Music to enjoy . . . pause if you prefer the quiet.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 at 11:37PM 
The Swing
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside -
Down on the roof so brown -
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
Robert Louis Stevenson
photo credit Rinda Dean
Monday, July 10, 2006 at 2:48PM 
A peek in my library basket...
I haven't read them - so I can't recommend them...yet!
The Akhenaten adventure /I've seen this one in the children's bookstores - I'm checking it out for my school library.
The bread book : the definitive guide to making bread by hand or machine / Mmm - the pictures are wonderful in this book - it is making me hungry just to look at them.
Chasing Redbird / My daughter and I really enjoyed her novel Bloomibility
The elephant's child looks interesting
Fair girls and grey horses : memories of a country childhood /The verdict is still out
INNUMERACY:MATHEMATICAL ILLITERACY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES The question is - Can I get my brain around this in the summertime?? It comes highly recommended so I will try.
Jane of Lantern Hill / for my daughter who hasn't read this LM Montgomery book yet. It's one of my favourites.
The light in the window / verdict is still out
Marling Hall : a novel /Angela Thirkell - sure to enjoy
NICCOLO RISING a series recommended by a friend
Nobody's child /an intriguing look at the Armenian Genocide - a YA book that my husband, daughter and I have been reading ....at the same time.
The outermost house : a year of life on the great beach of Cape Cod Amazon says - A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach. I like these type of books.
Possession : a romance /I've heard good things about this novel by A S Byatt - it won the Booker Prize. We'll see...
The Shangri-la diet : the no hunger eat anything weight-loss plan /it's crazy and it worked for me...-15 lbs so far.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy / - DVD - I'm going to watch it with my DH. I hope it's good.
Art- Summer Reading - Ron Parker
HT - Thanks for the blog idea Joanne :)
Sunday, July 9, 2006 at 10:13PM 
O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. May my prayer be set before you like incense;
may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
Ps. 141:1,2
Saturday, July 8, 2006 at 1:00PM Very thought-provoking discussions on the blogosphere this week!
"Does literature teach us to empathize with other people, or does it merely teach us to empathize with fictional people, who are infinitely less likely to inconvenience us than are real ones?" - Wittingshire - (read the whole article - it's worth it!!)
Kim writes " All I've got to say is, "If loving literature is wrong, I don't want to be right." Go over to Hiraeth and read some riveting responses!
And here's my 2 cents worth...
Overindulgence in reading, especially certain types of literature, can be unhealthy when it is used primarily as an escape. (like when my son went through a fantasy lit. stage and became disillusioned when the world didn't pan out that way)
But when I enter someone else's world through literature, I can experience different cultures, different viewpoints, different historical eras, different stages of life or even gender. Somehow, in a work of fiction, we enter the lives of the characters - we come to know them - we identify with them - we care about them. When that work of fiction actually reflects the plight of real people, then we can no longer ignore those situations.
Not to say that reading about something is the same as experiencing it in real life, but a vicarious experience through literature (or the movies or photography for that matter) can be a powerful tool - a sword. It can have a compelling emotional effect that non-fiction sometimes lacks. Think of Uncle Tom's Cabin - all the emancipation speeches did not do what this one "novel" did. Consider President Lincoln statement to Harriet Beecher Stowe - ”So you're the little girl that started this big war."
Now to provoke some thought/discussion/rumbling...
Think of Dan Brown... he certainly had an effect - albeit temporary.
Where is the Christian writer who can break out of the ghetto and write a novel that will speak to Everyman's longing today - the longing that is part of our being because we are made in the image of God and, as Augustine says, our hearts will be restless until we rest in Him?
I believe that he, or she, is out there and I am praying that the Lord will inspire him, or her, to begin that book.
'nuff said... :)
This is the totally unbiased opinion of a English major, Language Arts teacher and librarian.
books and honey - - sweet!!
Friday, July 7, 2006 at 1:24PM My mother was a beach lover - every single sunny day of the summer she packed a picnic cooler and we headed off to one of the many beaches here on PEI. And she always carried her beach bag with her - even on rainy days because "You never know - the sun might come out..."
I headed to town the other day - it was a rainy afternoon - the sky was grey and leaden. I brought my laptop looking forward to a cozy afternoon on high speed in at Timothy's coffee house (not to be mistaken for Tim Horton's - both good experiences but not to be compared...).
Around 4pm I noticed bright sunlight streaming in the windows. All of a sudden my childhood training (indoctrination?) kicked in gear.
sunny summer afternoon = beach
oops - no beachbag - no towel - no swimsuit.
Why would that make me feel vaguely guilty?
the power of Moms...
We went up anyway, sans beachbag, to walk on the sand, enjoy the salt air, the sound of the waves and the joy of being alive on a beautiful summer evening on the beach.
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The beach is never crowded in the evening - usually the tourists head back to their campsites or cottages and the Islanders take over. They don't like the crowds or the National Park entrance fee. It's free after 4pm.
The water is unusually warm this year.
This little guy was having so much fun!
A favourite pastime - walking along the shore...
(I'm heading to town today - my beachbag is in the backseat - OK Mom?)