The Sheep of the Lal Bagh

Our township has a neat program where they "hire" sheep to come and graze the overgrown municipal owned areas.  We've see them over by the retention pond and in the courtyards at the high school.  The teenagers must get a kick out of seeing sheep right outside their windows!  Not only is the program cost effective and environmentally friendly, but it just seems really fun!

The Sheep of the Lal Bagh

David Mark

pictures by Lionel Kalish 1967

When I read the article in the local paper announcing the new program, my first thought was immediately this book (who knows, maybe that's where someone at the township offices got the idea!).  Illustrated by Lionel Kalish in glorious 60's/70's psychedelic style, the book tells the story of an Indian city whose park 'lawnmower' was a beloved sheep named "Ramesh".  On their holidays, the people of the city came to the park to relax and also to see the sheep.  When the mayor decides that the city needs a modern lawn mower, Ramesh is unceremoniously dismissed and everyone is unhappy.

They could not pat a machine, or rub a machine's head, or climb on a machine's back and ask it for a ride.  So little by little the people stopped coming to the park. 

Luckily for Ramesh and the people of the city, a compromise was soon reached.  (And there's a funny accompanying illustration of the committee appointed to find Ramesh looking through all the sheep!)

Mother and Child

I took a photography class years ago and a fellow student mentioned this book.  And since I have always loved portraiture, old-fashioned clothing, the subjects of women and children, it makes sense that I would be drawn to these pictures.

This is Dorr's introduction:

The Story is from everlasting to everlasting.  Yet when it happens to you, that your new-born child is laid for the first time in your arms, it is the whole miracle of creation and your heart cries out as did Mary's"  "My soul doth magnify the Lord."  You know without being told that you are as near to touching the divine mystery as one may come in this life.

Here are pictures of my children, my children's children and my god-children.  These are our rooms, our houses and our lands in the States of Connecticut and New Hampshire where we live.  Our story begins on the day of Bet's wedding and speaks of these last years.  Sequence is of no importance here.  A day is remembered for itself and the picture is all that we finally keep.  I am here with my children.

Mother and Child

Nell Dorr 1972

A remarkable bit of trivia is that Dorr was good friends with the artist Tasha Tudor and these photographs were in collaboration with her and her family.

Hailstones and Halibut Bones

They make you feel

Every feeling there is

From the grumpiest grump

To the fizziest fizz.

And you and you and I 

Know well

Each has a taste 

And each has a smell

And each has a wonderful

Story to tell....

Hailstones and Halibut Bones

Mary O'Neil

illustrated by John Wallner 1989

Mary O'Neill has written a marvelous book about colors.  Each poem describes a color, weaving in all the senses in such clever and glorious ways.  We love reading this and talking about how the colors make us feel, or the things we think of when we think of a particular color.   Did O'Neil get her descriptions right?  

Gold is the sunshine 

Light and thin 

Warm as a muffin

 On your skin.

Brown is a freckle

Brown is a mole

Brown is the earth

When you dig a hole.

Brown is the hair 

On many a head

Brown is chocolate 

And gingerbread.

Brown is a feeling

You get inside

When wondering makes 

Your mind grow wide.

Brown is a leather shoe

And a good glove---

Brown is as comfortable

As love.

Orange is zip

Orange is dash

The brightest stripe

In a Roman sash.

Orange is an orange

Also a mango

Orange is music

Of the tango.

Orange is the fur

Of the fiery fox,

The brightest crayon

In the box.

And in the fall

When the leaves are turning

Orange is the smell

Of a bonfire burning...

Charlotte particularly agreed with this part from the Purple poem:

Purple's more popular 

Than you think...

It's sort of a great

Grandmother to pink.

Homes and Habits of Wild Animals

Home and Habitats of Wild Animals

Karl Patterson Schmidt

illustrated by Walter Alois Weber 1934

Just look how beautiful this vintage book is!  If I had the heart to tear it up, I would take out and frame some of the pages.  (Which would look amazing decorating the walls of the rustic Adirondack summer house I imagine having some day!).  It's fun to read, even though it's pretty dated.

"Every country boy who has trapped muskrats to make a fur coat for his mother or to add to his spending money has learned a good deal about the furs with which animals are clothed."

The colors and large size make it a rather nice coffee table book too!

Should you journey to the great Rio Grande, whose name means "River Great" in Spanish, and hunt through the jungle-thick growth of mesquite and persimmon and cactus, you might find a track in soft ground that would be just like the track of a tabby cat in your backyard at home, but so immensely large that you would be much more likely to beat a retreat than to follow it up.