. 

I've pulled out some books and displayed them on the shelves - a subtle attempt to lour her to their pages and away from the drudgery of homework.  Books like

• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
• Laddie - Gene Stratton-Porter
• The Chosen - Chaim Potok
• The Hiding Place - Corrie TenBoom
• To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
• Christy - Catherine Marshall
• Little Men - Alcott
• Northanger Abbey -Jane Austen
• The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

What would you hope your children would read?  I'm always looking to add to my list...

I'm having a torrid affair of the mind...

It is true.  I'm sorry you've had to hear about it this way...I should be shouting it off the roof tops. He's Welsh, for starters, with wildly curly hair, a perfectly pudgy nose and a roly-poly face most beguiling.  However, it wasn't his good looks that won me so completely.  Only the finest poetic mind can tempt me to such forbidden distractions.  I happen to think my rotund welsh cavalier is a literary genius. 

I've been thinking about Dylan Thomas almost every day for the ummm...well, since yesterday. However, it isn't the continuity but the intensity of my feelings that matter.  I play his words over and over in my mind and I am aflame. 

My husband is all forgiveness and patience and maybe a little amused...no, that is not true, he thinks I'm a nut and when I read him a few stanza he glazes over in boredom.  No matter, I am a shameless nut.

this is my absolute favorite and Anthony Hopkin's recital almost makes me cry every time I watch it.  Before you listen, take heed, you may lose your heart to another...but no matter...you wouldn't be the first. 

 

my first children's book...

   
Well, I did it. I wrote a book. A children's book. I illustrated it too. My first attempt. I've sent it off to the printers. It is a Christmas gift for my children.  It's a Christmas gift for me.

I want to share it with you! You can read it at  www.blurb.com.  In the right top corner is a search box. Type in Millie, Hortense and the Bucketeers and enjoy! If you like it...well, of course you can purchase a copy there...however, I am trying to find a place to print the books for less.  If you enjoy it, please share the link with others. Maybe, if I find the courage, I'll send it away to a publisher and see what they think...but that is scary. For now I am very pleased to have it in book form to read with my children and keep on my book shelf.

can't get enough of cousins ...

 

 

Do you have time to sit down with your little one and read the afternoon away? Maybe someone has taken ill with a cold - it is that season after all.  Nothing eases a cold like chicken noodle soup and an enchanting tale of three cousins who live in their auntie's attic and start their own cookie business.  Just plump up the pillows, pull up the covers and snuggle up into this story together.

This is the first book in a series of six.  It's an easy read and inspires entrepreneurship and innocent matchmaking. Oh yes, there is a hint of romance intertwined in the adventures of Lily, Tess and Rosie...not too much, just enough to amuse your nine year old daughter and maybe her mother.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next book - hoping I come down with a bit of a sniffle so I may tuck myself somewhere cosy where the sunlight can peek over my shoulder and follow along.  I will definitely keep this book on my shelf for when my youngest get old enough to appreciate it.

A word of caution...this book may trigger an uncontrollable urge to bake cookies. Just thought I'd give you the heads up.

Peter in Blueberry Land...

   
Imagine yourself shrinking so small blueberries become the size of apples, mice are as big as horses, a spider takes on a whole new scary ( but of course, on being introduced, you discover him to be the perfect gentlemen ). If you can see yourself there, you've stumbled into Elsa Beskow's magical forest where the Blueberry king rules and reigns.

 

Peter in Blueberry Land is a story about a young boy who determines to gather a basket of blueberries and a basket of cranberries for his mummy as a birthday present...stop right there!! What a remarkable little boy to think of such a gorgeous present!  The sure way to a mother's heart will always come in a basket and will always be freshly picked - be it berries or bouquet, pebbles, pussy-willows or acorns! Anything a child gathers into a basket is unadulterated treasure of the most coveted kind.  Any child who is so good to his mummy deserves all kinds of magical adventures!

 
 As you may know, I truly enjoy the marvelous imagination of Elsa Beskow.  I wanted to share her with the children so I planned a party.  What did we eat?  Mm-mm...berries and whipped cream, of course.  The children made themselves little toadstools out of brown paper bags - such a cute and easy project for the zealous fungus lover.  Maya Made gives a lovely tutorial so you can have your very own to adorn your nature table with.

I made the little blueberry elves using pipe cleaner, a wood bead and blue felt.  Breezy Tulip has the best tutorial on making a pipe-cleaner figures.  Hers are truly adorable.  Of course, some of the children gathered treasures from nature to complete the project.

Elsa Beskow inspires me to reach out and embrace nature and my inner-child.  There is something irresistable about the wholesomeness of her books.  I hope, if you haven't, take the time to bring her magic into your home (even if you don't have little ears to share her with).  Sit down with some berries and cream and just enjoy...

Elsa Beskow, we love you...

   

My current favorite Elsa Beskow book is Pelle's New Suit. No, Peter in Blueberry Land.  No, Emily and Daisy.  I don't know if I can decide.  I just love her stories filled with hardworking little swedish children, nature and fairytale.  The illustrations are charming.  I can point to a flower and tell my daughter exactly what it is.  

Do you want the basics on how a wool suit is made?  Or skip through a miniature world gathering blueberries and cranberries for your mummy?  Do you want to keep a cow out of clover?  I know, so do I!  It's no wonder her books have been delighting families since the turn of the century.  

I think I shall have a Elsa Beskow party and invite some little ones to come enjoy a few stories.  We'll have fresh berries and cream and just enjoy little children as much as Elsa did (she had 6 boys of her own you know).  Wait for more details!
 

Books for boys...

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
Mark Twain

As I look over my bookshelves a few books seem to wriggle for attention more than others.  They whisper, "read me!"  Do my sons know there are buried treasures on the bookshelves in our library?  There is - such treasures. 

I'd like to share illustrations from a few - 5 in particular.  I remember Paddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy Holling as a child.  My mother had a green well-worn hardcover copy (I think she still has it for the grandchildren to enjoy).  I don't remember reading it though - just following the story through the pictures.  It was the illustrations penned along the margins of the pages that captured room in my memory.  I get to read the collection to my children now and hope they remember fondly as I have.

       
 
  

Paddle to the Sea - Pagoo - Tree in the Trail - Minn of Mississippi - Seabird                           

Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter and a rug...

   

What would normally take me a month to finish has been read to me in a day by the lovely volunteers at Librivox.org.  All morning and into the afternoon I braided as I followed the adventures of Freckles, Angel and the Bird woman. I chuckled, I fell in love, I cried and I rejoiced - all in all it was a lovely story where honesty, courage and love triumph. Braided into Gene Stratton-Porter's book was her deep love for the birds of  Indiana's Limberlost swamps - this was reflected in the stories hero Freckles who cared for and studied those birds which he loving referred to as "me chickens". 

 

I must admit, I did nothing but braid and listen today - Oh! and my mother did manage to drag me away to the local thrift store to buy some handsome wood crates - Other than that, all else was neglected (even children) as I tried my hands at making my first braided rug...only, I didn't get to stitching it together yet.  I'll save that for tomorrow...