standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous;
you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
– margaret thatcher
Feb7
Feb6
and so it goes…
down the road, i’ll probably have a kid or two or three.
and there will probably be political events or spiritual things
to comment on,
and humor.
– alanis morissette
—
image credit: sweet wayfaring – nsw
Feb5
the color of winter.
the color of springtime is in the flowers;
the color of winter is in the imagination.
~terri guillemets
—
image credit: ron wang, the magic onions.com
Feb4
temptation.
grandbaby j at his moment of reckoning
as he turns 4
and
makes a choice.
—
i can resist everything except temptation.
– oscar wilde
Feb3
when in doubt, hope for the best.
we went to
one of my grandie’s soccer games
his day to bring the snack
a variety pack
filled with all things crunchy and wonderful
he was really excited to share the treats
but worried
that his favorites would all be gone
i told him that it was important to offer them all
and then to eat whatever was left
but
he might be able to up the odds a little bit
by putting his favorites at the bottom of the box
that way he was more likely to have them left over
and he didn’t have to feel bad
because he had offered all of them to his team
if he was meant to have them
they would still be there
if not
it was nice of him to have shared them
i watched as he thought it over
and
carefully put his ‘puffy cheetos’ on the bottom.
after the game he shared the snacks
and was delighted to see
that amazingly
his favorites were still there.
my daughter said that this was probably
the advice he would remember most from me
not to be kind, to be fair, or to take turns
but rather,
to put your favorites in the bottom of the box,
offer them to your friends
cross your fingers
and
hope for the best.
nothing wrong with hoping for the best.
grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief
they haven’t thought of yet.
~ gene perret
Feb2
here’s to the groundhog.
– happy groundhog day –
—
image credit: eachdayisacelebration.com
Feb1
you can’t catch me, i’m a gingerbread fan…
once upon a time
a week or so ago
we read a famous old story
out loud
got very excited
to bake our own gingerbreads
imagined them to look like the pictures
everybody
worked so hard
and
finally
they were ready
and
the gingerbreads
were
really something special
even better
than we imagined
none of them
ran away
and
we all ate
happily ever after.
—
there is a peculiar burning odor in the room,
like explosives. the kitchen fills with smoke
and the hot, sweet, ashy smell of scorched cookies.
the war has begun.
– alison lurie
—
image credit: toriavery.com
Jan31
stick with love.
Jan30
glasses on.
putting on a new pair of glasses or sunglasses is a simple way to completely transform your look – just like a new hairstyle.
– brad g.
baby z is fashion forward.
Jan29
worth the century-long wait.
100 Years Later,
Beatrix Potter’s Tale Of A Fanciful Feline To Be Published
At long-lost Beatrix Potter book, The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, is set to be released this fall, 150 years after the beloved author’s birth.
The tale about a sharply dressed feline has “all the hallmarks of Potter’s best works,” editor Jo Hanks, who stumbled upon the story, says in an interview with Penguin U.K., which will publish the book.
At the time Potter was writing Kitty-in-Boots in 1914, she told her publisher that the story was centered on “a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life.”
Hanks says she “stumbled on an out-of-print collection of her writings” and saw that reference to the story in a letter from Potter to her publisher.
This led her to the publisher’s archive, where she says she found “three manuscripts, two handwritten in children’s school notebooks and one typeset and laid out in a dummy book; one rough colour sketch of Kitty-in-Boots and
a pencil rough of our favourite arch-villain, Mr Tod.”
The original Kitty in Boots,
which Beatrix Potter illustrated herself.
The tale features a favorite Potter character — Peter Rabbit — “albeit older, slower and portlier,” Hanks says. Potter told her publisher in letters that the story went unfinished because of “interruptions” — including the start of World War I and her marriage.
And because Potter finished only one drawing for the book, it will be illustrated by Quentin Blake, who is best-known for his art in many of Roald Dahl’s books.
Quentin Blake’s Kitty in Boots.
“Quentin revels in rebellious characters and humorous stories with spiky edge to them; he’s brought anarchic energy to the character of Kitty and embellished her already endearingly flawed character with his trademark wit and charm,” Hanks says. The news about Blake’s illustration has delighted many Potter fans. Others are more skeptical about the pairing.
Here’s an excerpt from the story released by Penguin, with a cliffhanger ending:
“Once upon a time there was a serious, well-behaved young black cat.
“It belonged to a kind old lady who assured me that no other cat could compare with Kitty.“She lived in constant fear that Kitty might be stolen — ‘I hear there is a shocking fashion for black cat-skin muffs; wherever is Kitty gone to? Kitty! Kitty!’
“She called it ‘Kitty’, but Kitty called herself ‘Miss Catherine St. Quintin’
“Cheesebox called her ‘Q’, and Winkiepeeps called her ‘Squintums’. They were very common cats. The old lady would have been shocked had she known of the acquaintance.
“And she would have been painfully surprised had she ever seen Miss Kitty in a gentleman’s Norfolk jacket, and little fur-lined boots. “Now most cats love the moonlight and staying out at nights; it was curious how willingly Miss Kitty went to bed. And although the wash-house where she slept — locked in — was always very clean, upon some mornings Kitty was let out with a black chin. And on other mornings her tail seemed thicker, and she scratched.
“It puzzled me. It was a long time before I guessed there were in fact two black cats!”
You’ll have to wait until the book is published in September to find out what happens next.
—
credits: quentin blake, beatrix potter, penguin press, express newspapers, getty images, npr
