Yesterday, I woke up and the heat was....gone! Like a miracle. Like it was all a sticky uncomfortable dream. A breeze blew and the wind chimes clattered and I decided before the heat rose again, I was going to bake up some rhubarb muffins. A fellow rhubarb enthusiast found a great recipe made with whole wheat flour, oatmeal and brown sugar. No muffins stay as moist and luscious as rhubarb muffins. And this is good because I have LOTS of rhubarb.
In the afternoon the skies opened up. And our new "water feature" - a bucket set under the second floor air conditioner to catch the condensation - became a lake. I don't want to dump that good rain water but I don't want to invite mosquitoes to stay either. I will solve that dilemma in the morning if I have time to water.
I have two interests that I need to look into and they both involve water. The first is an easier way to re-use grey water. I scoop out my shower water and pour it on the flower beds when I have time. But what about dishwasher and washing machine waste water? How can those sources of relatively harmless water be tapped?
The other is to find and install a rain barrel system for watering the vegetable garden. And can rain water be used for other things such as washing clothes? Older homes had cisterns for catching that water and then city sewer and water became the norm. I'm just wondering here.
I am having a dry spell with my reading. I still have about 15 ARCs from Book Expo to finish but I can't decide what I want to read about - a disaffected teen who has been forced to relocate? A boy whose palm bears a mysterious mark and who lives with his Uncle Phineas?
OH MY STARS AND BOLTS!!! I just found a Maggie Stiefvater book in my BEA Bag of Swag. Thank you, God! I am reading The Scorpio Races this week. It comes out in October. Happy Desk Chair Dance!!!
If you like kids' books - and I do -, check out Delightful Children's Books, a website devoted to producing book lists on just about anything for children of almost any age. This week's featured book list is devoted to birds. Story program planners, take note!
So...rhubarb muffins in the kitchen. A breeze blowing in the window. A good book to look forward to. Lunch with a long time friend where we talked and talked. Tomorrow is the last day of Stories in the Schools. The Storytelling Workshop next week is full up. Yeah, life is good.
Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve
Polly Peabody knows that her family’s rhubarb farm is something special, even something magical! They grow Giant Rhubarb that is helping close the hole in the ozone and chocolate rhubarb that tastes like a sweet but is a vegetable. They have a lake that you can’t drown in no matter how long you hold your breath, a castle to live in, and gems sprout from the ground. And every Monday at 1:00 pm exactly, it rains. But then one Monday it doesn’t. And other things start to go wrong on the farm. The rhubarb begins to wilt even though it is being watered by hand. The umbrella ride fails when people are riding it. A strange fog is starting to cover some of the farm. It is up to Polly to find out what is causing the damage and save their farm. To do that she will have to face her fears, uncover family secrets and trust in the magic of the farm.
This enticing tale is a pleasure to read. Van Cleve has created the farm of childhood dreams filled with dessert that is healthful, carnival rides, friendly bugs, animated plants, and much more. She writes with a light friendly tone that never gets bogged down in elaborate descriptions or overwriting, which is a fear with books of this sort. Instead, she allows the magic to shine and the imagination to soar.
Polly is a great protagonist who is painfully shy, bullied at school, and yet one of the most fascinating people you could meet. As she learns that she is much braver and more skilled than she ever dreamed, Polly begins to let others into her world and make friends. Yet it is not that simple, and her struggles with self-reliance, family secrets, and friendships make for great coming-of-age story material.
A large part of the book’s appeal is the tension between the magical and the mundane. Polly has to face school and all of its pitfalls as well as the desperate situation of her home and family farm. While magic is involved, it actually makes Polly’s personal life outside of the farm more difficult. The tension of classmates, news reporters, and magic make this book very special.
Highly recommended, this book is perfection for fans of Savvy by Ingrid Law. It would make a wonderful classroom read and will be happily devoured by children who enjoy a lot of chocolate with their rhubarb. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from copy received from Dial.
Check out Kathleen Van Cleve’s website.
posted by Neil
This is being blogged while making rhubarb custard for Maddy, to make up for the inedible rhubarb crumble I did the other night. Worst crumble I've ever made. I didn't even know it was possible to mess up a crumble, but I did.
(
Here is the Lorraine Bowen Crumble song.)
Several blogs back, I let people know that if they wanted tickets to the Stephen Merritt CORALINE musical they should buy them, as it was a very small theatre and a very limited run. The run has just added two weeks --
it's now going until July 5th. Which may make some people happy.
I get to see the preview tomorrow, and am a bit nervous and a bit excited. So far I've only seen the first 20 minutes in a rehearsal space. I loved it, but am aware that 20 minutes is not a show, and a rehearsal space is not a stage, and that numbers are going in and coming out. Here is a photograph of Stephin Merritt looking thrilled by this musical-making process.
Time Out New York says,
In Coraline’s epigraph, Gaiman quotes G.K. Chesterton on why we believe in fairy tales: “Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” The stage version has a moral too. In this quintessentially theatrical world, there’s a tacit argument for resourcefulness, imagination and valor. “We put four new numbers in last week during the day, and did a preview at night,” says Silverman, about to dash back with notes for the cast. “Jayne will turn to me right before she goes onstage and quote the show: ‘Be wise, be brave, be tricky.’ And every time, I think: Exactly!?”
Over at
http://www.ny1.com/Content/ny1_living/99409/stage-musical--coraline--in-previews-off-broadway/Default.aspx you can see some video footage of the show as they interview an actor, the director and Stephin.
More photos of me and Cabal-the-Dog at
http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/513940.html
and for those of you who have asked repeatedly recently for more Cat photos, Kyle took some of me and Zoe-the-blind-cat-in-the-attic, and of Pod and Hermione, the mad sisters who live in the basement library and do not mingle, and who are now 17 years old, and Lorraine put them up in her blog, at
http://blog.fabulouslorraine.com/2009/05/in-which-we-see-more-photos-by-mr-kyle.html.
I'll post some here too, soon.
...
Hi Neil,
I'm sure you have more pressing issues at hand; however, I'm quite late in perusing the Luminato listings and by god, just noticed you're doing a reading. Of course, it's sold out. Is it possible that extra tickets go on sale for your readings or am I out of luck?
If it's a no go, I may have to travel to Montreal for a reading if you're doing one. Do you know if you will at the science fiction event that's happening there in August? I don't remember what it's called.
Regards,
Theresa M.I'm afraid the 500 Luminato tickets sold out about 5 minutes after they went on sale, and there won't be any for sale at the door (unless someone is trying to sell their extra tickets on). But yes, I will be doing readings at Anticipation, the Worldcon in Montreal.Also panels, interviews and probably making speeches too. Please come.
...
The rhubarb-custard was very nice, but it would have been better in a pie, and tasted nothing like the really good rhubarb custard pie I bought at the farmer's market. But I left it in the oven, after Maddy and I had eaten our fill, and although I turned the oven off when I went back to put it away I discovered it had caramelised into something amazing, but so terrifyingly sweet that one spoonful had me reaching for the unsweetend cranberry juice.
Right. More soon. Huge backlog of questions from the FAQ line to get to.
