Winter with the Fairies

Lady Winter

Lady Winter clothed in ermine
On the North Wind gallops in,
Over crystal bridges bright,
Over carpets snowy white.

See the North Wind, snorting, prancing,
Scare the leaves that, romping, dancing,
Cease their merriment and play
And hurrying, scurrying, run away.

Winter Sports

The children's coats are downy white,
And ruddy winter berries bright
Are tam-o-shanters warm and red
Upon each little golden head.

On sleds of holly leaves they coast,
Of silver skates they proudly boast
And snowball fights with tiny forts--
These are their jolly winter sports.

Mother Earth's Lullaby

Sleepy little flowers, cuddle down to rest,
Soft and warm and loving, close to Mother's breast,
Drowsy little flowers, snuggle close to me,
Whispering Winds, come hither and croon your melody.

Sleep, my little children, through-out the long cold night,
You shall be tucked under blankets snowy white,
Dream, my little children, in slumbers soft and deep,
Whispering Winds, come hither, and croon my babes to sleep.

*****

I hopes you enjoyed a year with the fairies!

Thanksgiving with the Fairies

The Brownies' Thanksgiving Turkey

"Gobble, gobble," sang the turkey

Just before Thanksgiving Day,

Never did that turkey gobbler

Sing another gobbing lay.

"Goggle-Gobble, " sand the Brownies

As they viewed their vast repast

"This we know, that best they gobble

Who can gobble-gobble last."

The Chieftain's Song of Thanks

Ye rulers of the Year,
who do my tribe befriend,
To you, most plenteous givers,
my messengers I send.
Accept their songs of thanks,
their caroling of praise,
For summer and its aftermath,
the Indian summer days.

Our autumn crops are garnered,
our Indian corn is yellow,
Beneath the harvest moon
our harvest fruits are mellow;
With grains in plenty seasoning
in autumn's purple haze,
We have no dread foreboding
of winter's fearful days.

Jack Frost

Elfin pictures on the pane
Mean Jack Frost has come again;
Lace and fens and vines and flowers,
Snow-capped peaks and fairy bowers,

Castles gleaming opalescent,
Rivers flowing iridescent;
Jewels set in filigree,
All in crystal fantasy.

from A Year With the Fairies
Anna M. Scott
1924

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe'en

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe-en

When little boys on Hallowe'en are up to some sly trick,

I hearken to their whispered plans and silently and quick,

A mischief laughing to myself, right after them I hop

And scare them 'most to death by changing to a cop.

And next I am the Goblin's screech-owl, shrieking awful loud,

Ar rise right up before their eyes, a ghost with long white shroud;

When brimstone blazes from my eyes they see a big black cat,

And home at last I chase them, a witch with peaked hat.

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride: A Year With the Fairies

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride 
On harvest chariot piled sky high
Lady Fall is passing by
With garnered fruits and wealth untold
Of royal purple mixed with gold;

To Lady Summer's faerwell nod
She waves a plume of Goldenrod,
And as the birds fly south again
She cries, "Good bye, auf Wiedersehen."

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

Lady Fall, Pumpkin Pie Complete, and Book Reviews to Come

Lady Fall

When Lady Fall makes her debut,

Jack Frost in adoration

Tints trees and vines with every hue,

Adorns the whole creation.

Bids ripened nuts fall down to earth,

Gives grapes an added flavor,

Bids welcoming fires illume the hearth, And all to win her favor.

from A Year With the Fairies, Anna M. Scott, 1914

It is Autumn, once my favorite season of the year due to the glorious colors of the changing leaves.
At my age, it is a bittersweet reminder of the coming winter, with all its hazards that keep me inside. I haven't been sewing much. I'd rather be near the window listening to the birds and seeing the daylight and feeling the cooling air. I can spend my time under artificial light later when the skies are cloudy and dark.

*****

I finished my Pumpkin Pie quilt and it adorns the living room wall. It is from Bunny Hill and such a cute pattern!

My walking foot is defunct. I was not happy sewing on the borders and binding without one. I know better, but was lazy and didn't take my time. And I didn't quilt the polka-dot border either. I may go back later and take it apart and fix it. I should have ironed it, as already it creased from sitting folded on a chair for a few days.

