Adventures at Weathertop

In which we give our thanks to some lovely guests...

I just want to thank everyone who dropped by my blog in the last few days! What fun we had! Thank you so much for all of your kind comments. I will try to respond to each of you individually, but I have had guests and am now back at work and it might take me several days, so please be patient.

I also want to make an announcement!

Yay! Announcements are so much fun...at least this kind.

I had planned to wrap up my Alice in Wonderland series right after the party, but I have so many ideas swimming around in my head, that I'd like to include a few more episodes, and perhaps do some episodes from the second book. I mean, how can we have Alice in Wonderland without the Queen of Hearts. To do this however, I need time. The amount of crafting and work it took to get the first seven episodes together was considerable and I need time to catch up on real life activities and work on new characters in a more relaxed setting. So, although Alice will be taking a short nap, dreaming of new mischief she can create, she will return with more adventures for you in the future.

That does not mean, however, that we will not be returning to our regularly scheduled programming. Hitty Dauphine and Hitty Too are excited to be returning to the limelight, so expect some upcoming episodes featuring our favorite wooden characters.

As always, I would love to hear from you, so please send me an email or leave me a comment and I will try to return the favor!

In which Alice joins the Mad Hatter's Tea...

Although, having re-read this chapter last night, I am not sure whether it is the Mad Hatter's Tea or the March Hare's. As we have been marching gaily towards this party for an entire week, and I am sure that, by this time, you are absolutely parched, I will get on with the Tea Party already.

If you will fall down the rabbit hole with me just one more time.....

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There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. (Carroll 81)

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: "No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming. (Carroll 81)

"There's plenty of room!" said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. (Carroll 81)

"Have some wine," the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. "I dont' see any wine," she remarked.

"There isn't any," said the March Hare.

"Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it," said Alice angrily.

"It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited," said the March Hare. (Carroll 81)

"I didn't know it was your table," said Alice; "it's laid for a great many more than three."

..."What day of the month is it?" [the Hatter] said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said "The fourth."

"Two days wrong!" sighed the Hatter. "I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!" he added, looking angrily at the March Hare...

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiousity. "What a funny watch!" she remarked. "It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!"

"Why should it?" muttered the Hatter. "Does your watch tell you what year it is?"

..."Now if you only kept on good terms with [Time], he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!"...

"That would be grand, certainly," said Alice thoughtfully: "but then -- I shouldn't be hungry for it, you know."

"Not at first perhaps," said the Hatter: "but you could keep it to half-past one as long as you liked."

"Is that the way you manage?" Alice asked.

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. "Not I!" he replied. "We quarrelled last March...and ever since that," the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, "he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now."

A bright idea came into alice's head. "Is that the reason so many tea-things are here?" she asked.

"Yes, that's it," said the Hatter with a sigh: "it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles...I want a clean cup...let's all move one place on." (Carroll 83-89)

He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate. (Carroll 90)

"Did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?"

"Really, now you ask me," said Alice, very much confused, "I don't think -- "

"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hatter.

This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took nthe least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice. (Carroll 91)

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I wonder if perhaps Alice should have taken her own advice and not gone among "mad people," but then again, I am pretty sure the rudeness she suffered was returned in kind...

Thank you so much for attending my Mad Hatter's Tea! I hope you found a clean cup and enjoyed yourself.

For those of you just popping in for the first time, I have posted Alice themed episodes all week, please feel free to go back and take a look. The White Rabbit is especially cute! If you like what you see, please feel free to go back as far as you like and peruse earlier stories. I have been trying, though I have failed at times and finding the time gets continually harder, to post new photos here, everyday in 2011.

For those of you who are regulars to my blog, you will definitely want to go over to Vanessa's blog, A Fanciful Twist, and check out the other Tea Parties!

Happy Tea Partying!

 

 

 

 

In which we all go mad...

With each adventure in Wonderland, circumstances get curiouser and curiouser. If you thought yesterday's adventure was odd, today's is just mad.

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The cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

"Chesire Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. (Carroll 76)

"Chesire Puss...Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" (Carroll 76)

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat...

"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad." (Carroll 76,77)

"But I don't want to go among made people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all made here, I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be, said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." (Carroll 77)

"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.

Alice was not much surprised by this, she was getting so used to queer things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been , it suddenly appeared again.

"By-the-bye, what became of the baby?" siad the Cat, "I'd nearly forgotten to ask."

"It turned into a pig," Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back in a natural way.

"I thought it would," said the Cat, and vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not appear, and after a munite or two she walked on in the direction in which the March Hare was said to live. "I've seen hatters before," she said to herself; "the March hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad -- at least not so made as it was in Marchl" As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on the branch of a tree.

"Did you say pig, or fig?" said the Cat.

"I said pig," replied Alice; "and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you made one quite giddy."

"All right," said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, wich remained some time after the rest of it had gone. (Carroll 78-79)

"Well! i've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice; "but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!" (Carroll 79)

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When my daughter was little she used to call the Chesire Cat, "the Treasure Cat." She still does when she is feeling nostalgic.

Tomorrow is the day of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party over at A Fanciful Twist, and all over the web. Join me tomorrow for the fun and then head over to Vanessa's to check out all of the other Tea Parties!

I have worked hard to put together my tea party. The final touches have been made, the clothing, fitted and sewn; I have only to photograph my scenes and upload them here, for which i am counting, hopefully not foolishly, on the cooperation of the weather tomorrow morning...it has been storming all week here.

If you have ventured here to my blog before my tea party is up, please feel free to look around. We have been Wonderlanding all week, so the last six posts have been on topic, but please come back later to check out our party. We will save you a cup of tea.

In which Alice meets the Duchess...

Alice had many adventures in Wonderland, to be sure, but today's adventure was perhaps the most disturbing of the lot.

After her adventure at the White Rabbit's house, Alice took a walk in the garden and came upon a little house about four feet high.

She opened the door and went in.

The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one end to the other: the Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a large cauldron...

The cook took the cauldron of soup off of the fire, and at once set to work throwing everything within her reach at the Duchess and the baby --  the fire-irons came first; then followed a shower of saucepans, plates, and dishes. The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, that is was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not...

"Here! You may nurse it a bit, if you like!" the Duchess said to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I must go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen," and she hurried out of the room. The cook threw a frying-pan after her as she went out, but it just missed her. (Carroll 70, 72-74)

Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions...The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again...

The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face to see what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had a very turn-up nose, much more like a nout than a real baby...

Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home?" when it grunted again, so violently, that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd to her to carry it any further. (Carroll 74-75)

So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. "If it had grown up," she said to herself, "it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes a rather handsome pig, I think." (Carroll 76)

Each day we creep ever closer to our Mad Hatter Tea Party. While I bet you can imagine the characters Alice will meet there, who do you think she meet tomorrow?

Everyday is an adventure in Wonderland.

Be sure to check in tomorrow to see!