Living out on a limb

As summer approaches, I’ve been thinking about spending time outdoors. I’ve posted about Free Spirit Spheres, the amazing tree homes Canadian carpenter Tom Chudleigh designs and builds, and it’s put me on the hunt for more treehouse ideas.

Twelve feet high and nine feet in diameter, this oval “bird’s nest” treehouse was created by Japanese designer Takashi Kobayashi. It’s reached with a circular staircase.

Nesty! Image found at freshome.com

German design cooperative Baumraum created this treetop dwelling with the help of a sturdy oak tree.

Modern design, traditional oak. Image found at freshome.com

Baumraum doesn’t always need the help of a tree to get its houses off the ground. Here they incorporate the “idea” of one, in a house that soars on stilts.

This might be a mobile home in a strong wind! Image found at imagesme.net

This is the Yellow Treehouse Restaurant in Aukland, New Zealand, designed and constructed by Pacific Environments Architects, Ltd. Pine and poplar beams are attached to a redwood tree to resemble the construction of a moth’s nest. The restaurant seats eighteen diners. I hope they serve bird’s nest soup!

With a view like this, who needs a menu? Image found at mtidry.com

Finally, here is what builder Horace Burgess claims is the biggest treehouse in the world! Located in Tennessee, it’s 97-feet tall and built around an 80-foot white oak tree. It has eleven floors and features a miniature indoor basketball court! But if the ball bounces out the window, you’re out of luck.

This treehouse is colossal! Image found at freshpics.com

You can't really "blend in" to the forest with this baby! Image found at freshpics.com

Mascot madness

Most school sports teams have a mascot that cheers them on to victory and urges them not to give up when the chips are down. Here a few good ones.

Stanford University’s mascot, The Tree.

A big smile from The Tree. Photo found at SF Weekly

Xavier University’s mascot, The Blue Blob.

The Blue Blob: blobby! Photo found at Comcast.net

Scottsdale Community College’s mascot, Artie the Fighting Artichoke.

Artie the Fighting Artichoke. Eat your vegetables! Photo found at TopTenz.net

And University of California at Santa Cruz’s mascot, Sammy the Banana Slug.

Sammy the Banana Slug. Don't call him slimy! Photo found at TeamExpress

Brenton Silbert-Ford portrays Wilbur Wildcat, the mascot of the University of Arizona.

Brenton Silber-Ford takes a break from mascot-dom. Photo (c) Ernie Somoza/Arizona Daily Wildcat

Brenton has come out from behind the fur to reveal that he is a veteran mascot performer. He was a high school student in San Diego, CA when he put on his first mascot suit at Sea World. His character? A fun-loving otter.

As Wilbur Wildcat, he is famous for his good dancing. Despite the hundreds of rabid fans who cheer him on at every Wildcat game, he says mascots aren’t in it for the glory. “You do it for the kids and the fans,” he says. “Not for anyone else.”

Nature’s majesty

After seeing the new Alice in Wonderland movie, I am reminded of what is, in my view, the most amazing of all of Nature’s many wonders.

And that is how this:

Monarch caterpillar. Picture found at bbc.co.uk.

becomes this:

Monarch chrysalis. Picture found at ohiohistorycentral.org.

and then this:

Monarch butterfly. Picture found at wildwisconsinweb.com

Miraculous! I bow my head in awe.

Wild ones

As you know, I have a book called The Boy Who Howled coming from Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books this fall that deals with the thrilling subject of a boy who was raised by wolves. I was excited to learn of a new book called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood that features THREE children raised by wolves and had to read it pronto.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood is everything a book should be. The terrific cover is by Jon Klassen. Published by Balzer+Bray.

My verdict? It is worth its weight in gold. Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley faces endless obstacles in her mission to tutor Alexander, Cassiopeia, and Beowulf, three wild children whose bark is (perhaps) worse than their bite. And mysteries abound at creepy Ashton Place. Hilarious and scary. Pick up a copy and see!

Read an excerpt here.

Toy of the Year

Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re too old to play with toys. I’m as old as the hills, and though I don’t play with toys very often, I am still very into them. Thus I was intrigued to learn about the American International Toy Fair, the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere, which was held recently in New York City.

Many hot new toys for 2010 were unveiled. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye.

