Carol's Notebook – Page 446

Thursday’s Tale: The Pied Piper

May 24, 2012 by Carol4 Comments

I always knew today's tale as "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," but the version I found most easily on-line was "The Pied Piper" by Joseph Jacobs. It seems that there are several versions of this story taking place in different towns. Wikipedia states the earliest mention of the story seems to be on a stained glass window in the Church of Hamelin around 1300. Reportedly, the window showed a colorful figure of the Pied Piper and several children dressed in white. It is believed the window was in memory of an actual, tragic, historical event experienced by the town. The town chronicles also have an entry from 1384 stating, "It is 100 years since our children left." What happened to the children is not clear. Was it a plague or natural catastrophe? Did the children leave as part of a military campaign or pilgrimage? In whatever case, the rats weren't added to the story until approximately 1559. And those rats are...

Wordless Wednesday

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012 by Carol11 Comments

Wordless Wednesday...

Review: E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core! by William Joyce

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012 by Carol3 Comments

An apology in advance: Amber and I finished reading this around Easter time, but I just haven't sat down to write a review of it until now, so don't expect too many details, just overall impressions. E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core! by William Joyce picks up where Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King left off. The bad guy, Pitch, is in hiding, but everyone's sure he's plotting some evil. And low and behold, while Nicholas St. North, the wizard, Ombric, and young Katherine are out of town, all the children of Santoff Claussen are kidnapped. Our three heroes must work together with their new ally, E. Aster Bunnymund, the last of the great Pookas, to save the children and defeat Pitch and his Fearlings again. Bunnymund is just downright cool. He's a tunneller extraordinaire and, of course, the place to go to find him is Easter Island. He's a man-sized rabbitesque creature,...

Review: Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh

May 22, 2012May 23, 2012 by Carol8 Comments

With long series, it can be tough to keep the characters the same age, but tough to let them grow older too. Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh is an interesting combo. Inspector Alleyn, her main detective character, and his wife, Troy, don't seem to have aged much, but their son Ricky is now about 21. This is the second of Marsh's stories that feature Ricky I've listened to, the first being Spinsters in Jeopardy, when he was just a kid. Apparently, I'm just not a Ricky fan. In this one, Ricky is staying at a small village on one of the Channel Islands in the British Channel off the coast of France. His plan is to write a novel, but he's not getting very far. He has, however, gotten to know many of the always colorful locals, falls for one of the richer women even though nothing comes of it, and stumbles across a dead woman in a ditch, apparently the...

Pin It and Do It: Cajun Chicken Pasta

May 20, 2012June 1, 2012 by Carol12 Comments

I use Pinterest to keep recipes the links, and all-important photos, of recipes I want to give a try. The other day we had this delicious Cajun Chicken Pasta. Photo: Skinny Taste Okay, so it was exactly like this. I used shrimp instead of the chicken and left out the onion and scallions, simpy because I forgot. I have to say, it was very good. And it's a nice meal for us, because you cook the protein seperately from the vegetables and pull everything together in the end. So I can keep some of the shrimp, in this case, out of the sauce and serve everything apart for Amber. She had plain pasta, shrimp, and raw veggies, while David and I had the whole dish as intended. This is definitely something I 'll make again, especially in mid-summer, once we start getting lots of tomatoes and peppers from the garden. Tomorrow, we're going shopping for plants, so I'm thinking about the list of...

Flash Fiction: Tangled

May 18, 2012May 25, 2012 by Carol8 Comments

Tangled He opened his eyes, slowly. He legs ached, pain burned his shoulder, but everyone in his village knew the woods were full of dangerous creatures, and nothing attracted a predator quicker than sharp moves or loud noises. Still and quiet, he looked around, barely moving his head. At first all he saw was a blur of green and light, the sun was still shining bright and strong, not much time had passed. He smelled the familiar fresh cut wood as his gaze focusses on his axe buried in a trunk a couple of feet from him. He braced himself against the ground and pushed up, attempting to stand. Only then did he realize he was trapped. Thick vines twined round his arms, his legs, his chest. A tug drew his attention upward, past the gash he had made in the tree's bark, to a woman clinging in its branches, blending in with her pale dress and ash brown hair. She was...