five lovely things…april 5

Hello once again, dear friends.

I wonder what this week has brought you, and hope it was monotony at worst, and preferably some simple pleasures and glimpses of beauty.

Here are my five lovely things for this week:

1. Humor.
The bit that made me laugh the most this week was the Scottish sports broadcaster for the BBC, Andrew Cotter, who taped himself doing a play-by-play of his two labs gobbling down their food.

Apparently he was bored, due to all the canceled sporting events. So, so funny.

2. Crossword puzzles.
When I feel extra-anxious, sometimes I can’t even focus on reading, but crossword puzzles always suck me in and distract me from worrying. So I was intrigued to read this brief history of word games. Like the author of the article, I was shocked to learn crosswords have only been around since 1913!

3. Some Good News.
John Krasinsky, better known as Jim from The Office, taped himself anchoring the first episode of what he calls Some Good News. It’s a 15-minute production done from his home office with various clips of neighborliness and love, a short trip down memory lane with Steve Carell, and general low-key nice-guyness.

4. Help for all the wiggle worms.
Trainer Joe Wicks from the UK has been making P.E. with Joe episodes for all the kids stuck at home these days, featuring 30 minutes of vigorous calisthenics! Thousands of kids are participating.
If you’d appreciate 30 minutes of someone else a) engaging the children and b) energetically prodding them to MOVE! so they’re perhaps a tad less likely to climb the walls, this might be your answer.
Live episodes are conducted Monday-Friday but if you’re not on UK time, you can find them all on his Youtube station.

5. Nature Poetry
April is National Poetry Month.
This classic Wordsworth poem attests to the healing power of nature, even just in our memories. Enjoy.

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

And one heads-up for those who didn’t catch my update to the reading resources post last week:

LeVar Burton — the epic host of Reading Rainbow — will begin LeVar Burton Reads for Children — via livestream on Twitter.
These will take place Mondays at noon Eastern time.
I believe they’ll stay up on his Twitter feed for later viewing as well.

What I’m hoping to post on Orange Marmalade this week:
*Musing on inconveniences, frustrations, and required adjustments. Where’s the silver lining?
*Reading suggestions for ages 14 and up.
I read almost no current YA titles, but have been asked several times for book suggestions for this age group.
Hopefully my list will have some different ideas that work for teens (or adults).
*I’m going to go ahead and post some middle grade titles I’ve read thus far in 2020
along with some old favorites that I’ve never found time to post for one reason or another.
Perhaps you’d like to purchase something for a reader in your life and one of these titles will do the trick.