Excerpt from my current reading

[Excerpt taken from my 1909 Lippincott Juniors edition, with charming illustrations by Maria L. Kirk...]


"So Diamond sat down again, took the baby in his lap, and began poking his face into its little body, laughing and singing all the while, so that the baby crowed like a little bantam. And what he sang was something like this -- such nonsense to those that couldn't understand it! but not to the baby, who got all the good in the world out of it: --

baby's a-sleeping
wake up baby
for all the swallows
are the merriest fellows
and have the yellowest children
who would go sleeping
and snore like a gaby
disturbing his mother
and father and brother
and all a-boring
their ears with his snoring
snoring snoring
for himself and no other
for himself in particular
wake up baby
sit up perpendicular
hark to the gushing
hark to the rushing
where the sheep are the woolliest
and the lambs the unruliest
and their tails the whitest
and their eyes the brightest
and baby's the bonniest
and baby's the funniest
and baby's the shiniest
and baby's the tiniest
and baby's the merriest
and baby's the worriest
of all the lambs
that plague their dams
and mother's the whitest
of all the dams
that feed the lambs
that go crop-cropping
without stop-stopping
and father's the best
of all the swallows
that build their nest
out of the shining shallows
and he has the merriest children
that's baby and Diamond
and Diamond and baby
and baby and Diamond
and Diamond and baby

Here Diamond's knees went off in a wild dance which tossed the baby about and shook the laughter out of him in immoderate peals. His mother had been listening at the door to the last few lines of his song, and came in with the tears in her eyes. She took the baby from him, gave him a kiss, and told him to run to his father."

--At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, first published in 1871

Covered bridge

A few weekends ago, my father-in-law and brother-in-law came out to join Douglas and I on a work-related road trip. One of our first stops was at this pretty covered bridge, dating from the late 1870s. According to one website, it was actually washed down the river about a mile during a 1913 flood, but the bridge was put on rollers and taken back to its original location, where it has stood ever since.

The morning was very tranquil and the spring greens were just lovely. I'd like to go back for a picnic sometime!

Spring

I am finding that spring in Indiana consists of a torturous weather cycle. The weather will show signs of warming up to glorious temperatures, reaching highs in the mid-60s, only to be followed by immediate rain, which brings things back down to near-freezing again. Sigh! I am trusting this won't last forever. ;-)

When I do get the chance to walk outside, I enjoy all the cheerful daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips that have bloomed in our neighborhood yards. Many trees are budding and the magnolias look especially beautiful right now. How is spring progressing in your neck of the woods?

Six months

Last Saturday was our six-month wedding anniversary. Those of you who have been married for years and years are rolling your eyes right now, but half a year seems like a very long time when you are newly married (in a wonderful, blessed, joyous way!). :-)

For a retrospective look at our wedding, here's a sequence of photos that's one of my favorites: