Happy Easter!

Desert blooms to brighten your Easter...

In Like a Lion

John Belushi explains the entrance of March (Saturday Night Live, March 1976).

Happy Groundhog Day!

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

Wishing you a lovely day whatever the weather!

Happy Birthday Claude!

Today would have been my grandpa Claude Argyl Smith's 100th birthday. He passed away eight years ago at the age of 92 (you can read his obituary in the Washington Post online).

He was born in a log cabin, learned to drive a Model T Ford when we was 12 years old, and studied for college by the light of an oil lamp. He also had a rather amazing life which took him around the world. As a large animal veterinarian for the US Department of Agriculture, he oversaw the arrival of giant pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to the National Zoo, and the import and quarantine of Jackie Kennedy's horse, Sardar, from Pakistan.

Most importantly, he was wise and funny and wonderful, as grandpas should be, and I miss him very much. To celebrate, here are some images my uncle recently scanned from Claude's old slides. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

a cheetah, a gamekeeper and Claude in Africa in the 1960s

Claude (left) and a colleague in Africa, 1960s

Claude (right) and a colleague in Africa

Claude and a colleague with an African termite mound

Claude in England in 1978, sporting some amazing trousers

Grandpa and me, England, 1978 (I still have that plaid shirt)

A  special Routemaster bus picked us up for my grandpa's 68th birthday! (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1981)

the birthday boy, January 30, 1981

Grandma, Grandpa and my family on Oahu, Hawaii, 1984 (I'm in the red muumuu)

Grandma and Grandpa (Claude and Gerry) with my youngest sister in Hawaii, 1984

Claude in Jamaica, 1974

Ringing out the old year

I've spent the last week of the year with my family, baking, eating, playing games, and hiking in the desert:

...and you cannot beat coming home to warm your feet in front of a toasty fire.

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

(watercolor illustration by Edith Blackwell Holden, 1906,
from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady)

I've been listening to an old recording of Truman Capote reading his story, "A Christmas Memory," written in 1956. It is sweet, funny, nostalgic and sad, as the best Christmas stories are. This American Life has a slightly abridged version of the 1959 recording on their site, which you may listen to here.

Wishing you visions of sugarplums and a very merry Christmas!

Christmas illustrations...

One of the great joys of my childhood was receiving Cricket magazine in the post. Cricket was (and is) an amazing literary magazine for children, full of stories, poems and beautiful illustrations. At a young age it introduced me to some of my favorite authors and illustrators. I still have most of my back issues, many worn from reading and re-reading.

Cricket's covers were always glossy and beautiful. When I was little and living in Hawaii the snowy, wintry pictures made it feel like Christmas despite the balmy temperatures and palm trees. Here are some of my favorite illustrations from winter issues of Cricket, spanning from 1985 to 1993 (click images to view larger)...

"The Little Fir Tree" watercolor, pen and ink drawings with numbered captions by Erik Blegvad from the story by Hans Christian Andersen, from the December 1991 issue:

"The Ice Maiden" pastel, watercolor, and acrylic painting by Leo and Diane Dillon, from the February 1993 issue:

Old Kris oil on canvas by NC Wyeth, 1925, from the December 1985 issue:

"Stellar Angels" watercolor, tempera, and colored pencils by Tomie dePaola, from the December 1989 issue:

"Dragons and Gargoyles of Princeton" pen and ink, watercolor, colored pencil, and magic marker by Lynne Cherry, from the January 1986 issue: