A Delightfully December-y Month

Near all of December has been a frozen, cold, snowy and/or rainy time.  I enjoy the snow, I don't mind the cold, and I don't care for the rain; but when we had about a week of low temperatures and a frozen little world, I went outside as often as possible to enjoy the ice and crunchy ground.  I took my dolls out to play with and take pictures of them several times that week.  Of course, I also had to break all the animals' water and pour hot water upon each thick sheet of ice, but I didn't mind at all.

December is not only fun because of the cold; it is also a particularly enjoyable month because of Advent and Christmas.  I must admit, the thing I like most about Advent is opening up a box from the Playmobil Advent Calendar every morning and, on Christmas Eve, admiring my lovely, complete Playmobil Christmas scene.  The best parts about Christmas are having family over to eat and talk and opening presents.  The problem with me is that when there is a crowd of people, I feel as though all eyes are upon me, watching me unwrap each gift.  (I feel the same way about my birthday.)  I usually hand out each gift under the tree to the person to whom it belongs while building up my pile slightly behind the tree, and when the tree is bare underneath, I plop myself down at my stack and open them while everyone is exclaiming over their gifts.  It usually works very well, but perhaps this year I shall sit in a chair and open my presents.  Yes, I suppose it is possible.

My Plucky Duckies

Before I write anything about my wonderful ducks, I wish you all a delightful Thanksgiving.  In Rainbowland they have what is called "Day of Thanks," which is their Thanksgiving.  It is always on the 30th of November.

Now for the ducks.  In April I got two ducks whom I named Salieri and Victor.  Now they are grown up and Sally lays eggs for us.

Here is the picture I took of them when they were a few days old.  Victor is on the right and Sally is on the left.

And here they are now.  Very beautiful ducks, if I do say so myself.  They are a bit dirty and messy looking now, but this summer their feathers were sleek and gorgeous and their beaks weren't caked in mud.

This is Victor:

This is Salieri:

They love each other (and me) very much and are definitely inseparable.

I decided to show you a picture of Feisty (outside that cage) and Patrick (inside the cage).  Feisty and the two ducks are very good friends: after all, they do live together.

Well, that is all I have to say about my ducks.  Again, I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving.  We shall be driving off to Shedd, Oregon for Thanksgiving in a very short while, so I must hurry up and end this post, as much as I should like to continue writing.

A Visit with Walter

Last Friday Mother, Daddy, Patrick and I drove down to California for our yearly visit with our grandchild/nephew, Walter, who turned a year old on October 12th.  I could only write about the adventures, but of course you want to see pictures, so I shall tell the adventures along with the pictures I took.

                                                                          Saturday:

We went to the beach, and since Walter is always eating (he's a growing boy), he ate the whole way there.

Waving to Aunt Janet (he's the best waver and ball-thrower I know.)

His Cowlick

Matthew, Patrick, Margaret and I climbed up a little cliff-type rock and Grandpa and Walter stayed down on the beach.

This is the view we had from the cliff.

Mama, Grandpa and Walter 

Grandma was sitting with Walter on the blanket while he played with rocks and ate.

Of course our boy needs lots of kisses.

His Beautiful Curls

A horse came by and stopped so Walter might see it.

Once Walter had had enough of the horse, the horse and his rider went down to the water.

Walter and Uncle Patrick

My Doll, Consuelo

                                                                            Sunday

Uncle Patrick played guitar for Walter and he enjoyed it very much.

I forgot: he's also the best little clapper.

Walter and the coasters

Monday (our last day there)

Papa, Sad Baby and Mama

And those were our adventures.  I took 375 pictures altogether, but I limited myself to 30 for you to see.  Ah, and we did so much more than the pictures tell, but this post is long enough with the pictures and a bit of writing.  I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

The Tale of Rainbowland

Today I'm going to tell you a story, so make some tea, fetch your favorite blanket, and curl up in the coziest chair you can find.  Now, be prepared to be taken far away into the land of a young child and her father.

Once, years ago, an imaginative little girl and her daddy created a world.  In this world were vampires and dragons; Cloneys* and horses.  Together these great beasts and strong men kept the land in harmony and peace.  They encountered and conquered many villains and creatures, especially Cobrae**, while dealing with their own troubles in their own lives.

