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Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

3 Little Kittens Nursery Rhyme Fun

Meooowww...

(cat language for, well, we never really know what they're saying!)

3 Little Kittens

WARNING!!!
cutesy pictures are included
in today's blog!

Oh, those naughty little kittens!
into everything
being adorable
spilling over plants
being super super cute
getting stuck in tiny spaces
and being just pretty much darling.


 
1942 illustration by Masha, Little Golden Books
 
 
This '3 Little Kittens' nursery rhyme was published in 1912,
'The Little Mother Goose'
illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith:

 The Three Little KittensThree little kittens they lost their mittens,
And they began to cry,
"Oh! mammy dear,
We sadly fear,
Our mittens we have lost!"
"What! lost your mittens,
You naughty kittens,
Then you shall have no pie."
Miew, miew, miew, miew,
Miew, miew, miew, miew.

The three little kittens they found their mittens,
And they began to cry.
"Oh! mammy dear,
See here, see here,
Our mittens we have found."
"What! found your mittens,
You little kittens,
Then you shall have some pie."
Purr, purr, purr, purr,
Purr, purr, purr, purr.

The three little kittens put on their mittens,
And soon ate up the pie;
"Oh! mammy dear,
We greatly fear,
Our mittens we have soil'd."
"What! soil'd your mittens,
You naughty kittens!"
Then they began to sigh,
Miew, miew, miew, miew,
Miew, miew, miew, miew.

The three little kittens they washed their mittens,
And hung them up to dry;
"Oh! mammy dear,
Look here, look here,
Our mittens we have wash'd."
"What! wash'd your mittens,
You darling kittens!
But I smell a rat close by!
Hush! hush!" Miew, miew,
Miew, miew, miew, miew.

public domain vintage illustration

I found a few different versions of the nursery rhyme.
The original is thought to have been written by Eliza Lee Follen
printed in her book "New Nursery Songs for All Good Children."
Ms. Follen referred to the rhyme as "traditional".
Here is her version:

Three little kittens lost their mittens;
And they began to cry,
O mother dear,
We very much fear
That we have lost our mittens.
Lost your mittens!
You naughty kittens
Then you shall have no pie
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
No, you shall have no pie
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.

The three little kittens found their mittens,
And they began to cry,
O mother dear,
See here, see here;
See, we have found our mittens.
Put on your mittens,
You silly kittens,
And you may have some pie
Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r,
O, let us have the pie,
Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r.

The three little kittens put on their mittens,
And soon ate up the pie;
O mother dear,
We greatly fear
That we have soil'd our mittens.
Soiled your mittens!
You naughty kittens!
Then they began to sigh,
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
Then they began to sigh,
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.

The three little kittens washed their mittens,
And hung them out to dry;
O mother dear,
Do not you hear,
That we have washed our mittens?
Washed your mittens!
O, you're good kittens.
But I smell a rat close by:
Hush! hush! mee-ow, mee-ow.
We smell a rat close by,
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
vintage illustration
 
I found some of this information on
 
Check her site out for tons of nursery rhymes, vintage illustrations,
recordings of nursery rhymes, and some coloring pages also.
 
 
From this out-of-print book, here are some kitten cuttings for you!



I have enjoyed cutting all of these,
and mounting them on different papers for the backing.

Take a picture of yours, and show me!
My 'leave comments' has become much easier to use.
If you have tried in the past, and it was a BIG PAIN,
try again!
:0)


Here is another version of 'The Three Little Kittens':

Three little kittens have lost their mittens;
And they began to cry,
    Oh Mother dear, we sadly fear
        That we have lost our mittens.

What! Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie
    Mewo, meow,meow.
                No, you shall have no pie!

The three little kittens found their mittens!
          And they began to cry!
            See here, see here’
      See, we have found our mittens.

Put on your mittens, you silly kittens,
          And you may have some pie.
     Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r,
                   Oh! let us have some  pie,
                       Rurr-rr, purr-r, purr-r.

3 little kittens crying


an embroidery pattern courtesy of turkeyfeathers


a Danish language children's book,



and here are some kittens that we don't normally think about
with this nursery rhyme, but

they are 3 'little' kittens!!!

photograph taken by Dumith Fernando in the Phinda Game Reserve,
KwaZulu Natal, South Africa




vintage illustration, public domain


Disney's 'Aristocat' 3 kittens: Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse!

vintage 3 little kittens eating pie - with those mittens!!

Here's another 'learn to draw' from Dover Publications.
Perfect traveling in the car activity!


