Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 47
February 16, 2015
San Diego gardening is a quirky business
Remember those pumpkins I said might be ripe in time for Christmas? More like Valentine’s Day. We gave most of them away to a neighbor (who thanked us with pumpkin bread, so we came out ahead) but kept a couple to perpetuate the cycle. We’ll ignore these and let Nature do her thing, and maybe we’ll have some seeds sprouting earlier in the season this time around. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the jarring contrast of spring flowers and fall harvest.
Spotted two tiny caterpillars on the milkweed! Sadly, however, we also found a withered monarch chrysalis hanging on the fence with a pinprick hole in it. It looks like we’re raising caterpillars for something’s lunch. Not cool, Nature. Monarchs have enough to contend with these days.
February 15, 2015
six weekend moments
1. Leaving the house early yesterday morning, I spotted a pair of goldfinches feasting on the seeds of my basil—yes, another herb I forgot to pinch back, and now I’m glad
2. Pink milk and candy hearts
3. Saturday night ritual: art time with Rilla while the older girls watch TV with Scott (after the early-to-bed boys have conked out). This week, we binged on Cathy Johnson videos. Oh, I just love her, murmurs my girl.
4. Weeded the front-yard flower beds. Began, at any rate, and made good headway. After I mowed the other day, I discovered just how much is in bloom. Nasturtiums, coreopsis, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, viola, milkweed…Ellie said it’s okay to talk about my flowers, hope you don’t mind. 
5. Set up a new palette and spent a good while testing colors with Rilla.
6. This one’s a Big Happy: today I finished the last empty page in my very first complete sketchbook. I started it on August 30. Have drawn or painted almost every day since (even if only for a few minutes). Feeling pretty chuffed.
February 14, 2015
I don’t know what I was thinking
Huck: Is there dessert?
Me: Why don’t you have a piece of your Valentines candy?
Huck: Actually, I ate it all immediately.
February 13, 2015
five Friday things
1. I forgot (again) to pinch off the cilantro and it went (again) to seed. Every year I do this, and every year I glance across the yard one day and feel a rush of joy. I never think to put it on the list if you ask my what my favorite flowers are, but truly: cilantro is my favorite, even above milkweed. Unsophisticated blossoms, insubstantial at first glance, but blooming with such exuberance, beckoning the bees, mingling sociably with the sunny marguerites. Oh, I love them.
2. The stack of homemade Valentines on the kitchen table, slivers of colored paper confettied all over the floor
3. The sight of small boys in bright hats running up a green hill
4. Got the lawn mowed
5. Thought I had to make a health insurance phone call and then did not have to make it
Friday: five good things
1. I forgot (again) to pinch off the cilantro and it went (again) to seed. Every year I do this, and every year I glance across the yard one day and feel a rush of joy. I never think to put it on the list if you ask my what my favorite flowers are, but truly: cilantro is my favorite, even above milkweed. Unsophisticated blossoms, insubstantial at first glance, but blooming with such exuberance, beckoning the bees, mingling sociably with the sunny marguerites. Oh, I love them.
2. The stack of homemade Valentines on the kitchen table, slivers of colored paper confettied all over the floor
3. The sight of small boys in bright hats running up a green hill
4. Got the lawn mowed
5. Thought I had to make a health insurance phone call and then did not have to make it
five Thursday moments
• Rilla came to me with a paper cut. Not that I’m happy she was hurt, just–it struck me so sweetly that she still comes to me for little hurts like that, still believes a kiss from mommy can help
• good IEP meeting—they all love him so
• cleaned up the side yard, threw out two bins of junk, pruned the pepper trees
• daffodils in the neighbor’s yard
• Huck wearing the old cloth barn on his head like a jolly little hat.
Hilarious! Also nice to see how beloved it still is, 16 years and 5 kids later
Well, what do YOU wear to read The Adventure of the Speckled Band?
