Tag Archives: Flowers

Summer Songs in a Lena Anderson Garden

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Mary Q. Steele. Anna’s Garden Songs. Illustrated by Lena Anderson. New York: Greenwillow, 1989. Illustrations published 1988 in Sweden. (Cotsen 2755)

Last weekend I wished I could be in one of Lena Anderson’s idyllic gardens in the Swedish countryside when the heat index climbed up to 110 in central New Jersey.   It was too hot to dig for anything here…Dreaming of  August’s perfect red ripe tomatoes in the shade was more like it.

Imagine wearing a sweater to go to the farmer’s market in the Princeton Junction train station this time of year…  Doesn’t picking out your vegetables in your bare feet in the grass sound like heaven?

Mary Q. Steele. Anna’s Summer Songs. Illustrated by Lena Anderson. (New York: Greenwillow, 1988). Illustrations published 1984 in Sweden.

No one does summer like a Scandinavian artist…

Bridezillas! What Animals Wear to their Weddings

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Ratt-Brollopet [The Rats’ Wedding]. Illustrated by A. W. Eskiltuna, Sweden: Oberg, 1930. (Cotsen 29024)

Vintage for the mother of the bride?  Medals are always correct for the father.

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Kichibe Tsutsumi. Nezumi no yomeiri [The mouse’s wedding]. Tokyo: Seiseido, 1916. (Cotsen 99577)

No one will ever forget this bride’s arrival . It’s not just the vehicle that makes a statement, it’s her attendants’ fabulous gowns.

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Louis Moe. Blomsternes bog eller: Rosens bryllup med sommerfugeln [The Rose’s wedding to the Butterfly]. Copenhagen/ Kristiana, Oslo: Gyldendalske Bodhandle/ Nordisk Forlag ca. 1926. (Cotsen 22055)

A blueprint for a dream country wedding.

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Alfred Konner. Die Hochzeit des Pfaus [The Peacock’s Wedding]. Illustrated by Klaus Ensikat. Berlin: Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer, 1994. (Cotsen 72709)

A gown as romantic as the occasion.

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Aleksandur Bozhinov. Zlatna kniga za nashitie dietsa [The Golden Book for Our Children]. Sofia, ca. 1945. (Cotsen)

A stunning alternative to the billowing lacy veil.

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Adolf Holst. Die Hochzeit im Walde [The Wedding in the Woods]. Illustrated by Else Wenz-Vietor. Leipzig: Alfred Hahn’s Verlag, ca. 1926. (Cotsen 1027)

Ethereal but timeless elegance.  A dress that can dance the night away.

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Carl Sandburg. The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who was in It. Illustrated by Harriet Pincus. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1967. (Cotsen)

And nothing but happy endings…