I am lazy because yesterday my husband underwent his second cataract surgery; both were successful and he can see again. I am still recovering, lol, unused to being on the road at 7:30 am to drive in rush hour traffic. It's been many a long year since I had to do that. And my Suki wakes me up every night about midnight. Our apple trees produced hundreds of apples again this year, and all the critters in the neighborhood come to feed. Suki knows they are out there and needs to check things out.

*****

I have been reading and reviewing like crazy. I asked, and received, loads of ARCs. Coming up are:

September

Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Mataxes

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

October

A Place We Knew Well by Susan Carol McCarthy

The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks by Tracey Goessel

Wilkie Collins by Peter Ackroyd

The Rilke of Ruth Speirs

The Magic of Beverly Sills by Nancy Guy

Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline

The Year of Lear by James Shapiro

Brand Luther by Andrew Pettegree

November

The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel by Margaret Oppenheimer

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

The Last Words of the Holy Ghost by Matt Cashion

Hear My Sad Story by Richard Polenberg

White Eskimo by Stephen R. Brown

PLUS, still on my shelf to read, most to be published early next year, are:

• Lady Bird and Lyndon by Betty Caroli
• My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stout (author of Olivia Kitteridge)
• The Longest Night by Andrea Williams
• A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin
• From Stray Dog to WWI Hero by Grant Hayter-Menzies
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin 
• Radioactive! By Winifred Conklin
• All of Us and Everything by Bridgit Asher

AND, I am still reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Kathleen Boos for the new library book club.

NOT TO MENTION...I have Japanese Contemporary Quilts and Quilters sitting next to me! That review should be up in the next few days as well. AND, I took advantage of C&T's big sale and bought four quilt books, and there is the one I got at Grand Rapids AQS..

It's gong to be quite a fall.

A Year With The Fairies: Moon and Stars

The Candle-Lighters

When shadows creep at eventide
And little ones are safe inside,
Bright stars a-twinkling way up high
Are Fairies' candles in the sky.

When shadows creep at eventide
The Fairies take their evening ride;
On flitting fireflies wafted high
They light their candles in the sky.

Jolly Marsh Children

Waters are sparkling where moonbeams are stealing,
Glistening pond lilies blow,
Music is ringing and voices are pealing.
Whispering waters flow.

Will-o'-the wisp retreats and advances,
Mystical Maid of the Mists,
Hither she floats and thither she dances
Whither-so-ever she lists.

from A Year With the Fairies
Anna M. Scott
1924

A Year With the Fairies: The Insect Orchestra

The Insect OrchestraWhen we with our horns and out trombones appear,
All the birds gather round us to see and to hear;
While we're scraping and squeaking an picking the strings,
They applaud us all loudly by flapping their wings.

When the music begins they shout "hip,hip, hurrah,"
As they hear Strauss's waltz that goes "tra la la la,"
And the grasses enchanted are bending and swaying
To the swing of the music our orchestra's playing.

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1914

+++++

It is that time of summer when the insects have taken over.

We have been deluged with Japanese Beetles, especially attracted to our new beautiful yellow rose. The buds and flowers of the second flowering have been eaten away. We also found the Japanese Beetles eating our flowering quince and apple trees.

The other evening a giant Stag Beetle was settled on the screen of our patio door. Lightning bugs flit about in the dusk.

It's hard to believe we are halfway through July. The kitchen remodel, and consequent trips to get away, have caused time to fly so quickly.

It's time to stop and listen to the insect orchestra. Apparently they play Strauss.

A Year With The Fairies: Lady Summer, The Fairies' Serenade, and The Fairies' Graphophone

Lady Summer
Summer is a countess fair
Clothed in shimmering sheen,
Rosy footsteps everywhere
Show where she has been.

The glinting sun, the freshening showers,
The bird and honey bee,
The wealth of foliage and flowers
Show her supremacy.

The Fairies' Serenade
In the mystic hour of night
When the moon is gleaming bright
And little ones in Dreamland play,
The Fairies sing their sweetest lay.

