A Scenic Walk with Ollie, the Cavalier, Children’s Garden, Geese and Baby Ducklings

My friend Ollie, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, at a gazebo in his gated community

That’s a long title for this post, but it was hard to summarize my recent adventures succinctly. On Saturday, I had two walks, one with an adorable doggy and one without, and I thought I would combine them into one post. This is inspired by Restless Jo’s Monday Walk.

First, I stopped to take care of two cats for a client. Their names are Oscar and Simon.

Oscar
Simon

I told the owner that the cat names made me think of The Odd Couple. Of course, for The Odd Couple, their names should be Oscar and Felix. (Felix is definitely a cat name and even the name of a famous cartoon cat.) But then, the writer of The Odd Couple is Neil Simon, so there you go.

My dog care clients always seem surprised that I have quite a few cat care clients also, with the assumption that cats are more independent. So, for the dog people, I’ll explain. Most cats eat at least some wet food, if not primarily so. This food has to be served fresh, and any leftover food has to be scraped and scrubbed from their bowls. Litter boxes need to be cleaned. Additionally, a lot of cat owners also feel that their cats will get lonely and need some human interaction. Alas, cats also tend to have some messy issues … like puking up hairballs. Ah, yes, it is sometimes a dirty job. Mike Rowe would be proud.

The cats are located so conveniently near the park that I thought I would visit and walk there again after caring for them. This is Verona Park, which I recently blogged about, but I thought I would take photos in a completely different area. So, I took some photos in The Children’s Garden outside the playground area.

Another name for The Children’s Garden is Eden Wild.
The Children’s Garden at Verona Park

It’s a pretty little garden with some flowering chives, irises, circular stone paths and benches for sitting. In the far background, you can see the children’s playground.

Irises at The Children’s Garden
Children’s Garden at Verona Park
Viburnum?

I tried to identify this white flowering shrub and think it may be viburnum.

More irises at The Children’s Garden. I believe these are the Japanese variety.

There were also some pansies in a barrel planter …

and some polka dot plants in a painted wheelbarrow.

I’m not sure why it’s called The Children’s Garden other than its location by the playground. As far as I can tell, children aren’t involved with maintaining the garden. I had different expectations, thinking it would have more whimsy.

I can imagine a garden that references gardens in children’s literature such as the talking flowers in Alice in Wonderland, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Secret Garden, Peter Rabbit and Farmer McGregor’s vegetable garden or even the nursery rhyme, “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.” Can’t you just imagine some appropriate statuary or plaques with literary quotes? Wouldn’t a little fairy garden be fun? Possibly, there could be some interactive station to teach children about plants or gardening also, as they have in some children’s museums.

I’m not criticizing the pretty garden at all, but I, evidently, have a lot of ideas. How easy it would be to execute the ideas is another question, but it’s fun to dream.

I then walked to the other side of the lake and saw a lot of geese, ducks and other birds. I got a few good shots of these. After planning this post, I saw that there’s a photo challenge for Birds Weekly — birds beginning with a G in the title. Since I do have some goose photos, I thought I’d join in.

There was this lovely sitting mallard, who didn’t seem too afraid of me.

And several lovely Canadian geese. The deposits they leave behind aren’t so lovely, but it didn’t seem to be too out of control.

And some mallards and Canadian geese together … socially distancing.

Then, I saw these mysterious water birds perched on wood in the middle of the lake. Perhaps, Mark S. of Naturalist Weekly can help me identify them? Or if anyone else has a guess, please let me know in the comments.

After this excursion in the garden and around the lake, I drove to see my friend, Ollie, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. He was happy to see me.

This is kind of an impressionistic image of him. It can be hard to
photograph a wiggly dog.

He was very happy to see me as in, “Here is my belly. Please, give it rubs.”

He greets me with loads of kisses. This may be a cute face shot … (I mean, talk about puppy dog eyes) …

but it does not show off one of his signature features (or features of the breed,) his floppy, curly-haired ears.

He and I walked past some pleasant places in his community, like this pretty gazebo …

And this lovely pond with fountain …

and some flowering shrubs.

We walked along the main road and passed by some public buildings on our way which were not so interesting to photograph, but any land in New Jersey that is allowed to go wild is very woodsy, so there were some interesting spots even sandwiched between these buildings such as here, this rock ledge overgrown with ivy …

And Cherokee rose …

As we walked around the community center building, Ollie met a couple of admirers. One passenger in a car stopped at a light had to roll down the car window and share her admiration. We also came across a man, a Cavalier owner himself, who had to stop and give Ollie some pets and attention. I’ve noticed as an introvert that walking a dog gives you an outlet to talk to strangers more than anything else.

