Books #3 (Is there anybody out there who loves these books?)




The six Lucia books are listed above.  The first four books  are collected in a
volume called All About Lucia.

 

This is a call in the dark.  I love the 'Lucia' books by E.F. Benson, and I must be the only person in the United States (maybe the world) who does.  Thirty or so years ago PBS had series about a comic English heroine based on E.F. Benson's novel Mapp and Lucia - DVD still available on Amazon.  The series, starring Geraldine McEwen (a regular in various BBC productions) and Prunella Scales (famous as the wife in Faulty Towers),  is set between the two World Wars in a place called Tilling, closely based on Rye, East Sussex. 

This series delighted me, and I soon read all six Lucia books, beginning with Queen Lucia, Lucia's social rule of Riseholme, ( based on Broadway in Worchestershire), to her conquest of London, Lucia in London, her move to Tilling, Mapp and Lucia, and her final triumph as mayor of Tilling (although Lucia's triumphs were always tenuous). 

Benson, himself, lived in Rye and even served as mayor there.  He lived in  Mapp/Lucia's house (Mallards) as did Henry James before him.  Unfortunately, the famous Garden House in the stories was destroyed by a German bomb in WWII. 

I read all six of the Lucia books again last year and was so sad when I finished -- once again -- the last Lucia book, the sixth book,  Benson wrote:  Trouble for Lucia.  The fifth book, The Worshipful Lucia, chronicles how Lucia gets herself elected mayor of Tilling - hence her title, Your Worshipful, which apparently used to be the title given to mayors.  That book has since been renamed Lucia's Progress, I supposed, because the first title was so out of date.

 These paperbacks were reissued in 1987.

  Then recently I downloaded (for $3) Mapp and Lucia on to my Kindle and re-read it again.  Besides admiring the way Benson develops his characters and conflicts, plays on frailties, and punishes hubris, I find I love all those characters inspite of themselves.  Now that I have that book on my Kindle, I am constantly tempted to start reading it again or to take just a peek and see what that naughty, but enterprising Lucia is up to.  Mysteriously,  that whole cast of characters, living in Tilling, exists for me in cyberspace. 

I have yet to find anyone who has heard of these novels - much less read them.  One exception:  I once mentioned them at a Jane Austen get together and a young woman said, "Oh, yes, I think my mother read those books."  Grrrrr!

Welcome to Abigail's







Perhaps, because this restaurant is popular with bikers, this is one of the
ornaments that dangles from the ceiling. A canoe also hangs above the kitchen.

One of my favorite restaurants, yes, my favorite restaurant, is Abigail's in Rocheport, Missouri. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Abigail's is named for the propriators' daughter, who is now old enough to occasionally to clear tables.  Long ago, in the 80's, there were yuppie restaurants where you were treated as if they were doing you a favor to let you in.  (My then teenaged son worked in one such restaurant as a bus boy in the Central West End of St. Louis.)  Abigails reminds me alittle bit of those long ago times, perhaps, because there are a limited number of tables available.  The waitress is usually the wife; the husband, the cook.  It used to be the other way around, and I was rather intimidated by the husband-waiter.  I was not the only one intimidated.  Apparently, some customer was so ill advised as to ask our husband/waiter 'what was good.'  I'm so glad he does the cooking now.  (Maybe he's glad, too.)


Taken through the window, this is the cook's cutting board
and maybe his coffee cup.  The neon boat is part of the decor.
(Click to enlarge.). 

The cuisine is written daily on a chalkboard set on an easel.  It has mostly hearty salads that can include salmon, chicken or filet.  Pastas are also to be had and of course desserts from paradise:  chocolate cream pie, smooth as glass; strawberry cake; carrot cake, chocolate cake, pecan pie.  My brother asked for the pecan pie so often that the waitress threatened to name the pie after him.

Trudie took me to Abigail's for my birthday this month.  The waitress/propriator took this picture of us.  For the record, I am the short one.

The End

A Month for All Seasons

Liam leads the charge as the family emerges from the concourse.

Sharif brought his family from Japan to see us in February again this year.  We met them at the airport at 8:00 PM.  We had rented a minivan as usual, although I was leery about driving an unfamiliar car out of a city airport at night.  The weather was good, however, and Sharif was a good spotter of slow vehicles and trailers without lights on the way home.