February 12, 2015
Where I’ll Be in June: Deep Valley Homecoming
Attention Betsy-Tacy fans!
2015 Deep Valley Homecoming
A Celebration of Maud Hart Lovelace & the Betsy-Tacy books!
June 26 – 30, 2015
Make plans to attend this event. Fun for the entire family!
Activities include: Betsy & Tacy House Tours, Betsy-Tacy Neighborhood Tour, Narrated Horse-drawn Trolley Rides, Discover Deep Valley Bus Tours, Deep Valley Victorian Tea, Book Festival, Fashion Show, Play, Living History Actors, Programs, Speakers & Re-enactments, Gift Shop & Exhibits & Music, Vintage Car Show, food & crafts and more!
Registration form and schedule is in progress and will be posted very SOON!
DVH NEWS!
We are excited to announce that Melissa Wiley will be the feature speaker at the Deep Valley Homecoming (DVH) this summer. Melissa Wiley is the author of The Prairie Thief, Fox and Crow Are Not Friends, and the Inch and Roly series, as well as Little House in the Highlands and seven other novels about the ancestors of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Melissa wrote the forward to the HarperPerennial ModernClassics 2010 edition of Carney’s House Party and Winona’s Pony Cart by Maud Hart Lovelace.
Joining Melissa Wiley as featured speaker will be Nancy McCabe, author of From Little Houses to Little Women. Her book is a memoir about her return to the beloved books of her childhood and travel to places related to her favorite authors, including Laura Ingalls Wilder, Maud Hart Lovelace, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott.
Melissa and Nancy will participate in the Deep Valley Book Festival on Sunday, June 28 and will each speak during the DVH programs on Monday, June 29. We’ll have more details about what you can look forward to from these authors and all of our other speakers and presenters in the coming days.
For more information, visit the Betsy-Tacy Society website. Hope to see you there!
February 6, 2015
I’m glad to see the DMV hasn’t allowed technological advances to compromise its brand
Automated voice answering system: What form would you like?
Me: Driver’s license.
AVAS: Sorry, I didn’t understand you. What form would you like?
Me: Driver’s license application.
AVAS: Sorry, I didn’t understand you. What form would you like?
Me: DRI VERZZZ LIE SENSE
AVAS: ::beep boop boop:: Thank you. I am sending you ‘Power of Attorney’ form. Is that correct?
Me: Nooooooooo
AVAS: Sorry, I did not understand you. Let me transfer you to one of our customer service representatives. ::beep boop boop::
New robot voice: All of our representatives are currently busy. Your wait time is one and a half hours.
Me: MAIN MENU! MAIN MENU!
AVAS: ::click click:: What form would you like?
Me: DuhRYVerrrz LIIIII SENSE
AVAS: ::beep boop boop:: Thank you. Your Disabled Veterans License Plate Application is on the way.
February 5, 2015
All the books
Something the ten-year blog anniversary spurred me to do was to tidy up my archives a bit. In the early years, I still have the occasional broken link or an image hosted at the original Typepad site. I aim to tackle one or two months at a time, moving slowly forward until I’m caught up to March 2007, when I migrated to WordPress.
As I go, I’m creating a page that will serve as a visual index to all my book recommendations from over the years. Finishing this part of the project will take much longer! But if I add a book or two a day for, oh, say, another decade…well, I guess I’d still be ten years behind.
At any rate, if you’d like a peek at the work-in-progress, here it is!
February 4, 2015
Wednesday: Five Moments
1. Spirited discussion of story structure with four bright girls, meandering into the all-important topic of why, why, why couldn’t Jo have ended up with Laurie?
2. Huck’s very delicate sneeze after dinner, which the older members of the family agreed was the cutest we’d ever heard
3. The way they laughed when my character fell off the log (again) in Harvest Moon
4. Video chat with Krissy, making plans
5. From yesterday, but I didn’t look at the pictures until this morning: Rose helping Huck learn “The Tyger” by heart
