Archive for May, 2009

Notice the new look? Richard and I are in the process of making a new website. We are using a new type of software that should make updating the website almost as easy as updating the blog. We’re both enjoying learning this new way of working. We’ve added a few new bells and whistles — like rotating images in the header at the top. I spent time this morning in the garden. (Do you remember what this cabbage looked like a few months ago?) I tied two trellises and started weaving our tomatoes, beans, melons and peas into the netting. I pulled some broccoli plants that we think we got in too late to make room for more peppers and eggplant. The broccoli had gotten so tall, it was blocking sunlight to some of our pepper transplants. I kept two broccoli plants and several cabbages. The cabbages look like they’re heading up. The heat may get them before they’re really big, but I plan on eating baby cabbage anyway. Does anyone out there know if you can eat broccoli leaves? How would you prepare them?

spinach

snow pea

summer squash

beet

square foot gardening

We went to Vicksburg over the weekend for the Vicksburg Theater Guild‘s final performance of The Fantasticks. Dad played Bellamy, the father of Luisa. A tornado came through their neck of the woods earlier in the day so parts of Dad’s costumes were locked in the washing machine when the power went out. He improvised. We learned about the costume crisis before we left our house so we threw various pairs of shoes into the car — just in case. Luckily, he had found some before we arrived (just minutes before curtain). The boys and their friend, A, sat in the front row in an intimate seating configuration.

Bellamy tossed his vest to G early in the show and G tossed it back a few minutes later. I loved seeing the musical, which I had listened to as a child but never seen performed. Richard and I could really relate to the “Plant a carrot, get a carrot” song. A bunch of the songs made much more sense with the connecting tissue of the story. Henry and Mortimer, the two players who provide comic relief, were terrific; they had us in stitches. We got to meet the talented young performers who played Matt, Luisa, and The Mute. Richard took these photos using the D200 with no flash.
Another Fib:

Front
Row
Tricksters
Tossing squares
Red, Green, Yellow, Blue
Cheer Grandpa Dave Singing Fun Songs

My friend from Maine drew and colored this for me during my visit last month. Essie is a young naturalist who spends lots of time in the woods around her home. We took a walk so she could show us some of her favorite spots. I’d love to see the colors that spring has brought to her house. Maybe her mom will email some photos.

Three
Boys
Reading
Writing, too
Just like Mom and Dad
What’s different is the whole world.

I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about National Poetry month and I’ve been thinking a lot about Fibonacci numbers. Today I am posting a couple of Fib poems. (The Fib is a creation of Greg Pincus.)

Peas,
Beans,
Eggplant,
Tomatoes,
Cucumbers, okra
Drenched, battered, reaching for the sun.

Two exhibits of student artwork fill the second floor of the Mississippi Arts Center. Twenty-one of Jackson’s public schools participated this year in JumpstART, a project of the Ask for More Arts Collaborative. Friday night marked the opening of the JumpstART exhibit and Sunday marks the opening of the accompanying exhibit, the Power APAC annual student art show. JumpstART participants were in kindergarten through fifth grades; the Power APAC students were fourth through twelfth.

All the Campbells went because I was an artist-in-residence at Davis Magnet IB World School this spring (one of my students took the photo in the display panel above) and because my two younger sons, N and D, are fifth and sixth graders respectively in the APAC visual arts program. The oldest, G, is in the music program, but he attended so he could write about the exhibit as a class requirement. Richard took photographs that will go in the newsletter for the JumpstART convening partner, Parents for Public Schools of Greater Jackson.

Here is my sixth grader with one of his pieces. I thought this was cool when I first saw it in the classroom; I love geometric shapes and I love the colors, too. It reminds me of a kaliedocycle he brought home a few weeks ago. He had made it in his gifted class. It is a very cool three-dimensional turning paper toy that he colored with markers. Very exciting. Here are some instructions to make your own.

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Here’s my fifth grader with one of his prints. He did a few prints of sunflowers and some were plain ink and others were crayon resist. Very nice. I always enjoy these end-of-year exhibits because I don’t get to see their work along the way — unless it happens to be done before a parent/teacher conference. D was unhappy that his “best” piece wasn’t in the show. He drew and colored a poster for the Martin Luther King Day contest and it was still in the hands of the officials. I hope we’ll have it back to hang on our walls at home this summer.

As I said, we are being inundated with end-of-year stuff. I spent the day in Oxford with G at the Mississippi Music Teachers’ Association State Special Recognition Recital. He had earned a place with a district performance last month. He played two pieces in a solo recital and then another in the sonatina event. At this level, all the students were very accomplished and I loved listening to the pieces. We finished there and headed over to Square Books for a book, some ice cream, and a quick meeting with the manager about planning an event around Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator.