The Saracen's Head

Wordless Wednesday: New Book

Dad got a new book...this copy is from 1944!!!

(he got Our Lady of Czestochowa and General Komorowski in the shot too!)

World War Two Books

After I read Enemy Brothers I got all WWII headed, and I wanted some more books in the right century, so Lydia and Josiah gave me a lot of suggestions:

I have read the all the books in the foreground stack:

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers- A remarkable book, being at once an autobiography of a family, a Papist novel, and a WWII book sometimes set in Austria and sometimes in America. Very good.

Escape From Warsaw (formerly The Silver Sword) - Highly interesting, having to do with Nazi occupied Warsaw, and the Russians and Americans in Poland.

The House of Sixty Fathers - Typical DeJong. Very excellent good. This one's illustrated by Sendak, which makes it extra very excellant good.

The Hiding Place - This is a more grown-uppish book. Good for spiritual reading.

Enemy Brothers - The author is very good at writing characteristics; very reccomendable for people who like action packed novels with shiny covers.

The Winged Watchman - Stockum-hooray! Splendid! Good for even younger children  Catholic novel in Nazi occupied Holland.

The Air War in the West: Sept. 1939 to May 1941 - An understandable militairy history (of those years). Helpful for piecing together all the other books.

We Were There At The Battle Of Britain - I didn't like it as much as the other books, but is also helpful in Battle of Britain matters.

(Not pictured here) Air Raid- Pearl Harbour! - Thorough two-sided account of Pearl Harbour.

In the to-read stack there's also some vintage more history-ish books, and I'm also planning to read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Maybe more on them next week!

posted by Mary Rose

PS Other WWII books that I've read (but not this fad) are The Mitchell's: Five for Victory, Rufus M., Then There Were Five, Snow Treasure, We Were There At The Normandy Invasion and Twenty and Ten (it's the best).

 

Flight Officer on Leave

Here's another Enemy Brothers picture...  

"They'll stick to Dym like burs all the evening," she said. "They always do. He's very good to them because he thinks they're lonely, away from home."

Herr Dym needn't have spent so much time in looking at the youngest evacuee's stampbook and in telling the three others all they wanted to know about flying-training schools...

posted by Mary Rose

 

Enemy Brothers

Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery

This is an old favorite World-War-Two-Bethlehem-Books-crash-bang-shiny-backed-action-filled-historical-fiction novel in our house...but I just read it for the first time last week.

It was this book that started me on a WWII book binge, reading The Hiding Place, The Winged Watchman and We Were There at the Battle of Britain. My head is now a-whirl with thoughts of munitions factories, Air Raid Wardens, Distingushed Flying Crosses, Prep, Messerschmitts, the Luftwaffe, Chief Petty Officers, Spitfires, Hurricanes, Dorniers and the like.

I liked it very well. Here's a couple pictures I did of scenes from the book...I'm planning out two more even now.

"Bit of a mess, eh?"

 

"Oh, it's Dym! Hullo, Dym!" "Didn't you get my telegraph?" Dym asked. "Telegram? We've had no telegram," said a woman's voice. "You shouldn't be so extravagant, Dym. The idea of sending telegrams in wartime when you know they often take two days to arrive...""There's a boy with Dym, a strange boy. Who is he?"

It's good to read if you are fond of historical fiction that is full of suspense but not too action packed, so as to make it seem un-realistic, or if you like World War Two in general. The author knew how to write a good book, (another of our favorites by Savery is The Reb and the Redcoats).

Another interesting factor is that it was published in 1943!

posted by Mary Rose

The Family That Overtook Christ: M. Raymond, OCSO

This is a very interesting biography of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his saintly relations; Ven. Tescelin the Tawny, Bl. Alice of Belmont, Bl.s Gerard, Guy, Humbeline, Andrew, Bartholomew and Nivard. This book reads like a novel, but it is mostly facts, for in the introduction Raymond says, "I have dramatised much, I have fictionalized little or nothing." He has presented these blesseds as lifelike. "They show us how to supernaturalize the natural. What a family!"

You should read this book.

It is full of logical and moral discussions between characters, but in a completely understandable manner.

