By Lynn, on June 12th, 2008%
It does not really take long to do something special. My daugther and I had a short lesson on Japanese ink painting this morning.
I think it’s one of the most relaxing forms of art I’ve ever seen. I tend to get overwhelmed if something’s too complicated. This is taking something very simple and becoming better and better at it.
In The Garden…
The lilies are not so spectacular this year, and not very many in number. Some of my flowers are singed-looking. I am not sure if this is owing to the drought last year, or the heavy spring rains which helped the slugs to proliferate so much, or the intense early heat of the last week or so.
The beauty berry bush looks as if it’ll be okay this year. It’s a favorite of mine.
The nandina (heavenly bamboo) was covered in pollen-laden carpenter bees as well as pollen-laden honey bees.
I am glad to see it after all the news in the past decade about collapsing bee colonies and reductions in the number of honey bees for unknown reasons.
I knew I felt a new “do” coming on after hanging this fan up in the bathroom.
And here it is. From the front it looks like a simple bun.
But from the back you see a couple of ropes of hair that are twisted, hanging down and turning back up and tucked underneath the bun.
From the back:
It’s a nice hairdo to just mess about town in, but I bet it could be done very meticulously and be gorgeous for a nice dinner out. Especially with some fancy chopsticks.
I found a very cool old frame today and will show you that later.
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 11th, 2008%
a) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 8 months along in my fourth pregnancy, trying to endure the summer heat, driving a van with no air conditioning, gardening very little, and just waiting on my much-longed-for first and only daughter.
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b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today.
- Write to my cousin, Richard.
- Cook the squash and broccoli in my refrigerator
- Clean up and mulch two one garden beds – ok
- Two spelling lessons with Joseph – oops, but it’s summer, what can we say?
- Get caught up on the bills done
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c) Snacks I enjoy:
- Yogurt with wheat germ
- Pumpkin seeds
- Chocolate
- Tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese
- Bread and olive oil
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d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay off all debt and help my family members to do the same. Help families in need. Buy a wonderful place in the country and a cottage by the sea. Visit Scotland and Japan.
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e) Places I have lived:
San Antonio, Texas
Apache Junction, Arizona
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On another note, I tried my hand at Japanese ink painting, or Sumi-e, last night. It was so much fun. I have tried pastels, acrylics, and colored pencils. I am truly no artist, but I think I could really, really love ink painting. The older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity. Ink drawing traditionally only requires one color: black.
Here are my first attempts.
An orchid
and bamboo.
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 10th, 2008%
For my sweet, concerned friends, an update on the blisters and burns I got from my largest rue plant. This has definitely been eye-opening for me! When I first noticed the “burns,” my last thought would have been a plant. It was my husband who noted that they looked like chemical burns and asked what kind of plants I’d been around. When we put our heads together, we realized I had been around the rue he had just cut.
The burns are healing, but you can definitely tell that they look more like burns than, say, a poison ivy rash or bites of some kind. They are beginning to itch, and they do hurt when I get out in the heat. I won’t try and take pictures of both entire arms, but it’s just sweeps of burns up and down both arms from brushes against the foliage, which was weeping, I’m sure. I just didn’t notice it at the time, in the sweltering heat.
Someone asked about rue, and here it is, above. Its foliage is a bluish-green. It’s very pretty. This time of year it has yellow flowers. My rue is often covered in parsleyworms which turn into the black swallowtail butterflies.
Above is a picture of Princess of the Universe holding a piece of rue with a parsleyworm on it. Neither of us has ever seemed sensitive to rue, but I did read that there’s a difference in sensitivy to the outer plant parts (on minimal contact) and the phytophotosensitivity that occurs when the sap gets on the skin and is exposed to the sun. I have always put warnings on my website about using care when handling rue. Who knew I’d be the one to get the burns! 
Anyhoo… Today in the garden, this lovely leaf-footed bug, some kind of Acanthocephala, I think. Anyone know for sure?
Here he is head on.
I wanted to thank him (her) for sitting so still to be photographed. Very kind.
There is a yucca plant in bloom on the border of our property. It was planted by the previous resident here. I would not have planted yucca myself, but it’s nice to have, I suppose. I like yucca, but they somehow look out of place in this landscape. Do you think so?
On a more domestic note, I worked on my cleaning schedule, finally, and have worked it out I think. My cleaning schedule page will be updated, having been arranged around my new work schedule.
And actually, my cleaning schedule is going to be cut to a minimum. I think the simple rule, “a place for everything and everything in its place” is beautiful. I also think utility is beautiful. I don’t mind useful piles and necessary clutter. When one is done for the moment, however, a neat stack of books is so much more beautiful than a trail of books strew across the room until one decides to get to them again.
