By default…

I seem to be on a blogging summer vacation.
The kids had their swim club windup last Thursday, and today is the last day, so that’s the last of the year’s lessons and activities. Friday afternoon we left for Saturday’s big regional 4H softball tournament, spending the night with friends. Since Saturday the temperature has [...]

Tonic and toast

Last night the kids and I were on the way home from swimming when we caught the tail end of an interview with Freddie Yauner, a new graduate of the Design Products program of the Royal College of Art in London, on the CBC radio show “As It Happens”.
Mr. Yauner, 26, is making waves at [...]

Discover books and read, and learn, forever

Last month historian David McCullough addressed graduates at Boston College’s 132nd commencement.  You can watch a video of the speech or read the text.
I had a hard time excerpting because I found so much it tremendously worthwhile and inspiring, so here is a good deal of Mr. McCullough’s speech, “The Love of Learning” (links and emphases [...]

Ex libris

Sadly, I don’t have a color printer, but if you’re less frugal and thrifty than I am and you need some lovely colorful bookplates eminently suitable for young bookworms, head over to thrifty crafter and graphic designer doe-c-doe where you can download a beautiful design.
I love bookplates, probably because when I was young my father [...]

Thought for the week, after a busy weekend

The family that weeds trees together (Saturday), and cleans out chicken coops together (Sunday), stays together.
And goes to the community picnic tonight together too…

Sunday garden stroll

I’m fudging a bit today. These are my lilacs, not from my garden here at the house, but from the small field near our corrals, about a mile and a half from the house, where we hope to build a new house in the next few years. When we planted the lilacs — [...]

Summer links

Some summery links in honor of the Solstice:
To Eat:
Homemade Ice Cream Drumsticks, from Nicole at Baking Bites. And don’t miss Nicole’s Summer Fruit Recipe Index.
Yesterday Tom found strawberries at the store almost as tasty as the ones from the garden, so he stocked up. It will be a strawberry weekend. I’ve also [...]

Finally

Last fall, Tom and the kids returned from an auction sale with an impulse purchase, a bred Paint mare and her little colt. The kids named the mare Joy and the colt Thunder, and all winter we watched Joy grow bigger and bigger. We knew she would have a foal, but not when, and [...]

Poetry Friday: The rhythmical gladness of June

The kids had their last swim practice of the week yesterday, and we decided to celebrate the arrival of the weekend and summer by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire in the garden. We sat there, lazing around, trying to keep the dog from eating the hot dogs and watching the flowers [...]

Picturing America

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a new project, Picturing America, in co-operation with the American Library Association.  From the NEH website:
Great art speaks powerfully, inspires fresh thinking, and connects us to our past.
Picturing America, an exciting new initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities, brings masterpieces of American art into classrooms and [...]

123 Book Meme

Kris Bordessa at Paradise Found has tagged me for a book meme I’ve seen on a number of blogs but have managed to avoid so far. But because my blogging has been, and will probably continue to be, pretty limited during the growing season, I’ve decided to take Kris up on it. I’m [...]

In the garden, around the house, and on the farm

this past week. I want to participate in Cloudscome’s weekly Sunday garden stroll at a wrung sponge, so below are a few pictures taken in and near the garden, though from a few days ago, not today.
Releasing our seven painted lady butterflies on Tuesday morning,

The ruby-throated hummingbird coming to the feeder off the deck, [...]

Nature writing and writers

Am slowly going through scads of Google Alerts and finding some good stuff.
Including:
Another good review of American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, edited by Bill McKibben (Library of America, April 2008). I’ve had this on my wish list for a few months since reading the Washington Post review by Gregory McNamee. The latest [...]

New to me

A post from the new to me Daddy Types blog came across in my Google Alerts, and I discovered some interesting things:
First, a post about the New York Times article on Chris Burden’s erector set for Rockefeller Center.  We are big A.C. Gilbert fans around here.
Second, a children’s wall unit made from wooden shipping pallets.  [...]

More on butterflies

The last painted lady crawled out of the chrysalis this morning. We’ve added some blooms — petunia, calibrachoa, catmint — to the mayonnaise jar to keep the butterflies in nectar. The kids are delighted with our success, for which we have Boreal Northwest to thank, especially for their free shipping offer that made [...]

Painted ladies

Our seven painted lady caterpillars arrived several weeks ago, in mid-May. I had ordered five, and two extra were tossed in for good measure. Their nutrient dried up while we were away for the music festival provincials, so we transferred the hungry little critters into an empty mayonnaise jar and, after some research, [...]

Chocolate truffle cake with chocolate caraque

Laura’s cake for her 4H baking project,

Chocolate cake recipe from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham (13th edition, p. 565, Family Favorite “Chocolate Cake”).  Decorator’s chocolate buttercream recipe and chocolate caraque (chocolate curls) recipe from Great Cakes by Carole Walter.  Chocolate truffle recipe from Su Good Sweets
It sold at the silent auction for $50, [...]

Happy Belated Birthday, Grandpapa!

From all of us, including Davy and Cougar,

and in case you didn’t notice Davy’s new smile above, here’s a better look,

and Laura and Daniel too.

though all three look as if they’d rather be doing anything but posing for the camera. The boys have fixed smiles, and Laura’s gaze is elsewhere. That’s because what [...]

Speaking of new books…

Kathy Ceceri, who blogs at Home Chemistry and writes for a variety of magazine, including the “Hands-on Learning” column for Home Education Magazine, announces the publication of her new book, Around the World Crafts: Great Activities for Kids who Like History, Math, Art, Science and More!
As Kathy writes on the website:
Learn about different times [...]

Reviewing the new chemistry book

I wrote about the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture by Robert Bruce Thompson as soon as I read about it. Earlier this week I ordered it, and a number of other books, and it should be here shortly.
Now this morning I see at GeekDad that John Baichtal has [...]