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Monet in the garden |
by Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
National Haiku Poetry Day was on Sunday. I love wrangling words to create a 17 syllable story poem.
Cat in the garden
Ladybug is mine, Mine. MINE.
I can’t have it? Fine. I’m gone.
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Fine. You won’t let me have it, I’m outta here. |
Cat, photos, and Haiku are mine. Happy Haiku Holiday.
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The fridge, our friend |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
I remember the day I first saw you. I mean really saw you.
It was on Halloween, October 31, 2009.
That was the day we moved out of the spare bedroom of my in-laws’ home and into our own space. Such a beautiful day.
I opened you, ready to put cold items in for storage. Oh, look! They forgot a lovely crystal glass bowl.
So I carefully washed the bowl and put it away.
The next day, you surprised us with a shelf and trays full of water.
THAT was why the bowl was left behind. For the leak. From the ice maker. Which leaked pretty much non-stop.
The picture became even clearer the more we got to know each other. We discovered that you really loved to have a dish towel beneath the bowl, just in case you spilled over the edges. And those spaces under the veggie bins? That was your favorite spot for letting water pool and become a lovely icky tan.
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The bowl and dish towel |
This went on, the emtpying of the bowl of ice and water, replacing the dish towel, and starting the cycle again and again, for years. Until finally, we couldn’t keep up.
So we had to turn off the ice maker. It must have made you sad, but we couldn’t keep up with the water.
Ah. Now we wouldn’t need the bowl. We could use the entire inside of the fridge for our food.
Not true. From somewhere, deep within your beige walls, you had the capacity and urge to leak. Still. Even without a water connection.
Back went the towel and the bowl. It became a game of sorts. Some days there were no drips at all. We thought we might be able to dispose of both bowl and towel. But others days, a deluge of water filled the bowl and the bottom of the veggie drawers. Even with no water connection.
The end came, at last, when even the second shelf was often filled with standing water. One dish towel became two, then three. It was too much.
Good-bye, my leaky beige-y drippy friend. It has been good. Interesting. Confusing. Frustrating.
But you have been faithful. Our food stayed cold, even frozen.
Thank you for your service. I will always have fond memories of our time together, the good times and the bad.
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The new fridge – without bowl and dish towel |
Hello, beautiful. I remember the day I first saw you. It was April 15, 2016. Tax day.
Here’s to a long, drip-free relationship. Without the bowl and the dish towel.
Thanks for stopping by.
I would love to hear your tales of appliances gone bad.
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Water Is Water |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
Water Is Water, A Book About the Water Cycle
By Miranda Paul
Illustrations by Jason Chin
(Roaring Book Press, 2015)
Water Is Water, A Book About the Water Cycle, is a beautifully illustrated picture book featuring poetic text that invites readers to live the life of water.
I discovered this book during March Madness for picture books, ReFoReMo (Read For Research Month) and fell in love. Water is the main topic, but the storyline is about children playing throughout the seasons in the different forms water takes.
Fog, rain, snow, hail, water, steam, clouds, puddles, ice. Don’t fear, this book does not read as educational but is engaging and full of rich language. Fun water facts and more about water features at the end of the book add drops of trivia about water for interested readers.
Water Is Water is the perfect book for easy reading and fun learning at home or in a classroom.
KID KANDY:
Take a Bath
Really. Take a bubble bath. Play for a bit with plastic scoops, cups, and funnels.
~ Observe the water. How does it move? What does it smell like? How does it feel? Taste a little bit from the faucet.
~ Look for different forms of water. Do you have drips falling from your hair (like rain), fog on your mirrors (steam), and puddles on the floor? You probably won’t find ice or snow, but that’s ok.
~ Hang your towel after you dry off. How does it feel? Come back the next day. How does it feel now? Where did the water go?
~ List the different forms of water you see around your house.
Water is pretty amazing, isn’t it?
What is your favorite form of water? Why?
I’d love to hear your answers.
I’m back after an amazing adventure! Attending Picture Book Boot Camp this past week was a high point in my decades-long interest in creating books for children. Picture Book Boot Camp translates t…
Source: Picture Book Boot Camp
Now here is a bucket list item for writers of picture books! Honey?
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The inaugrual clothesline run. Success! |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
It was a successful inaugural run…for my brand new recycled clothesline.
Until now, several factors have discouraged this celebratory occasion.
We have a tiny backyard.
The project resisted efforts towards completion.
Time kept on slipping, slipping, slipping.
Do you know how hard it is to find poles for clotheslines?
Today, may I introduce you to my tiny yard, brand new, recycled clothesline?
Pleased to meet you.
Our son had an old clothesline pole hanging out on their property. This treasure came complete with a cross bar (which my husband dropped on his head; his next gift is going to be a safety helmet – and I am not kidding) and rings for the lines.
