Monday, May 26, 2008

A Country Woman~


Ok~ This Beatrix Potter~Peter Rabbit thing is starting to get a bit out of hand.

Look at this fabulous place!

Beatrix spent her early years studying the two things she loved most - art and nature. Her parents were both interested in art and their influential friends included authors, politicians and artists such as Sir John Everett Millais.
Her father, Rupert, was a talented amateur photographer, while her mother Helen enjoyed painting landscapes in watercolour. As Beatrix grew older, she went with her father to art galleries, museums and auction houses and this influenced her development as an artist.
Beatrix’s parents loved the countryside and often took their family on vacation out of London. Every year they would travel north, first to Scotland and later to the Lake District, for long summer vacations. Beatrix enjoyed the freedom of exploring the countryside with her brother, Bertram. The scenery, flowers and creatures she found inspired her drawing and painting.
Beatrix’s stories were written directly for children and many started life as picture letters to children of her family and friends. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was Beatrix Potter’s first published children’s book. It began life as a letter to Noel Moore, written in 1893.
“My dear Noel, I don’t know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits ….”
In 1900, Beatrix borrowed back the letter and worked up a plan to get the story published. When at least six companies rejected her proposal, she decided to publish it herself. The privately printed edition was a great success and soon Beatrix had a publishing offer from Frederick Warne & Co.
Warne’s first edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published in 1902 and was immediately popular, selling around 46,000 copies in the first twelve months. Warne and Potter soon began to work on many more stories including, 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin', 'The Tailor of Gloucester', 'The Tale of Benjamin Bunny' and 'The Tale of Two Bad Mice'.
Beatrix had strong ideas about how her books should be presented, down to size, price and overall look. She also realised the wider market appeal of her characters and initiated the development of related merchandise, such as the Peter Rabbit doll manufactured by Steiff, Germany, in 1903. She always took an interest in all of the creative and commercial matters surrounding her characters and books.

Benjamin Bouncer was Beatrix's first pet rabbit.
She bought him secretly from a London bird shop and sneaked him into the nursery in a paper bag. 'Bounce' became the model for many of Beatrix's rabbit drawings. On the back of a photograph of him, Beatrix wrote "This is the original 'Benjamin Bunny'. Benjamin was extremely fond of hot buttered toast, he used to hurry into the drawing room when he heard the tea-bell!"
If you have not seen it already, I highly recommend Miss Potter
Photos and text courtesy of http://www.peterrabbit.com/

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Backyard Nature

We found this adorable little Tree Frog and this amazing Tiger Moth this afternoon.
After the girls had ample time to study them, we let them go. The frog was so cute!




Bunnylove~

Well, we had an unfortunate event take place Thursday night. Some creature got one of our chickens, the girls favorite one of course, the Silkie Bantam. It was one of the those extremely hard parenting moments. The girls took it well, especially when I said we could maybe go to the pet store and look at aquariums or bunnies~
The bunny won over the fish~surprise! So meet Benjamin Bunny, so far he is a doll, very mellow.
The girls are in love!

Check out this precious site and get in touch with your inner Peter Rabbit.

Here is another, more educational site, with lots of amazing links.
Wow, look at this one~



"The Tale of Benjamin Bunny continues the story of The Tale of Peter Rabbit as Peter and Benjamin venture into Mr. McGregor’s garden to retrieve Peter’s jacket and shoes. However, the two young cousins end up trapped in a basket that Mr. McGregor’s cat decides to take a nap on. They are eventually rescued by Benjamin’s father who is very cross with them for straying into the garden without him.We see Benjamin again, this time as a father, in The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies and The Tale of Mr. Tod. Both stories see him having to rescue his children, The Flopsy Bunnies, from Mr. McGregor and Tommy Brock respectively".

Hey, this could turn into a summer unit study, combined with Botany~





Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Simple Woman's Daybook~




FOR TODAY~
Outside My Window... the flowers are gradually opening, my roses are simply amazing, and my peonies are finally blooming, I have been waiting three years!

I am thinking... about my family in a tender way, we have recently experienced a loss.

I am thankful for... my family, our home, friends.

From the kitchen... summer soups, just made carrot curry bisque tonight and it was wonderful!
and we had salad from the garden~

I am wearing... flannel pj's my husband bought me for Christmas.

I am creating... two needle felted sea fairies for my girls, and a knitted hat.

I am going... near future, nowhere hopefully. I am really wanting to stay put for a while and catching up with things.

I am reading... Living Crafts magazine, Waldorf & Montessori curriculum books .

I am hoping... to find an inner sense of calm with my house and homeschooling.

I am hearing... a documentary on FDR

Around the house... things are lying everywhere, books, and craft supplies-we have been spending way too much outside time to pick up.

One of my favorite things... seeing my little girls dance, exploring a city with my husband.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: a pool party, my dance class, Spanish co-op, an important meeting Thursday........

Here is picture thought I am sharing...Peace.

Please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman to read all the other inspiring entries ~

Vase Done~





Here are some of the photos from the Greek vase project.
We had a good time creating it, we listened to Greek myths while painting and doing the paper mache'. Then I found this great site that had little movies of the myths, and theses funny images that we put on at the end.


Monday, May 19, 2008

Lucy, I Love you!


Happy Birthday~4 Years

First Recital


On April 13th my Sophia, the family musician had her first Harp recital. She was just amazing of course, and it was a very special day for all of us.

Here she is with my mom, husband and her harp.

More Zoo Fun~

recognize anyone?
these Polar Bears were incredibly active!
This is absolutely Sophia's favorite animal.
Cuties~

What's going on here?

That is not the nesting box!
Free Range Eggs~

An unexpected trip~


We suddenly found ourselves back in the car driving to Southern California
again for a family emergency.
I decided to make the most of it and take the kids to see some animal life,
Lucy is the one who requested it. Luckily the San Diego Zoo,
where I used to work by the way, was nearby.
Here are some photos from our day at the zoo.

We walked in to see this peacock in all of it's glory.
I will make some entries about some of the things that have been going on this month,
as you can see I have not written in a while.
In addition to the sudden out of town trip, my mom was here,
husband off for two weeks, and then my dad "surprised" us.
Whew~Now it's catch up time.