Book of the Week: 'Bunny Days' by Tao Nyeu

 

Tao Nyeu's first book 'Wonderbear' was a big favourite in our house, with its surrealist flights of fantasy involving a magical bear which emerged from a hat, grown on a plant from a seed planted by a small boy. So we were full of anticipation for her new book 'Bunny Days' (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2010).  Here we found the same fluid lines of her earlier book, made using water-based silkscreen printing.  There is also a bear, though this bear's activities are a tad more prosaic, and the whole book is more gentle, whimsical and just plain cute.

Bunny Days has three stories, each of which feature the trials and tribulations of six cute bunnies, and each of which Tao Nyeu has illustrated around a selective palette of, in turn,  blue, orange and green, all of which are muted.

In 'Muddy Bunnies', our hopping friends are splashed with mud from Mr Goat's tractor.  The bunnies hop to Bear for assistance.  They find him knitting himself a stripy scarf and just by chance sitting next to a washing machine, into which the bunnies are loaded (the delicate cycle).  'Swish swash' they are washed, hung out to dry all day and all night and 'Everyone is happy', a reassuring resolution repeated at the end of the following two stories.

In 'Dusty Bunnies' Mrs Goat is hoovering in the meadow (I love these touches of the absurd), 'Rrrr' she mistakenly sucks up the bunnies from their underground slumber.  The frustrated housewife visits Bear (now wearing his knitted scarf and swinging on a swing) , who shakes the little bunnies out and blows off the dust with his big fan 'Whirrr'.  A few careful repairs to Mrs Goat's vacuum and she can return to her work, with all the bunny holes now clearly demarcated with fences and bunny signs.

In the concluding story 'Bunny Tails', the bunnies are playing hide and seek in a hedge, whilst Mr Goat trims it with his shears. Distracted by a butterfly, Mr Goat's shears remove some bunny tails. 'Now there are bunnies without tails and tails without bunnies'. Our hero, Bear, is once again consulted, this time as he sits in front of his sewing machine sipping a cup of tea.  'Zumm zumm' goes his machine (dont worry though, he is 'very gentle'), the bunnies have a bit of rest and a bedtime story from Bear, and once again they are as good as new. 

Boo wanted this book read over and over again when we brought it home from the library.  We both found it very funny and the characters very endearing. Boo has an obsession with bears anyway and if they can be seen to be knitting, sewing and washing (things she is very aware of as she sees me doing them frequently) then I think it really fires up her imagination.  When I first saw this book I thought it might be too cute, but the absurdity of it balances against that, and the minimal text with sound effects is elegantly done. 

Brothers Creek

Now that our walking season is truly underway (we do walk in the winter, but the incessant rain dampens our enthusiasm and diminishes the frequency), I thought I would like to start documenting our walks.  When we first moved to Vancouver, we bought '109 Walks in British Columbia's Lower Mainland' by Mary and David Macaree and have done most the walks in it located on the north shore, some of them several times. 

This weekend it was time for walk no. 41 in the book, the Brothers Creek Trails, in the mountains above West Vancouver.  We drove to the affluent neighbourhood of British Properties and parked on the uppermost road to begin our walk.  The book gave options for 2,3 or 4 hour walks from the same starting point.  Dadda Boo was hoping for the 4, I was reckoning on the 3, and Boo, well she wanted to go home pretty much from the outset.  Most times she loves nothing more than to be on Dadda Boo's back (I'm not keen on carrying her now she's over 2 stone!), but today grumpy tot was in residence. 

The trail climbs steadily up the mountain into old growth forest.  This is an interesting forest to walk through as there are a number of remnants of the logging industry of the past; today we saw an old rusty truck amongst the trees.  There is a heritage trail with numbered signposts to identify traces of the industry, if you want to do it properly.

We enjoyed the trail as it headed into the forest, strangely because it was less well maintained than some of the trails we frequent.  Fallen trees, rickety bridges and deep mud pools add a bit of interest (though we don't want too much difficulty with the terrain what with the tot in tow). 

The grumbling reached such a deafening pitch by the first marker point, that we opted to take the 2 hour route, missing out on our chance to see two mountain lakes and two more sets of falls (we'll be back!).  Dropping down to the creek, we crossed a bridge and began our return route down the other side.

Mist was clinging to the mountainside as we dropped back down on the return leg, and we emerged amongst the houses to rain and a typically misty view down over Lions Gate bridge and Stanley Park.

In the afternoon, we purchased Boo her own hiking backpack (complete with little teddy) and set her off on her own two legs.  Usually pretty reluctant to walk if there is another option, the hiker-in-training managed about 4km around Rice Lake. 

We'll soon have her scrambling over rocks and tree roots!
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

Clothkits 'n' Scottish Knits

Yes, it's time for me to harp on about Clothkits again.   I've just run up these cropped trousers, which were, I believe, reprinted from a vintage clothkits pattern. I wish they would reprint some of the more retro 70's items from the old catalogues too, I'd definitely be up for a bit of that.  I like the way this pattern looks hand-done when seen close to (sorry the photo is not particularly helpful for that... I was working alone!)  Perfect for the summery sunday we had out in the garden.

