Fable

Guest Blog Post: A true elfin story by Stella, oh, Stella

da-AL Adults, Adventure, Beauty, Blogging, Denmark, Fable, Fiction, Gardening, Germany, Music, Playing, Reblog, Story Telling, Women, Writing

Visiting Birgit’s blog feels like a vacation, a respite from my crowded urban Los Angeles. If you’ve followed my site for a while, you first met Birgit at Happiness Between Tails here.

Evidence that tiny folk live in Birgit’s garden.

On her own site, sometimes she takes us with her when she travels. A native of Germany, she often invites us into her home in Denmark. If she’s cooking something delicious and healthy, she makes sure we’re there. When she and her husband make music, she lets us see them perform on a video. We’re invited to peer over her shoulder as she coaxes her flower garden to thrive in heat and frost. On some days, we bicycle beside her and her husband to glory in rolling green hills and rustic scenery populated with charming farm animals. Rain or shine, we can join her in strolls along beaches and marinas.

Do little folk live in your garden? In this short story, she describes some unique guests on the other side of her computer…

Stella, oh, Stella

So, that’s it, I cannot do anything else for now. I will have to continue in spring.

The beginning is done: the fireplace, the ladder, the tiled path, the area for gatherings … the rest will have to wait. A pile of firewood is also ready …

What I am talking about is, of course, the elfin dwelling place in the birch stump. I have marked the places for the entrance door and the windows, but it is getting too cold to accomplish artistic wood carvings.

————

The following winter is comparatively mild, but grey, rainy, stormy, in short: not cosy at all! The spring bulbs are slowly coming our with their first green.

At the beginning of May, my husbands enters the kitchen and says enthousiastically that the door, which I have carved into the birch stump looks incredibly real, the windows as well. I rush into the garden…

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Guest Blog Post: Mutts and Mistletoe by MACSBOOKS311

da-AL Animals, Authors, Blessings, Blogging, Books, Events, Fable, Fiction, Guest Posts, Happiness, Holidays, Joy, Kindness, North America, Partying, Pets, Reading, Reblog, United States, Words, Writing

Cover of "Mutts and Mistletoe" by Natalie Cox

Mention a dog in a book and instantly it’s that much better! Do you agree?

Here MACSBOOKS311 revisits us with another great book review…

Macsbooks

If you are a dog lover, then Mutts and Mistletoe is must read book for you! Even if you aren’t a dog lover, you will enjoy this delightful holiday book!

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The holidays – which for me begin on October 1 – are the only time of the year that I actually read and enjoy cozy mysteries and romance books. I think it has something to do with being raised on holiday classics which morphed into Hallmark Holiday movies. I like feeling nostalgic and magical and in love this time of year. If given the opportunity to read a fun holiday story, I will jump at the chance. Mutts and Mistletoe was such an opportunity!

Charlie’s life has hit the rocks – her boyfriend just ran off with his trainer, her mother has fled to Australia with her new husband and, in a neighbor’s freak explosion, her apartment ceiling caved in…

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Let’s Make Every Week Banned Books Week! by da-AL

da-AL Authors, Books, Bookstores, Children, Cookbooks, Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker's husband Alan Campbell, Events, Fable, Fiction, Fine Art, Joy, Labels, Learning, Librarians, Library, Literacy, Literary Agents, Love, Magic, Mind, Modern Life, Multiculturalism, Novels, Poetry, Publishing, Reading, Reading Room, Social Media, Story Telling, Teachers, Teaching, Uncategorized, United States, WordPress, Words, Writing

Persepolis is discussed by a UK teen on youtube video about Banned Book Week.

Does the threat of a book being banned ensure that it’s among the finest books written? Check out the fantastic examples cited by the smart folks in this 29-second video (and pat yourself on the back if you smile when “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is discussed — *see end of this post for why)…

Banned Book Week needs to be every week of the year! Started in the U.S., the now international event has been honored every last week of September since 1982.

* Whereas the girl in the video remembers the story as happening in South America during the 1920s, here’s how Wikipedia tells it: “The story takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County.”

Once my novels-in-progress are published, I hope they’re not banned! How many potentially banned books have you read?

Part 2: What Has Your Pet Taught You? by da-AL

da-AL Adoption, Adults, Adventure, Animal Husbandry, Animals, Babies, Cats, Dogs, Fable, Gratitude, Humor, Joy, Marriage, Mindfulness, Modern Life, Parenting, Pets, Remembering, Teachers, Teaching, Uncategorized
Close Up Of Washing Five Puppy Dog
Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Deciding…

My husband and I agreed to adopt a dog. This was followed by months of discussion. What type of dog would harmonize best with our two cats?

