Jesus Storybook Bible on CBS!

There has been a sighting of the Jesus Storybook Bible in the media! Where? On CBS News: Sunday Morning, in a segment on Bible publishing, highlighting how many different types of bible are around today.

It was brief and fleeting. Blink and you'd miss it but nevertheless! JSBB was used to illustrate a "bible for kids". Cool, especially when you think of all the bibles for kids there are out there to choose from.

Jago's brilliant cover really stood out.

polesden lacey

This is a very important house sitting on a very important seat in the middle of a very important garden of a very important estate commanding some of the very importantest views in all of Surrey. So you see it's very, very, very, very, VERY important. And it's name is Polesden Lacey. This is not a house to be messed with. (With a name like that you would have to be important wouldn't you? I wonder if you might try calling yourself something similar? You could just add it in. Like, for instance, for me, I might try something like, Sally Lloyd-Polesden-Lacey-Jones and see what happened.)

Anyway, it is a 1400 acre estate on the North Downs of England and I just visited it this week when I was back in England on a beautiful breezy spring day. Wide sweeping lawns, bluebell woods, English walled gardens, Wisteria climing up over everything (at 300 years old it was very good for its age). And all the Horse Chestnuts and Sweet Chestnuts in full bloom. The Edwardian Garden is over 30 acres with 10 acres of lawns (!).


The guide book says: "There has been a house on this site since at least 1336. The name 'Polesden' is Saxon and belonged to the earliest recorded owner Herbert de Polesden... The 'Lacey' suffix probably derives from the family of John Lacy, who owned Polesden in 1387-93, but it is first described as 'Pollisdon Lacy' only in 1562..."

This very, very, very, very, very important house has had some very famous owners: the most famous being the poet and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who bought the house in 1804.

And some royal connections: "Mrs Greville, a legendary Edwardian hostess, and her husband purchased it in 1906. The house was converted by Mewes and Davis, the architects of the newly built Ritz Hotel. Mrs Greville was most famous as a collector of royalties and her friendship with Edward VII ... She was especially fond of Queen Mary (consort of George V) and of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, part of whose honeymoon was spent at Polesden in 1923, and whom the childless Mrs Greville loved like a daughter. Mrs Greville was adored by her friends and feared by her rivals for her indiscreet and acerbic wit.'"

The Hon Mrs Greville loved lots of things I'm sure: but mostly dogs it seems (there's a dog cemetry there with about 20 doggy gravestones) and royalty. And, so far as I can tell, you never, ever wanted to be tardy to one of her dinner parties. She sounds completely scary to me. But she has a great house with a great name and you simply can't beat her taste in gardens ...



read more: National Trust[>].

denyse schmidt coolness

In my opinion, my cool friend Denyse Schmidt has the edge on hip coolness.

First, she makes incredible quilts, one of which I just had to have both because I loved it and because of it's super appropriate name: "mental blocks" (how could you not own such a quilt?).

It's the very quilt you see here and it's on my sofa where I go when I experience any of these aforementioned blocks (which, needless to say, is often--especially when I'm writing). Sometimes I throw caution to the wind and save myself a step and head straight for the sofa to write since I know I'll end up there at some point. "Mental Blocks" is the perfect antidote to blocks of any kind. Just looking at it makes me want to sing and dance and run and play. What better place to be to write?

To see Denyse's stuff for yourself, check out her site denyseschmidtquilts.com.

Second, she lives in a wildly cool house and you can check it out here.

That's the thing about my quilt. It makes you happy just to look at it.

anything is possible...

(a poster from 1930)

"It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City -- New York City is itself a detective story" Agatha Christie

... and here are some other reasons why I love NYC and think it's is a brilliant place to be, particulary as a writer ...

"If there were one city I should pick to live in, it would be New York. It is a city where I walk down the street and feel anything is possible." Maria Schell

"A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again."
Margaret Meade

Certainly wherever you live,
you can always live in the "anything is possible"...
and find in every day something surprising or new
and say yes to life as a Glorious Adventure
and think again about something you thought you always knew
and hold fast to wonder
and see with the eyes of a child.

It's just in NYC you don't need to travel too far to find it. It's waiting for you on your doorstep.

Sir Wilberforce Ping

This is Jonathan. He's got lovely blond hair (as you can see), he runs around really fast (which you can't see here because the photo caught him during a momentary break) and he's a glorious rascal (which you can probably guess).

But the best thing of all?

He's my nephew.

He is also rather bouncy and sometimes known as... Balloon Bird (aka Sir Wilberforce Ping).

Haven't met Balloon Bird yet? Or Sir Wilberforce Ping? Good heavens, we have no time to lose.

Meet him quick:
Click here!

nyc and listening

One of the things I love about living in New York is you just walk outside your door and encounter languages, costumes, stories, music from the other side of the world--all in the space of one block (mine looks pretty much like this one).

You also get to hear wonderful snippets of conversation. Which makes it even better as a writer since your whole job is really to notice, or as Henry James put it, "be someone on whom nothing is lost".

In fact, one of my all time favorite lines I ever heard anyone say was walking down my street on the Upper West Side. A small boy wearing a monster mask was chasing his father roaring, "I'm going to eat you with my mouth!" It was quite the scariest thing he could think to say (so scary I think that he was scaring himself) and it stuck in my brain and went into my notebook.

A year later I heard it coming out of the mouth of the terrifying Clasp in Handbag Friends. (In case you haven't heard it from Clasp's mouth, you're missing something, don't delay, quick click here immediately!)

what's wrong with the world?

there are loads of theories out there but none I think truer or better said than this.

When The Times invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme "What's Wrong with the World?" Chesterton's contribution took the form of a letter:

Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G. K. Chesterton

hop spot (with fairy cakes)

Sam (the Tiger) from our London Bureau took time out of his very busy schedule discovering and unearthing new Pinklish Words to pen this beautiful portrait of Hop Spot--who, unusually, by lucky chance, was standing still having in turn taken time out of her equally busy schedule eating fairycakes. (Thank you Sam The Tiger for this scoop!)

I think you'll agree Hop Spot is very photogenic. As are her fairy cakes. (Who, sadly, of course are now no longer with us. This is probably the very last portrait of them, in fact. Being just prior to their being gobbled all up.)

On a happier note, to find out more about Hop Spot and to watch her dance and sing with her cakes (and the other Handbag Friends): Click here!