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.

Journey Home

My son, Sharif,  and his family made their annual visit from Japan this month.  About 18 days.  The first thing  he and his wife always do is put the mattress and the futon on the floor of the guest room and make up their beds where the four of them sleep.
Sharif and Sachiyo want their sons to be bi-cultural as well as bi-lingual so the second thing they do is to put Liam in school.  For the past two years Liam has attended the elementary school near us, but this year they said they didn't want to go through all the paperwork involved in admitting Liam, unless he was going to stay at least 3 weeks.  Since Liam was only staying 2 weeks Sharif enrolled him in Columbia Independent School (CIS). 

While Liam was there Sharif gave a talk on Japan, and with Liam's help, gave the class of second graders a lesson in origami.  They made a cicada.











Here is a photograph of  a photograph taken of the class while Sharif was there.



This photo was part of a large book given to Liam on his last day commemorating his nearly two weeks at the school.  Besides these pictures of his dad's talk, each child had his picture taken with Liam and each child wrote a paragraph of appreciation. 





Chris was also enrolled in a nearby pre-school, but the four year olds only attended afternoons, three days a week,  so Chris went three times.

Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, but Sharif says that is not because Japan has better schools than other countries.  Rather, as you may have heard, students have after school tutoring sessions.  Liam goes to a math class twice a week, swimming class once and calligraphy class on Fridays.  Besides this, Liam's parents brought books ordered on line in both Japanese and English, math and language, for Liam to work on.

Here Liam works on some Lego car concoction from the first Star Wars prequel.

Chris also shows a lot of concentration.

Liam's birthday (age 8) was in January so I gave him Star Wars Lego's as a birthday present.   Really it was for both boys, along with a small Lego air ship which Chris chose.  Chris will be five at the end of this month.

 Liam couldn't wait to play with a young neighbor boy every day after school.  On a Sunday afternoon he and his sister came over for a birthday cake (and ice cream) dedicated to both Liam and Chris.   They sang happy birthday songs both the traditional and every vulgar rendition they had ever heard.

Building castles with blocks.  Mommy approves.



 Other amusements that occupied the grandsons' two weeks in Columbia:

Creating a volcano.

Feeding the birds.

Visiting the library.

By the time the family was at the airport ready to leave for Japan, Chris was fed up with his grandmother taking pictures.  He refused to open his eyes, pretending I wasn't there.

Finally they were pushing their boxes toward check in.  We will miss them for another year!