All this fancy was created in the bed of the daddy, turning it into a magic carpet-like object as it delivered the girl and daddy to their magnificent world.

As time wore on, the girl grew into an adolescent and their world turned into hers, and her world expanded into the outdoors.

You, my loyal readers, know this world as "Rainbowland."  Though "Rainbowland" is its original name, what is inside this world has changed entirely, making it an almost unrelated world, but still the product of my mind.

As I close my story, let me remind you: Rainbowland was created and played by a daughter and her father in a simple little bed.



*A "Cloney" is my version of a clone trooper.  I came up with them while watching Star Wars with my dear brother Patrick.  In the original Rainbowland, I was Pink Cloney, Daddy was Blue Cloney and my husband was Red Cloney.  There were many more, but I am certainly not going to list them all.  They're just humans in special suits, by the way.

**"Cobrae" are like cobras.  They were highly venomous and quite common in original Rainbowland.  The "Cobrae" is also my original idea, just like the Cloneys.

I'm Back!

The title says it all; I'm back!  Did you miss me?  My plan was to blog about going to American Girl Place Seattle and my birthday back in July, but obviously that never happened.  The rest of my summer was spent doing summery things and not blogging, which resulted in two months' worth of nothing on my poor little blog.

Anyway, during my absence, I decided to change the name of my blog.  "The Blog of J.M. Newhall" is boring and unoriginal, and I wrinkle my nose when I say it, thus I have given it a Rainbowland influence.  I hope you like it, because I shan't be changing it for a long time - I think.

To end this delightful little post, I shall make a commitment to blog on either Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, depending on how busy my days are.  And, just to let you know, "Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland" will be back within a few weeks.

Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland Part 3

I didn't realize how well-loved Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland was until I posted something different: the reaction was positive, but I believe my Rainbowland posts were missed.

Now, if you haven't read the other two parts, I highly recommend you do.  Part 1 is here and part 2 here.

A few minutes later she (Daisy) walked out of the bathroom and into Kyla and Edward’s room.

Kyla and Edward have their own house now.  I only had the Johnsons and Harps in the same house because in many of my unwritten stories it worked out to be more convenient.

“It’s 7:30!  How can it be late?”

In Rainbowland people usually awaken at 5:30 to 6:30.

“If they find out of my absence, I’m afraid I would be tortured to near death."

This is a Black Rider speaking, and they (the Master) would not torture a Black Rider.  The Master doesn't really care if his Black Riders leave.

“Come on, let me take you to Sever,” she (Daisy) said.  Sever was Kyla’s horse.

Sever is now Ian's horse.

Back at the hospital, Daisy was in room 27.

As far as my knowledge goes, there are no room numbers in Cedar Ridge.  I have no idea why, though.

She had a magazine in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

Coffee?  Rainbowlandians do not drink coffee; they drink tea.

Well, that's all I found in chapter 3.  Now if you'll excuse me, I am going off to play with dolls.

The Big World of Dolls

Besides being a Grammar Nazi, the inventor of Rainbowland, and a lover of animals, I enjoy dolls.  Or, I should more properly say, I thoroughly enjoy dolls.  Here's a list of some of my favorite blogs:

The Toy Box Philosopher

Never Grow Up

Belle's Bulletins

Jane Austen and Unicorns

Doll Diaries

Steampunk Addie

Yes, of course I read non-doll blogs, but about half of my favorite blogs are written by or about dolls.

Now, there are so many brands of dolls out there, but which ones do I like?  American Girl dolls are by far my favorite.  I've spent little bits of 2013 brushing up on my AG knowledge, and now I know almost as much about American Girl as I do grammar!

Carpatina is another high quality brand.  Of their dolls I have Veronika, the Medieval doll, who is very high quality and absolutely stunning.

Hearts for Hearts is another nice brand.  They're the "Girls on the Dresser" in my room, but they come down often, whether it's of my own will or not.  (One of them fell into the turtle's water once so I used my doll knowledge and quickly and gently washed her hair with water and brushed it, and now it's even nicer than before.)

The Les Cheries dolls made by Corolle are excellent little play dolls.  Camille Equestrienne is my doll and I play with her all the time.  She is the perfect size to be a little sister for 18 inch dolls, too.

