Old made new again…

Now that autumn is rolling in, all cold and rainy, I’m reminded of school and Betsy Ray. That’s right! Thinking of school always reminds me of Miss Betsy Ray from Deep Valley and how much I need to take a trip to that world.

The Betsy series actually starts up when Betsy’s a little girl and book after book carries us through grade school, high school, a trip to Europe and finally marriage. I have to say that though the books about Betsy’s childhood are sweet, they don’t hold much for me anymore. What I truly still get into are the books about her high school and then adult years. Betsy is a highly autobiographical character and there’s no doubt about it, the author, Maud Hart Lovelace, loved life and people with a happy zest. And it’s such a wonderful view to get into, especially on these dark and coldish days. I also love the time period it’s set in, the early 1900′s and seeing what teenagers did for entertainment in this era. Fudge and singing and dancing! And instead of women being irked how long clothes took to have made, everyone seems to anticipate finally getting a lovely new dress or skirt and waist.  There’s something to be said for anticipation. What I also like is how Betsy’s agenda is always about having a good time and how she struggles to grow further than that and the set backs and victories she has. She’s a social bee, no doubt about it but she’s also a writer and she has to find a way to balance the two. She also has a kick-ass quirky family and I’m glad they exist forever on the page!

And then there are the books themselves…I battled internally over getting old used copies or the new trade paperbacks where two books are packaged in one. I settled for the new because of the new still have the awesome old illustrations (yes! there’s illustrations!), the cheerful happy covers and I want these books to stay in print! so it’s always good to buy books that are really worthwhile.

autumn brings some quiet…

I’m pretty sure Jeff and I successfully made it through a move followed by a week trip over to Paris. No one got lost for too long, nothing got broken during the move, everyone and everything is accounted for. Except perhaps the wonderful 20 pd bag of bird seed I had for the birds this winter. It turns out that chippies are able to get into our new home’s garage and they ate that 20 pd. bag in a week. It’s strange because they left little behind. it’s almost as if I moved an empty bag to the garage…and never was it ever full…

So it’s day two of being back in the States and certainly the rhythm of life is very different here than in Paris. What I’m really grateful is coming back to my own home (no apartment dwelling now! whee!) and having this big yard to ponder over. I’ve been sitting outside on the privacy of my own deck and just watching the sky…which is about all one can do when suffering from jetlag.

The cats are very possessive of us now, never letting us getting out of their eyesight unless, of course, they’re asleep! I wondered if they would remember us and they did and they do, very very well, which is rather touching.

So I’m here and I’m back and it’s been a long long ride. I’m glad the summer is closing because this summer has been very madcap. Every month since May we expected to move here to this house and every month it got moved back till finally there was a week till Paris and something had to happen. And it did. We got in and then we left. But now we’re back and I think I’ll unpack very very slowly and just relish this Non-rushing about. I’m not a very good rusher anyways.

Summer Reading Continued…

I heard Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Sackhouse series) speak a few nights ago. Her recommendation on how to get yourself to write: “Put up or shut up” made me consider the same. Harris was a funny speaker and she had that gentle southern drawl I remember so well in my own grandmother’s voice. Harris is very sparky and alive and it’s easy to see how Sookie is her brain-child. She insisted that all her characters were different parts of herself and I liked that idea too.  My only sorrow was hearing that she’s going to discontinue the Harper and Tolliver series after this next book. Harris has done a lot of series besides just Sookie and this other series centers around Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver. Harper got hit by lightening as a teen and ever since then can sense where dead people are and how they died. The series centers around herself and her brother (her sidekick) traveling around the US helping people find their dead loved ones or Harper being able to tell how that loved one died (if there are any questions). Needless to say, they’re surrounded by controversy and the fundamentalist community does not take kindly to them though they want to find their dead loved ones as much as anyone else. It’s a dark series and sometimes hard to read…though that didn’t stop me from reading each book in one day! Harris related in her talk that each book took tons of work since each book opens up with a whole new cast of characters besides the mainstays, Harper and Tolliver. And there’s the completely new setting besides that too and she’s found it’s just too much work. But she promised a new series after this since she always works away at two series at a time. You gotta wonder what her quirky mind will cook up next. I’m looking forward to it!

