that's enough messing around

Something has changed to get images off the computer. I have spent
enough time trying to find one for the headliner. I had a snow painting
by Carl Larsson and now a watercolor by Winslow Homer. It drove me 
crazy tonight and time seemed to evaporate and the room is getting 
darker so evening is here. One hour sprung ahead on Sunday and 
everyone is tired. My students were today.

Daughter back at school. Grands are doing well. It's quiet around here
except this afternoon in The Little Bookroom. It is so wonderful to see
children pick out stacks of books to read. They are so attentive and 
fall in love with a series and authors. It makes me happy. 

I do recommend A Gentleman in Moscow. It's the next Book Club read
and it reads fast. It reads like a movie. I had seen Phantom Thread recently
and in an odd way, it reminds me of that except the movie was a love
psychological story. It could have been written by Thomas Hardy who 
loved love triangles. 

I finished with Capital Gaines and read The Magnolia 
Story over Christmas. Their story of how Fixer Upper came about is
fascinating. I recommend even the audio because the Gaines are the 
readers. 

And then there is Marilynne Robinson's new book of essays. I hope
I can understand what we are here for!

SPRING BREAK

Spring Break is here after class tomorrow. We are all ready to be free 
of the schedule. Daughter coming home next week. It's so good to stop
for a week. 

New grand is here: Ella Rose

We are smitten!

Working on stopping a cold from taking over me. 
I had 10 children at The Little Bookroom today who love books, know authors, 
brought me gifts and hugs. 

So good. 

Hello 2018: Letter Writing

 I thought about this blog and how I probably haven't said Hello to the New Year
on this page. Have you gotten use to the number 8 in writing the date? I wonder
if I have been back in last year on some checks ( I still write checks) or even 
letters. Yes, I do write letters. Today my students wrote letters to the freshman 
college students who were Seniors last year in our class. Got them mailed as 
a gift. I read them an excerpt from this book: 

( Page 83 if you get a copy) 

I adore her!  Her website Mail More Letters and a short Ted Talk:

Merry Christmas

 The Wise Men knew He had come!
Merry Christmas to you. 
Cheers for the New Year!


GIOVANNI DA MODENA, The Appearance of the Star, c. 1412, Fresco

Annunciation

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe."   

-Madeleine L'Engle

One of my favorite words is Annunciation.
Advent is almost here: Announcement: 

                                                       Fra Angelico's Annuciatory Angel

Inspiration

                                MAKING ALL SORTS OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS


Jessica Chorley from London:

Caroline Zoob and Oyster Bridge & Co Creative Retreat:

A Visit to David Austin Roses

Reformation Day.... and a post

 

This is not on the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation but on a children's author: 
Cornelia Meigs. I am compiling a list for an Evening Chat at Grace to Build 
Retreat next week titled: Buried Treasures.

I found this letter on wikipedia: 

For a glimpse into her life, here are excerpts from a letter sent to an Albert Northrop, presumed husband to her niece Elizabeth (Betty):

January 29, 1950.

Dear Albert,

Your nice birthday letter should have had an answer long before this, but so many things do seem to come between me and writing even the letters that I want so much to write. The birthday was a very portentous one, my sixty-fifth, which means I am no longer eligible for Bryn Mawr after June; they have to keep me until then. By a singular chance they have given me more work to do than ever before, quite regardless of the fact that in six months I shall be considered totally unfit ...

You were so good to speak so kindly of Violent Men and Two Arrows. The former had been in hand for a very long time, quite the largest piece of work I had ever undertaken, but it has been the one that I most enjoyed. I have a real passion for history, which grows as the years go by, and was whetted ever more by my seeing some of it being made first hand while I was doing a very humble job in Washington. I realized that if I did not finish it while I was at Bryn Mawr I never would, so I finally succeeded in getting it finished and out of my hands. The Macmillan Company had it for a long time before they published it, so, since I had promised a child's book as the very next thing, I wrote that last year and they came out rather embarrassingly close together. You were a very good friend to read them both. You always give such nice detailed comments, not like the reviewers, or sometimes even the writer of the blurb on the cover who have visibly not got much farther than Chapter six or so ...

Nina (signed in her hand)