On my way to a business meeting in Raleigh today, I stopped at World Market. (Thank you so much Demeca for telling me about this store.) I found this pretty fan that is now sitting in a high-up nook in my bathroom. It will be used, but is pretty here while waiting to be used. Perhaps it will inspire some hairstyles.
I also picked up a book for my son Joseph. Well, he can have it when I’m done poring over it.
Bamboo Style: Exteriors, Interiors, Details (Icons) is a beautiful book full of pictures. It is broken into three sections: exteriors, interiors, and details. Then at the end of each section there are thumbnail images with information about each photo in the section. Since Joseph has become interested in Japan, he has gotten me interested in Japan. I have always had an interest in oriental design and art, probably because of my dad’s travels while in the Air Force and the beautiful things he’d bring home, but my son has renewed my interest. I’m glad for that.
I’m looking at the beautiful pictures — these two are from the “details” section – -to get ideas for the Japanese garden Joseph and I will make.
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 9th, 2008%
Tonight we watched Mary Cassatt – American Impressionist . It was even better than I’d hoped it would be. It was light, but imparted many lessons. And for 5 dollars from our homeschool conference this year. What a deal!
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Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
Mary Cassatt
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Little Girl in a Blue Armchair figured prominently in the story, representing newfound inspiration for Mary Cassatt in her neices and nephew. The neices and nephew start out in the story as a real big handful, but their deepening understanding of art and their aunt and her independent spirit was really touching.
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Summertime
Mary Cassatt
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There are some things I want my children to know about, but I just can’t see making them memorize, now this artist is who? and this artist is who? We already do the art wall, but anytime I see something like these tapes, I grab them up for family time.
The children’s understanding of the impressionist style of painting was deepened a little by this story of Mary Cassatt. (I think real learning happens in layers.) They even learned a bit about Edgar Degas from this tape.
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Dancers in Blue
Edgar Degas
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We’ll be watching about one tape per week, some about artists and some about inventors.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has some good information on Mary Cassatt. What’s there is what we watched in the tape.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has an interactive set of pages on Edgar Degas and his interest in the ballet.
The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh has some impressionist paintings in its collection, so I think a trip there, with a picnic in their park, is in order this week or next, depending on the heat. I bet I can purchase some nice Mary Cassatt post cards in their gift shop.
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 9th, 2008%
It just gets hotter and hotter around here, and with the North Carolina humidity, it’s hot. Nearly 100 degrees today officially. They predicted the heat index to be 105.
There are raspberries beginning to get ripe.
Some very nearly ready and some not. There are raspberry vines jumping across the garden, sending up new sprouts, and repeating the process. I’ll have raspberres everywhere!
One of my lavender plants is determined to grow as high as me this year. Here it is peeking above the garden gate. It smells so good when I brush by.
This cornflower, or bachelor’s button, is so pretty and pale in the hot sun.
And the sage blooms are prettily pushing through the vegetable garden fence.
There is always a parade of interesting insects in the garden. This fly, disgusting as flies are, is definitely interesting.
This is one garden bed that is so thick, it’s scary. There are all sorts of insects living here.
I’m careful going in, because there are many spiders in here.
It was so dark under the trees here, in fact, that my flash went off photographing this bug and wasp together. Scary…
Not really.
Most of the insects are way more amusing than they are a threat of any kind. What would life be without insects? Ever see James and the Giant Peach?
Looking down on one of the orange daylilies, you can see the rim of a bright purple pot of horsetail.
And don’t you need one of these for your garden?
They don’t move around much at all. Nor do they climb on things. Or out of baskets.
They don’t stick their cute little tongues out, making you want to pick them up and hug them. They won’t take up your time.
They aren’t curious at all, no. Won’t get into any trouble.
Don’t you need a very still, very quiet, very uncurious garden cat?
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 8th, 2008%
I have to tell you that I literally stand and dream over the dollhouse miniatures in the craft and toy stores. They are so pretty. So adorable! But 20 dollars and upwards for a couch? I don’t think so. Not fitting into our budget right now, anyway.
However, I just knew I could make my own for pennies. Especially with my inspirational books: a gift from my friend Alana, Most Wonderful Dollhouse Book ; and then one I already had, Making Dollhouse Accessories .
Gross, I know, but we had gravy biscuits from McDonald’s this weekend. Yes, I should be cooking from scratch. Anyhoo, the beautiful curve of this container caught my eye. A couch. For pennies. Hmmm.
The first thing to do was remove one side, wash it out good and dry it. Easy enough.
The next thing I did was to cut it nearly in half, taking the bigger portion for my couch base. This stuff is sturdy enough, I guess, but will need some cardboard reinforcement. Upstairs I go to my daugther’s room to plug in the hot glue gun.
I cut a piece of fabric to fit nicely over the base, with enough fabric to lap over and be glued down neatly underneath on all sides. I’ll trim as I go. (That’s pretty much the way I live, anyway.) The first step was to glue the fabric across the seat and then up each end. Then I did the inside back and inside corners. It worked out so that there was a nice upward crease of fabric in each inside corner. Looks real!