Bernard looked long at his sister; there was admiration, appreciation and even a touch of awe in his look. Then he said, "Women are intuitive! Humbeline, you have seen more deeply in this hour than some monks see in years. The honest answer is: ' Yes, the life is burdensome.' But here is the paradox: 'The more the burden grows, the lighter it becomes. I'm not joking. Christ said, "My burden is light." And He does not deceive. His burden is light.

It's very encouraging and inspiring.

"Great?" exclaimed young Nivard and his lower lip began to tremble. "Great?" he said again. "What's great about it? You take heaven and leave me the earth. I don't see anything great about it! It's not even fair. I don't want it!"

"Father, Father, Abbot Stephen says he'll accept me when I'm a little older."

Read it, and then you can tell me how you liked it.

The key to Heaven, or if you prefer, the secret of sanctity is not in prayers or pious practices. Never. It is in doing the Will of God with a ready will.

Besides, it has an Imprimatur.

posted by Mary Rose

Poetry Friday: Illuminated Manuscripts

 Today for Poetry Friday I am posting these illuminated manuscripts I made for various birthdays.

The first is Gandalf's song of Lorien, made for Lydia.

In Dwimordene, in Lorien

Seldom have walked the feet of men

Few mortal eyes have seen the light

That dwells there ever, long and bright

Galadriel! Galadriel!

Clear is the water of your well

White the star on your white hand

Unmarred, unstained is leaf and land

In Dwimordene, in Lorien

More fair than thoughts of Mortal Men.

Lady Galadriel, her mirror, a silver ewer and golden leaves falling. The grass is strewn with elenor and nephredil, and in the sky shines the light of Earendil.

 

I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.

Next, a song of the Elves (from the Hobbit), for Kateri.

Sing all ye joyful, now sing all together! The wind's in the treetop, the wind's in the heather,

The stars are in blossom, the moon is in flower, and bright are the windows of night in her tower.

Dance all ye joyful, now dance all together! Soft is the grass and let foot be like feather!

The river is silver, the shadows are fleeting, merry is May time and merry our meeting!

Sing we now softly, now dreams let us weave him, wind him in slumber and thier let us leave him!

The wanderer sleepeth, now soft be his pillow, lullaby, lullaby! Alder and Willow!

Two elf maidens with flowers and gems in their hair playing silver harps in the moonlight.

And last but not least... the Song of Beren and Luthien, for Una.

The leaves were long, the grass was green , the hemlock umbels tall and fair

And in the glade a light was seen, of stars in shadow shimmering.

Tinuviel was dancing there, to music of a pipe unseen,

And light of stars was in her hair, and in her raiment glimmering.

Then Beren came from mountains cold, and lost he wandered under leaves

And where the Elven river rolled he walked alone and sorrowing

He peered between the hemlock leaves, and saw in wonder flowers of gold

Upon her mantle and her sleeves and hair like shadow following.

Enchantment healed his weary feet that over hills were doomed to roam

And forth he hastened, strong and fleet and grasped and moonbeams glistening.

Through woven wood in Elvenhome she lightly fled on dancing feet

And left him lonely still to roam in the silent forest listening.

He heard there oft the flying sound of feet  as light as linden leaves

Or music welling underground in hidden hollows quavering.

Now withered lay the hemlock sheaves and one by one without a sound

Whispering fell the beechen leaves in wintry woodland wavering.

He sought her ever, wandering far where leaves of years were thickly strewn

By light of moon and ray of star in frosty heavens shivering.

Her mantle glinted in the moon as on a hilltop high and far

She danced and at her feet was strewn a mist of silver quavering.

 

And that is all. Goodbye!

Arwen Vanimelda, Namarie!

posted by Mary Rose

Needle and thREAD

To-day I am joining Mrs. Foss in needle and thREAD, about what you're sewing and what you're reading.

I don't sew very often at all, but yesterday being Kateri's birthday, I made her a set of handkerchiefs. They're each decorated with 'free-motion' butterflies, stitched on the machine. I like this technique 'cause it's just like doodling on fabric.