We arrived home around 10:00 PM.  The grandsons had slept all the way, but once they came into the family room/basement they seemed pleased to be returning to familiar territory including their toys which I had taken out of storage and left by the stairs. 




Sachiyo and Chris play Tic Tac Toe.





We had the rented van until 12:00 noon the next day.  Therefore, we aroused everybody fairly early in the morning and drove to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with the best blueberry pancakes in town.  I regretted our determination to treat the family with breakfast when Liam put his head down on the table and slept the whole time.

Liam tries on Chris's Angry Birds hat as they make their valentines for school.

  After the one day of rest, Sharif and Sachiyo took their sons to the CIS to enroll.  On their first day of school, both Liam (age 9 in January) and Chris (age 6 come March) enjoyed birthday parties (not theirs) in their classrooms that afternoon.  As the school was celebrating Valentine's Day the following school day, the evening after supper was quite busy.

My valentine to each of the boys was a balloon. 
Liam appears to be wearing his.

Liam creates a monster valentine box for his valentines.

Chris made friends with the cat, Chiaco.  I was hoping they would pack her in one of their bags and take her back to Japan, but they didn't.

We were blessed with several unseasonably mild days when the family first came.  Liam and Chris took the pup tent outside to use.  They and the neighbor kids politely removed their shoes before entering.   Later they brought the tent into the family room, and here they are!

After having less than an inch of snow for the

entire winter, we were buried in eight or so inches about a week after their arrival.  Here Sharif and his dad vainly try to

clear the drive.   Dad is using his two year old

snow blower for the first time ever. 

   Burying Liam in snow, seemed to be the first neighborhood project.  

The grandsons had warm coats, hats and gloves, but no boots.  I was sure they were going to get frost bite, but they seemed to survive.  By the time the second big snow came, Liam was wrapping his stocking feet in plastic bags before putting his shoes on, but strangely enough, Chris would have none of that and wore only his shoes and warm socks.


My brother and sister-in-law, besides having us over for a soup supper, lent us two sleds used by their sons a generation ago. 

Noodle soup and chicken made a popular lunch.  Chris looked so cute slurping up his noodles,

but when I tried to take his picture for the record, he hid behind his cup - my special Kansas mug.

On one of the nice days, between snows, Sharif drove his family to St. Louis where they visited the City Museum.  It has many sculptures to climb on and even a lady who roasted marshmallows over a fire - complete with instructions.
www.citymuseum.org
The next evening, Sachiyo and Sharif  roasted marshmallows for the boys in the family room fireplace. 



With teacher work days, Presidents Day, and the snow,  the boys were in school only three days in the three weeks of their visit.  When we woke up on their last Monday, the skies were clear and the streets were open.  But another snowstorm was predicted for Tuesday.   Since their plane was leaving Wednesday morning at 6:00, it was evident that if we didn't get them to St. Louis that day, we might not be able to get them there at all. 

Last pictures and last good byes

Therefore, I called the rental company and secured a minivan.  Sharif and Sachiyo took their boys to school.  I washed, dried and folded a load of clothes for them.  By 11:00, when the rental company picked us up, their six bags and two boxes were packed and ready to go.  After we finished the paperwork, we made a final stop at the teacher's store for pencils for the grandsons' classmates in Japan.  Then we picked up the boys at school as they finished their lunch, and off to St. Louis we went.  The drive there was uneventful.   We left shortly after arriving at their hotel.  We had to get the minivan back to the agency, so someone could drive us home before closing time at 5:00 PM. 

As it turned out, we did have a ten inch snow in Columbia on Tuesday.  The snow fell like a curtain most of the morning.   We had another big snow after spring arrived.  The last of the pile of snow pushed up by the city snowplow disappeared this week. 

Nevertheless, St. Louis had neither snow nor rain. Tuesday,  Sharif and family took the tram from the airport to the Arch and spent the day there.  Wednesday morning they were off - flying to Japan - with plenty of stories to share with their friends and schoolmates. 

Books # 2

Back when I started this blog, I promised to periodically write about books.  The first and last time I did that was May 2010.  Now a fellow blogger (Trilla) has written about books she's read and books clubs she belongs to and I am motivated to do the same.