Like a climbing rose they go
To your window, in a row,
And on a nodding rose they sing.
While to and fro they swing and swing.

The Fairies' Graphophone
The Fairies all wanted a graphophone,
So they used for a sounding horn
The bell of a blue morning-glory,
For a needle, a rose's thorn.

Then they put a nasturtium leaf
On an acorn cup for a disk,
And the music that comes from that graphophone--

No wonder they frolic and frisk.

from A Year With the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1914

+++++

What was a Graphophone? I had heard of a gramophone and the  phonograph; we own an Edison Disc Player and a Victrola from before 1920.

I learned that the Edison phonograph (1877) used tin foil as the recording medium, and the graphophone (1880) used wax. In the 1890s the gramophone using hard disk recordings allowed mas production. The company that produced the Graphophone became Columbia Records. The name Graphophone continued into the 1930s.

In 1906 the Victrola with the 'talking horn' changed the industry and recording machines became known as Victrolas.

To learn more about graphophones and the history of recording machines check out these websites:

• http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/phono_technology1.php
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlgramo.html
• http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/145959/Media-Today-Chapter-10-The-Recording-Industry/#vars!date=1898-05-01_08:17:33!

A Year With The Fairies: June

June's Visit

My Beetles in trappings of green brushed with gold

Bring with joy all the treasures my carriage can hold.

And thousands of flowers for the children I strew,

With plenty for brides and sweet graduates too.

Attended with strains from Sir Cricket's wee band

I scatter my posies with prodigal hand;

I regret that my sojourn on earth must end soon,

But each year you may look for a visit from June.

from A Year With the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1914

May in A Year With The Fairies

May Day

The rollicking, frolicking Fairies are gay,
A-tripping the woodlands the first day of May,
A-hoppity skipping, now here and now there,
A-picking and snipping the flowers everywhere.

The rollicking, frolicking Fairies delight
For dear little children to work all the night,
Filling their baskets the first day of May
To leave at the door ere they scamper away.

The May Queen

The Fairies choose at peep of day

Their fairest lady, Queen of May,

And make for her a throne of flowers

All festooned round with leafy bowers.

They make for her a crown of roses

And wind her little want with posies,

And sing and dance till close of day

Around their dainty Queen of May.

The May Pole Dance

The Fairies dance with song and shout,
And some trip in and some trip out
Around a Dandelion tall
Whene'er they hold their May-day ball.

Swinging, swaying, see them bend,
Hear their voices sweetly blend
With the silvery fairy strains
While they weave their Daisy chains.


from A Year With The Fairies, Ann M. Scott, 1914

April in "A Year With the Fairies"

The Gardeners

When April comes with sun and showers
The Pixies plant a million flowers;
Each Pixie brings his little spade
And digs and delves in vale and glade.

The whole day long he spades and weeds
And gives to Earth his little seeds,
And begs from April sun and showers
Til little seeds grow into flowers.












April Wakes the Flowers

April clad in crystal rain-drops
Danced across the sunny skies,
Found Earth's children still lay sleeping,
Yearned once more to see their eyes.

So she pelted them with rain-drops,
Sprinkled them with soft warm showers,
Till the pattering of her crystals
Waked the sleep, smiling flowers.












from A Year With the Fairies, by Anna M. Scott, illustrations by M. T. Ross
1914, P. F. Volland & Co,

St Nicholas And His Aeroplane

A Year With The Fairies by Anna M. Scott and illustrated by M. T. Ross, published in 1914

Jack Frost

Elfin pictures on the pane

Mean Jack Frost has come again;

Lace and ferns and vines and flowers,

Snow-capped peaks and fairy bowers.

Castles gleaming opalescent,

Rivers flowing iridescent;

Jewels set in filigree,

All in crystal fantasy.

Lady Winter clothed in ermine

On the North Wind gallops in,

Over crystal bridges bright,

Over carpets snowy white.

Winter Sports

On sleds of holly leaves they coast,

Of silver skates they proudly boast

And snowball fights with tiny forts--

These are their jolly winter sports.