2 o'clock

After two o'clock
on a cold rainy spring day-
hopeful but drooping



Haiku Bones

Friend Friday

The Sixty-Eight Rooms
is the first novel by friend Marianne Malone (sister of close friend, Emilie Nichols, who introduced us.) It is a fantasy adventure novel for young tweens, happily bridging that awkward gap between Juvenile and Young Adult (which latter genre I personally think should be re-named Young Depressive...mostly all angst and tragedy. Not much fun for the still sparkle-eyed tweenagers.)

Anyway, I can't say enough about how terrific this book is! Marianne, a mom herself, has a great feel for the zeitgeist of this age group: an itch for action, developing intellectual curiosity, new emotions arising, burgeoning social awareness and of course... a huge appetite for fun! The book reminds me of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, only with more of a magical twist. It is charmingly illustrated by Greg Call.

I was privileged to be an early reader of the manuscript when Marianne asked me for my unvarnished opinion before she'd even gotten a book deal. What a pleasure it was to honestly be able to say "This is a winner!" (And how extremely nice to be proven right, too.) Released by Random House last month, Marianne is already juggling a number of book events. If there is a young middle-schooler in your life, I recommend you run right out and get it: spring break, a.k.a. "Mom, I'm bored!"-ville is on its way!

Here are some additional links:

Marianne's website

Publisher's Weekly Interview

Kid Literate

Ring of Eggs

Home Hatched
Early spring laid eggs
varying wildly in shape
but inside the same


The hens are getting back into practice after the long hard winter.

Golden Gratitude

Golden Tulips
I have been posting less on Genre Cookshop because my "good" camera (Nikon D70) broke and I was paralyzed with indecision about what to do: repair or purchase anew? A neighbor who follows my blog, asked the reason for the slow down, and then knowing a friend of his had a D70 body for sale, set us up: success! How helpful was that? It feels good to have the familiar heft of a D70 back in my hands.

Only Connect
~E.M.Forster

Quiet Work

Studio Work

I know it does not "pay" to make my own linen panels. But I enjoy the process of it. And it feels right, using up the scraps of linen and canvas, left over after stretching larger canvases.

Sorry to have been so quiet on this blog lately. But I am posting daily on another blog, if you are interested:
nancybeamiller.blogspot.com

Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds: shine!


~attributed to Buddha