Anne really is all around

Hello dear Fannes!

Seeing as I’m in between Anne readings, I thought I’d take the time to head in a slightly different direction than usual. You see, although I’m not currently reading Anne, I find in my life various and sundry activities that I’m quite sure she would wholeheartedly approve of. Let’s take a look at a few different areas:

On the Bookshelf

Although I’ve been interspersing some non-fiction/meaty/make my brain explode books, I’ve also kept some time to keep it light this summer. (Remember that I’m south of the Equator!) I’ve recently finished Sisterhood Everlasting by Anne Brashares. If you’re familiar with the Traveling Pants series, this is the fifth and final book. It catches up with our four kindred spirits right around their 30th brithdays. Since I recently turned 30 myself (and since I loved the other four books when I read them several years ago) I was excited to pick this one up. I finished it in a flash and although the main arc of the story came as quite a surprise, I turned the pages quickly and ended feeling satisfied and hopeful about our ladies of the pants.

Are you more of a Carmen, Lena, Tibby or Bridget? And yes, you can still be Anne if you want…

I’m now working my way a bit more slowly through Jane Austen’s Emma. I’m actually a bit ashamed to admit that I’ve never read it (Anne Girls should have read all of Austen’s novels by 30!) but alas, here I am playing catch-up. I’ve found it to be a delightful story – as I knew it would be – and am loving the few chapters I digest each night before bed.

We know that Anne had her share of blunders and victories in the world of match-making. Have you tried your hand? Was it successful?

In the Kitchen

I’ve had some time this summer to enjoy new experiences in the kitchen. It’s no secret that I love to bake, but I’ve been branching out some recently and the results have been delicious! Since the farmer’s markets here are abundant and very economical, I’ve been bringing home kilos of peaches and making fantastic pies. I’ve not dabbled much in the pie arena in the past, but with an excellent crust tutorial from a dear friend, I’m well on my way to adding some new staples to my dessert rotation. There’s a special kind of peach here called the “durazno platino” which means banana peach. It looks like a peach (I know you’re trying to picture a very funny looking fruit) but the flesh is lighter in color and the taste has a little less tang and a little more sweet. They’re delicious and make killer pies. I can’t get enough. I can’t help but wish I was in that Ingleside kitchen with Anne and Susan rolling out those crusts together. And just as they used to do, I tend to wait for the sun to go down to do my heavy baking, seeing as ovens and no air conditioning make for an inferno-like situation.

I also made a scrumptious batch of lemon curd tonight. I’ve been a long-time fan of the stuff, although I’ve never attempted to make it myself. I was inspired by this recipe that I ran across recently (and if you haven’t checked out  Forever Young Adult, go spend some time clicking around! Great stuff..) I made a cake this week that called for five egg whites. Not wanting to waste those yolks, it was positively providential that the curd recipe called for exactly five! The whisking was long, but oh-so-worth-it. I think Rachel Lynde herself would go in for seconds.

Have you whipped up anything Anne-tastic lately?

On the Small Screen

“Big screen” would have sounded better, but it would have been a lie. I actually don’t have a television, so all my viewing is on my trusty laptop. I don’t mind so much, but at times it would be nice to stroll through the gardens at Downton in HD. Don’t know what I’m referring to? Were you completely confused by the link to the lemon curd recipe? Then stop reading this immediately and get thine self to Downton Abbey! It’s the best series I’ve watched in a long time. The story takes us to England in the years just prior to World War 1, which I can’t even refer to without pausing for a moment to remember our fallen soldier.

*crickets chirping*

Walterrrrrrr I miss you.

And we’re back! Seriously, watch this show. Wealthy aristocratic family, the servants who work for them, drama, love, war, the guy we love to hate, the guy we love to love… you’ll be hooked in no time.

Now that I’ve finished watching Season 2, what am I going to do for months and months of my life before Season 3 comes out?

This was fun. Let’s do it again sometime.

-big sis

Rilla-my-Rilla…

I’m struggling to create posts about Rilla. The hilarious raspberry cordial-esque episodes that we’ve come to know and love are few and far between. This is war. This is death. This is hard stuff. This is an emotional book and a beautiful book and quite possibly my favorite of the eight (haven’t I already said that about at least two, maybe three other books?)

I don’t really know what to say about it…

Am I allowed to say that my political ideologies might line up more with Whiskers on the Moon than with Susan Baker?

Am I allowed to say that every time Walter dies it hits me like a ton of bricks and makes me truly sad?

Am I allowed to say how I ache for Una?

Am I allowed to say how I want to know more about our quiet little brown boy, Shirley?

Am I allowed to say that I wish I was Gertrude, living with the Blythes  and getting to be a fly on the wall of their war-time Ingleside lives?

Am I allowed to say that Mary Vance still gets on my nerves even though she saved little Jims?

Am I allowed to say how much I feel this book? Does that even makes sense?

