You Know Your Blog Has Been Quiet When…
…you start getting worried letters from kindhearted readers who want to make sure you aren’t back in the hospital or something. No worries; we are all well; I’ve just not been feeling very talky. Am spending a lot of time working in the yard—our mini-butterfly garden is really coming along, particularly the hundred billion weed seeds which were apparently lying dormant in that dry, dry soil until we oblingly began to water them. Now Beanie and Rose and I are out there every day, ruthlessly yanking up wee baby weedlings by the dozen. Ah, the blissful peace of gardening…
And I’ve had lots of Wonderboy stuff to occupy me: preparing for his IEP meeting tomorrow (yes, on Election Day, because I am a glutton for punishment, I guess), working some new PT exercises into his daily routine, reading Mother Goose on demand a hundred times a day…have I mentioned that he is awfully fond of the two Rosemary Wells/Iona Opie Mother Goose collections? As in, he wants them read and/or sung cover to cover approximately once every hour? Rilla, of course, approves wholeheartedly—except she wants it known that they are HER Mudda Doose books, and hers alone, contradictory evidence in the form of inside-front-cover inscriptions to Jane and Rose notwithstanding.
Speaking of reading, I’ve been kept quite busy, of course, with my ever-growing stack of Cybils picture book nominees. I think we have about 35 of them checked out from the library right now, and at least 20 more have arrived via post as review copies from publishers. I don’t know where I’m going to put them all. We are plumb out of shelf space. But reading them is fun, for sure. Ask Beanie. She’s way ahead of me. I’ve read about a dozen nominees so far, and I think she is upwards of thirty.
I am posting mini-reviews at Twitter, by the way, if you’d like a peek. More like mini-summaries, I guess I should say: these are my plot notes to help me keep the 175 nominees straight. I am finding I quite enjoy the challenge of boiling a summary down to 140 characters. You know brevity really IS a challenge for me, ahem.
Speaking of Twitter, you can always look for me there if you’re worried because of bloggity silence…the link above goes to bonnyglencybils, but my main Twitter profile is just plain bonnyglen. I often post short (duh, it’s Twitter) notes during the day about what’s going on around the house. I really love being able to look back, later, at these microglimpses of our days. They are like candid snapshots, the kind no one knows are being taken, the kind you linger over in the photo album because they are so filled with rich detail of what was really happening. Not that my tweets are necessarily “filled with rich detail,” detail being exactly what is hard to squeeze into a 140-character box, but I’m just going to assume you know what I mean. And sometimes a tweet does capture a detail you wouldn’t have been likely to record in any other medium.
Jennifer says:
I was quite worried. You had (happily) been so chatty lately I thought “What must have become of Lissa?” Good to hear all is well. Prayers for you IEP meeting.
On November 3, 2008 at 8:11 am
Stella says:
🙂 I love your Twitter-summaries!! I noticed that Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum was one of the reviewed books. Nicoletta Ceccoli is one of my favorite illustrators. I think her work in the book, though, is acrylic… not digital! (I thought it was digital, too, until a long-time fan of hers told me most of her work is just plain old acrylics). I’m not positive that Girl in Castle is acrylic, but most of her work is, so I figured I’d let you know 🙂
On November 3, 2008 at 9:27 am
Melissa Wiley says:
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up! I’ll check on the art. If it’s acrylic, I’m much more impressed!
On November 3, 2008 at 9:31 am
Melissa Wiley says:
Found a review (@ Well Read Child) that says the art is clay model, acrylic, AND digital!
Beanie can’t take her eyes off it, I must say. But the last page or two fell flat for me.
http://wellreadchild.blogspot.com/2008/02/girl-in-castle-inside-museum-by-kate.html
On November 3, 2008 at 9:35 am
patience says:
So glad to hear from you and know that all is well 🙂
On November 3, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Penny in VT says:
Count me among the concerned – glad to hear all is well, hope to continue to hear more of the same!
On November 3, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Penny in VT says:
Oh, and my girls read their Opie & Wells Mother Goose books to shreds – great stuff 🙂
On November 4, 2008 at 5:31 am
Melissa Wiley says:
Penny, your comment made me smile…our covers are held on (barely) with tape! Well loved books indeed.
On November 4, 2008 at 7:02 am
Melissa Wiley says:
BTW, Jane recently showed me (strewed in my path, actually, taking a leaf out of her mum’s book) 😉 a fascinating article in Muse Magazine about Peter and Iona Opie’s research on children’s songs and games. I can’t find the article online, but here’s another v. interesting link about them:
Peter & Iona Opie Folklore Collections
On November 4, 2008 at 7:06 am
Stella says:
Wow, Melissa! I didn’t know she used clay model as well. I also agree — I was much more impressed with her work when I realized that she did so much of it through traditional media. There’s nothing wrong with digital art, but making acrylic painting LOOK like digital art… now that’s impressive~
I think, however, that her style isn’t for everyone. It’s dreamy and different, but I also think that many people would be turned off by her style. I’m glad Beanie’s enjoying it, though!! 🙂
On November 5, 2008 at 12:36 am
Penny in VT says:
Cool Opie link! Thank you so much!
On November 5, 2008 at 3:23 pm