Snowflakes in Photographs by W. A. Bentley

This book is filled with a couple thousand individual portraits of snowflakes by Snowflake Bentley. I am so in love with this book! 

And I am amazed that an untrained photographer 100 years ago was capable to capture this miniature world so well. And that his work is still considered very important by scientists today. 

Seriously.

There are no words in this book. Just pictures. 

But the pictures are enough.

Every single flake is worth staring at for a while. 

Anyone who can take an everyday object and make them incredible is my hero. 

So elegant.

And just for fun, at the end of the book there are pictures of frosty things

I want to be W.A. Bentley when I grow up. 

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & Illus by Mary Azarian

This is the true story of a man who spent his leisure time photography snowflakes for posterity. Fascinating guy! If nothing else, you have to admire his dedication to a single thing over the course of his lifetime. Who falls in love with snowflakes and stays there forever? WA Bentley, that's who.

And Mary Azarian. We just love her. As does the Caldecott committee. (1999)

Illustrating how long ago this all was...

There's ole Willie Bentley's obsession with snow kicking in in his childhood.

When other kids played, he caught snowflakes to look at them. 

He wanted to share the beauty he saw in his microscope with others, so he spent a winter painstakingly drawing snowflakes. Only, snowflakes are not very permanent. Especially in a warm place. So that didn't work out very well. 

Then he saw a camera advertised. Just the thing!

It is really incredible that Vermont farmers were forward thinking enough to spend all that money on a camera for a boy who wanted to take pictures of snow. In that day and age, it was generally the family poo-pooing dreams, but not the Bentleys. They were supportive. I like the Bentleys. 

The first snow season passed without a single usable picture of snowflakes. But he kept trying. And success! 

Once he got the hang of it, there was no stopping him. Neighbors thought he was crazy, but he didn't mind. 

Once he got snowflake photography down, he wanted to try other things. Here he is gently taping a grasshopper to a flower stem so he could photograph it in the morning with dewdrops. 

I doubt the grasshopper liked it, but I love this guy!

Sharing his pictures with neighbors.

Finally, Willie published a book with his pictures of snowflakes. 

Not long after, he caught pneumonia and died. 

However, his pictures have endured. And tomorrow, I will show you some. 

Sleep Tight Farm

This book is lovely. It is a quiet book, which you can tell from the cover. But so lovely! 

I had it in my Amazon cart for a long time before finally pre-ordering it. But it was a farm, it was Vermont, and the pictures....!! 

So I pre-ordered it. No regrets. 

It begins with...

The December days shorten and darken. 

We are busy putting the farm to bed. 

And this book follows the family as they prepare everything on the farm for the winter. 

I want to live in this house.

This is the story of a family getting the farm ready for winter. Covering up the strawberries,

Goodnight strawberries.

...gathering in the harvest...

....cutting back the raspberry canes...

(I love, love that border of raspberries)

...chopping wood...

Good night, stacked wood waiting to work!

...putting the hoop house to bed. 

I love how they compare the summer with the fall/winter. 

Battening down the hatches in the chicken coop.

Settling the bees in

Getting equipment out of the weather

Stringing up Christmas lights.

Oh..... love, love, love!!

Snowy farm scenes get me every time. 

The farm is tucked in, and so are the farm kids.

This book makes me so happy! 

A Farmer's Alphabet by Mary Azarian

Before we start this post, I would just like to tell you that I tried to cut down on pictures, but it didn't work. I love Mary Azarian. I bought the address book made out of the pictures in this book. I am not crazy about her people as much, but in all, I love her pictures. Plus, she is a Vermonter, which makes it only neighborly of me to like her. 

The Vermont Board of Education commissioned these prints in 1980. Mary had been a teacher in a one room schoolhouse in Vermont for three years before starting to sell her woodcuts, so she had a thorough understanding of the need for beautiful Alphabet cards. These prints would make Vermont kids directly connect to the alphabet. 

In 1999, Mary won the Caldecott for her Snowflake Bentley book. She has been involved in the world of children's literature for a good long while. 

I think that these are made out of wood also make me love them more. Isn't it amazing that someone could take wood and carve it so carefully and finely to create a stamp-ish thing to make these pictures? It boggles my mind. 

Love this one!

Fat, wooly sheep

I am a sucker for Maple anything.

Isn't this one incredible?

Giggle, giggle.

Another of my favorites!

All farmers know about yawning. 

Isn't this an awesome book? I really want to own a copy. But our library has one, so I am trying to refrain...