I suppose I’m allowed to say all that and more because it’s (half) my blog and I’ll say what I want to! I may be back with more later, but I still have to read the last few chapters (yes, I’ve been super slow with this one) Never fear, though… I won’t be gone for long. For now I’ll leave us with a passage that I marked in chapter 19 – there was sometime about it that stayed with me:

“I wonder,” said Gertrude dreamily, “if some great blessing, great enough for the price, will be the meed of all our pain? Is the agony in which the world is shuddering the birth-pang of some wondrous new era? Or is it merely a futile ‘struggle of ants in the gleam of a million million of suns?’
We think very lightly, Mr. Meredith, of a calamity which destroys an ant-hill and half its inhabitants. Does the Power that runs the universe think us of more importance than we think ants?”

“You forget,” said Mr. Meredith, with a flash of his dark eyes, “that an infinite Power must be infinitely little as well as infinitely great. We are neither, therefore there are things too little as well as too great for us to apprehend. To the infinitely little an ant is of as much importance as a mastodon. We are witnessing the birth-pangs of a new era­ but it will be born a feeble, wailing life like everything else. I am not one of those who expect a new heaven and a new earth as the immediate result of this war. That is not the way God works. But work He does, Miss Oliver, and in the end His purpose will be fulfilled.”

-big sis

SHE LIVES!!

After a very long absence, I’m happy to announce….

I’M BACK!

I’m in the midst of finals and papers and mayhem, but I’m also living in the best city on Earth and it’s just waking up to springtime.  So I had to pop in and share this pic with you.  I met up with a friend outside of St. Paul’s Chapel today (one of my favorite peaceful places in NYC) and made sure to arrive early to have some quiet time to enjoy the long-awaited sun under a nice, big tree.  You see, we had a long and harsh winter in the City and it seemed like spring would never come.  But suddenly over the last two weeks, the trees have started blooming, the sun is shining bright and my pale, wintry arms are finally feeling fresh air again!

Anyways, as I’m sitting by my tree in the cemetery behind the chapel, I looked to my left and saw this:

Not only was I sitting under a tree….in a cemetery…..but suddenly I was enraptured and drinking in the springtime!!! Which was particularly intoxicating after months of this:

It was a truly Anne-tastic moment!  Trees! Cemetery! Spring! Drinking in things other than drinks! Seriously, guys….it was perfection.  Possibly enough to get me through the papers I have to write tonight…and maybe we’ll let the Easter candy help…

-lil sis

A bosom friend…

After somewhat of a lengthy absence, I’m finding my way back to blogging. This morning I just returned to Santiago after a whirlwind 10 days in Texas. The primary purpose of my journey was to stand by a dear friend as she got married. I have to say, a more Anne and Diana moment there never was. Shouldn’t that mean, then, that there would have been a Gilbert waiting in the wings?

Hmm.

Perhaps he got lost on the way to the wedding?

Changing the subject now…

Other perks of the visit were Mexican food, two-stepping with friends, a mini road-trip with my old college roommate, a weekend with mom, getting away with some serious long-distance hi jinx on my little sis, and various other treats. I’m back to reality today, though, with  a million emails to return and English classes to teach.

I’ll be in touch shortly with thoughts on the second half of Rilla, as well as updates on that missing Gilbert report…

-big sis

Autumnal Inspiration

Hello devoted reader(s) and Fannes from far and wide!

Contrary to popular belief, the Anne Girls have not been captured by pirates or stricken by the fever; we’re just… busy. Here in Chile, autumn is creeping in and the school year is kicking off (think: early September) so I find myself in a frenzied state of school supplies and attempts to switch out of summer mode whilst remembering how to do my job. I think it would be wise to channel Miss Stacy right about now, who was a bright, sympathetic young woman with the happy gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that was in them mentally and morally… -Green Gables, ch. 24

Hmmm

That’s a tall order.

Speaking of a tall order, would anyone else like a coffee right about now?

Off to be an adult…

-big sis

PS: still reading Rilla, slowly but surely…

Theoretical Theorizing…

Confession: I have had the hardest time reading lately!  I started Rilla of Ingleside over a week ago, but every time I go to pick it up and start reading, something stops me.  I have a few theories, so I thought I’d hash them out here.

Too much multitasking: I’m in school.  I’ve got 2 majors and a minor.  I’m averaging a couple hundred pages of required school reading every week.  It’s hard to get my brain to read anymore than it has to!  Once you’ve finished an essay by Durkheim, 2 chapters on peace negotiations in the Balkans and Mrs. Dalloway in its entirety, (on top of having weird dreams) my mind is DONE! FINISHED! FINITO! Call Mr. White, because my brain QUITS!

There’s only so much it can take.  And though the content would be cathartic and restorative, the physical action of reading is more than my poor little eyes can handle.  It’s much easier to sit back, watch another episode of West Wing and call it a night.