This will show you where the cardboard reinforcements were hot-glued into place. It made all the difference in this being something that will last. Also, work on the top and front of the couch first, as this is what will show. Once the seat was done, I neatly folded the fabric under on the front of the couch.
I trimmed the excess fabric and then gently but firmly pulled the fabric around on the sides and then the back.
All fabric glued into place, but it’s gotta be neater than this, and the cardboard reinforcement needs to be covered up. It’s got to look real! It also needs legs of some kind. Ah ha! Be right back…
I have just the thing. These little stones that I keep put up for my mosaic projects. And they match perfectly!
The last step was to cut a piece of fabric to fit neatly over the bottom — true craftsmanship! — and then glue the legs into place.
Finally, the dollhouse family have a beautiful couch for their home. So glad I did not splurge and get the 20 or 29 dollar couch!
The lesson? There are two.
- Necessity is the mother of invention.
- A penny saved is a penny earned.
More doll house adventures to come. Princess of the Universe loves her couch, by the way, and started playing with it immediately!
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 7th, 2008%
I walked outside today on my break and spotted this gorgeous sight: a black swallowtail butterfly sitting in an orange daylily.
The swallowtail was so busy with the daylily, in fact, that it allowed me to get ever closer and just stand and admire its beautiful wings.
Aren’t butterflies simply beautiful?
There’s something else to share. My sweet husband brought me a tin can full or roses from a job he was working on. The lady of the house asked, “Does your wife like roses?” My husband knew the right answer.
I can only imagine having this kind of roses and in this amount!
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 7th, 2008%
I know better. I mean, I really do. I love studying plants and their uses and their dangers, and I am constantly aware of all of the above, but a strange set of circumstances set me up to get a pretty bad reaction from one of my favorite plants: rue, or Ruta graveolens.
This is a lesion close to my elbow. Note the blisters. I have whelps like this over both my upper arms. I probaby have six large areas on my left arm and three or four long areas on the right.
Rue is beautiful. It’s the tall plant with yellow blooms. I have a bunch of it in both my front and back yards. It attracts all kinds of butterflies and bees and wasps. I am well informed that it can cause “burns” on the skin of sensitive individuals. But who knew a set of unusual circumstances would lead to all my blisters and skin damage?
- Husband trims the rue in the back so it’s not in the walkway and does not mention it because he frequently does things like this for me.
- I go out on Tuesday, geared up for the garden with hat, overalls, and boots to do some heavy work, but I am sleeveless.
- It’s dangerously hot (100 degrees) and sunny on Tuesday.
- I was moving a rain barrel up onto permanent blocks. It was temporarily sitting on the ground beside the large freshly-cut rue and I moved it to its permanent location on the other side of the large freshly-cut rue.
- Little did I know that as I walked back and forth by the rue, measuring and carrying the barrel, fresh sap was being brushed onto my arms and a potential dangerous photophytotoxic reaction was beginning to occur because I was exposing the sap on my arms to bright ultraviolet light from the sun.
So there you have it. Many of our modern medicines come from plants. There is youth and age and life and death all to be found in plants. I’m not a chemist or a doctor, but let me share with you the names of some of the compounds found in rue: furanocoumarins 5-methoxypsoralen and 8-methoxypsoralen and graveoline, a quinolone alkaloid. These substances have been studied for cancer treatment. Perhaps because they interfere with mitosis?
My only concern is permanent skin cell damage. Let’s hope not. Now, I’m wondering what to put on the lesions. More research. I’ve read that if the reaction is severe, topical steroids can be used, but I don’t think I need (or want) that. My best bet is probably to take my vitamins, keep the areas clean and continue to be careful to stay out of the direct sun.
The lesson? Don’t deviate from your rule to always wear sleeves in the garden. I normally do, but it was SO hot.
Happy Gardening, Still…
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 6th, 2008%
That’s what I feel like I have. Many treasures. Sometimes when we sit down to eat supper, my husband will say, “Mommy, look around. You’ve got all your babies with you.” Indeed it’s true, and it does make me happy! They certainly are not all babies anymore, but they’ll always be my babies, and how wonderful to go to sleep at night with them all still here in our home with us. I cherish these years. They won’t last forever.
The kittens are growing so fast, and everyone in the family is pitching in to make sure they stay safe. It’s been around 100 degrees here for the last couple of days, with a heat wave of 7-10 days expected and no rain in sight. Mama cat Fluffy pants for breath, but her babies are still little furballs and seem to be okay.
They are learning to play, batting each other in the head and jumping on each other from behind, at which point they all roll around, off balance. So cute!
My once-spring-garden has suddenly, it seems, evolved into a summer garden. Thank goodness for plenty of rain in the spring and my two water barrels. The ground is ever thirsty in this hot weather.