Kidz 'n' Cats are extremely high quality dolls with 11 points of articulation.  I have Sabine and I play with her very often.

I hope you've enjoyed this post; I should make it longer except I must feed the chickens and ducks.  In case you're wondering about the Rainbowland posts I was writing, I still have more, but I thought a different post would be nice.

Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland Part 2

Here is the continued part of last week's post.  Read part 1 here.

“I’d rather die than surrender to you,” the Black Rider said.

A Black Rider wouldn't wait to say that.  He would kill anyone immediately.

Daisy and Kayla put on their shoes and lab coats and headed out the door of their house.  

They wear special Black Rider boots (as do all the other people at Cedar Ridge Hospital) and they don't wear lab coats.

Hannah Ronen was the hospital’s main cook.

Hannah was the hospital's sole cook until Lucy joined them.

Okay

A recurring word in my book, though Rainbowlandians would never use it.  I just wanted to point that out.

They hurried up to the field.

What field?  There's no actual "field."

Sarah was six, Michele was four and William was two.

Michele is now Kathleen and they're all a year older, but their age changed because I gave them real birthdays and they just celebrated them.

“You’re under arrest,” He said to him.

There is no arresting since I removed police from Rainbowland.

Well, I scoured chapter 2 of my book for changes and wrote them here, and now I'm ready for a cup of tea.  I hope you've enjoyed part 2 of Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland: I shall post the next part soon.

Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland Part 1

Today I'm going to show you how very much Rainbowland has changed in a year.  I shall be using my old book as a reference, which I believe is stupid now.

Let's begin:

Daisy's reddish hair gleamed in the sunlight, making her even more beautiful.

I now call her hair "light auburn."

“Wait right here while I get my helmet.”

Helmet?  In Rainbowland?  Rainbowlandians don't wear helmets, especially when riding a horse.

His sire was a retired thoroughbred racehorse, and his dam was a nicely bred Egyptian Arabian.  He had a cherry bay coat with a flowing black mane and tail.

Black Flame is the special Rainbowland breed and his coat is black while his mane and tail are red.

“Whoa,” she said to the horse as they reached the hitching post. 

Hitching posts don't exist in Rainbowland.

 She opened the door to see Sergeant Stephen Pelowski and Lieutenant Oliver Wilson. 

Just recently I obliterated everything that was related to police.  Adventurers are the police instead.

In fact, he (Deuce) was quite harmful to the Black Riders.

There's no need to worry about harming the Black Riders.  No one minds if Deuce is harmful to them, which he isn't.

The three horses were tacked up, Daisy using a double seat saddle.

Rainbowlandians rarely use a saddle, and double seat saddles are non-existent.  The only tack they sometimes use is a bridle.

I think I've written enough about the differences in Rainbowland for now.  Keep in mind that the most significant change is their speech: they use grammar perfectly and say "'tis" and such all the time.

A Day with Janet

Oh dear, I haven't blogged in over a week!  That's because I spent all of Monday writing a post.  I was going to post it yesterday, but it slipped my mind, so here it is today.  Every hour starting at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 10:00 p.m. I wrote what was happening and what had happened each hour.



8:00 a.m.:

I awoke half an hour ago and have been on my computer reading a blog almost the entire time.  I'm on our blue love seat with my warm blanket covering me (even though 'tis not cold).  Daddy is awake too.


9:00 a.m.:

I just finished my morning cup of green tea and am almost finished with my Malt-O-Meal, this morning's breakfast.  I'm playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf.


10:00 a.m.:

To be honest, I forgot about blogging at 10:00... (this was written at 10:45)


11:00 a.m.:

I just finished dressing two of my dolls in Camp Doll Diaries t-shirts and taking a picture of them.  I practiced my guitar about 15 minutes ago.  I have decided to check Doll Diaries since Char said she'd have another post up this afternoon (she lives in Eastern time).


12:00:

I have eaten breakfast and read a doll review on another blog.  I'm going to do my guitar lesson soon.


1:00 p.m.:

I finished my guitar lesson and I'm now playing Animal Crossing again.  I just came in from visiting Mother in the garden: the fish fertilizer she used smells revolting.


