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Character design of a little rabbit.

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Ahhhh... Friday evening. After a long week its nice to unwind by sitting on the porch and relaxing a bit.

This is a view of the jumble of trees and cypress across the street (and a couple of rooftops) with a close-up jasmine vine hanging down.

Back in San Francisco my view was of buildings and more buildings and cement, and more cement, and even more cement. This sure is a nice change of scenery.


Another thing I didn't have there was a front lawn. Or a white picket fence.
All the cats like to come out and sniff around in the evening when I'm out here "settin". Good thing the gardener's coming tomorrow. The lawn is high and dotted with those little white "grass flowers". You know the ones. They show up when you need to mow.

I think I see a rocking chair in my future... Read the rest of this post

Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday – and in her post she suggests putting poems out into the “face-to-face world” as well as through blogging… hmm, now there’s an idea…

Nights are drawing in here in the UK, as we move towards wintertime but in the southern hemisphere, the world is heading into summer: so here are two beautiful picture-books which each contain a poem – one for winter and one for summer. One thing is certain: reading time will feel warm, whichever one you read; and they are such a visual treat too, that really they have to be a face-to face encounter.

The first is Jorge Luján’s poem Tarde de Invierno, translated into English as Winter Afternoon by Elisa Amado and empathetically illustrated by Mandan Sadat. It’s a short poem about a child looking out into the winter’s evening, waiting for her mother to come home: and when she does, the hug fits perfectly into the “vidrio del portarretrato”/ “the frosty frame” – so that the focus suddenly swings round and the little girl, the observer, is now the observed. And what a beautiful picture it is too. My children like this poem because it’s full of love. I like it , yes, for that reason too: but also because it helps to assuage some of the inevitable guilt of being a working mother…

The other poem transports us to the heat of the Australian Outback. Annaliese Porter was only eight years old when she wrote the poem – so this would also be a great classroom resource for raising aspiration. Here’s a small taste:

On Uluru there are many shades
on the rocky eye –
browns and reds mingling
into a rich earthy dye.

Uluru is immediately recognisable in Bronwyn Bancroft’s glorious depiction – and indeed her illustrations sizzle all the way through the book.