A bee visits the coreopsis (above) while a snowberry clearwing moth visits the phlox (below).
This hummingbird moth appears to be a large bumble bee at first glance. It’s proper name? Hemaris diffinis.
The orange daylilies are starting to bloom. I sometimes think in early spring that I don’t want them, but when the heat comes and they do so well in it, I’m glad to have them. They are old — as in been around the world forever, it seems.
The pink petunias, delicate though they seem, are holding up well.
The Year of the Doll House
“You can do anything with children if you only play with them.”
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), German Statesman
I’ve been wanting to get back into posting about our doll house adventures, and now that my job training is well over and I’m settled into my new schedule at home, it’s an easier task.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:
“All night long and every night,
When my mamma puts out the light,
I see the people marching by,
As plain as day, before my eye.”
Armies and emperors and kings,
All carrying different kinds of things,
And marching in so grand a way,
You never saw the like by day…”
I think one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten as a mother was way back when I only had my three boys and the three of them played in the yard together all day. Oh the cowboys and Indians and pirates! You’ve never seen the like!
A very elderly neighbor, who has since passed away, walked up from his house on the corner and said, “I love to hear your children play. They really know how to play. They play like we used to play.” It made my heart so happy. I think their knowing how to “really play” was greatly due to having no TV and a storehouse of books.
Perhaps I digress from The Year of the Doll House, but the core of what I’m trying to do is the same. I want my daughter to see the lives of real people lived out in her doll house. When she closes her eyes at night, I want her to see a bit of Abigail Adams or Rosa Parks or The Virtuous Woman or her own grandmother or her sweet aunt, in visions of playtime at her doll house or in her room. It makes me cringe to think of her going to sleep with visions of some shallow TV character who thinks it’s funny to roll her eyes at her parents.
Last night my daughter and I had a slumber party together in her room. We took four dishpans of craft materials into her room so that we would have plenty to do. We plugged in the hot glue gun and started thinking about what we’d do. She had the idea to use an Altoids tin to make a trundle bed. She said, “I want the baby to have a trundle bed, so she can be close by her mommy. Like the beds that Laura and Mary had.” It was so sweet to watch her create something from a book we’d read together. (No worries that currently there’s a puppy and a chicken in it. It’s just part of her imagination at work. Later on there was a tiger in the trundle bed.)
So, we’re still playing dolls, yes, trying for every day, not quite making it, but it’s never been more real to me — in this very electronic and busy world that we live in, that I need to get on the floor and play dolls with my daughter every single chance I get.
Lynn
By Lynn, on June 5th, 2008%
Welcome!
Come sit in the morning sun and let’s have some green tea. We can listen to the water as it falls into the goldfish pond.
The steps are old, but wonderful for sitting on, alone or with neighborhood children or friends, or especially with the man of the house.
The columns on either side of the porch contain some magical old brick work. Yes, needing repair in some spots, perhaps, but a perfect place when you are a little boy to tuck secret letters, little GI Joe guns and even a Matchbox car.
I love the Euonmyus strawberry bush in the big, faded blue pot. Just behind it, is my current favorite place to sit and drink my green tea and read.
We’ll have a perfect view of the goldfish from here.
For effect, and just because I can’t bear to throw away old things, there’s a pretty antique window sitting on a makeshift table.
There’s a little chair especially for little visitors from the neighborhood. It’s a nice place to have some cold, sweet tea in a little blue and white teacup with a Currier and Ives pattern on it.
My front porch serves as my mosaic work area. My handy potting bench (which I made by myself, thank you!) is a nice place to cut tiles and pot up plants.
Thanks for joining me!
Lynn
PS – To tour all the porches, start over at Rhondi’s!
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About Lynn 
Approaching-50 mother of four. Thrifter. Content with lots of clothes bought for very little money. Loves retro. (That could be styles from the 40s and 50s. And sometimes stuff even older than that. And sometimes stuff from all time, all mixed up together!) Bluffs about decluttering but secretly loves STUFF. Goes through stages. Has standing and staring spells before rearranging the entire home. Just because. Tune in each day to see what new outfit comes home from G.W. Boutique next. (That's Goodwill, by the way.) Oh, and she owns a spoiled beagle named Annie. And this blog.
Grab A Button <div align="center"><a href="http://www.amothersjournal.com" title="A Mother's Journal ~ A Bit of Birdsong"><img src="http://www.innatelygray.com/images/abitofbirdsong_120_200.jpg" alt="A Mother's Journal ~ A Bit of Birdsong" style="border:none;" /></a></div> The Players
Lil Ol' Me
Son Daniel, 23
Son, Big Joe, 21
Son, John, 17
Daughter, Michaela, 13
Annie Fatso Beagle
My Symphony
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Contact Me 
I would  for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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