Jane Austen books and cyclamen

I am often asked about the Jane Austen Society.  I belonged to the Jane Austen Society when I lived in St. Louis, and joined the book club when we moved here.  People often ask how we can discuss Austen's six novels year after year.  I really can't answer that except to say that once we start planning for the coming year around August or September, the ideas just keep popping up. In 2012, we had George Justice come and discuss his editing of Norton's Critical Edition of Emma. During the summer we had a 'picnic at Box Hill,' in a member's lovely cool, green backyard, as did Emma.  Of course, her idyll was on a hill in the English countryside.  Later in the year, Michael Yonan gave a power point presentation on works of art in the era of Jane Austen.  This year, 2013, is the 200th year since the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  Haskell, Professor Emeritus of English Literature, led our book discussion in January.  We lovingly re-read and argued our favorite epigramisms (general truths and small morals) and famous sayings found in the book.  The best known of these is the opening sentence:  "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." 

George makes a point during refreshments and conversation.

Next month we are going to view the 1940 Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice with Laurence Oliviere and Greer Garson.  In June, we are entertaining Bettina Harvig, who will talk about Jane Austen quilts, and in September Michael Yonan (again) will talk to us about the architecture of the houses in Austen novels.  I can't go into every meeting we've had or will have here, but would like to end by saying that 2013 is the 25th anniversary of this club.


Julie plays  Austen's 'piano' selections.

My Kindle in the upper right corner, the Vermeer Essentials (left)
and Brunelleschi's Dome
which I hope to share at the next TARTS meeting. 

Another group that I enjoy is TARTS. (Sorry, I really can't remember what the letters stand for.) It is composed of docents from the Museum of Art and Archaeology.  We meet the first Monday of every month at a local cafe to share books or magazine articles we think will interest the group.  This last month I brought little book called The Essential Johannes Vermeer, by Christopher Sweet which I use in conjunction with the Kindle book, Vermeer's Hat:  The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World.  Since no illustrations were included with the Kindle version, I refer to The Essential...Vermeer to examine objects Vermeer included in his paintings that reflected the rise of a prosperous merchant class in the Netherlands as Dutch ships traveled to the East Indies and China to bring back spices and Chinese porcelain.  Another member (coincidentally) brought The Embarrassment of Riches, by Simon Schama (800 pages) detailing the Golden Age of Dutch dominance in Europe.  In one excerpt the diarist, Samuel Pepys, complains that he had to wade knee deep through cloves as he made his way through the hold of a captured Dutch ship.  Poor thing!  Must get that book!  Once again, I can't go into detail about all the wonderful books we share.  One or two on Gothic cathedrals, the Renaissance...  They make me hungry for more, more!

The third book group, called The Red Tent (a Biblical reference),  is our church women's book club, although most of the books we read are not particularly religious.  Our name was taken from Anita Diamant's book, The Red Tent, the first book we read several years ago when the group began.  This year we began by reading Hemingway's A Movable Feast, and The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain.  After reading these two books,  we were all ready to go to Paris.  The Night Circus, by Erin Morganstern brought us into a strange world of magic.  I especially enjoy this group because it has many younger women in it, and there are not too many groups that have a mixture of ages.  Mothers and daughters sometimes come together, and a number of the women are the ages of my grown sons.  Every spring we bring snacks to the A-frame at Les Bourgeois Vineyard about 15 miles out of town, buy wine to drink, eat and suggest books for the fall.  These suggestions are then voted on by email and our reading list is ready.

A book I've read for my own delight is The Violinist's Thumb:  And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code, by Sam Kean.  It is amusing as well as informative.  Two other interesting books in the art field are Caveat Emptor:  The Secret Life of an American Art Forger, by Ken Perenyi and Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King.  The first book gives one an appreciation for the step by step technology involved in preparing the canvas and creating a painting.  It is an exciting read as well.  The second book gives one a breathtaking glimpse of life and work in the Renaissance as workers climb the equivalent of a 40 story building each morning to work on Brunelleschi's cupola on the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence.  Brunelleschi not only conceived of his dome constructed without wooden centering, but designed machines to lift tons of marble and sandstone to the roof.  His ideas for transporting this stone to the building site were not so successful. 

This post is a bit longer than I expected, and I have already told my three friends who generally follow my blog something about what I read.  So my apologies to them for any redundancies. 
I would say that the main business of all three of my book groups is the delight we take in our friendships, as well as having an excuse to get together and talk about the books we love.  May we all continue to read and share our thoughts!

