Wondrous Words Wednesday 8/8/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

This weeks words are taken from my recent reading of Henry VIII's Wives

1. Paunching (Verb)

Papa was hungry after the hunt and all the work of watering the horses and rubbing them down and seeing to the skinning and paunching of the kill. 

To stab in the stomach; disembowel. The Free Dictionary. 

2. Attainted (Verb)

Her Plantagenet brother, Edward, had been attainted as a traitor and thrown into the Tower.

To pass a sentence of attainder against. (Attainder is the extinction of a person's civil rights resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry on conviction for treason or felony).

3. Assize (Noun)

There is to be a Grand Assize next month that will try all the rebel leaders for the crime of treason. 

A session of a court. A decree or edict rendered at such a session. The Free Dictionary. 

4. Palfrey (Noun)

The lady Anne mounted her white palfrey with its gold-embroidered saddlecloth, and rode to meet the King, followed by a great procession of her courtiers and ladies. 

A saddle horse, especially one for a woman to ride. The Free Dictionary. 

Picture source

5. Caparisoned (Verb)

She had hardly spoken when there was a fanfare of trumpets and everyone looked up the hill to see gorgeously caparisoned horses arriving. 

To outfit a horse with an ornamental covering. The Free Dictionary. 

6. Panoply (Noun)

Compared with the panoply that accompanies royal weddings, theirs was a modest affair. 

A splendid or striking array. The Free Dictionary. 

Wombat Goes Walkabout

I've known about this book for a while, and been meaning to get around to reading it, have even borrowed it from the library before, but then returned it unread- which is a bit of a shame for a picture book.... Recently I was thinking about French Children's Literature Prizes and I discovered that Wombat Goes Walkabout was a prizewinner in France. And so I had to track it down again and read it.

I've been interested in Michael Morpurgo for quite some time. He's rather extraordinary. A prolific writer. He was the third Children's Laureate in the UK. He runs a charity called Farms for City Children.  He wrote what is possibly one of my favourite books ever, Private Peaceful. I have quite a number of his books sitting on the bookshelves waiting for me to glance their way.

Wombat Goes Walkabout is a simple tale, very much borne of the P.D Eastman Are You My Mother? vein. Wombat is good at digging and thinking, so he digs a big hole and goes down into it for a bit of a think. When he comes back up out of his hole he can't find his mother, so he goes in search of her. Naturally he bumps into lots of cute Australians- kookaburra, emu, possum. Christian Birmingham has done a lovely job creating an Australian feel from a palette of muted colours.

Emus always look comical

Wombat Goes Walkabout won the Prix Sorcieres in 1999. Which is pretty crazy when you think about it. Two Englishmen create a picture book about Australian wildlife, and it wins a prize in France. I'm a bit saddened that it took two Englishmen to write this book actually.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Whale watching, but where are the whales?

I was very excited recently to organise a whale watching trip as a school holiday excursion with my son. This year there are record numbers of humpback whales migrating up the Eastern Australian coastline to escape the Antarctic winter. 

It was an amazing foggy morning
(the view from our accommodation)

The fog was starting to rise by the time we got to Newcastle harbour. 

Newcastle harbour has 8 tugs

Nobby's Head

Mist rising from a patch of Pacific Ocean

Mr Wicker may have played with this image

It turned into an amazing day

Except for one small thing, we didn't see any whales. 


15,000 whales are travelling up the East Coast of Australia and we didn't see one! Luckily I took photos of some birds to pass the time. 

Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax varius)

Yellow-nosed Albatross (Diomedea chlororhynchos)

Even the sea gulls played nice

Silver gull (Larus novaehollandiae)

But still no whales.... So they took us to see some seals, well a seal as it turned out. I learnt that Australian Fur Seals will often rest on the rudders of ships anchored at sea. It makes sense for them I guess, they don't have to bother to swim in to the coast.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Henry VIII's Wives

Sometimes my son picks an intriguing choice for our read aloud bed time reading book. Yes, even though he's 11, I still read aloud to him whenever my work and his tv watching schedule allow. It's a time we both enjoy. Most often we're reading mythic tales of magic and dragons. Sometimes we're reading historical fiction. We've read a few books in this series now. Marie Antoinette. Titanic. And a few others that I thought too awful to blog about. I'm not sure why he's so keen on these but he liked them even before his passion for Horrible Histories developed.

