River Heights and Cair Paravel

I was babysitting two children and a dog until yesterday night. It was a delight to read their books, study their pantry and cupboard layout, and spend time with the best people in the world, the children.

On Thursday, I happily indulged in Nancy Drew: The Clue In The Jewel Box (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 20). Nancy models in a fashion show for Helen Corning's Eastern Euro designer friend, she meets an Eastern Euro princess in a department store and ultimately reunites her with a long-lost grandson, and rides the Ferris wheel with Ned Nickerson. Twice in the book she comforts small children and once teases Bess about her appetite. In the chapter A Ferocious Dog, she alights three times. No one alights in our day and it is disappointing. Nancy and her friends and family were created to "alight."

Back at home, I finished the last pages of an illustrated The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In pursuit of the White Stag in the Western Woods, King Peter addresses King Edmund, Queen Susan, and Queen Lucy:

"Fair Consorts, let us now alight from our horses and follow this beast into the thicket; for in all my days I never hunted a nobler quarry."
"Sir," said the others, "even so let us do."
So they alighted and tied their horses to trees and went on into the thick wood on foot.

Instead of leaving the house for the ward luau tonight, I will consciously alight to the party. Alighting means to me: moving quickly to or from in a gracious manner. You will not find this definition in the OED. Usually those who alight are willowy and silent (not exactly me). I used to quit the house and now I will alight.

Luau Punch

2 46-ounce cans pineapple juice
1 orange
2 bananas
1 1/2 C sugar
3-4 large 7-Ups

In the blender, chop the orange peel until fine. Add the orange, bananas, sugar, and 2 cups of pineapple juice. Pour in the remaining juice and stir. Freeze in Zip-locs. Remove from freezer until slushy. Pour in 7-Up and serve in a punch bowl.

Stargazers

I am sitting, lying, and basking in heaven. This house has a fabulous collection of children's literature. In fact, as I chose my first stack this morning, I felt like I was at the library. I began with The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg by Bill Peet. There is a good number of Peets so I will intersperse them in my reading. Followed with a familiar favorite, The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick, drawings by Arnold Lobel. The cross-hatched children and the sea and the bottle are Harriet Welsh's childhood. Blue and yellow make green. It is inscribed by the author to J. H. M., who has sent many messages. I hope I am the kind of person of whom it is said, she sent many messages. Snippets from Happy Times in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren, illustrated by Ilon Wikland is good for those wanting to read of Lisa, Karl, Bill, Anna, Olaf, and Britta. Further on, there is Lotta. I ended the sitdown with Stargazer to the Sultan by Barbara K. Walker and Mine Sümer, illustrated by Joseph Low. I enjoy a palatable moral. Next to go: Lonely Scarecrow (if you can get through it, says the mom) by Tim Preston, illustrated by Maggie Kneen and The Three Golden Apples by Nathaniel Hawthorne. They also have a piano. I am pleased.

You've Arrived

During college years and those that followed, we discussed what we would have or where we would be when we knew we had arrived (i.e., financial security, well-being, adulthood, etc. Unbeknownst to most of us, it would take a while and we are still in it). My friend S. would own multisized Zip-locs and foil and Saran Wrap. She would use them indiscriminately, not washing the used Zip-locs for later. At one point, she also said she would have an iPod.

I remember my focus was a deep freeze full of white packaged meats, casseroles, and ice cream and popsicles. Why these? A sense of well-being sometimes comes from having things at the ready. I am not an extreme carnivore but do eat numerous glacial desserts. I would also like good windows and fruit trees. I wanted to go to See's candy for a pound of selected chocolates to keep in the fridge and eat at will (not as a gift).

A garden is a world of well-being. This week my two gifted plumeria are blooming simultaneously. It makes me renew my quest for a bit of dirt to plant them in for years to come. For now, they grace the pool at the complex and gladden the eye. Potted.