We had to anchor the opposite side of the clothesline to the garage which required us to angle the entire clothesline. Do you now how hard it was to make it NOT square and straight? Using the garage as the second pole was due to lack of a second clothesline pole and a lack of space.
Our one available section of yard is only about 6 feet wide. It hides behind the garden shed and is almost beneath, gasp, the powerlines. Where the birds sit.
In spite of the challenges and possible necessity of rewashing bird-soiled items, I am so pleased and excited to use the clothesline.
Hurray for fresh air, crunchy clothes, and a lower gas bill.
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Our angled clothesline connected between a pole and the garage. |
Do you have a clothesline? What are your tricks for getting the cleanest and softest clothes?
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Beautiful, nonfiction book about birds we see each day. |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
Every Day Birds
By Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Cut Paper Illustrations by Dylan Metrano
(Orchard Books, 2016)
Birds you see each day are the stars of this book, Every Day Birds.
Simple text, colorful fonts, beautiful cut paper illustrations, and one characteristic or behavior of each featured bird make this book a keeper. Twenty common North American birds are pictured in Every Day Birds. A picture identification and additional information section is included at the end of the book.
Young readers and budding bird lovers will treasure reading Every Day Birds. Reading will be followed up by time outdoors searching for the birds who live among the book pages.
Check out this brand new book. Every Day Birds.
KID KANDY:
Bird Watching
Materials: Every Day Birds, binoculars, hat
1. Read and study the birds found in Every Day Birds.
2. Put on your hat and head outside to look for birds.
3. Use the binoculars to see details of different birds without having to get too close.
4. Compare the birds you found to the ones in the book. How many did you find? Which was your favorite?
5. Some bird enthusiasts keep a lifetime list of the birds they see. You could make your own list by using a notebook for a bird journal. Draw or list the birds you observe.
Are you having fun yet? I’d love to hear which birds you saw on your bird hunt.
Tweet, tweet!
by Paula Yoo It’s Day 28 of Tara Lazar’s annual Picture Book Idea Month (AKA PiBoIdMo)! Two more days and you’re done. Best of all, you will have 30 ideas to explore for your next…
Source: PiBoIdMo Day 28: Paula Yoo Explores Non-Fiction Biographies (plus a prize!)
PiBoldMo is over, but the information in this post is wonderful! Thank you, Paula Yoo and Tara Lazar!
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Baby pictures – Monet and Mabel |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
Today is National Pet Day.
Here are our two highly energetic and trouble-seeking felines, Mabel and Monet.
The sisters are camera shy and any attempt to take photos results in instant movement, waltzing away from the scene, aloof attitudes, or disdainful staring away from the camera. Loving eye shots are not allowed. No. Not at all.
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Mabel of the gorgeous eyes |
Our cats love to:
– climb the walls (literally)
– chase, capture, and bring in wildlife (birds, worms, mice, rats)
– pretend they live at the home of neighbors (your choice; we see them regularly lazing in the yards or coming home from 5 different yards – none of which are ours)
– leave hair everywhere
– recline on the kitchen table
– claim any unfurred piece of furniture until it is redecorated in white, gray, and tan fur
– play catch the lazer (or string, or cord, or feathers, or toes…)
– steal rubberbands
– eat daddy-long-legs
– try and potty in the garden beds
– tease the neighborhood bully cat with friendship, and then turn about squawling as if ripped limb from limb (this also results in the male boy spraying regularly on several key locations, house included)
– race loudly and wildly through the house
– be wherever we are
– sleep on fuzzy blankets
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Monet with the striped tail |
Oh, there is more. They are cats. You get the idea. We are not allowed cat fur free clothing, bird feeders, or litter free carpets.
But we love them. Entertainment, affection, company, lap warmers, snugglers. I guess we’ll keep them.
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Monet depositing hair and cat litter |
Do you need some great ideas of things to do on National Pet Day? I found a Web site that shared several suggestions. Just click this link. National Pet Day
What kind of pets do you have? I’d love to see and hear about them.
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Mabel claiming the center of the bed |
Happy National Pet Day!
by author Catherine Bailey & illustrator Sarita Rich Thank you for hosting us today, Miss Tara. We are excited to be here, and we are excited to celebrate the release of HYPNOSIS HARRY, and we …
Source: HYPNOSIS HARRY is here! Author & Illustrator Interview Each Other (plus a giveaway!)
This new release sounds like a wonderfully funny story! The author & illustrator interviews are very good. Thanks, Tara!
A query letter is a business letter. Writing may be art but publishing is a business. As a writer you are the creator of a potentially sellable product. Being too weird or unprofessional in …
Love, Laughter, and Life 