 

Its all gone a bit Scottish on the needles.  I loved knitting with Rowan Scottish Tweed for the Bloke Hat so when I saw some 4ply going cheap at my local knitting shop Urban Yarns I snapped it up, and got going on a wrap cardigan from 'Scottish Highland Knits' which I picked up at the library.

Only problem is that the pattern requires 10 balls and I only got 8, returning to find the stock out and the wool apparently discontinued.  Harrummph.  That'll teach me to read patterns more carefully.  I suspect said cardigan may have short sleeves, which might be quite nice actually (at least that is what I am telling myself!)

On the subject of Scottish knits, when I was trawling around knitting on the internet, I came across designs by young Scot Isolda Teague which are just gorgeous.  I hope to continue develop my skills so I can take on one of her designs.

I also came across some incredibly stylish (and tres Scottish) designs by Kate Davies, especially the owl sweater, which is too cute for words.  Her blog Needled is compelling reading.  At 36, she has recently had a major stroke and is documenting her recovery in an most intelligent and moving way. 

Those Scots certainly know a thing or two about wool and knitting.  
 

  

Book of the Week: 'Elephants Never Forget!'

Elephants Never Forget!, written by Anushka Ravishankar, and illustrated by Christiane Pieper, is a tale of a lost elephant who finds a new home amongst a herd of buffalo.  Even when his own kind return and he has an opportunity to return to them, he opts to stay with his new found friends and play with them. 

Continuing my current interest in picture books using printmaking, this book is illustrated throughout with two-colour prints (they look like woodcuts but could be lino), a striking combination of black and periwinkle blue.  There is definitely the touch of a computer here and there, but I love the hand-done roughness of much of the images, and the changes of scale are dramatic and bring the story to life.  The book design is also striking with some bold graphic use of text , particularly words describing sounds (splitter!  splatter!  Chitter!  Chatter!).

This book was originally published in India and apparently issued with textured papers, which would be lovely along with the prints, especially as many pages use large areas of white (or rather buff) to great effect. 

Head for the Hills!

As the eye of the world turned from Vancouver post-Olympics, the snow had the last laugh, returning to coat our local mountains in a thick layer of white.  Ski-runs that remained resolutely brown throughout February are now open again, and it seemed the whole city headed up the hill this weekend, at least if the queues at Grouse Mountain were anything to go by.  The glorious sunshine was an added bonus.

We boosted Boo up into the backpack, donned the snowshoes and headed out on a great trail towards Dam mountain.

If I ever find any gloves that actually really do stay on my daughter's hands, I will rejoice.
 
 
 
 
 

Book of the Week: 'Last Night' by Hyewon Yum

I introduce to you my 'Book of the Week' slot, wherein I present a book to you on a weekly basis a children's book with which I am enthralled.  I'm not going to promise a particular day of the week... my available time slots are too erratic for that.  

This week I bring to you 'Last Night' by Hyewon Yum, a picture book for ages 3-6 without words.  I love books without words, see 'Wonder Bear' and 'The Zoo' in my kids booklist for other great books without words.

In 'Last Night', a little girl scowls at the vegetables on her plate, and is sent to her room by her mum.  There she takes consolation from her teddy bear and cuddles up to sleep with him, whereupon, he comes to life and takes the little girl out on an adventure into the woods, where she meets his friends (wolves, lions...) and spends the night dancing and having fun.  She falls asleep beside the bear, and wakes up back in her bed, her teddy bear once again just that.  She rushes downstairs to hug her mother.

I have come across other quite similar storylines to this in our regular library  visits, but the images in this book are so full of spirit and playfulness that they mark out this book as unique in my mind.  The illustrations are rendered in lino printing, which is one of my favourite mediums, but I am totally in awe of Hyewon Yum's techique.  I have only done quite simple lino prints, but these ones use many colours so I am assuming that she uses either a reduction technique, or multiple plates, or both.  I would love her to give me a lesson!  I also love the texture created on the images.  I am imagining that this is created by using a baren, which is a tool you can use for printing by hand.  This is inspiring as I just recently bought one, and it means you can print without a press, to which I don't currently have access.

 
 This book is so inspiring.  I'm just off to dust off my lino tools and pull open that baren (well actually I'm not sure Boo will tolerate that right now, but I promise I will... soon!)

Easter Tidings

 I'm back, but with a intermittently-functioning camera, so things might be a little sporadic around here for a while until I get it properly fixed.  It's a gamble right now whether it will decide to turn on or not, which can be pretty frustrating when it's all happening right in front of you now.

Here's our little Easter tableau for you.  The bunnies are knitted and stuffed with wool, the eggs are needlefelted, and the chick is of course a pom pom (poor guy never even got eyes).

There was some chocolate goodies too, but I wanted to have a  balance with handmade things, so we were all set for an early morning hunt...

This year we hard boiled eggs, crayoned on them with wax crayons, and dyed them with fabric dye.  They are quite pretty, though I think we would make the dye more intense next time so that the resist was more dramatic.

Fingers crossed that my camera will co-operate, as I have a few things lined up to bring you ....

In the meantime happy spring tidings to you!