We were really astonished as we took the sidewalk path that hugged the rear of the community center building to come across a plastic tub full of baby ducklings!

If I had any way of anticipating what was in this red plastic tub, I never would have walked a dog right up to it. It was a thorough but delightful surprise. Ollie was behaving like such a nice gentleman. He didn’t bark, poke his nose far into the bucket, try to climb in or, otherwise, disturb the ducklings. So, I thought I could pause long enough to snap a photo.

It’s a little mysterious what the ducklings were doing there. My guess is that someone at the community center is caring for these ducklings, because they have no mother. I tried looking at the community center website to see if there would be mention of them, but there wasn’t. I did see an article from 2017 where township police rescued baby ducklings from a storm drain, so I suppose it is also possible that a similar incident repeated itself. At any rate, I am happy to have had a glimpse and a photo op.

What is your favorite part of my walking adventure?

Coloring Page Freebies

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

I made these coloring pages somewhat recently, sharing them on Facebook a few months ago, but just recently added them to my site. These feature creature characters from my Creature Kingdom series — well, planned series. I have The Journey of Digory Mole, and there are two others in the works, another illustrated story, Hyacinth Mouse and the Twirly Whirly Carnival and a longer book involving Digory Mole, a new sidekick, Willy Lee Otter, and lots more animal friends they meet along the way, including a group called the Busy Beavers Guild.

The coloring pages are not really illustrations from Hyacinth Mouse but they do feature some new characters that will be introduced in this book. I chose a couple of virtues as themes. Feel free to share with your children, grandchildren or other young friends.

Juniper Bunny and Hyacinth Mouse
Harrison Hedgehog

You can find a few others on my Coloring Pages page.

True Confessions from Wonderland Book Review

Writer Lynn Murphy gives a completely different perspective on the classic Alice in Wonderland. Instead of Alice’s point of view, this story gives the point of view of all the other characters in Wonderland. Young reader Maddy falls into the story of Alice in Wonderland and then interviews all of the chief characters in turn. They all pretty much deny the Lewis Carroll version of the story.

As an Alice fan, I had mixed feelings about this one. I’m not entirely sure this is the version I prefer, if I have to choose only one. Even so, there were many things I enjoyed about this book, and many places that made me smile or laugh. This version of Wonderland has much of the “madness” taken out of it as well as the dangers while still holding on to some wonder and charm. I actually think it would be a preferable Wonderland to visit without worrying about having your head chopped off or more nonsense than you can handle.

I also appreciated that the writer was very familiar with the original, its classic illustrations and several of its more famous movie versions, making different references to these.

And though this is still a fantasy, there are also a few interesting true background facts thrown in such as how it is that hat makers were thought to be mad or in danger of becoming mad or how John Tenniel was inspired to draw the Mad Hatter.

Mad Hatter drawing by John Tenniel

All of the Wonderland characters that Maddy meets have long aristocratic names and have hidden talents and interests that are completely absent from the original version. The Mad Hatter’s name is Aldus Broderick Crookshanks McGillicutty-Smythe, and the White Rabbit enjoys oil painting. All of the characters are described in a unique way as to their appearance and manner of dress which doesn’t agree with either the Tenniel illustrations or Disney portrayals of the characters. They also express themselves in a way that seems appropriate to 1800s characters, although they are, apparently, aware of some modern trends and technology.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

“And, of course, I never miss the Zumba class the Mock Turtle teaches on Thursdays.” — the White Rabbit

When Maddy questions this, he says, “How else do you think we all stay fit enough for quadrilles and caucus racing?”

“I had argued with my mother that morning and then stubbed four of my toes on the front door” — The Caterpillar.

“Poor Carl, he is portrayed as a surly, unpleasant and unattractive sort of servant, when in reality, for a fish footman, he is rather handsome and keeps his scales clean. He never smells fishy either, which I assure you is a fine thing when your servants are of the fish variety.” — the Duchess

“Should you be surprised, having spoken to so many others, that there was no singing at the table of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat?’ Oh, it’s a song we all know, of course, but no one was singing it on that particular day.” — The Dormouse.

