I’ve discovered I like sharing our delicious children’s books, so here is another one I treasure.

Earth Mother by Ellen Jackson is the gentle story of the goddess going through her daily routine of tending to the earth and the earth’s creatures.

With dignity and great reverence, she nurtures even those things that seem insignificant, giving the beetles shiny jackets and sharpening the thorn bushes. She brings the rain and cradles the otter in a tangle of seaweed, rocking him on the waves.

“Bending low, she placed a piece of summer in a flower’s seed.”

“She spangled a tree with fireflies. She spread spiderweb lace on the grass.”

I love the illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon, award-winning (Hugo Award and Caldecott Medal among others) illustrators who have been married for five decades and collaborating and making art together all that time. In this story, Earth Mother is radiant on every page; the patterns in her clothing change with every scene, sometimes they are geometric, other times feature frogs or mosquitoes or men. Flowers break out of the square frames on every page. But the real test of any picture-book illustration is whether it supports the author’s story and theme. The Dillons accomplish this brilliantly, in my opinion.

Along her way, Earth Mother meets a man, a frog, and a mosquito. Each of them complains bitterly about one of the other two, and gives thanks for the abundance of the third. Each would like her to rebalance their proportions.

“Thank you, Earth Mother,” said Frog. “Mosquito and her sisters fill my belly and give me life. But why have you sent Man to catch and eat me? Man is bad, bad, bad. Sweet, delicious Mosquito, on the other hand, makes me happy. If there were more mosquitoes and no men, this world would be perfect.”

The interconnectedness and interdependence of the three creatures is beautifully explored. All the while, Earth Mother maintains her calm serenity, simply sighing because they do not see how perfect the earth already is.

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Except this time, I cannot resist writing a few words: My Lucas is now officially a third grader, and just look at him! I couldn’t possibly be more proud of him. Today was the last day of school and of second grade, and fortunately he felt well enough to go to school for this special day. Here he is playing tetherball on the third-/fourth-grade playground, where he will spend lots of joyful time over the next two years. (That’s a student-made river-rock igloo in the background.) We were blessed to have Daddy along with us when we picked up Lucas today, and then we all went to celebrate with some yummy burgers and milkshakes.

And now it’s officially SUMMER!

My dear Lucas has been sick this week. Monday night, after a day of feeling low and opting to sleep with his head on his desk at school, his fever when sky-high and stayed there for a couple of days, with small breaks, thanks to the children’s ibuprofen I give him. So Tuesday and Wednesday, he worked diligently on the couch with a peg loom that Ian and I brought him from Seattle. (It seemed way more appropriate to bring Lucas an open-ended toy or craft rather than a silly Space Needle statue. And we were right!)

The Harrisville Designs Peg Loom kit comes with a long plastic needle to make weaving easy. The frame is wood; the pegs are plastic. It also comes with cotton warp string and 100% wool yarn in bright colors.

See how sick he looks? Kind of hollow around the eyes. But he worked hard on this and you can see he’s proud of it.

Binding off the warp strings was a bit tricky because they were quite short. I helped a little with this. But then he folded his woven piece in half, sewed up the sides, and sewed on a button. I showed him how to make a button hole and he did that with some embroidery thread. Now there is no mistaking where the button should be pushed through to close his pouch. He opted to finger-knit belt loops (instead of making a purse-like strap) and attached the loops to the back of his pouch.

Here’s Asher’s Yellow Bear modeling the finished pouch. It’s tremendous!

For a final step, Lucas “finger-wove” a belt. That’s what he calls it; I don’t know if this technique of “knitting” a wide belt using only one’s three fingers as pegs has another name. The technique he used is similar in principle to using a knitting nancy, AKA knitting tower or spool knitter. But that’s where my knowledge ends.

Waldorf kids are cool!

One of our recent nature walks is featured on Imagine Childhood. We are grateful that our little local adventure attracted Sarah’s notice via our Flickr photos, and that she asked us to participate with other families from all over the world!

There are so many marvelous things to see and feel and discover when you hit the trails. Just pick a general destination, pack along some water and snacks, and let your children lead the way.

We have had this lovely book for several years now. I found it at the used bookstore for just a few dollars and I’m so happy to own it! It’s Beauty and the Beast, by Marie LePrince de Beaumont and it is illustrated by Hilary Knight. I absolutely adore the illustrations! They are elegant, vivid, and clean, full of flowing lines and organic shapes. I’m no art historian, but I think they may be reminiscent of Art Deco graphics. I am mesmerized by all the bird and feather motifs throughout the book. Beauty looks rather like Audrey Hepburn.

