In Venice, streets are canals. The people who live there ride in gondolas. What if all streets were rivers? What would be different?
Author Archive
Cranium Games
What I like about the Cranium games is that they give natural opportunities to coordinate some of our most cherished aims on Brave Writer. There are chances to narrate, to spell, to problem-solve, to work as a team, to answer logic questions and more.
Zooreka is especially fun if you have kids who love animals (we do). It gives kids a chance to make decisions involving probability, saving and spending, and working with others.
Wednesday at the movies: Winged Migration
For bird lovers, this film is near perfection. For kids who need action, talking and humans in their movies, “Winged Migration” may prove to be the equivalent of elevator music – something to ignore in the background.
However, if you have children who are nature lovers, or if you’ve taken to observing birds at your backyard feeders, I can’t say enough good things about this movie. First, the wordless narrative draws you in, slowing the viewer down to appreciate the wonder of birds in flight. That part seems obvious though. The filming is equally impressive. This team of French film makers and ornithologists, natural history experts and aviators (400 in all) spent four years and 15,000 hours of filming to create 90 minutes of exquisite, close-ups of all sorts of migratory birds. Not only that, the team literally bred and raised every bird in the movie from egg to adulthood, creating “imprinted relationships” with the birds so that each species would follow and fly with the film makers without fear because they saw the team as their parents and guardians. The “making of” documentary in the extra features is every bit as riveting as the movie itself.
A good fire, some tea and snack cake, as well as a quiet afternoon make the perfect combination for appreciating six continents worth of birds’s migratory habits. Enjoy~
The Little Tea Book
COMPILED BY
ARTHUR GRAY
Compiler of Over the Black Coffee
ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE W. HOOD
Thank Project Gutenberg for this wonderful Internet copy of the literary classic. Inside, it houses poetry, the history of tea, odes to the kettle, descriptions of Chinese and Japanese tea traditions as well as the endless veneration heaped on the humble leaf by the British and Australians, the globe’s most devoted (addicted) black tea drinkers. Here’s a sample of one of the descriptions found in this delightful tome:
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON drew his own portrait thus:
“A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who for twenty years diluted his meals with the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning.”
Feel free to print your own copy of this book. It is in the public domain.
Glass Artist: Dale Chihuly
Our Cincinnati Art Museum is fortunate enough to have a Chihuly chandalier (featured above). Dale Chihuly is known for his exquisite glass work. Please visit his site when you have some time to spend. It is exquisite.
Six years ago, I heard about Chihuly online from some friends and looked up his work. Then that weekend, I discovered in the newspaper that a Chihuly exhibition was coming to Dayton, Ohio (just up the road from us) that week. I love those serendipitous coincidences. I threw the kids in the car and we had one of the most delightful afternoons of art appreciation ever. The kids are hopeless when it comes to Chihuly, swearing he is the most visually stimulating and engaging artist they’ve experienced. If you need a way to jumpstart interest in art, glass exhibitions are truly a marvel. Chihuly is the best. You can often find his works in wonderful documentary form on DVDs in libraries too.
I noticed that Chihuly’s art is on display in Columbus, Ohio right now! He has an exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory until February 25. We will certainly be going. If you live in the area, schedule a trip. You’ll be glad you did.