Mixed in while reading that series, I picked up Greenery Street by Denis MacKail. Now I have to admit, when I started this book, I was a little worried it might be too sugary. But I continued on and I’m so glad I did. Greenery Street is a comedy and a loving one at that. It centers on a couple, Felicity and Ian Foster, as they settle into their first home and it’s about all the little kinks and the maddenings parts that couples get to work out together. I alternately wanted to shake Felicity and then Ian and then Ian and then Felicity, etc, etc but in a laughing way and not at all violently! P.G. Wodehouse adored this book and it’s not hard to see why. Isn’t that endorsement enough?

A month ago or so, I claimed I would read all of L.M. Montgomery books in a week. A little foolhardy. I didn’t do that but I’ve been steadily chewing through them since I wrapped up Harris’ series and Greenery Street.  I decided to read her books in chronological order using Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery as a companion since it has a chapter on each book. What have I found? I’ve found that Montgomery’s writing takes me towards a mental vacation. There’s something so relaxing and satisfying about her books. Everyday life is the setting and mixed into the everday is nature, sweeping our souls towards the sublime. I really love how she’ll mention someone knitting lace and then a few paragraphs afterward are purple prosy descriptions of the outdoors. Reading her books as a young girl gave me an immense love of the outdoors and nowadays I find that the easiest way to get my head screwed on straight is to take a walk outside. Being outdoors always pulls me towards something bigger than the immediate goings-on. I owe Montgomery a huge debt for what she gave to me when I was a kid.

There’s also been an announcement that Penguin is going to print The Blythes are Quoted in its entirety. It was the final book she completed shortly before her death. Part of it was printed as The Road to Yesterday but a fair amount of the original writing was taken out as being deemed “too dark.” But it’s really excited this is coming out as it shows Montgomery was experimenting and trying new ways of writing.

And well…of course this book would be dark. Montgomery survived two world wars and besides that was addicted or at least heavily on, bromides and barbituates that no doubt led to her early death. She had a son who gave her terrible problems (it’s speculated he was a psychcopath) and her husband lost his  mind a few times. I’ve read through two sets of her journals and wow…she really gave us the joyful part of her in the books. I believe in her later works Montgomery can do tragedy just as well as comedy and I’m looking forward to seeing what this new book will add to the legacy of her writing.

And finally…”I believe you [men] capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as – if I may be allowed the expression, so long as you have an object. I mean, while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
—–– Jane Austen, Persuasion

I could not stop thinking that as I watched “Letter from an Unknown Woman” directed by Max Ophuls and taken from a short story by Stefan Zweig. (sorta spoilers? beware) The movie is taken from the viewpoint of a letter, written by a woman while she is dying to her former lover who has completely forgotten her. It is the story of a loving and noble person who is never recognized for her value. Her letter ends in “Oh, if only you could’ve recognized what was always yours, could’ve found what was never lost. If only…” I managed to somehow not cry at the end though her faithless lover didn’t quite manage that himself. This is such a beautiful film and though it’s sad, it does end with a splendid cry of hope.

Summer Reading

It’s taken a little while to get here but a book I read propelled me forward. It’s not a book I’m going to go into because it deserves little mention. It’s “Castle” by J. Robert Lennon and after I got over my revulsion of the thing, I decided it was time to write about good books. Good books meaning those that aren’t trash. So let’s start, shall we?

“Coming Home” by Rosamund Pilcher is a massive paperback but a wonderful summer read. The book is set mostly in Cornwall and Pilcher evokes the place pretty good- enough that I must go see it someday! There are quite a few characters that sail in and out but the book centers on Judith Dunbar whom we meet at age 14. Her mother is about to leave to go back to India and she is about to head off to boarding school, all by her lonesome. She befriends a glamorous wildchild, Loveday Carey-Lewis at school and the adventures take off. The friendship twines in and out of their lives and we watch the pair grow and see the choices they make and how they turn out. The book is set near the eve of WWII and Pilcher does a decent job of that though I wish at times there had been closer details, just things like how it was to cook on so much less, etc. Sad things happen, good things happen and it’s definitely a fabulous beach read.

