Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Lady Jan hears a song

Last Saturday I was awaken by the sweet voice of a little girl, singing a song. The problem is that we live in the middle of 80 acers of (now) empty farm land, and we no close nieghbors, and my thirteen year old was at that time already up and watching TV. H-mm, maybe my 100 year old house is still haunted? After I wrote down the song, but had trouble with the last cantan. I showed it to my daughter, and her eyes got big. She reconised it from her third grade class, and knew the entire song, and helped me with the last part.

Here's the song that I heard:


The Lilac Tree
(sang to the tune are you sleeping, brother John)
.
Come and see
Come and see
The Lilac tree
The Lilac tree
.
Pretty colors
Pretty colors
The Lilac tree
The Lilac tree
.
Wont last long
Wont last long
The Lilac tree
The Lilac tree
.
I can't wait
I can't wait
To see the Lilac tree
To see the Lilac tree

Friday, April 01, 2005

Andre Norton 1912-2005

March 17, 2005, is a dark day for the lovers of fantasy novels, as we have lost a wonderful writer.

Mary Alice Norton, AKA Andre Norton author of the her best known series 'Witch World', has died at the age of 93 in her home in Murfreeboro Tennessee. Her last book The Duke's Ballad, was released January(2005), she co-wrote this final book with Lynn McConchie, and it is the final Witch World story. Her final stand alone novel, 'Three Hands for Scorpio', will be released in April(2005).

I have several of her earlier works, and I believe they are the first print paper backs. She seemed to like cats, as it wasn't an Andre Norton book unless there was a cat, large cat, or quasi-human-cat-type-person in the story line. I liked her books because they usually were about magic. One of my favorites was 'The Year of the Unicorn,' one of the central character's could turn himself into a large cat.