I’m so glad “Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat” is part of the Wonderland culture even in this version. The Dormouse interview might be my favorite part of this book.

Maddy tells the March Hare that kids today are not generally very interested in classic literature and, instead, enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants.

Finally, the Hare said, “What kind of writer names his character after unmentionables?”

I appreciate a lot of the nonsense in the original Alice as a kind of clever nonsense, but there is one scene in the original book which perplexes and bothers me, because it doesn’t seem to serve a purpose. That is the scene where a baby the Duchess is holding transforms into a pig. In this version of the story, what happens here is much more rational.

The croquet game in this book is still whimsical but without any abuse to animals, although I like to believe that the animals in Wonderland don’t mind participating in this silly version of the game. Also, all of the playing card characters get to keep their heads in Murphy’s version of the story.

At the conclusion, Maddy leaves it up to you which version you think is the true one.

In her afterword, Murphy explains that she is an art teacher at a K-12 school and that she was inspired to write the book after the school held an exhibition with an Alice the Wonderland theme. She discovered that many of the teachers and students did not like the book or Alice. Although she had always enjoyed the book, her mind began to imagine a different version of things.

Bible Conversation Hearts Puzzle Game For Kids

Valentine’s Day may be past, but it is still February and you may possibly have an opportunity to pick up some discounted Valentine’s candy or just happen to have some left over. Here’s an activity you can do using conversation hearts that has a message about God’s love. You can do this with your kids at home or with children at Sunday school, children’s church, AWANA or Olympians. I’ve included the activity as a free printable download.


Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

It’s a fill in the blanks puzzle using conversation heart candies where each of the answers corresponds with a conversation heart message. This was designed specifically for the Sweet Tarts brand candy hearts and the eight possible messages that they have: Cutie, XOXO, Love You, I Love You, Yes, Maybe, Kiss Me or Hug Me. It may seem strange that those particular phrases can fit into a Bible game, but you will see.

You may be able to sort through candies of a different brand and find ones with these phrases or even create little paper heart tokens with the phrases.

I will post the fill in the blank puzzle below in full. Scroll down to the bottom to download puzzle and answer key in PDF format.

Have children sit around a table. Give each child a copy of the puzzle sheet. Put a bowl of the Sweet Tart candies into the center of the table and some small paper plates by each child so they can take a handful of candy hearts to sort through. Have children race to put the candy hearts on the puzzle papers into the appropriate blanks.

Acknowledge the child who is first to put the hearts in the correct places. You will want to read the paragraphs aloud and possibly look up some of the Scripture references. You could even do a Bible Sword Drill activity with them. If you do this activity at church, give children little bags of candy hearts to take home.

Before you begin the game, explain a few things to the children.

  1. Some candy hearts have several words on them. There will be a blank for each word, so “I love you” will be ____ _____ _____ and XOXO will be _____ _____ ____ _____.
  2. Some phrases are repeated, so there isn’t just one of each phrase in the puzzle.
  3. Be sure to look out for punctuation. The first sentence ends with three blanks followed by a period. Then, there is another blank, the start of a new sentence, followed by a comma.

God’s Valentine

Phrases:
Cutie, XOXO, Love You, I Love You, Yes, Maybe, Kiss Me or Hug Me

God ______ (s) ________ . _____, He does. He says so many times in the Bible such as in John 3:16. Reading certain parts of the Bible is like reading a Valentine from God and getting a big __ _______ ____ from Him. I may not feel him ______ ______ or _______ ________, but I know He loves me and you too. He shows His love and care for us in other ways, by protecting us from harm, providing for our needs, answering our prayers, comforting us and giving us peace and joy in times of trouble.

Abraham thought Sarah was a __________. The Bible says she was very beautiful. God thinks you’re a ________ too. You were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) and “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139:14)

Sometimes, people let us down and leave us in doubt about whether they care for us or not, and, sometimes, leave us in no doubt that they don’t care. There is no _______ about God’s love for us. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3) He loves us in spite of our imperfections and sin and even before we believed in Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)

God wants us to love others too that our joy might be full! (John 15:11) This includes our friends, our family and others. You may not often say “___ _____ _____” to everyone, but say a quick “_____ _____” to your mom, and she will love it. If you give her some ___ ___ ___ ___, she’ll like it even better.

A person might sign a Valentine, “_____ _____” or “___ ______ _____” or even “_____ _____ _____ ____.” Some of Jesus’ last words on earth were to encourage us to tell others about Him, and in that way, we share His love with others.