The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries-  Sookie Stackhouse inhabits a strange world no doubt about it. The author agrees with how strange it is as well. I’m on the 5th book and while the number of characters are growing a bit out of control, Harris is steering things along all right and keeping the pace going. It’s never dull in Bon Temps, Lousiana and thank God for that. This is a series read happily with a cold drink in hand. If you dig the whole “what if vampires and fairies really were real?” this may be the series for you…I love it for the Southern setting as well. While this isn’t Flannery O’Connor here, I feel she primed me for this series.

“The Shuttle” by Francis Hodgson Burnett is one of those rip roaring pre-war rides that’s great fun. Okay, so the villian is villianous in the narcissistic way that hits close to some people I’ve known but it felt quite cathartic to see his ending.  “The Shuttle” also possesses a heroine that’s beautiful and good and yet…somehow, I can’t hate. This rarely happens (witness Dickens) and yet Burnett pulls it off. I’m eagerly looking forward to “The Making of the Marchioness” by her that’s coming over from Persephone Books.

Which puts me in mind of Persephone Books. I found them through Danielle over at A Work in Progress- which is a great blog to read about reading, btw! Persephone Books resides London and they print wonderful 20th century books which are out-of-print and undeservedly so.  Wandering through their website is a real treat and their books are fine quality and something I’m entirely addicted to. I really can’t say enough good things about them…they’re a pleasure to do business with.

So that for now but more books for later as I come across them…

Joy in a Jar

Like many people, I’m pretty aware that weird things get put into deodorants nowadays and since I don’t relish the thought of getting breast cancer- or any kind for that matter due to a deodorant, I switched over to deodorants that mask odor but don’t stop the sweat. These failed absolutely and completely. I became a stinky person who regularly washed a few times a day under her arms. Washing three times per day (or more) made the skin on my underarms dry out and become itchy. I felt like a bit of a monkey at times, scratching at my armpits. It just wasn’t cool.

Until…I finally pulled myself together and ordered the goods. And this is what I made

The recipe is all angry chicken’s doing. How people figure these things out on their own, beats me but I’m so in love with her recipe. Is that possible? Of course! I’m on day two after lots of exercise and still not a stink anywhere. Not one trace. And the ingredients are loveable to the body. It makes me happy and it just might make you too. It’s so simple and completely gratifying to make and use. And pretty inexpensive! It takes only a tiny bit to make 4 oz. and I’m figuring this 4 oz. will last a good while.

On a bookish note, there’s a new illustrated cover of “Wrinkle in Time” out. Here it is…it’s just so pretty, I had to share.

Isn’t it lovely? Even better in person, of course. The illustrator, Taeeun Yoo, has an etsy shop too.

So that’s a few things I’m loving right now. What’s making you happy this spring?

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Oh, I found it all right.

cotton=candy

I ran over to the hardware store to get a new furnace filter (husband help) but decided to indulge myself by stepping into the quilt shop. Now quilt shops aren’t really my thing because I suck at fractions. Quilts ARE fractions and measuring and cutting.  I find when the moment comes to get  out my fractions and then measure and cut…well, the caring just goes out of me. Not caring shows up majorly in a quilt. or an unfinished one, I might add.

but quilt stores aren’t just a mecca for quilters, they’re a mecca for lovers of COTTON PRINTS. which I am. I picked up two pieces. The first is for an apron I’ve been meaning to embark on for a few years now (ahem). This print I’m not entirely sold on. Is it grandma? is it spring? is it feminine? could it be retro if I wanted it to be?  I wasn’t going for grandmas but the upbeat of it all.

what would you say? too grandma-y or just right?

The second piece I was got…well, it threw me for a loop when I saw it. I would never think to like such a print but holy crap, it pushes my happy buttons. I think it’s got this whole Tasha Tudor sort of thing going on. Yes, it’s that. And…I don’t think this shows up in the photo but it’s discolored in spots. I love that. I seem to discolor everything accidentally and to have it done for me…that’s discoloration without the guilt!

also…jeff and I met on the fourth and well…it’s a fourth of july sort of cloth. I know I can do Something with it.