He likes this series so much that he reads these books on his own also. He had already read Henry VIII's Wives, and when I needed a thematic break from magic and ancient monsters he was keen for us to read this one together. I'm glad we have. I don't really know all that much about Tudor England. It was certainly an extraordinary time. I was a bit confused with the diary format here. Our diarist narrator, Beatrice is just 10 years old when she starts her diary. She seems to be a servant in Henry VIII's court, but it's all a bit confusing. She's a servant but the servants seem to spend quite a bit of time with the members of the royal family- it seems that they are part of the court.

I was a bit bored with the overall format by the time we got to the end of this one. The structure was quite confusing being a melange of the diaries of several girls, and the narrative jumped back and forth in time over 30 years or so. And there was a bit too much about affairs and whether marriages were consummated for my liking for comfortable bed time reading.  But there were lots of interesting historical snippets to learn. I'm sure these things are known by most people with more than a passing interest in Tudor England.

Catherine of Aragon was a mere 15 years old when she initially married Henry VIII's brother Arthur, Prince of Wales. When Arthur died a few months later, Catherine was widowed aged 16. Henry famously married her, but then divorced her because of the biblical passage forbidding men to covet his brother's wife.

And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing; he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

While she was queen Henry left Catherine in charge of England while he went to war with the French, Catherine fought a war with Scotland and won.

Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour were both servants before becoming queen. Indeed the whole servant/royal relationships as portrayed here were very confusing.

Anne Boleyn's uncle presided over her trial.

Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were cousins, as well as the two royal wives who were beheaded.

Katherine Parr was a published author! (You can buy her book on Amazon)

Henry and the Tudors are certainly still intriguing even in modern times. Historical fiction sells and sells, and the hugely popular Wolf Hall is set in Henry's court. Modern people have video fun with Henry.

And of course the Horrible Histories folks love Henry too of course.

Parvana

Parvana is the first in a series of books about an Afghan family living in Kabul in the early years after the Taliban took control in 1996. I had accidentally read the second book in the series, Parvana's Journey first, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of Parvana (published as The Breadwinner in the USA and perhaps elsewhere).


Parvana (The Breadwinner) is another quick read. The writing style is simple and direct, but it's quite a compelling tale. I enjoyed reading this book even though I had read the sequel first. It certainly helped fill in the holes in my understanding of the story.


Parvana is living in Kabul with her family. Her oldest brother has already died, killed by a landmine. The family has been forced to move repeatedly each time as their home has been destroyed, each time they move into a smaller dwelling. When we meet Parvana and her family they are living in a single room. Her father had been a teacher, her mother a writer at a radio station. Both have been forced out of their jobs, and the family now subsists on the meagre living that they eek out by Parvana's father selling his skills at reading and writing in the local market. Parvana, her mother and her sisters are not allowed out of the house by themselves, venturing out only if accompanied by a male member of their family.


The first chapter is rather extraordinary and sobering reading. It's almost incomprehensible to the comfortable Western reader I think. How can we imagine the life of this girl and her family?

Bombs had been part of Parvana's whole life. Every day, every night, rockets would fall out of the sky, and someone's house would explode.

I learnt a number of things that I didn't know about life in Afghanistan at this time. The Taliban required windows to be painted black, women weren't allowed on a bus without a man accompanying them. Photographs were illegal. I didn't know landmines had been disguised as toys, imagine designing bombs to kill children. These were apparently Russian bombs.


At one stage Ellis challenges our thoughts about the men who are part of the Taliban. Parvana reads a letter for a Taliban soldier. The Talib has shaky hands, and a tear rolls down his face in response to Parvana reading the letter to his dead wife.

Could they have feelings of sorrow, like other human beings?

My Australian copy has a small section at the back about Afghans in Australia. I knew that there had been Afghan people and camels in central Australia for some time. That they had been essential to the exploration of Central Australia and the building of the Overland Telegraph Line between Port Augusta and Darwin. Indeed there are now large populations of feral camels in Central Australia, they are causing a number of environmental problems.


Anyway in one of my (rather common) d'oh moments I learnt that the Ghan, the famous train from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and now to Darwin, which has a camel painted on the side, is named after the Afghan cameleers. Ghan. Afghan. D'oh.

