Is Alice in Wonderland only a Kids Story - TKG Sunday.

This book is enjoyed by a wide group of people because it is filled with changes! Topsy turvy changes. And I am encountering one such change.

Nov 24, 2024

So I will read it to you. Reading helps with life changes.

And there is a very good reason why.

Let’s walk this back a bit.

Mothers and the fathers of babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, grown ups and even grey haired offspring are never truly worry free. The worry begins at birth and never ends. Love is like that you know.

But when those babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, grown ups and even grey haired offspring are all tucked up in bed maybe even with their grown up sat on the bed with them reading that bedtime story or reading it to themselves, there is no worry. No anxiety. Just the peace of the words. The pure relief of knowing they are going to sleep soon. And will stay in one place. For a little while.

Oh parents. We are such worriers.

I remember reading to my little daughter, she would be bathed (I used bath time as an activity in those days), she was sweet smelling, tucked up in her bed listening carefully to her bedtime stories, I remember looking up to find her older brothers, in their pyjamas, filtering slowly into the room just inside the door to listen to the soothing sounds of Going on a Bear Hunt or Bother that Cat or The Places You’ll Boldly Go, before tiptoeing back out as they saw her settle into sleep. To where their own books sat on their beds awaiting my arrival.

We always read in bed before settling to sleep. I still do.

When reading to kids we do more than settle them to sleep, being read to improves cognitive abilities, extends their vocabulary and opens up discussion about different social and cultural ways. Being read to allows us to savour every word.

No matter how bad things got I always packed the books.

Though I started out married I was a solo mother for seventeen plus years while working full time and raising my kids and it was incredible. Hard. Sometimes brutally hard but filled with wonder and travels and lazy friend-filled Sunday afternoons in the gardens. We always had a garden. We always had walls of books. And we always had a huge dining room table that sat 14 and we filled it. We were a strong, tangled, poor, artistic, musical, social, hard working, wild, noisy unit. And we still are.

Though in four different countries.

So, where am I going with this? What has this got to do with Alice in Wonderland?

Let’s walk this back a tiny bit further.

My (now grown up) five children have the inherent right to call on Mama (I cannot speak for fathers because I am not one), anytime. I repeat this to them frequently. I can get to any of you in 24 hours I tell them. Because my children’s Mama is an itchy feet traveler; that call often goes around the world, but only one way. On the way back in comes Mama.

It’s a Mary Poppins thing.

The call came a couple of months ago. My daughter needs me to come and live with her a while and manage her new household and design and put in a garden. There are no other family members living close by. She has a good job. She has found herself in a position where she needs help for an undefined period of time. I’ve told her a million times, ever since she was a teenager - use Mama as part of your choices. Make me part of the equation. Keep me in the mix as an option, I am always here to support whatever path you choose.

I taught my children a little mantra. '“If in danger or in doubt always call the Mama out. No. Questions. Asked”.

These were my Dads words by the way - he told us when we began to go out with groups of friends.

And now, my daughter has confidently sent out the Bat Signal. It takes real courage to ask for help. So next year we will be in Melbourne a while. You and me.

It is a change. So much of who I am is linked to the farm (here in Illinois) and the animals. So there will be a little less of that. But the fact of me writing will not change. You and I cannot change. Our hours together must not change. Because writing and chatting with you in the comments and learning new stuff together with you is my constant.

So.

Bear with me a little longer.

I have a plan for us.

I have good help on the farm.

I will continue to write about and encourage sustainable earth loving living. There is a ton of new opportunity in the city. We are going to zero down into an urban kitchen’s garden. The Compact Kitchen’s Garden. With a potted porch garden and a front yard garden and a window sill garden. We are going to deep dive into water saving and solar energy. And cooking. We are going to work out how to live as sustainably as possible in a big city. Something I have yet to fully explore. I have devoted the last 18 years to developing an organic and sustainably managed garden and farm in rural Illinois and writing about it. Now my challenge is to take those lessons to the city.

I will bring you back to the farm as often as my new role allows. I have booked two sets of flights in the next few months so we will still have lots of farm video yet. My farm hands will take photos for us. WhatsApp keeps us all in touch for free.

The blog continues.

The newsletter format remains the same but with less animals.

But what of the TKG Take Ten I hear you ask? This is where Alice comes in. I am going to read to you. Bed time stories. I love reading bedtime stories. We will begin with Alice in Wonderland.

Yes!

First Up:

Your Farmy Walkabout

I debated whether or not to delete this walkabout. The sound is a bit rubbish in this one as the wind is blowing. When I am talking about the pond I mean keeping a hole open in the ice. The chook, chicken, chick conundrum is garbled. And the internet is so shit today it has taken hours to even get it loaded.

Anyway - you decide.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This not strictly or solely a kids book. Though I read it as a kid, now that I am rereading it as a grown up it is really multi layered. The language is old with words not meaning the same things as they do now. Feeling queer (my queer friends are roaring with laughter) and eating mushrooms that make you bigger and smaller. (Some might call that tripping on ‘shrooms). Drinking things out of strange bottles labeled Drink Me. (I mean - really). At any rate I love this book, I love the language of this period, and it was the first to come to mind when I thought about reading to you. For the holidays. As a holiday treat.

(This idea was suggested to me by a very good friend here and it was like a light bulb going off in my head - of course - I love books - so do you - I will read you bedtime stories).

Naturally I am only using the tools I have lying about. (Consumerism is not my thing) And I am not editing anything so if I sniff it will be in character!

This will be me reading to you - not an artificially engineered voice. Me.

The Tenners (the paid subscriber’s to TKG Take Ten are called The Tenners) will be my focus group for this. You all will help me work out the nuts and bolts. So upgrade to paid if you want in on the full experience. I will only read when I am in a city. If I am on the farm - you will have farm video.

And for today - you are all invited to listen to a section of one of my rehearsal recordings.

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If you have any other suggestions for books to read next, that are in the public domain, let me know. Sadly Dr Seuss is not - I would love to read you ‘the places we boldly go’. But there are versions of The Little Prince that are in the public domain.

The world’s our oyster!!

“Why then the world’s mine oyster,

Which I with sword will open.”

The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Join the Chat

Everyone is welcome here. Bring your friends. Join the chat and we can all talk about all kinds of stuff. This weekend we seem to have wandered off into a discussion about left overs.