Catching Up

It's sometimes easier to add comments to other peoples' blogs than it is to think of new ones for the Treehouse. However, this week even that doesn't seem to be working so well (my comments either get posted three times or not at all), so I'll post something of my own up here on the wall of the nest.

Almost all the squirrels are lying around the nest in various combinations of pajamas and clothes, getting over a virus. So far only Ponytails and Mama Squirrel have escaped it, and Ponytails is a little warm and cross today as well. In the middle of the night Mama Squirrel got up to take care of Crayons, and found Mr. Fixit and The Apprentice watching Dr. Who in the living room, since neither of them could sleep or breathe very well. So it's been that kind of a week.

However, yesterday while Mr. Fixit/Dad Squirrel was feeling somewhat better in the afternoon, he played Kerplunk with the young ones while Mama Squirrel walked downtown to spend a much-appreciated birthday gift certificate at the bookstore. (She also made a stop for some Vitamin C and a box of Breathe Easy Tea, which Mr. Fixit says works very well.) After browsing for awhile, Mama Squirrel decided to use the certificate on three books:

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, by Thomas Cahill. I know Zookeeper/Headmistress likes his book How the Irish Saved Civilization, but I'm not sure quite what I'm getting into with this one. Amazon reviewers seemed to be kind of mixed on whether or not he hit the right important things. But I'm looking forward to reading it anyway.

The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination, by Northrop Frye. Head Girl, if this is really good I'll let you know--I know you like Frye.

Shakespeare for All Time, by Stanley Wells. Kind of a combination biography and book about productions of his plays. A big fat hardcover, the kind that's so nice to get when it's a birthday gift!

So the nest is well stocked with reading matter for the next while. And what did Mama Squirrel stay up till midnight reading? None of these. "The Queen of Air and Darkness," book Two of The Once and Future King, which she also picked up at the bookstore for The Apprentice. Some of it reminded her of a Flintstones episode about a lovesick monster, but she doesn't want to spoil the whole thing for The Apprentice by giving away too much.