July in Orange County



 What do you take grandsons who seem to have everything?  Well, how about cookies?  When my husband and I flew to Orange County for a summer visit,  I packed box mixes for snickerdoodles, brownies, and macadamia and white chocolate cookies.  Over a week's time I was able to bake all of them.   Cody helped with the snickerdoodles.  We put the Special Dark Hershey Kisses in the middle, a la Sarah ( see June post). 

I used melted caramels to drizzle over the brownies, but I thought it made them too sweet and sort of sticky.   They had to be eaten with a knife, fork or spoon.  However, no one complained.

By the time I took this snapshot, the macadamia nut and white chocolate cookies were mostly gone.  You can see the how messy the caramel brownies were.
On the left are Cody's snickerdoodles.

Cody also showed me how to play Angry Birds (video game) and gave me a chess lesson, but I don't think I'll ever be able to play chess.

Although it is summer, Zachary is still playing high school basketball.  I didn't have much luck taking Zach in action.  This picture is typical of my efforts. (Yes, Zach is #7.)

Or this one.  Very exciting.

Calvin, Matthew, Zach and Luke - skateboarding USA

After one of their games, Joyce brought Zachary and three of his friends
to Huntington Beach with their skateboards.
They took time to pose for me as they clambered out of the minivan and prepared to skate off towards the pier: 
quintessential Southern California.

Wade went with me to the Bower Museum in Anaheim. 
They had a stunning exhibition of Faberge items owned by Tsar Nicholas and Alexandria.  Some member of  Nicholas'
family (I think an aunt) stuffed a bunch of these precious items into a pillowcase, so the story goes, after the Romanov's family's arrest.  Using her private train and bribes, she escaped to Denmark, where the treasures were forgotten until after the war when they were put up for auction. 

There was also an exhibit on loan of natural gold nuggets which looked like works of art set in quartz.

They also had an extensive Polynesian collection that I found mind-boggling:  headdresses, masks,  drums, ceremonial costumes and these totems. 

Wade, my husband and I joined our cousin, Zenab at the Original Pancake House in Lagauna Hills where Zenab was visiting friends.  We had to take a picture of their enormous omelets which Zenab and I shared.  A blurb on the menu threatened to charge $2.00 for an extra plate and utensils if customers wanted to share,  Happily, the waitress told us they had cancelled that charge.






This is half a veggie omelet.

 I don't have to tell you that the weather was sunny and mild.  We did have rain one day, regardless of what the Beach Boys claimed. ("It never rains in California in the summer time.")

Flying out of John Wayne Airport, we arrived around 5:30 AM.  Passengers all board their respective planes at 6:15.  Airliners line up on the runways by 6:45.  In deference to sleeping Orange County residents, planes do not start taking off until 7:00.  We made it off the ground by 7:15.   

Sarah's Summer

Most of you know, if you are a blog reader, that I have no daughters and no granddaughters.  However, my brother and his wife have TWO lovely granddaughters, and I hang out with them every chance I get.  This summer,  Sarah (age 11) came to Columbia to spend a week with her grandparents, and I suggested that she come over to our house to bake cookies while her grandmother worked at a quilt show. 

She rolls the little ball of dough in cinnamon and sugar.

Sarah chose to make snickerdoodles.  (I had bought a box mix.)  I sat on a high stool and watched her work.
A new experience for me.   We chatted.  Nothing philosophical, of course.  I got her permission to take pictures.  And they are:

Delicately brown out of the oven.
Delicious aroma!



Insert a Special Dark Hershey Chocolate
Kiss  in to the center of each snickerdoodle.

YUM!



 

I don't think I have anything to add.

I also took a photo of the back of her custom-made t-shirt.  Click on the picture above, if you want to see what it says on the front.

I love the scroll on the trim.

One project Sarah conceived of and completed during her week with her grandparents was making 'burrito' pillowcases* as birthday gifts for her friends - under the tutelage of her grandmother.  I thought her selection of material and design was so unique, I asked to take photographs of them. 

Here is a detail on the pillowcase on the left.
Black and white high heels.



This close up of colorful high heels and the hot pink scroll work
on the border is my favorite.





A flower garden design for another lucky  friend.



And finally, Sarah's own favorite -
the pillowcase that will be her own!

*For directions on making a 'burrito' pillowcase, Google:   burrito pillowcase video.

