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Florida Christmas tree 2

Last year the Florida Christmas tree posted on this blog shone with lights.

No branches. Strings of lights at the Cedar Key marina

glowing in the dark like a beacon.

c. Jan Godown Annino

Now for a tree like none you’ve ever seen,

I’ve reprised an image I took years ago, during a visit with

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper in South Florida.

This tree stood tall in the Seminole Tribe of Florida

headquarters, with a palm tree nodding nearby.

The tree is typical. Maybe yours is tall & green.

Red bows are standard. So are basic balls.

But the dolls!

How many trees have you seen, where dolls are the decoration.

Handmade dolls.

Dolls made with palm fibers. And dressed to represent

Seminole patchwork clothing. For the textile, fabric art

& history buff this tree is worth a detour.

This is a little visit, here.

Or maybe it will inspire you to plan your trip.

c. Jan Godown Annino all rights reserved

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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D.C. days

Try to remember when you first visited Washington, D.C.

For me, as a child.

Tall, white buildings.

Giant animals frozen in time.

Glittering Hope Diamond. And rubies. And emeralds.

The actual monster space travelers from NASA. (see the re-entry scars!) These were in OUTER SPACE!

Fountains.

Big carved rocks of men on horses at every traffic circle.

I also remember touring The White House with my family in the 1960s. This was before the days of

heritage tourism. There were no rest room facilities for the public. But a member of our party needed one.

So this person received an unusual private tour to a lovely room reserved for VIP guests. And the sneak peeks

down halls & opening & closing doors as staff performed their duties, was the top topic the rest of the day.

I visit D.C. as often as I can, which is made sweet by having a longtime college pal who

is generous in sharing her townhouse with friends. And another pal who also shares. Thank you folks!

Recently the trip turned judicial, because my public interest lawyer husband was involved in an important juvenile justice case at the Supreme Court. First visit to that august body. And naturally there wasn’t time enough to learn enough. A return visit expected. Let me just say: Go Justice Sonia, Go!

www.culturaltourismdc.org

WALKING D.C.

The connected folks at Cultural Tourism D.C.

www.culturaltourismdc.org

sent me & my walking boots to their site, to explore with my eyes before I arrived.

I settled on a tour of The Mall.

Our leader with the blue umbrella, Tim Stewart, a retired h.s. guidance counselor, knew the hills & vales to lead us to,

the front porch & back porch gossip, & the best place to adjust soggy situations. (I used the automatic hand dryer in a women’s restroom to remove puddles that my boots soaked up.) For nearly 2 hours – and I’m sure he could have brought us to more sites – he regaled us with his love of our Mall. We were of U.S., Paraguay & Asian heritage. Ask for Tim when you make your plans.

Although I have to say that my trip with my husband to gaze with love at our Nation’s Sacred Documents of Freedom & one of the the Brit’s original Magna Cartas (1297!!!) at the National Archives sits at the top of the list on this visit, Walking the Mall with our Guide is a close 2nd.

This was on Memorial Day, folks, we were in the midst of poignant moments, floral tributes, military honor guard at the Vietnam Memorial (s). And it was funeral, the gray sky, the chizzle (chill drizzle). My heart leapt. My father, the American Legion Commander of his post in Our Hunterdon County, N.J. town, honored his Memorial Days. I placed my hand over my

heart, for our troops’ brave service. Then I hummed as a prayer, brilliant John Lennon’s words, war is over … So be it.

World War II Memorial

Washington, D.C. Nov. 11, 2009

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Books for the Boo!

We keep creepy Halloween in a box 11 months out of the year.

Come October, the ghosties & ghoulies, black cats & bats

are let out of the box.

We hammer tombstones into the yard dirt & place home-made pumpkins

of paper around the living room.

My daughter puts read-aloud Halloween books on a low table.

And she & her father stuff & dress a scarecrow who guards our yard. We will all

carve the pumpkin closer to the big evening.

What are your favorite Halloween titles? Once you read some of ours, these may become a grand part of

your Halloween bookshelf:

SIX CREEPY SHEEP by Judith Ross Enderle & Stephanie Gordon Tessler, with illustrations from John O’Brien

BAT JAMBOREE by Kathi Appelt, with illustrations by Melissa Sweet

THE LITTLE SCARECROW BOY by Margaret Wise Brown (yes, MWB herself, without a bunny in sight) and brought to a delightful modern art interpretation by David Diaz.

Trick or Treat (I want it to be Treat) to You & Yours

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signs

I am enjoying The Signmaker’s Assistant, which carries with it a whimsical, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Cloudy is soon to be in a theater near you) sensiblilty that I like. More on Signmaker in a second.

This story sends me into my library, to look up at a message high on the wall above the window. The message is in black paint, on wood. It’s a sign.

I grew up with this sign & I think you can guess that I love it.

Among the houses of pals & family folks I visited in childhood, ours was the only house with a sign in it.

It was given to me by my father, who had been a drill sgt. in the U.S. Army. This sign was made for him by a solider. Dad was good at making the guys write their letters home, in the Writing Room. I love the uneven sides sawed for the sign and the big block letters. I can imagine him walking through the room where it hung at Fort Dix, N.J., making sure the boys had paper and pencils. The sign later hung over a family desk during my childhood. When it became clear I liked writing, my Dad promised it to me. I can write when I’m not near it. But I have also looked up at it when stuck & found something in it that helped me forge on.

These days, I find something stuck above it at the top, red words on white paper - a Florida sign in the form of a bumper sticker. Every so often here in the Sunshine State some of us think perhaps a fella named Skink should enliven election coverage by campaigning for Governor of Florida.

Skink is the nickname of a character Carl Hiaasen created, a rascal who is a book-toting, wilderness-camping, former Florida governor, living out of a station wagon in the cypress swamps of South Florida. The paper sign says “Re-elect SKINK for Governor.”

Both signs are totems in my writing world.

THE SIGNMAKER’S ASSISTANT

Nathan is the young character in The Signmaker’s Assistant by Tedd Arnold who discovers the power of words when he goes beyond his little job cleaning paint brushes for the town signmaker. Nathan posts a few signs around the village that any child would applaud. But are these the kinds of signs that will help the town run smoothly?

I lucked into this book – signed by the talented illustrator-author – in a small art gallery gift shop in North Florida when my husband & I visited it on a recent weekend. Tedd Arnold is the 2006 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Winner for Hi! Fly Guy. He also won the 2007 Edgar for RAT LIFE, a Young Adult novel & it was his very 1st novel, after publishing more than 50 successful picture books, which keep on dancing out of his studio in New York State. The p.b. title in his line up that intrigues me most from the title, is Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name. Makes me think of Double Trouble in Walla Walla from Andrew Clements with pictures by Salvatore Murdocca.

For more on Tedd Arnold, sign-maker, book-maker, word-slinger:

http://www.teddarnoldbooks.com

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