Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 186

Links for Jane

San Diego Reader | There Is No San Diego River -"We're setting out to see if this 52-mile-long ribbon of life still has life in it. Or if it has been dammed and developed and poisoned to death by us — the three million people who've come here to a semi-desert and expect water whenever we turn the taps on."Bites of passage – The National Newspaper – ""There was no Jersey Shore before mosquito control," Farajollahi, the county mosquito control superintendent, said – the coastal areas now...

Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill

The Betsy-Tacy reissues are out! And just in the nick of time: my old copies are about to fall apart from an abundance of love.

Over the next few weeks, a number of bloggers will be sharing their enthusiasm for the books of Maud Hart Lovelace in the Betsy-Tacy Book Blog Tour. Of course, my own enthusiasm has been spilling all over this blog for the past many weeks. I am tickled pink to see these books back in print. (I've been sitting here searching for the right adjective for "books" in that ...

When the Godmother Asks

for more pictures…

the godmother gets

more pictures.

Sunbather

Eight Months Old

Rilla's Song

(Tune the tune, of course, of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly.")

All I want is a cinnamon bear

From that package right over there

With mommy for a chair

Oh isn't it just loverly

All the red bears that I can eat

A little bit spicy, a little bit sweet

I like to start with the feet

Oh isn't it just loverly

Oh so loverly eatin' absobloominlutely all

I have a giant appetite, even though I am very small

Cinnamon bears clutched in both my fists
Cinnamon mouth with a cinnamon kiss
And mommy's singing about this!

Anne Shirley's Apprentice Goes to Rocky Ridge Farm

My friend Joann and five of her children have embarked on an adventure that has me green with envy: they are touring this beautiful country of ours in a motor home. Joann's husband's work involves a great deal of travel, and this grand plan is a way for the family to spend more time with dad.

Joann's nineteen-year-old daughter is chronicling the adventure at the delightfully named blog Anne Shirley's Apprentice. The family's blog names—and adventurous spirit—are inspired by Swallows and...

Links for Jane and Others

Philosophy 101 – Real Simple – HT Mental multivitamin. Short summaries of the ideas of six major philosophers.

Mount Wilson Observatory – wildfire photos and info. (I flagged this when the Observatory was under threat from the wildfire but forgot to move the autopost out of drafts. The threat is past now—hurray!—but the Observatory site and webcam are worth a look in themselves.)

The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics – Boing Boing

Another Winter Holiday Connection: Morse Code

I didn't include Morse code in my list of places our chapter of Winter Holiday took us because it wasn't mentioned in the passage I quoted. But it was mentioned in the chapter, most enticingly. The book opens with the two children, Dick and Dorothea, beginning to explore the farm they've come to visit. There's a big lake, and they see a boat with six children doing intriguing things around a large island in the middle of the lake. Readers of Swallows and Amazons know at once who these...

"The Fairy Tales of Science"

What we read today (an excerpt; "the astronomer" is a boy named Dick, who is stargazing with his sister, Dorothea):

"Got it," he said. "Just over the top of the hill. Come and see it."

Dorothea joined him. He pointed out the bright Aldebaran and the other stars of Taurus, and offered her the telescope.

"I can see a lot better without," said Dorothea.

"How many of the Pleiades can you see?"

"Six," said Dorothea.

"There are lots more than that," said Dick. "But it's awfully hard to see them when the...