Answer Key

God love (s) you . Yes, He does. He says so many times in the Bible such as in John 3:16. Reading certain parts of the Bible is like reading a Valentine from God and getting a big I love you from Him. I may not feel him hug me (kiss me also acceptable) or kiss me (hug me also acceptable), but I know He loves me and you too. He shows His love and care for us in other ways, by protecting us from harm, providing for our needs, answering our prayers, comforting us and giving us peace and joy in times of trouble.

Abraham thought Sarah was a cutie. The Bible says she was very beautiful. God thinks you’re a cutie too. You were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) and “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139:14)

Sometimes, people let us down and leave us in doubt about whether they care for us or not, and, sometimes, leave us in no doubt that they don’t care. There is no maybe about God’s love for us. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3) He loves us in spite of our imperfections and sin and even before we believed in Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)

God wants us to love others too that our joy might be full! (John 15:11) This includes our friends, our family and others. You may not often say “I love you” to everyone, but say a quick “Love you” to your mom, and she will love it. If you give her some XOXO, she’ll like it even better.

A person might sign a Valentine, “Love you” or “I love you” or even “XOXO.” Some of Jesus’ last words on earth were to encourage us to tell others about Him, and in that way, we share His love with others.

Photo by David Beale on Unsplash

Aesop’s Tortoise Continues to Teach Lessons

For the Kiddos (2)

I reviewed four books in the Tortoise’s New Adventure series, written by J.D. Parsons and illustrated by Tere. These are the continued adventures of the tortoise who beat the hare in a race. Although not too fable-like, they do teach lessons about friendship and getting along.

AEsoP's Tortoise is still teaching Lessons

tortoisemeetsseaturtles

This story is not too similar to an Aesop’s fable, but the author makes it clear that the titular tortoise is the famous tortoise who won the race against the hare. He doesn’t race in this story, but he does play soccer on the beach with some sea turtles. Children will learn the difference between tortoises and turtles — something some adults may not remember — and also learn a more important lesson about friendship and acceptance. It’s obvious that some children have a lot of difficulty with feeling different from others or others being different from them. One sea turtle is nervous with the tortoise at first, but the tortoise and sea turtles then accept each other’s differences and realize they can still have fun together. Illustrations are very charming and will please animal-loving children.

tortoisemeetstheelephant

Teddy T. Tortoise meets Eddy the Elephant. Eddy recognizes Teddy as the tortoise who beat the hare in a race. Teddy recognizes Eddy as a circus elephant who is now in the wild. Illustrations show other African animals. Teddy is slightly anxious about the elephant’s large size, but Eddy is able to reassure him that “elephants are steady on their feet.” Teddy the Tortoise plays a game with each animal he meets in the series, and, in this book, he plays cards with the elephant, which the elephant claims to always carry with him. It’s a sweet children’s book, promoting friendship and kindness.

tortoisemeetsthecat

This time, Teddy T. Tortoise makes a new friend when he helps a cat down out of a tree. What kind of a cat is it? It is a tortoiseshell cat, of course. The cat then introduces the tortoise to what seems an unlikely friend for a cat … a dog. The cat states to the turtle that it’s not that remarkable for a cat and dog to be friends and that the dog was friendly all the time. “He’s just that type,” says the cat. They wander around near a koi pond, and, since this is a book about friendship, the cat is only interested in seeing and not in eating any of the pretty fish. The cat teaches Teddy a new game, cat’s cradle. What else would a cat play? The story promotes friendship and helping others.

thetortoisemeetsthechameleon

This time, Teddy T. Tortoise is in the rainforest and meets a chameleon. The chameleon must be a little like a mood ring, changing colors with his mood. I enjoyed the pretty illustrations of the chameleon, because he was often in my favorite purple hues. The chameleon introduces the tortoise to various animal friends in the rainforest. Children can learn about different types of animals and where they live from this book, but, hopefully, they will also learn about getting along with others and good sportsmanship. The chameleon, tortoise, and other animals eventually play hide and seek, and, of course, the chameleon is very good at this game.

At the end of the book, children are challenged to find all of the heart shapes in the illustrations. Teddy has a couple of hearts on his shell, and, even as an adult, I had to look through the book again to find all of the semi-hidden hearts.

You can buy The Tortoise’s New Adventure series on Amazon. See the links below.