Rochester trip (part 3)

It's my sister's birthday today! Ruth's newest book is now available in bookstores. Visit her Web page for Me And My Brother to see sample pages and sketches.

Speaking of kids' books, one of the highlights of our Strong National Museum Of Play visit was seeing sample pages of the original manuscript for Charlotte's Web in Reading Adventureland:



From a writer's perspective, it was fascinating to examine some of E.B. White's edits. Digital word processing is a godsend for writers, but one of the downsides is the disappearance of historical documents like this one. Very few people correspond by paper mail compared to in the past, and while I suppose it's possible to publish an electronic correspondence, it just isn't the same.

But I digress. Back to our Rochester trip...

Do check out Allison's reports and photos in Livejournal, including some great shots that she took in the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden. The garden is the largest indoor butterfly garden in New York. You have to pay a small extra fee to be admitted, but it's well worth it.

I'd love to go back to the museum someday. I'd like more time to check out check out the 900-gallon coral reef tank as well as the National Toy Hall Of Fame. We were all amused to see that the inductee in 2005 was the Cardboard Box. Interesting to read that the first cardboard box was developed in 1879 by American Robert Gair.

Walter has posted photos from the trip in Flickr. David Wheeler has posted an LJ report about our concert as well as photos in Flickr.



Above: part of a dragon lamp in the Halls' living room. John and Joanne have a wonderful house full of all kinds of interesting things to see, corners to explore. And BOOKS...lots and lots of books.

If I could expand my basement office into a bigger place, it would look like John's and Joanne's house. :-) I felt immediately comfortable and at home.

And they had a very cool Heather Bruton painting on the wall of their downstairs bathroom:



In fact, I'm inspired to work on my own office some more. There are still so many blank wall spaces I could be filling up with pictures and paintings! Here's my office tree painting (my first time using acrylics) before I added anything else:




Again...many thanks to John and Joanne for the invite!



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