MacMillan published this 10- by 13-inch book in 1963. I don’t know if this is a first printing or subsequent one. The book was printed in Italy and was previously owned by Gary Dorville, whoever he may be.

Beauty says good-bye to her merchant father. Her sisters want him to return with sumptuous gifts. Beauty reluctantly asks only for a rose.

“Therewith he heard a great noise and saw coming toward him a Beast so horrible that he nearly fainted.”

“Beauty could not keep from trembling when she saw its horrible face; but she mustered her courage as best she could, and when the monster asked her if she had come of her own accord, she answered, trembling, that she had.”

“There are many men who are more monstrous than you,” Beauty said, “and I like you better, with the face you have, than those who beneath a human countenance conceal a false, corrupt, ungrateful heart.”

Beauty’s life with her husband “was a long and happy one, because it was established upon virtue.”

I’m going to look for other books from this MacMillan series, but those listed on the back cover of this book aren’t illustrated by Hilary Knight.

Glory Be to the Internet! It seems Mr. Knight is most famous for his illustration of the Eloise books. From what I have seen online, none of his other illustration work looks at all like this.

Why a donkey? I don’t actually know, except that it’s small and doesn’t matter. I think that appealed to me. And this pattern is more challenging that the lamb and duck that I’ve knitted in the past. I’d been feeling a lack of handwork even though I’m discouraged because the sweater I was knitting for Asher would no longer fit him if I actually finished it—yes, it takes me THAT long! (Oh, and he hates sweaters.)

Anyway, this donkey has been a good way to practice (remember) how to increase and decrease stitches, and to read a pattern. The trickiest part was increasing in the center of the rows to produce the neck of the animal. There was MATH and everything! It was a great boon to have my friend Dakini_Grl (an accomplished knitter) over for dinner the night I first attempted that! She’s the BEST. It’s actually looking like a donkey now.

It’s weird how one can feel opposite feelings about the same thing. For example, I felt both

grateful

and disappointed

about doing this today, on Memorial Day:

So, to care for and console myself, I took a ten-minute break outside in my garden to look at these:

Green and purple hydrangea buds

Squirrel in my pecan tree

Nasturtiums grown from seed

Dusty miller buds about to pop

Pansies

Mexican primrose and African daisies

More nasturtiums grown from seed

Day lily

And now I feel

reenergized

amazed

galvanized

and happy.

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

You may be bored with these spring pictures posts but I’m not. I seem to be endlessly fascinated with small things lately; they are unbelievably intricate if you look closely.

This blackberry maiden is being visited by her bee paramour, who is all up in her business.

I like the tangle and riot of color that makes up wild places.

Maypole top and blue sky.

This is redwood sorrel on the forest floor at Muir Woods. When the sun shines too brightly on this shade-loving plant, it folds its leaves down to minimize the exposure.

I’ve never really gardened from seed before. This spring Lucas and I put a variety of seeds directly in the ground or in pots. So far we seem to be having good luck with the corn, pumpkins, chard, cucumber, nasturtiums, morning glories, and four o’clocks. It’s kind of a miracle when the little seedling emerges from the earth! If they thrive it will be another miracle.

Blue is rather rare among plants. We found this wildflower at Indian Grinding Rock in April.

Red seeds soar above the Japanese maple in my backyard. To me they look like birds in flight.

I can see why fabric collecting is addicting, especially to someone like me who is totally invigorated by color. This is most of the stash I’ve gathered little by little over the last year. Via the Glorious Internet, I’ve come to find that I actually have some favorite designers. Wacky!

I’m hoping to make some groovy new shorts and pants for Asher. The ones that I and my mother made in past years were such a success and fun to make. I bought these fabrics with Asher in mind. It’s more challenging that I realized at first to find fabrics suitable for boys. I now realize I have way more fabric for sewing than time for sewing.

Fortunately, some shorts and pants we made last summer look like they’re going to fit another season. The pants are now clam diggers, of course, because Asher has grown so much taller.

I’m kind of waiting to see if this summer Lucas will grab for the shorts grandma sewed for him in the past, or if he’ll gravitate to the more conventional, mass-produced shorts instead. He is probably just on the cusp of not wanting to wear sewn garments anymore. Although, if Lucas wants some for himself, I’ll probably have him pick out the fabric, and most likely it will be much more subdued than these.