I am reading two books I received for my birthday from Mother (who knows what I like best, of course). Baby Bird Portraits by George Miksch Sutton and Sandhill and Whooping Cranes, both written by Paul A. Johnsgard. Baby Bird Portraits is full of such lifelike watercolours of little birds, many painted right from live subjects. The artist George Sutton frequently raised young birds to study and paint.

I like to sit and feast on the paintings. You can practically hear his fledglings cheep. There's nothing quite like discovering a good watercolour bird artist.

The text by P. Johnsgard is good too. He tells such funny stories about his ornithology students.

Sandhill and Whooping Cranes is about my newest birds-that-I'm-obsessed-with. I like it very much as it gives all sorts of information about which cranes and subspecies live where and migrate where else. It has a whole tantalizing appendix on 'Where to See Cranes'.

Now, here's something: George Sutton the artist knew Louis Fuertes, another Very Famous artist, who I learned about in Birdology and whose paintings are on a poster in my room. Sutton also visited to Hawk Mountain, and is connected with Maurice Broun, whose book Hawks Aloft I read all the time. Also, he knew Johnsgard, who knew George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation, who I talk about all the time, being obsessed with cranes.

So many of my favorite familiar bird people are all tied up together!

Well, that is my needle and thREAD, and thank you Mrs. Foss for hosting. It's jolly.

Posted by L.G.T.

Drawing Challenge Day 14: Favorite Fairy Tale

Once Upon a Time...

Here are yesterday's pictures. I think some of us were working on them past midnight, though.

The day's challenge was a very jolly subject!

Here is Anna's drawing from The Princess Whom Nobody Could Silence, by P.C. Asbjornsen, whoever that  is.  We always talk about fairy-tale youngest sons or heroic simpletons (like Boots or Cinderlad or Little Fool Ivan) as Ashiepattle characters, but this is the real Ashiepattle, Ashiepattle hat and all.

He is holding the dead Magpie which he found and picked up, to the disgust of the Elder Brothers. He uses it in his win-the-princess-and-half-the-kingdom adventure. It's a rather standard fairy tale, but all the more amusing.

Mary Rose has drawn the Wise Woman, of course from The Wise Woman, or The Lost Princess, by George MacDonald. She did a really good swirling cloak as the Woman hastens away out of the castle:

"So quietly did the wise woman pass down the stair, that the king was all but persuaded he had only seen a shadow."

My picture is from The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm. It is not a particularly interesting tale, but I always liked it because of the good horse, Falada.

The Goose Girl is talking to the head of her faithful steed while little Conrad looks on scornfully. I did it with my dip pen and paint mixed with water because there seems to be scarcely a decent regular pen in the house, and we're possibly out of ink as well.

 

 Of course these are only some of our Favorite Fairy Tales. We've read heaps of them and heaps more that are Just a Variant, so it seems  we're bound to have half a dozen favorites each at least. Like The White Bird, and The Many-furred Creature, and Little Daylight, and The Black Bull of Norroway, and Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, and Little Three Eyes, and Snow White and Rose Red and The Golden Bird, and never, never forget- The Little Humpbacked Horse! 

I want to illustrate more fairy tales. Maybe after November...

Oh, this is the great day when all 'Wrimos' are supposed to be halfway through their novels! Oh no, I better get writing.

Posted by Lydia

The Great Library Book-Sale

A short time ago our library had its booksale, and it lasted for days, but we got there about three minutes after it began! The super-duper thing about library sales (well, at our library's at least) is there are loads and loads of good books- not like the thrift store where you have to scrounge around the trashy novels and maybe find something.  At this booksale, it's almost certain we'll bring home a box or two of books.

Picture books, history, poetry, Narnia (there were ever so many copies there), Fairy Tales etc. (Only one bird book, but oh well). It is our peculiar custom to keep buying secondhand copies of books we already have, as well as others we don't have.

 

Above are shown most of the books in stacks, though most of one stack is covered up.

Here's a good stack of books, all of which we already had e'cept for Robinson Crusoe in full. But just look at that positively nifty hardcover King Arthur! And a whole complete Shakespeare! We always are short on copies when we all take parts and read a play...

And look- Old copies! A Little House book, and what do you know- it isn't illustrated by Garth Williams. The third book is a Jules Verne thing in French. Just for entertainment.