Paris in July Hot, Hot, Hot

For my final Paris in July Saturday Snapshot I thought about my experience of Paris in July. I was in Paris in July in 2010 and it was HOT. It was hot walking around. It was hot in the Metro. It was hot trying to sleep. It was hot in the Louvre (airconditioned? Non).

Everyone was looking for a way to cool off

We hit Aquaboulevard for a day

The locals were looking for ways to keep cool too

They do love Diet Coke for some reason, and sparkly hats it seems

We ate Berthillon every day.

Different flavours every day!

My son learnt to read French on these boards

Ahhh, Berthillon. Best. Icecream. Ever. 

Sometimes icecream was the destination.
Amorino is definitely worth a detour.

Magnums in France have an M and real dots of vanilla in the icecream
The thrill of travel for the young. 

We ate sorbet in cafes.

Beaujolais! Chilled red wine- for lunch. 

So fantastic, it's life changing.  

We made use of the water sellers everywhere

We ate delicious raspberries pretty much every day.
Although I think they were Spanish.

We picnicked by the Seine

And enjoyed the fabulous atmosphere and entertainment

Evening walks were wonderful. The beautiful Parisian evening light.

Accidentally happening upon more beauty. 

Next July I'll be in Paris again!

I can't wait. 

Paris in July is cohosted by Karen at BookBath 

and Tamara at Thyme for Tea 

1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die- Paris Edition

I spend much of my time reading through the 1001 Children's Books I Must Read Before I Grow Up. While I'm not planning on slavishly following the 1001 suggestions from this book, I thought it would be fun to check out the Paris selections. To see how many I've already seen, and build up some suggestions for more visits of course. 

Apartments, 26, rue Vavin 1913

Arc de Triomphe1836

Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Christ) 1919

Bibliotheque Francois-Mitterand 1995

Castel Beranger 1898

Centre Pompidou 1977

Charles de Gaulle Airport 1974

Flower Tower (Maison Vegetale) 2004

Le Grand Rex 1932

La Grande Arche de la Defense 1990

Hotel Guimard 1912

Hotel de Soubise 1709

Institut du Monde Arabe 1987

La Ruche Studios (The Beehive) 1900

La Sainte Chapelle 1248

Pyramide, Le Grand Louvre 1989

The Madeleine (Church of St Mary Magdalene) 1842

Maison de Verre 1932

Musee d'Orsay 1987

Notre Dame de Paris 1330

Opera de la Bastille 1989

Palais Garnier 1875

Pantheon 1793

Paris Great Mosque 1926

Musee du Quai Branly (Quai Branly Museum) 2006

Rue Franklin Apartments 1904

Theatre des Champs Elysees 1913

Van Doesburg House 1930

Villa Savoye 1929

Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of architecture per se, visiting some of those buildings and monuments were the highlights of my two visits to Paris. 

Arc de Triomphe

Essential for any trip to Paris, make sure you go up to the top-
the views are sensational

Notre Dame de Paris

I've visited several times now, but there is always more to see
and I still haven't made it up to the roof...

Sainte Chapelle

It's impossible to describe the beauty of this experience,
my 9 year old was moved to take pictures for the first time ever 

Palais Garnier

We stayed nearby, and saw her in many lights and moods,
a glorious sight at the end of the rue

Pantheon

Such an extraordinary building, not just beautiful, but important too
as a mausoleum for important French figures
and the home of Foucault's Pendulum

These buildings are Paris to me. Of course there are some notable omissions. Where is La Tour Eiffel? The Louvre itself, not just the Pyramid? The Conciergerie? The Grand Palais? Of course they can't list every house or public building in Paris. I do think that I would have excluded Charles de Gaulle airport.  Sure I've been there, many of the visitors to Paris come through there naturally, but is it worthwhile architecture, or is it just ugly 1970s concrete construction?

And what for next year? I'm very keen to visit La Grande Mosquee. I will need to see the Centre Pompidou at long last, I don't think I can avoid it forever. I've never even walked past. That's one of the great things about Paris, there is SO much to see and do. Every Metro stops opens up another world, every street corner and laneway takes you somewhere else that is extraordinary. 

Paris in July is cohosted by Karen at BookBath 

and Tamara at Thyme for Tea