Mary Shelley

Yesterday, being in a grumpy mood from a sprained knee, I limped over to the library and picked up a copy of Harold Bloom’s Critical Edition of Mary Shelley. I really don’t have much to say on Bloom except whenever I read him, I snooze but this Edition gathers the stuff people said about her and her work, Frankenstein. Frankenstein doesn’t interest me but what they had to say about her did.

Particularly what her husband says. I haven’t read Shelley in a long time but I was struck by his…his usage of words. I’ve been studying scansion off and on and just his sheer way with the stuff made me all dewy-eyed, etc, etc.  I’ll just share the last stanza but the whole thing is worth reading, The Revolt of Islam, The Dedication.

“Truth’s deathless voice pauses among mankind!
If there must be no response to my cry—
If men must rise and stamp with fury blind
On his pure name who loves them,—thou and I,
Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity
Like lamps into the world’s tempestuous night,—
Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by
Which wrap them from the foundering seaman’s sight,
That burn from year to year with unextinguished light.”

As purdy as it is…what strikes me is the shame of it. Imagine writing Frankenstein when You’re nineteen and then…and then…more or less everyone dies around you (two children, your half sister, your husband, his dear friend and yours, Byron) and you’re left pretty much destitute with one small child and a society that shuns you. She commented that at 29, everyone she knew and loved had nearly all passed on. Not surprising  another masterpiece never flowed from her pen. There was no support structure left and masterpieces do not come out of the emotionally (or physically) destitute , no matter what a certain reading crowd would like to think.

This ‘n’ That

Believe it or not, I have watched the Twilight DVD extras and then those extras on top of it. Truly geeking out but I must say…the film company did a terribly foolish thing when they crossed Catherine Hardwicke (the director) and she said, “See ya.” Because really, Hardwicke’s a modern day hippie (hippies can be so pleasantly zealous about things) and was so completely Into the story, she really loved the damn thing and she did massive amounts of creative work to make the film have more depth than the poor book ever did. I mean…okay, okay, film is a different medium, so very visual (duh) so visual details are easy to add. But they’re also very easy to add in a book. Hardwicke gave the character Bella a wonderful bracelet with pictures of the saints going all around. And she wanted Bella to look very natural thereby giving her a connection with the nature surrounding her. Or at least to hint at it. That’s already more significant details than we get of Bella  in the books (she has brown hair, brown eyes and hates the wet??? Already a charming bracelet and having a connection to nature are beyond the capacities of this book)

And now for something completely different… I do need to mention a project I did manage to finish with dear Mollie’s help.

First the violet bracelet. This idea of violets is really taking hold. This is just a cuff put together with felt and lace and it has the violets (and leaf) sewn on.

This second one is a bonus. Mollie kindly gave me four circles, painted with the life cycle of a dandelion. Backed onto sparkly felt! This is probably the only time in my life in which I found a way to use sparkly felt.

Finally, I’m really loving this photo. Can you spot the little singer?

A new leaf

Sometimes it feels good to turn a new leaf. I wanted to do this with my blog: make it more of a running commentary of my life. I wanted to include more of the everyday things- not just books that I’m reading but what say, is on the stove or what I’ve been penning or what I’ve been staring at day after day.

One thing I’ve stared a lot at are violets. Violets are everywhere and around eleven years old or so, I got fascinated in them. I love their hues (they generally come in purple or in white) and I loved their tiny flowers shape. They pop up in lawns and gardens without any sort of coaxing or transplanting. So they’re hardy and they rove across the landscape like tiny purple and white minions. And so…restless violet.

Violets are restless by nature and I feel that I too like to be in everything, doing everything, seeing a lot.  There are so many things I want to do and so many things I wish to be better in and so this blog, I hope, will be a diary of this hunger and appeasement. I want to run across a lot of subjects here, I want to scatter around. There’s a lot of stuff on my mind and a lot of stuff I’m doing. I want a place to chat to you about that. So let’s go and please, always feel free to comment!