ARE YOU READY FOR FALL?

"Autumn has caught us in our summer wear." 
- Philip Larkin, British poet (1922-1986)

Here in sunny Southern California, there are not yet many signs of the coming fall, but I have seen a growing number of black crows, getting ready for the pecans to fall from my backyard neighbor's huge tree.  And of course, Halloween merchandise is showing up everywhere.

Cover illustration for by Randolph Caldecott's Sing a Song for Sixpence (1880) - public domain.

This Saturday, September 22, marks the First Day of Autumn.  I noticed this shocking fact when I opened my pocket datebook yesterday, with the approaching equinox staring me in the face (equinox comes from the Latin words for "equal night." The fall and spring equinoxes are the only days of the year in which the Sun crosses the celestial equator.)

When our kids were growing up, we liked to celebrate fall and fun on Halloween, without too much fright.  I've heard many families express the same desire, so I'm constantly on the look-out for fun versus frightening Halloween ideas for my blog (click HERE to see some of my past pumpkin posts).  This year, I'm really liking black birds, versus bats (stay tuned for a fun party idea coming up in October!)

Birds on a wire? Find these cute paper clips HERE.
(Comes with 8 blackbird clips on a 36" cord)

Here's a cute product I recently came across...a teacher used it on a bulletin board with fun photos, literary quotes, and fall poetry.

Reminds me of the well-known English nursery rhyme, Sing A Song Of Sixpence:

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

My book recommendation for today?  A "haunting" quirky fable about crows and a snake:
The Crows of Pearblossom, by Aldous Huxley (yes, the author of Brave New World wrote a children's book)...how two silly crows - with the help of a wise owl - solve the problem of a hungry snake devouring their eggs is a tale of cleverness triumphing over greed.

Born in England and educated at Balliol College, Huxley relocated to Southern California with his family in 1937.  He wrote The Crows of Pearblossom for his niece, Olivia, in 1944 as a Christmas gift.  In 1967 it was published in a small-format edition (now out of print), illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

I ordered the new 2011 edition because I couldn't resist Sophie Blackall's wonderful illustrations!  Read a great overview/history of this picture book, HERE, and the NYTimes review "Aldous Huxley's Brave New Storybook", HERE.

BEACONS OF LIGHT

Remember the whimsical scene "Brazzle Dazzle Day" from the 1970's Disney movie, Pete's Dragon?  Pete, an orphan boy, is helping Lampie (Mickey Rooney) - an old lighthouse keeper - and his daughter Nora (played by Helen Reddy) - clean up the lighthouse, Disney-style: dancing all the way.


I recalled this scene during our recent trip to Hawaii, where we stopped by a beautiful lighthouse on the island of Kauai.  This Kilauea Lighthouse has been standing sentry out on a point as a lone beacon to ships since May, 1913.

Kilauea Lighthouse on Kauai.

The old (which needs refurbishing)
 and the modern new signal light.

The grounds around this lighthouse are home to many species of birds, including the "Wedge-tailed Shearwaters", which make their nests by tunneling down into the dirt, below the ground cover plants that are all around the point.  We saw many of them nesting along the pathways...

CHILDREN'S BOOKS ABOUT LIGHTHOUSES:
There is something safe and hopeful about lighthouses, that children really relate to. Below I've shared two of our family's favorite books about lighthouses.  The first is a picture book and the second a historical easy-read chapter book...

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, by Hidegarde H. Swift, illustrations by Lynn Ward. This lovely book about a "fat and red and jolly" little lighthouse and a great gray bridge was first published in 1942.

source here

Interesting true story about this particular lighthouse:
In 1921 it was relocated from Sandy Hook New Jersey (where it had been built in 1880) to Fort Washington Park, on the New York bank of the Hudson, where it became "Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse" - the only one on the island of Manhattan.  When the George Washington Bridge opened in 1932, the lighthouse was decommissioned.  In 1951 public outcry prevented it from being sold at auction, and it was given instead to the city of New York.  It eventually fell into disrepair and its light was left dark. It was restored in the 1980s and was designated as a city landmark in 1991. Then in 2002, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of this book, the lighthouse, dark since 1947, was outfitted with a new lens, allowing its beacon of light to shine across the waters of the Hudson River again.

Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie, a well written and nicely illustrated "Beginning to Read" book by Peter and Connie Roop, illustrated by Peter E. Hanson. This simple but true story brings new meaning to the concept of duty. It's about a courageous young girl - Abbie - who is determined to keep her father's lighthouse lamps burning while he is away on the mainland.  She is resolute about her responsibility, despite of the fact that a terrific storm threatens to sweep her family's little house into the sea, the fact that her mother is in bed sick and must be kept warm, and that even the fate of their chickens is in her hands. (Based on a true story of an 1856 storm off the coast of Maine.)