Wednesday Mutterings

 

Yesterday I received my copy of this brand-new release.

My former student and friend Jeff Bock alongwith his talented illustrator Althea Botha have created a beautiful children's book with a wonderful message. 

The art is exquisite; the message, simple and profound. 

Here's a review by Rachel Cannata:

My House in the Sky is a gentle, beautifully illustrated book that speaks to children with two homes. 

The story offers comfort and hope through the imaginative idea of a magical purple house where all the best memories live. Perfect for families navigating separation—warm, reassuring, and full of love.

I agree with this assessment.  It was, indeed, a gentle and soothing read filled with wonderfully constructed verbal images to go along with Althea Botha's amazing illustrations.  

Art and text are definitely in concert.

As Jeff notes, the story was inspired from personal experience.  Knowing him well and how much he loves his daughter, I could feel the passion behind every sentence. 

Also, My House in the Sky definitely promotes discussion.  Any child of divorce will undoubtedly create a unique narrative when it comes to treasured memories. 

I'm guessing no two stories or experiences are alike. 

This book offers hope for all in that we can choose and mentally compile our own collection of special memories and maybe even blend a few.

Lots to talk about from the story and a pleasing collaboration of amazing, heartfelt work and talent in this  small package. 

My House in the Sky is available at Amazon.com.  Jeff says he also hopes to have a reading and signing in Sandpoint when he visits this summer.   

Let's talk about weed eaters.  Much like lawnmowers, we have a fleet.  

Historically speaking, to ensure that they work for more than one minute after a many minutes of frustrating problem-solving between shifts---that takes a genius. 

When the weed eater I bought a couple of years ago decided to go down, Bill worked on it for a while, got frustrated and then headed to town to get a new one. 

This is a deluxe model, battery-operated, that, when working, is a dream---sort of.  It was all set up and ready to go with some string that Bill said costs $28 a roll already installed. 

So, the first go-round was not too bad, although I decided right away that the expensive string was hardly worth the price.  

Ever tried to slice weeds or grass off only to have the weed eater blow them around like a tornado until they band together into one big glob and refuse to separate from their respective bases?  Well, that's how this string works.

Plus, the rather expensive weed eater came with no instructions, so Bill used trial and error to attempt to load the string. Pretty much giving up on that, he went to You Tube.  

After watching the You Tube instructions a couple of times, he successfully loaded the string. 

It ran out fairly quickly, and that's when I inserted my assessment about its inefficiency, suggesting he use the standard plastic string to which we're accustomed.  

He bought some that would fit that particular weed eater and loaded it.  

Ahh!  It's ready to go, I thought, taking the weed eater to some grass, cutting off a few inches worth, only to have the string spit out onto the ground. 

Bill reloaded for me. 

I tried it a couple more times, and, each time within seconds, had to announce that it was spitting again. 

Bill returned to the back of the UTV which had been serving as his outdoor work space for maintaining the weed eater. 

He tinkered for a minute or two and walked it over to a fence with some tall grass. In less than a minute, the string did not spit out but began to slowly lengthen as it was making its way off from the roll. 

Bill says he's taking the weed eater back.  

In the meantime, I'm slowly getting some edging done, thanks to the old-fashioned method of grass shears. 

Still, I hope we can find a weed eater that actually wants to work in return for all the money that paid for it.   

Gary Finney from up the road has collected an assortment of old farm equipment.  The pieces are neatly lined-up on the hillside below his house and his orchard.  

I've noticed recently that he had found a manure spreader much like our lawn ornament.

  

I'm thinking that I need to tell Gary to put some dirt in that spreader and plant some posies. 

Then, as neighbors and classmates we can have almost matching lawn ornaments. 

Heck, maybe we can even paint "SHS 1965" on the sides of our antique spreaders. 

I like saying "another beautiful day" and work to be done. 

And, that is the case during this lovely last week of May. 

Happy Wednesday.