Winter Remedy

When your afternoon looks like this AGAIN,

here's a perfect remedy--your local butterfly house or botanical gardens.

The Sertoma Butterfly House offers a warm, humid climate and tropical plants to support a variety of kinds of butterflies and give visitors a respite from a brutal winter.

Butterflies hide among hibiscus.

Butterflies feed on fruit and gatorade.



Nature has camouflaged some of these flutterers in amazing ways. Here is the Dead Leaf butterly:

Until it moves, it looks like its name.

This butterfly's closed wings have "eyes" to fake out predators who think it may be a bird or something more threatening:

The morpho butterflies have electric blue wings that show only when their wings are open. That and their tendency toward constant motion present challenges to photographers, but one young fellow was able to attract one, despite warnings not to touch the butterflies:

For more information about butterflies, click here.

We enjoyed our tropical mini-vacation! What getaways have you taken to get a break from winter?

The Lion, Indiana, and the Mouse

You have probably heard by now that The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney won the Caldecott Medal, an annual award honoring the best illustration in an American children's picture book. We love the cover and think the Lion bears a strong resemblance to our golden retriever, Indiana. (Imagine him with a mane.) Indiana certainly considers himself king of the household, just as the Lion is the king of the jungle and forest!

Pinkney, a highly regarded artist and illustrator, won the Caldecott Honor five times as well as many other awards, but this one caps his long career. Read an interview here.

The dyslexic Pinkney applied, studied, and perfected his drawing craft, compensating for his reading and writing difficulty. He specializes in creative retellings of folktales or fables.

In the case of his Caldecott winner, he retells Aesop's old fable of the lion & the mouse using only pictures of the African savannah and spelling out animal sounds. He brings the tale to life in a new way, allowing every reader to put his or her own nuance into the story. Themes beyond Aesop's moral emerge, with the animals' expressions evoking emotions from fear to empathy to relief to humor. Every spread is a visual feast.

Congratulations, Jerry Pinkney! Thanks for creating a book for all ages of readers and all ages of time.

Cold Comfort

image from www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/3867445255/

Several of you had great ideas for staying warm from hot water bottles to fireplaces to hot cocoa, which brings me to today's post--comfort food!

We are out of the deep freeze here, but one meal that made it more bearable was green chili casserole and hot fudge cake. In fact, I decided that green chilies make me happy! They are good on hamburgers, with pork, with eggs, in soups, in salsa (salsa verde), and so many other ways. Here are some recipes from Pioneer Woman Cooks, if you need some ideas.

Chilies can even be strung on twine and hung as an edible decoration or wreath!


Chilies have a lot of nutritional value, too, adding vitamins A, B2, B6, C, calcium, iron, and other nutrients to our diets. The New Mexico State University's Chili Pepper Institute has a complete list here.

And after a meal containing chilies, what could be better than reading a book about them? I recommend The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas. Set in late 1800's New Mexico, a motley cast of characters forges friendships--or at least accompliceships--sharing their dreams, grudges, and crimes.

This post lives up to my blog title, for I've offered you something to read, some facts about chilies, and the food that makes me happy. What foods make you happy?

How Cold Is It?

"How cold is it?" the garden cherub asks.

As of 9:45 p.m. on 1/2/10, it is -3 degrees Farenheit, with a wind chill of -19. That is actually warmer than it was this morning! When we went out for breakfast at 9 a.m., the temp was -14! That is the factual answer to the cherub's question. His reply?


"I'm freezing my behind!"

How are you staying warm this winter?

Snow Falls!

Nineteen inches of snow fell from Christmas Eve (Thursday) through Saturday. US Interstates 29 and 90 were closed, shutting the state down border to border for most of that time. Snowplows ran around the clock keeping emergency routes open and finally opened up side streets yesterday. After that, neighborhoods were busy with snow blowers and shovelers. See pictures here.

Today, the people we saw were cheery and thankful--thankful that we didn't lose power, thankful that it wasn't so cold, thankful it wasn't too windy, thankful that people we loved were safe if not with us for Christmas. Some people saw more fun than work in the snow, enjoying sledding and snow angels. See pictures here.

This event brings to mind three wonderful books about snow. They are aimed at children, but if you are a child at heart, take a look and experience the wonder all over again.

If I Had a Snowplow by Jean Patrick. This rhyming picture book tells how a little boy would use construction equipment to do something nice for his mom. Jean lives in Mitchell, SD, so she knows snow!

In The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats , a classic Caldecott Award winner, a boy named Peter discovers the wonder and fun of snow. Keats' collage and watercolors give this book a special flavor.

Another Caldecott Award winner, Snowflake Bentley, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian, tells the true story of Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farm boy who devoted his life to snowflakes. Bentley's fascination led him to photograph and study snowflakes. Many of his photographs are still in use today.

Sledding is fine, but for me, there's nothing better than a good book on a snowy day! What books would you recommend?

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you and yours the best Christmas ever! Please view the link below and enjoy the magic.

Christmas card

Shop Local Because....

Local store owners have always admonished us to shop local. We shop local quite a bit because we realize it's good for the local economy. What we didn't know was just how good. Now a "shop local" movement is afoot, containing facts and figures that make shopping local look even better. You may not be able to get every item on your wish list at a locally-owned store, but dollars spent there go farther to boost the economy in your neighborhood. Here's the flyer:



Do those statistics startle you as they did me? Click here for more information about this movement. Now about those last-minute Christmas gifts....