Hydrangea Fever

You've heard of Tulip Fever, I trust (if not look it up on Google).  This summer, I have Hydrangea Fever!  Due to the mild winter, our hydrangea bushes on the north side of the house are bursting with deep blue and pink blooms.  Of course, everyone else's hydrangeas are blooming, too, but I think ours are exceptional.

I planted the first hydrangea about 10 years ago.  It was given to me by a friend on Easter Sunday when I was visiting my former church in St. Louis.  The plant thrived, growing into a symmetrical domed bush,  but produced only a couple of blooms a summer, or often no blooms at all.  About three years ago, I planted a second bush and it is also growing well, but this is the first year it has produced a bumper crop of pink blooms. 

As both bushes keep getting more and more

spectacular, I keep taking pictures.  My husband has encouraged me to cut some blooms so we can enjoy them throughout the house.  Here they are, swamping the basket I gathered them in. 

Complimenting the hydrangea blooms, the leaves of the hydrangea are beautiful, too - large, symmetrical and a deep green.

I am fascinated with the center of each little composite blue flower, because it has a tiny  blue knob at it's center.

 The pink hydrangea has a little creamish one.  Why can't the pink hydrangea have a pink center, too?

Now that I've written this post, perhaps I can  be rid of Hydrangea Fever;  maybe I can stop taking pictures of hydrangeas every few days.  Maybe. 

Yonsei 18 - Fourth Generation Japanese-Americans - Part 1

My husband and I have two sons.  The younger son lives with his Japanese wife and two sons in Nagoya, Japan, while our older son lives with his Japanese-American wife and two sons in California. And there-in lies my story. (Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

In California, my son's family belongs to the Yonsei Basketball Association.  Quoting from the Yonsei Basketball Association web site:
"The Yonsei Basketball Association, founded by Frank Kiyomura in 1993, consists of specially selected young men and women active in Japanese-American Youth Basketball throughout Southern California. The vision of the Association is to provide our American youth with a glimpse of their rich heritage through immersion in the Japanese culture by staying with a local Japanese family and participating in their daily lives."

Here's the basketball teams: boys and girls. Zachary is the
boy standing closest to the right side.

(Yonsei refers to the fourth generation of Japanese-Americans.
First generation:  Issei
Second generation:  Nisei
Third generation:  Sansei)

Last summer Zachary (age 14) as part of the Yonsei Youth Basketball Team, along with parents and siblings, traveled  to Tamana on the Island of Kyushu in Southern Japan.  Kyushu is a popular tourist destination - sub-tropical, with active volcanoes, one of Japan's finest reconstructed castles and gardens.  Tamana is a small town where The American Yonsei team played Tamana High School Team - among others.

Members of the entourage stayed in hotels, while each basketball player stayed with a host family.  (The host families most likely knew very little English, and the Yonsei visitors probably knew less Japanese, although they did have some lessons before they left the States.)

Zachary with his host Takuma

Our younger son, Sharif, living in Nagoya (Central Honshu - south of Tokyo)  drove with his family and mother-in-law to Tamana to see his brother and family.

Here they all are at the Tamana train station. Left to right, Chris (age 4) held by his mom, Sachiyo,  Liam (age 7) in front of Sharif, Wade, Zachary, Cody (age 10), Joyce and Mrs. Oi.

Kumamoto Castle with samurai warrior

When not watching basketball games,  the families took in the sights.  This is the Kumamoto Castle.  Kumamoto is just south of Tamana.  Chris was not at all happy about the samurai warrior sharing this picture with them.

Apartment gardens seen from Kumamoto Castle

Here is Cody having a calligraphy lesson, one of the Yonsei activities.

Bedroom scene at the hotel - with Cody relaxing

Garden from hotel window.



Wade and Sharif in the garden.



Chris exams a prickly pod while Cody shows Liam a bug (?).

After a few days the Yonsei Team said good-bye to their host families.  The Yonsei group traveled on to Hiroshima, and Sharif and his family continued on to visit the Aso-san volcano caldera, a big tourist attraction on Kyushu.

You may be  wondering why it took me 9 months to write about this trip.  I had to collect the pictures from our sons' Flicker accounts.  It took me awhile to get enabled to download and/or copy photos, to decide which ones to use and to determine how to describe the Yonsei 16 program.  The last problem was solved when I hit upon looking for the web site.