We settled on these dog requirements:

  1. It should be a puppy, so that it would learn early on to respect cats.
  2. It shouldn’t mature to larger than thirty pounds, so as not to overwhelm the cats.
  3. For the sake of our newly planted organic veggie garden, a female, a dog who squats rather than lifts its leg to urinate, would be best.

Adopting…

The list at the forefront of our minds, we rushed to the nearest pound.

After an hour of walking up and down aisles and aisles of sad eyes, we selected a pair!

The two Labrador mix puppies, a sister and a brother, were too adorable to split up.

What were we thinking?! Labrador-mix-anything is bound to grow at least fifty pounds! And two of them?! Even the shelter employee said we were crazy…

Adapting…

Cute, cute, cute! What puppy isn’t cuteness incarnate?!

Within a week, their heart-melting charm, was frozen over by their unbounded annoying-ness.

They trampled the garden, gnawed carpets, ate towels, and slobbered over everything.

They pounced the cats and barked at the people.

They chased away domestic bliss.

Enraged, the kitties soiled our bed and sofa multiple times. Our home stank of impossible to wash out angry-cat pee.

Crafty Cat Lying On Floor black and white
Image courtesy of tiverylucky at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Payoff…

They made my husband laugh.

Gentleman dog taught himself to pee while squatting.

*** Here’s part one and part three to this post. ***

Have you ever had a pet?…

Guest Blog Post: The World of Mr. Wolf

da-AL Adults, Animals, Art, Authors, Babies, Books, Children, Fable, Fiction, Guest Posts, Humor, Lambs and Sheep, Literacy, London, Publishing, Working, Working from Home, Writing

What’s your favorite book from your childhood? I loved Winnie the Pooh.

The best children’s books are ones I appreciate all the more with the passage of time. Here Mr. Wolf, an author of the kinds of children’s books that adults can enjoy too, shares a few of his illustrations…

Here's Captain Bee Beard - a pirate who has a beard made out of bees! (From Mr. Wolf's children's book: Terry The Time Travelling Tortoise.)
Here’s Captain Bee Beard – a pirate who has a beard made out of bees! (From Mr. Wolf’s children’s book: Terry The Time Travelling Tortoise.)

 

Mr. Pong gets his comeuppance! (From Mr. Wolf's children's book: The Top Secret Cheese.)
Mr. Pong gets his comeuppance! (From Mr. Wolf’s children’s book: The Top Secret Cheese.)

 

Have you ever seen a Posh-Me-Posh-Ewe animal before? (From Mr. Wolf's forthcoming children's book: Mr. Zumpo's Amazing Zoo of Unusual Animals.)
Have you ever seen a Posh-Me-Posh-Ewe animal before? (From Mr. Wolf’s forthcoming children’s book: Mr. Zumpo’s Amazing Zoo of Unusual Animals.)

 

About the illustrator of these wonderful pictures: Mr. Wolf is an English freelance cartoon illustrator and an author of funny children’s books which adults seem to love too. I met him at Goodreads (a sort of Facebook for book lovers).

Guest Blog Post: “Princess is Kind of a Bad Ass,” link and comment from LJUBICICAMESOZDERKA

da-AL Art, Authors, Beauty, Body, Books, Boundaries, Boys, Celebration, Children, Consumerism, Fable, Fiction, Gender, Girls, Guest Posts, Happiness, Heroine, Humor, Identity, Individuality, Joy, Kindness, Languages, Learning, Library, Love, Marriage, Men, Modern Life, Publishing, Reading, Reblog, Romance, Self Esteem, Self Image, Self-Acceptance, Spirit, Story Telling, Strength, Survivors, Teachers, Teaching, United States, Women, Words, Writing
Snow White gets edited up!
Snow White gets edited up!

Sure this is a reblog — of a reblog! — it’s that good!!! …

Lucy Cat and Mooshie Cat: a video by da-AL

da-AL Cats, Fable, Happiness, Public Speaking, Story Telling, Toastmasters, Uncategorized, Videos

This Toastmasters speech required me to tell a story with a moral at the end. Hear ye now the tale of two cats: Lucy and Mooshie…

How do you think personality affects one’s life?