The Perplexus 3-D maze, with three mind-bending levels to solve, will keep you busy turning, rotating, angling, and balancing to get its metal ball down the correct track.

The Perplexus 3-D maze is tricksy, my precious! Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

Bioloid Robot Kits from Robotis are the first educational robot kits based around “smart serially controlled servos” which are not only capable of switching between positioning and full continuous rotation, but also provides you with access to sensory feedback such as position, speed, temperature, current draw and voltage of each servo. Bioloid kits are designed in a way that allow the user to construct multiple types of robots. Warning: these kits are super expensive! Good for wish lists, for sure.

Bioloid Robot Kits are responsible for these cool bots. Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

Simpler and less expensive fun can be had with a Motorized Bubble Light. I’ve got a weakness for the magical beauty of iridescent bubbles. To see them lit up in all their glory would make for wonderful nighttime fun.

The Motorized Bubble Light features glow-in-the-dark wand and dip tray. Mesmerizing! Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

Celebs are hopping on the toy wagon too. Check out one of the WWE’s most successful superstars of all time, Triple H, and his personalized action figure.

I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this guy. Even his action figure looks like it could hurt me. Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

In case you haven’t heard, skateboards are old news. Today’s street-riding thrills come courtesy of the RipStik. Just twist and go!

It's as easy as it looks to ride a RipStik, once you figure it out! Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

And now it is time to introduce the Toy of the Year for 2010. It is fun, it is inexpensive, it is A MECHANICAL HAMSTER!

Meet Zhu Zhu.

Zhu Zhu is honored to be named the Toy of the Year. He wasn't expecting it! Photo found at huffington.post

What do Zhu Zhus do? They zoom around! What could be funner? Here’s another look at this playtime wonder.

Zoom, zoom, zoom! Photo found at huffingtonpost.com

Zhu Zhus also make toilet-flushing or teeth-brushing sounds when they enter the bathroom of their special habitat and sleeping noises and alarm-clock sounds when they go into their bedroom. That’s enough for a Toy of the Year these days. All hail Zhu Zhu!

Griffin’s Gold

Sam and Andy from Chicago, IL write:

Dear T,

We finished Griffin’s Gold, our story about the legendary Griffin, and we printed copies. Here’s one for you. You can share this excerpt. It’s from the part where Griffin and Dragon fight to the death for Griffin’s gold, only Griffin lets Dragon live to see another day. That’s good because later on they have to join forces to battle an evil Giant. What do you think?

Griffin's Gold book cover by Sam and Andy

From Griffin’s Gold by Sam and Andy:

Griffin and Dragon were face to face with each other. Warily they circled each other. Griffin twitched his wings in eager anticipation of the battle to come, while Dragon snorted plumes of smoke into the chilly air.

Despite the cozy fire he had built, Griffin’s lair was almost as cold as the frozen mountaintop. Dragon lifted his mighty tail and slammed it down hard, pounding the rocky ground. The metallic scales of his impenetrable body armor glistened in the fire’s glow.

“Give me your treasure,” he told Griffin, “and you can avoid a good beating.”

Griffin’s razor-sharp claws drew sparks from where they scraped the rock. “It’s you who are going to get beaten, Dragon,” he replied. “I’ll give you ten seconds to skedaddle on out of here. Otherwise, you’re in for it big time.”

“I ain’t leaving here without that gold,” said Dragon.

“Suit yourself,” said Griffin and lunged at Dragon’s vulnerable throat with his fearsome eagle’s beak. The battle for Griffin’s gold had begun.

T replies:

Wow, Sam and Andy! I am thoroughly impressed. The adventure was gripping, the suspense was unbearable, and I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I can say that Griffin and Dragon are a force to be reckoned with. Great job!

Grasstastic!

The post about the wild Russian knitwear got me thinking I had seen some living grass fashion somewhere, so I looked it up. As long as you water these clothes, you’re good!

Grass hat? Check. Grass suit and tie? Check. Grass car? Check. Grass underwear? Um ... he's not telling! Image found at imageisunrelated.com

You can’t wear a grass suit and tie all the time. Sometimes you want to play it a little more casual. That’s when you reach for your grass flip flops.

Comfy! Image found at monster-munch.com

And where are you when you’re at home? In your grass house, of course!

Homey! Image found at travelblog.org

Or maybe you’d rather live in a hobbit hole. You probably would, you grass fanatic!

