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This Day in World History

November 17, 1558

Elizabeth I becomes England’s Queen

The twenty-five-year-old princess was seated beneath an oak tree on the lawn of her home, Hatfield House. Suddenly, several courtiers hurried across the lawn until they reached her location, stopped, and bowed. The queen has died, they told her. You are now queen of England. Young Elizabeth, it is said, fell to her knees and quoted a line from Psalm 118: “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had reached the throne by a more circuitous path than most monarchs. Her father’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had born a daughter, Mary, but no son. Frustrated, Henry had broken with the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England so he could divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. After she bore Elizabeth and a stillborn son, Boleyn was beheaded for adultery—a trumped-up charge—when Elizabeth was but three. Henry then married Jane Seymour, who finally produced a male heir, the prince Edward.

Much of Elizabeth’s childhood and youth were difficult and spent away from court because her father rejected her. When he died and Edward came to the throne, she soon fell under suspicion of complicity in a plot to overthrow him. Her careful response to questions saved her. When Edward died, Mary came to the throne. She tried to restore the Catholic Church, leading to several Protestant rebellions, which led the queen to throw her half-sister into the Tower of London for a few months and eventually send her to Hatfield under house arrest.

Everything changed on that November day, however. Two months later, on January 15—a day chosen in part for its astrological promise—she had her official coronation at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth I, called Gloriana—and Good Queen Bess—ruled for nearly 45 years and gave her name to an age.

“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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Take out the Trash: Ugh.  The dumpsters are stinky and you’re busy.  Pawn that chore off on a young, gullible sibling.

Mom:  Sweety, would you please take out the trash for Mommy?

You: Aw, man, I’m watching cartoons!

Mom:  You can do it during the commercial break.

You: fine…. (sneak over to sister’s room) Hey, sis, Mom says you have to take out the trash.

Make sure they do a good job, or you’ll get blamed when this happens…

Unload the Dishwasher:  Tedious.  Why not just leave them in the washer where they are easier to grab?   Pay a sibling imaginary money to do it for you.

You: Hey, Johnny, I’ll pay you 14 Mega-Bucks to unload the dishwasher.

Johnny:  What’s a Mega-Buck?

You:  You don’t know what a Mega-Buck is?  Man, you are a baby.  Mega-Buck’s are for older, cool kids.

Johnny:  I’m not a baby.  What’s a Mega-Buck for?

You: Everything, rocket ship rides, candy, pet dragons…

Johnny:  OK, I’ll do it!

(Later when Johnny asks to redeem his Mega-Bucks, tell him Dragon Eggs cost 18,000,000 Mega-Bucks)

Sweep/Vacuum the Floor:  Why should you clean the floor?  It’s not like you have to eat off it!  Make sure to get the big noticeable stuff, but leave the rest.  If Mom doesn’t notice, great.  If she does notice, doing this enough may convince her that you are terrible at it and she won’t ask you again. 

WARNING!  The DO-THINGS-SO-BAD-THEY-STOP-ASKING strategy is a gamble that may result in you having to do it over.

Clean Your Room:  It’s your room, you should get to keep it how you like it, Messy.

First, insist that you have a system and know precicely where everything is and cleaning would result in you never finding your homework and thus failing Math and never getting into college.  If that doesn’t work, make your bed and shove everything on the floor into your closet/hamper.  If possible, block the closet with a fragile and extremely awkward school diorama or heavy dresser to prevent Mom from discovering its contents.

Mow the Lawn:  It’s hot out and it just grows back.  Luckily for you, the boys at MJM Books have possibly THE most experience in shirking this particular task.  

Strategy One:  Hide the Gas/Break the Mower. 

Strategy Two:  Stall. Promise to do it tomorrow because the weatherman says it will be cooler.  Say you twisted your ankle.  Anything.  The goal is to let the lawn get so bad that it becomes a lost cause and a family’s secret shame like so…

Strategy Three: Employ dishwashing or trash disposing strategies on different, unsuspecting siblings (hopefully, you have a large family).
…sigh…

Final Option: Do it, but raise the wheels up high and leave the bag off.

You’re welcome.   We’re here to help.

…

Ahhhh... Friday evening. After a long week its nice to unwind by sitting on the porch and relaxing a bit.

This is a view of the jumble of trees and cypress across the street (and a couple of rooftops) with a close-up jasmine vine hanging down.

Back in San Francisco my view was of buildings and more buildings and cement, and more cement, and even more cement. This sure is a nice change of scenery.


Another thing I didn't have there was a front lawn. Or a white picket fence.
All the cats like to come out and sniff around in the evening when I'm out here "settin". Good thing the gardener's coming tomorrow. The lawn is high and dotted with those little white "grass flowers". You know the ones. They show up when you need to mow.

I think I see a rocking chair in my future... Read the rest of this post

Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday – and in her post she suggests putting poems out into the “face-to-face world” as well as through blogging… hmm, now there’s an idea…

Nights are drawing in here in the UK, as we move towards wintertime but in the southern hemisphere, the world is heading into summer: so here are two beautiful picture-books which each contain a poem – one for winter and one for summer. One thing is certain: reading time will feel warm, whichever one you read; and they are such a visual treat too, that really they have to be a face-to face encounter.

The first is Jorge Luján’s poem Tarde de Invierno, translated into English as Winter Afternoon by Elisa Amado and empathetically illustrated by Mandan Sadat. It’s a short poem about a child looking out into the winter’s evening, waiting for her mother to come home: and when she does, the hug fits perfectly into the “vidrio del portarretrato”/ “the frosty frame” – so that the focus suddenly swings round and the little girl, the observer, is now the observed. And what a beautiful picture it is too. My children like this poem because it’s full of love. I like it , yes, for that reason too: but also because it helps to assuage some of the inevitable guilt of being a working mother…

The other poem transports us to the heat of the Australian Outback. Annaliese Porter was only eight years old when she wrote the poem – so this would also be a great classroom resource for raising aspiration. Here’s a small taste:

On Uluru there are many shades
on the rocky eye –
browns and reds mingling
into a rich earthy dye.

Uluru is immediately recognisable in Bronwyn Bancroft’s glorious depiction – and indeed her illustrations sizzle all the way through the book.