These are a passel of oldish history-ish books:

We got some even older old books as well (That little cute girl was walking around amongst the books, and they let us take her home, and they didn't charge us even a dime for her!). These books are: A handbook for electrical engineers, poetry of Robert Burns- Burns is really interesting. There's all the peculiar language, and some odd subjects. I came across a poem called 'To a Haggis' : 'Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,/Great chieftain o' the puddin' race!',  The Last Days of Pompeii, and two Mother Goose books.

Not that anyone will ever read Pompeii, and probably it's a horrid book, but it is really old! It has this inscription from 1896, and a sort of family tree written in later, as well as a note saying the inscription was written by a teacher of penmanship with a quill pen!  Another thing: some find it jolly to say "The Last Days of Pompeii" in their Mayor Shinn voices. So it will just be our latest historical artifact and mathom.

The Mother Geese are only a hundred years old almost...

The one on the left was rebound and all fixed up and all the pages put into holder-thingummys, and then we
got it for fifty cents!  The other is quite falling apart, from 1913, and it has a number of rhymes that are more violent than the ones little folks get these days.

Cautionary poem for grown-ups' benefit:

Tut tut tut.  Fancy all the people in their high-button shoes merrily reciting dismal nursery tales to their little children...

And lastly here are some books that we only have a zillion copies of. It was sort of too bad there weren't any complete sets, but the Two Towers is especially epic because not only is its cover Alan Lee, but it's also got full color painting-illustrations inside! Wowie!


And that-is-that. See how great library book sales are?

Posted by Lydia

Look Look, O See, Funny Funny!

Tell them girls that I'm just about to do some qualitative & quantitative analyses of a copper mineral. It's supposed to turn blue when mixed with ammonia!!!

(Thus quoth Josiah in an email to Ma.)

This is what he does for chemistry. Lots more fun than just dipping pieces of litmus paper in acids and seeing them turn red or blue when you knew they would anyways! Bwahahahaha! hahahaha! Nobody will ever get that reference! Also, gold disolves in aqua regia!

Posted by Anna Ruth

Artful Thursday: The Fellowship

   O,them.                                                                                                                                               This is a picture I drew of several well-known people walking around in a very dark place. Fortunately for them, Gandalf brought along his Ruhmkorff apparatus (ha ha ha). Actually, if he hadn't, the whole thing would be pitch black. Even as it is, it used up most of my brand-new 8-B pencil (It is drawn with entirely graphite pencils). O, well, sad things do happen. 

PS Like the movie                                                                                                                                                                                               posted by Anna Ruth

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine

I love historical fiction! I have just finished reading a book entitled Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick. It is a really good book about Galen the scientist who lived in the Greek City of Pergamum in the Roman Empire during the second century.  This relates to my history and science at the same time (!) because I am studying ancient history and human anatomy. Galen was a physician as well as a philosopher.

Galen invented many improvements to the old ways of treating sickness, like using clean instruments during operations and honey or wine-soaked rags on wounds. As the introduction put it, ”Galen pulled medicine from the thickets into which various confusions and controversies had led it, and set it on a straight path again.”  This book also tells lots about how ancient Romans lived and what Roman doctors were like, and there is quite a bit about other ancient doctors and their theories about the human body which are quite interesting. It also says a little about Roman soldiers and gladiators and roads, but my favorite part was about The Museum. The Museum was in Alexandria and it was an ideal place for scientists. Here is some of the description from the book:

“The Museum was immense, spreading out around the royal palace. The buildings were grand. There was the library, of course-maybe several libraries. There were lecture halls and a tall observatory. Were those laboratories over there? And he could hear the noise from the zoo..... He could see sleeping halls and dining halls and he walked through a beautiful park. Some people strolled the paths. Others sat on stone benches, talking or just thinking.”

And so the tale of Galen is told in such a way that it is nothing like a stiff schoolbook.

I really enjoy reading this type of book. Next I want to read Herodotus and the Road to History and Archimedes and the Door of Science by the same author.

After I read this book I was feeling in a Roman sort of mood, so I got out a book about building a Roman city and read it and then, as one thing leads to another, I drew this picture of a Roman marketplace-

 

I do like ancient history!

posted by Mary Rose