Emotional turmoil:  This book turns me into an emotional wreck. Keep the mascara away, and bring out the jumbo Puffs, because once this book gets going, I start to resemble our friend Nancy:

That’s right, Rilla of Ingleside is an emotional crowbar to my knee…and by knee I mean heart.  (If only I could expand the metaphor and make Mary Vance be Tonya Harding…) But  I digress… This book stresses me out, breaks my heart and leaves me with a pitiful tear-stained face on the subway.

Don’t mistake me-I love Rilla. At times, I would put it in the running to be one of my top faves of the eight.  But the emotional dedication required to read this book can be intimidating.   Am I prepared for the emotional rollercoaster, highs and lows, and yes-snot- that this book causes?!

The bend in the road that leads to Windy Poplars: I love all of the Anne books.  I really do.

However.

Anne of Windy Poplars can be a bit….vexing.  When nudged in between Anne of the Island and Anne’s House of Dreams it is a nice and at times even enchanting slice of Anne’s life.  But since we are reading the books in their published order this year, we will go straight from the raw emotional no man’s land that is my heart to……………..Kingsport Ladies College.  hm.  Somehow battling the Pringles doesn’t seem as tough as sending your children to war.

So those are my theories.  What do you think? And how do I overcome them?

I’ll keep you posted..

-lil sis

doldrums..and a confession

I have a confession, friends.

Lately, I’ve been reading almost nonstop.  I am 5 books into one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time.  The tale of an orphan, who overcame adversity and a difficult childhood but was rescued at the age of 11 by a life they never dreamed possible.

That’s right…

You guessed it…

I’m reading

…

Harry Potter.

* waits for the boos and hisses to die down *

I just can’t help it!! You see, my heart is torn.  Well, not torn so much as multifaceted and in need of different things at different times.  While my heart always beats for Avonlea, my activity-less winter doldrums between holiday fun and the return of school yearn for Hogwarts…these are possibly the only two weeks of the year that I can hunker down and dump my brain and get lost in another world.  I like to sprinkle my Anne throughout the year, in the midst of nasty school readings and awful long work days whereas I like to read Harry all in a chunk when there’s nothing to distract me but my empty cocoa mug.

8 books over 12 months as opposed to 7 books in 2 weeks. That’s a completely different reading experience.  Both amazing, just filling different aesthetic needs.

Harry’s not a yearly tradition..I haven’t read them in several years..and I won’t be starting a blog about Potter anytime soon..and it’s not like I really compare them to Anne…or like them better…or…erm…it’s just..I feel..so…

guilty. traitorous.  I had to confess.

Benedict Annedold.  Judas Iscanneiat.  Et tu, Brutanne?

What do you think? Can our literary affections take a detour every once in a while? Am I a bad fANNE?!?!??!

-lil sis

once more, with feeling

My dear roommate was kind enough to pass this along to me today.  I think Anne would clasp her hands, close her eyes and listen with rapt ecstasy.  Hope you enjoy it too:)

-lil sis

just a happy day…

“‘After all,’ Anne had said to Marilla once, ‘I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.’”

*sigh*

I’m thinking about it right now and can’t stop smiling.  All I will tell you is this…………..it was a day this summer, a fairly ordinary day, and I dwell on its details at least once a week.  Possibly more.  I loved this day.  If I could go back in time and relive one day, it would probably be this one.  I remember how it looked, smelled, felt, tasted and sounded to the point that I could take you through step by step and practically reenact it.

But the funny thing is, it would mean nothing to you at all.  Sure, it might sound like fun or a nice day..but you would have no idea why this day is THE DAY.  Why it’s my mental touchstone for bliss…my postcard from the clouds…my Beauty and the Beast, running out into the field, music crescendo moment!! (If you don’t know that moment, please go back and watch Beauty and the Beast.  Don’t even finish reading this.  There are more important things in your life right now. Do it.)

I think that’s part of why these days are so sacred in our memories.  They’re like a secret that we keep with ourselves-that we couldn’t share even if we wanted to.  A happy retreat when the G train stops running or the assignment is due today afterall or you just. can’t. find. the. other. shoe. under mounds of dirty? clean? clothes.

Anne reminds us that all days don’t suck.  Sometimes you do end up falling through a roof looking for a platter or face-planting in a muddy field chasing your cow.  But then there are those other times when you spend the morning by the sea with some adorable munchkins, the afternoon at tea with a kindred spirit and talk long into the evening with Gilbert Blythe…

*sigh*

-lil sis

the little things…

So friends, I am in the process of moving into a new apartment.  And while it’s too much of a work in progress to show you pics quite yet, I can tell you that there is a tree outside of my 4th floor window, and whether it has flowers in the spring or not, I’m calling it the Snow Queen.  Also, my room’s ceiling is slanted, so I’m pretty much living in the east gable room.  I’ve started a petition to paint the roof green…no word back from the landlords…

-lil sis