2:00 p.m.:

I've been on my computer for a few minutes but I'm about to go without and play.


3:00 pm:

Daddy just left for work and Mother took a shower to remove the fish fertilizer smell from her body upon my request.  While without I fed the chickens their afternoon meal, picked up Victor the duck, talked with Mother and wrestled with Rosey.


4:00 p.m.:

I'm preparing to watch a White Collar and eat my delicious dinner of coleslaw, party beans and pulled pork.


5:00 p.m.:

I'm about to go outside again.  I plan on playing Rainbowland (of course!).


6:00 p.m.:

I'm writing in a short story I've been working on since February, although I'm contemplating taking a break to play Rainbowland again and walk the dogs with Mother.


7:00 p.m.:

Mother ended up walking the dogs without me (humph), but she hugged and kissed me so that made me happy.  We watched a White Collar together and now we're going to play a game.  I just went to check the eggs and found Rosey in the chicken/duck pen and had to make sure the chickens were all right and had no way of escaping.  Apparently she went in to eat the moldy bread I tossed in there earlier.


8:00 p.m.:

Mother and I played Skip-Bo and I won; I did my art for tonight (I drew a flower with pastels); and Mother is talking to a friend on the phone.  I am pleased to have 12 hours' worth of writing on this post.  Oh, and I'm also researching St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Ignatius of Antioch just for fun.


9:00 p.m.:

I just finished my evening cup of tea.  There are six minutes left in our second White Collar. I shall go outside again when it is over.


10:00 p.m.:

I took a bath and brushed my teeth about half an hour ago; and I practiced my guitar just a few minutes ago.  Mother and I are going to get into my bed and browse American Girl and perhaps do a crossword puzzle.  Overall, this has been a truly lovely day.

Summer is Almost Here

Yea*, summer is almost here.  No math (just math, not school) marks the beginning of summer, and math is nearly over, so summer is almost here!  These are my plans for the next few months:

• Build Rainbowland into an amazing Land and have plenty of fun
• Play with dolls and participate in Camp Doll Diaries
• Do everything with Rosey
• Sell eggs

My list is short, I know; however, working on Rainbowland and playing Camp Doll Diaries are both time-consuming (in a good way, of course) activities.

Among other things... the reason I wasn't blogging was because I didn't have enough exciting things to write about, and if I simply wrote a small post about what was going on in my life, I thought it would sound stupid.  I received quite a positive reaction when I blogged last time, though, so I thought perchance it would be perfectly fine.


*I think it's really funny and pleasant when people use "yea" in writing.  I always think: "You probably just wanted to shorten "yeah," you think that's how "yeah" is spelled, or you simply forgot the "h."  Nevertheless, I shall pronounce it the way "yea" is pronounced and just assume that you intentionally used the archaic "yea."

Oh, Hello!

I decided I had to write something again, seeing as it's been almost a month!  I promise I will write at least once a week, even if all I write is a single paragraph.  I'm still alive and perfectly capable of writing, so why not take advantage of these lovely days and put my frenzied mind to work?

Here are two recent photos of my turtle and me after two different turtle baths:

A New Friend

Yesterday, while Mother and Daddy were getting dirt for the garden and I was at home doing math, I happened to look out the window and I saw something big and pretty: a barred owl!  Mr. Owl scared me at first, but once I recovered from the shock I knew I had to get some pictures of him to show Mother and Daddy and everyone else.  Last night Mother and I got to see Mr. and Mrs. Owl again; they were kissing each other.  We've had them around since last spring.

Now for some pictures:

The owl looking in my general direction.  He's definitely very friendly.

He would slowly turn his head in different directions.

Once he looked up because of some Steller's Jays.

Maybe he looked up twice.  Nonetheless, he was awfully cute when he lifted his head all the way up.

This was my point of view.

The Scoop on Rainbowland

What happened to Rainbowland?  The last time I mentioned it was February 27th!  Some very exciting things have happened since then.

Remember how dear Daisy's father, Toby's family and Seth's mother were all killed by a Black Rider?  They caught him during the battle last February/March.  His name is Xavier Earl Alexander and he's one of my best creations yet.  I still love Toby, of course!  Xavier is just new and exciting and a product of my prodigious mind.

