Many years ago, my children and my husband bought me a dollhouse kit for Christmas. Dennis put it together lovingly and painstakingly with some help from me and Petey the cat.
Over the years we have always kept an eye out for just the right little something for furnishing it. Finally it was all finished and some occupants, a nice little family, moved right in.
The Flatbottoms family
I was reading one of Billy Collins' poems today. I like so many of his poems. He's especially nice to listen to as he reads them. He was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and Poet Laureate of NY 2004-2006. He played in a golf tournament with my son Chip once and gave him an autographed copy of his book, 'Picnic, Lightning'. The poem is called "Some Days" and I thought you'd like it too. This got me to thinking about my dollhouse and the neglected dusting.
Some Days by Billy Collins
Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.
All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.
But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs,
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.
Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next
if you were going to spend it
striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds,
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?
I try to move my 'family' around from room to room now and again. When I go to FL for the winter, I sometimes put them together like they are in this photo and set up their Christmas tree for them. Sad to say, with nobody home here to turn on their power, they have to sit and stare at an unlighted tree until I get home in the spring. Maybe this time I'll just put them all in their beds in their clean house, tuck them
in and let them have a good long winters nap.
OK so now you KNOW I am a little strange !! Well wait till you hear this one. You know those pole beans I keep mentioning, and their abundant productive powers this year...well I'm kinda SICK of pole beans !! But you know what they say, 'Waste not, want not." So after taking my Little Red Riding Hood basket and delivering a bunch to all my neighbors, I had to think of something really different yesterday to do with the latest batch.. So I made a pole bean PIE !! Not the veggie kind of pie but a real sweet-like-an-apple pie PIE. I used sugar and cornstarch, a pinch of salt, lemon juice and some good spicy cinnamon. I cooked this concoction and mixed in some partially cooked pole beans. Looked like that apple pie filling stuff that comes out of a can, kinda. Then I just made a two crust pie dotted with butter and baked it same as you would an apple pie. Voila ! A new creation ! It was pretty yummy with a hunk of good VT cheddar cheese. You guessed it, hubby said, " NO WAY am I eating THAT !" Not even willing to taste it ! Oh well, it was just a small pie anyway as I made him a traditional, all American, made-for- a-man-to-eat APPLE pie. He had no trouble with that ! Today I will get my good neighbor Allison to try the new creation and I know she can be relied on to give me an honest opinion. So much for my creative genius for the week. Now I better go do some work....maybe I'll get to that dollhouse tomorrow ??
I love the poem of the dollhouse! and seeing your pictures too. I think putting them to bed for the winter is a fine idea and I bet they'd rather do that than sit in the dark, like you said.
ReplyDeleteI wondered if Denny would eat that pie or not...it's not like you were trying to TRICK him or anything! That was a great post all-round!