1953 illustration for 'Mother Goose' by
Eulalie Banks

That's it for today!
Use the nursery rhyme to help little ones learn their number!
Use the coloring pages for them to practice their fine motor skills!
Use the embroidery pattern for more fine motor skills!
Try the scherensnitte to practice scissors skills!
but
mostly just have fun!

see you tomorrow!

inkspired
use the comments section to contact me!
:0)
 

Saturday, 30 July 2011

Paradise in a Flower

Bula Uro

(Fijian for an informal 'Hello')


Let's step into 'paradise' for a moment,
and check out
the Bird of Paradise flower



I fell in love with the Bird of Paradise flower
at my Grandpa Troup's funeral.
I was 8 years old.
I know, odd connection.
But that was the first time I had ever seen a flower like that.
It was stunning!
It was so bright!
The stem was thick, and the flower petals...
just so sci-fi amazing to me!
My parents let me take one home.
It lived in the back window of our car from Michigan to Kentucky.
I was very sad when it 'died'.

courtesy of TeleFlora

The history of the Bird of Paradise flower I find interesting.

Chuck Burgess
 is an HGIC Information Specialist at Clemson University.
He has a very informative page on the Bird of Paradise.
I also found some good info from Teleflora.

A photo I took at DisneyWorld

 The Bird of Paradise is native to South Africa.
It's botanical name is "Strelitzia reginae".
At first, botanists didn't know what to do with this odd flower!
It was once classified in the banana family because of it's leaves.
It didn't really fit.
They finally gave up, and gave it its' own botanical place!

a vintage hand colored engraving, 1840

Because the flower looks like a brightly colored bird in flight,
they gave it it's common name:

Bird of Paradise

Works for me!

painting by Johnny Karwan

Birds of Paradise Flower Meaning:
Birds of Paradise represent joyfulness and
[no surprise here]
paradise!
They are also the 9th wedding anniversary flower!
Well, I agree. I think the Bird Of Paradise is a joyful flower.


Some Amazing Facts:

The plant will grow to a height and width of about five feet.
It has a trunkless, clump-forming pattern of growth.
The thick, stiff leaves grow to be
 about 6 inches wide
and 18 inches long.
The leaves are attached to a long stalk that sometimes reaches
5 feet high. 
Are you getting a picture in your mind, here?

I just never thought of Birds of Paradise growing in
clumps!

Okay, there's more!
On the same up to 5 feet high stalks, the flower is blossoming.
And what a blossom it is!
Modified leaves at the end of the stalk
form canoe-like structures,
4 - 8 inches long.
Out of the 'canoe' leaves the blossom is formed.


{Check them out, they have fantastic patterns!!}

As the flowers open, pointed petals of brilliant orange are contrasted with the arrow shaped 'tongue' of vivid blue.
Wow.
Beginning in late winter/early spring the flowers will open
one right after another.
Unless you live in Disneyland,
where you can find Birds of Paradise almost year 'round.
It is a magical place you know...

There normally are 1 - 3 flowers on each stalk.


note her website on the photo

There are actually 4 different kinds of Bird of Paradise.
They are identified by their color.
The most common,
Orange Bird of Paradise
is the one we all think of.

The second one is the
White Bird of Paradise.
The thing that impresses me about this one is
It is even Huge-er!!!
[gotta' love those made-up words...]
So it grows 5 - 6 feet wide
and about 18 feet tall.
The leaves look about the same, only much larger.
18 - 24 inches wide
and 3 - 4 feet long.
Big.
The flowers are larger (10 - 12)
and white, with a light blue tongue in a purplish bract.

I didn't find very many pictures that looked very attractive!

The 3rd kind is called
Juncea Bird of Paradise.
It is a variation of the Orange Bird of Paradise,
but produces a smaller flower.
It also has leaf blades that do not develop!
The leaves rise up from the base, at the soil line
(instead of the 5 foot high variety!).
The flowers do grow on a stalk, just like the one we're familiar with, but again, smaller flowers.


Okay, last but certainly not least,
The Giant Bird of Paradise
Just when I was trying to get my head around how big the flowers are, the 5 foot tall stalks, the clumping...
now we have GIANT.
Probably not a good backyard garden type.
It can grow 30 feet high.
The trunk (think clump) can be 20 feet.
The leaves are identical to the White Bird of Paradise,
except they are attached to the trunk in a fan pattern
on opposite sides of the trunk.
The flowers are white with blue tongues and reddish-brown bracts
only about 18 inches long.
They can be difficult to see as they are so high up.

Ya' think??!!!


Birds of Paradise are so striking.
They have inspired a lot of creative thinking in the arts.
Here is just one example:

Colleen, the Queen
birdofparadisegown, califashionista


Birds of Paradise, not blooming yet

God's creations are so stunning!
Think about all the unique characteristics,
coloring, sizes and shape -
All that effort into just ONE flowering plant.
He made a whole lot more,
all unique and special in their own way.
Big Wow.

I hope you have enjoyed today's step into paradise.
Maybe you need to add a little
joyfulness
into your life today.
I bet the town florist just might have a bloom for you....

You can even go get that hula skirt from
my past blog on Hula!

:0)
inkspired