To give you an idea of Xavier, I shall describe him.  He has neat dark brown hair and striking blue eyes; he's two inches shorter than Toby.  He was a Black Rider for fourteen years.  In case you're wondering, that's a very long time to be a Black Rider.  His birthday is June 30th; he's turning 33.

Other things have been happening in RL, too.  Daisy, Kyla, Toby and Xavier are preparing to enter The Horse Games this year, which begin July 1st and end July 3rd.  You may start signing up June 1st. The annual Cedar Ridge picnic is July 10th.  All the CR patients, staff and good LOA friends are to be there.

I also have an interesting "Rainbowland Shorthand Guide" for you:

BR - Black Rider
BRH - Black Rider Hunting
CR - Cedar Ridge
CRH - Cedar Ridge Hospital
LOA - Land of Adventure
RL - Rainbowland, Rainbowlandian
THG - The Horse Games (not The Hunger Games.  The Horse Games have nothing to do with The Hunger Games.)

Salieri and Victor

I decided I should go into detail about my newest little pets, Salieri and Victor.  They're much bigger than the picture below.  They were only about three days old then, and now they're about a week old.  Ducks grow very quickly.

You might be wondering which is which by now.  Easy problem to solve.  Victor is the left duckling in the picture; Sally is the duckling on right.

I got to take them to class yesterday and the kids loved them.  It's hard not to love those little ducklings with their long beaks, their oily down and their intelligence.

One of the things I debated after all the deaths was if I should continue the Intriguing Animal Act (the only day I ever actually did it was April tenth, 2012 - a year ago Wednesday...).  With two of the most amazing pets in the world gone from the act it seemed impossible.  Henna was the biggest part of the act, but Obviously since she's dead she can't perform anymore, although the Duck Twins might just be able to learn some adorable things.  I'm already teaching them how to come when I call their names.  I still have to see how things work out with Rosey and Sara.  Sara's the most harmless creature ever.  The worst thing she's capable of doing is getting angry.  Rosey, on the other hand, is much more dangerous.  When she sees anything the first thing that come into her head is "food!"  Especially when it comes to ducks, no doubt.

A Little Medley

I shall begin this post by saying that I am sorry for not blogging, and when I did, the posts were dull and short.  At first I was too sick with the flu to write.  Then I was catching up in life.  Then I was busy lazy.  Then Easter came (more on that in a moment).  Now I'm back!

As I said, there would be more on Easter in a moment, so here's how my Easter went...

"It all began on Friday, March 29th.  The day was lovely with all its sunniness and greenness.  'Twas indeed the day Matthew, Margaret and Walter were coming.
"On Saturday, Patrick and Sara came home and Chris and Kari came for quite a while with Beyonca, their friends' two-year-old daughter.  We went to our neighbors' house, then came back to our house to have dinner with Mom and Don.
"Sunday was, of course, Easter.  We had some very special guests, Meghan, Rob and Joshua.  Meghan is my cousin, Rob is her husband and Joshua is their child.  We ate, did some archery and chatted.  Of course different people did different things, but it would take too long to list all the activities.
"Monday was the day Mother and I took the little Newhall family to the car rental place.  We said goodbye and then left them to drive to Margaret's family's house.
"Walter was the most amazing, wonderful baby ever, and I'm very excited to see him again!"

...and that was how my Easter (and visit with Walt) turned out.

Today Mother and Daddy went to the farm store and got some chicken feed for our chickens.  They brought me home a wonderful surprise: two ducklings!  They're black and yellow and their names are Salieri (hopefully a female) and Victor (hopefully a male).  I plan on raising them into show ducks, like what I did with Henna, only she was a show chicken.  After Henna died, it seemed pointless to try to train any more chickens, but I'm excited to see how smart and cute my little ducks become.

Sir Raphael

After I blogged about Raphael, I was basically done.  Now that it's been some time since I got him, I thought you'd enjoy some random pictures.

Quite a recent photo of Raffi, maybe taken about a week ago.

This one is from today, actually.

I probably took this one a about a month ago.

This was taken around the time I first got him.

This picture is also from early December.

This photo was probably taken a few weeks ago.

This one was taken a little longer than a week ago.

This photo was taken some time in the last month.