A hobbit lives here. Image found at thepalantir.org

Winter fashion

We all know that in cold winter weather it is better to be bundled up than not.

But … is there such a thing as going too far? If so, I’d say these Russian knit lovers are doing a good job of it!

(I found these pics on a Russian website that, sadly, contains some racy ads, so I can’t post it here.)

A holiday letter

This is my second cousin once removed, composer Cornelius Power.

Composer Cornelius Power (April 1, 1821 - July 4, 1915)

Cornelius loved writing letters, and every year at holiday time, the Power family turns to one of them in particular, which has been handed down through the generations. It is dated December 17, 1856, and I’d like to share it with you.

Greetings, Holiday People!

You’ll never guess what I’m doing right now. I am actually dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. Contrary to expectations, I am not laughing all the way. It is far too cold here in this winter wonderland for that. As it is, I am bundled up from head to toe in warm clothing, but I think I’ll burrow down deep into the cozy quilts and blankets that my sleigh driver has so thoughtfully provided.

Sleigh driver? Ha! It is my BFF, James Lord Pierpont, the famous organist and composer and my comradely rival in all musical endeavors. James has got a thing about one-horse open sleighs. The only thing he cares more about than composing catchy songs is dashing through the snow. He is working on a new song about it now, but I can’t see it going anywhere. He calls it “Jingle Bells,” and it’s fairly simpleminded, not at all up to the high standard he set with “Ring the Bell, Fanny.”

How I long for a cup of hot cocoa! We brought a whole lake of it in a thermos, but it spilled all over the floor of the sleigh thanks to James’s erratic driving. He’s up there now on the absolute edge of his seat, cracking the whip and singing at the top of his lungs. I’m burrowing further into the blankets and quilts. It’s a well-known fact in these parts that survivors of sleigh crashes are nearly always found closest to the floor of the vehicle.

I can only imagine how wondrous one-horse sleighs will be one hundred and fifty or so years from now, but I daresay holiday wishes will have remained exactly the same. By then, no doubt poor James’s simpleminded ditty “Jingle Bells” will have been long relegated to the dustbin and some other songwriter will have come along to better describe how fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. I am far too humble to be referring to myself, of course, although some say my sleigh song “Horsey Snow Ride” is the catchiest number they’ve ever heard.

Darn it, James! That turn was much too sharp. Ohhhhhhhh!!!!

(At this point the letter ends in a series of jagged marks.)

Of course, as history shows, Cousin Cornelius was wrong about “Jingle Bells.” James Lord Pierpont’s sleigh-ride song went on to become one of the best known and most commonly sung winter songs in the world, whereas, sadly, Cornelius’s own sleigh song “Horsey Snow Ride” has been completely ignored. But he was right about holiday wishes. They’ve remained exactly the same.

Give thanks for blessings.

Say a prayer for peace.

Give a donation where it’s needed.

Resolve to be a little more patient, a little more forgiving, and a lot more helpful.

Amen to that!

Smiley faces are everywhere!

Photographic artist Ruth Kaiser has an eye for smiley faces. She can spot them in the most unlikely places. Since she saw her first smiley face in a spilled drink, she has photographed more than 2,000 happy images as part of a photo project she calls the Spontaneous Smiley Project.

Where does Ruth find inspiration?

On a metal plate with screws.

Photo (c) Ruth Kaiser/NewsTeam. Found at www.telegraph.co.uk

On a stack of cinder blocks.

Photo (c) Ruth Kaiser/NewsTeam. Found at www.telegraph.co.uk

At the beach.

Photo (c) Ruth Kaiser/NewsTeam. Found at www.telegraph.co.uk

And even with a couple of ordinary twigs.

Photo (c) Ruth Kaiser/NewsTeam. Found at www.telegraph.co.uk

Have you seen a smiley face where no one would expect it to be? Grab your camera and join Ruth’s Spontaneous Smiley Project.

Be warned, however: smiley faces are everywhere, and the fun of collecting them may be contagious.

“One day,” says Ruth, “as I was crouched with my camera in hand over ‘Spilled Soda on the Sidewalk Smiley’, a man came along and asked, ‘What in the world are you taking a picture of?’ I showed him the Smiley. He smiled. I smiled. He went on his way. About two minutes later, he came running back in my direction. ‘Quick,’ he told me. ‘Bring your camera. I found one!’”