Anniversary Blessing
This, like all of the Blessing books, puts into universal perspective the truths underlying significant occasions in each of our lives. The author finds the words few of us can find to wish for all married couples, the good things that all of us want - a lovely and peaceful home; good conversation and quiet companionship; an awareness of the beautiful things to be discovered each day; and a continued enjoyment of all that has been discovered together.

Baby Blessing
This beautifully illustrated and written book is the perfect shower or new baby present. I have had people stand in my shop and cry while reading this, it touched them so deeply.

A Book for My Daughter Words by Pamela Winterbourne, Images by Welleran Poltarnees
We believe that this book captures the hopes of every mother for every daughter. All women are daughters and many are mothers. Despite the myriad differences of personality and culture motherly feelings are similar because they grow out of essential humanity. We think mothers will find that this volume gives voice to their deepest hopes for their daughters. The author offers advice on achieving one's aspirations with grace and subtlety. The lovely images reinforce the loving words. "Always know that I love you, and am grateful for your presence in my life."

A Book for My Sister by Pamela Winterbourne
This book celebrates the many pleasures of having a sister. It is written by a woman who has matured and made a life of her own, who looks back warmly on growing up with a sister, and reflects on the continuing pleasures of the relationship. She speaks of the bond created by memories, the pleasure in having someone to trust and confide in. She says her sister is "a mirror in which I can see what I was, and what I have become," and calls the sisterly bond "a peaceful island in my life." Welleran Poltarnees has exercised his research talents to find pictures that bring each thought to deeper life.

A Cat Blessing by Welleran Poltarnees
Cats have lived among us as friends for at least 8000 years. At first the relationship was one of mutual service: the cat exchanging rodent control for a warm place to sleep. The interdependence has grown deeper and subtler with the passage if time. In this volume, Welleran Poltarnees speaks of the traits he values in cats, among which are: grace, dignity, self-reliance, creative playfulness and mystery.

A Dog Blessing by Welleran Poltarnees
Dogs are our oldest friends. When a wolf first came to crouch by our fire, cats were wild beasts searching out their own prey, and horses still ran at the first sniff of our approach. Welleran Poltarnees has a lifelong love for dogs, and here in this book he distills his love for them into words. He praises them for their unwavering love, their ready sympathy, their fresh delight in simple pleasures, and their sometimes unconscious humor. He has made each statement more resonant by the addition of pictures, frequently from obscure sources.

A Garden Blessing by Welleran Poltarnees
This book begins, "I offer this blessing for you and your garden, enumeration the many virtues of gardens that we are vividly aware of their place in our lives and grateful for their existence." The text emphasizes the many profound satisfactions that gardens offer to those who make and inhabit them. The profusion of illustrations, poetic reflections and the felicitous design make this book a suitable tribute to the gardens it celebrates.

Grieve Not
This book is intended as a gift for someone grieving over the death of a loved one. The text is a poem left by a British soldier killed by an IRA landmine in 1989. It is apparently his adaptation of a poem written by Mary Frye in 1932. It is spoken from beyond the grave, and offers an extended consolation based on the idea that the dead have continuous life in nature's various manifestations - the wind, rain, snow, stars, and so on. Blue Lantern Studio displays their accustomed skill at finding unfamiliar images which bring deeper life to the text.

House Blessing
This book starts: "I bless this house and all those who dwell within it, and wish for them a full portion of life's beauty." It is only one of the many blessings the book covers as it blesses each aspect of a house and home. A wonderful present for a housewarming or to take to a dinner party.

I Love Old Things by Harold Darling
In this book each double-page spread evokes things the author treasures for their antiquity. He praises "old towns, where streets whisper the secrets of the years, their buildings leaning against one another like family dogs asleep." Accompanying this is a color reproduction of a painting in which an aged town slumbers in the moonlight. Some of the things honored in this book are houses, gardens, trees, books, customs, shops and holidays.

An Irish Blessing for the Home
compiled by Welleran Poltarnees
The Irish are people who bless frequently and widely. We know from Alexander Carmichael's nineteenth century collection of Irish fold blessings that they blessed almost every aspect of life - no matter how small or ordinary. This anonymous blessing, which hung on the walls of myriad Irish homes during the last century, succinctly blesses many aspects of home life. Welleran Poltarnees, himself a mighty blesser, has given each thought added power through his choice of pictures. "God bless the corners of this house ... Bless each shining window-pane that lets the sunshine in."

A Blessing of Healing and Strength
by Welleran Poltarnees
As in all of the blessing books, Welleran Poltarnees here makes tangible his believe that good words help us to achieve desired goals, and that words have their power reinforced by the addition of suitable imagery. In this volume he blesses those who are ill and reflects on attitudes that promote healing. He points out the pleasures that even the confined can enjoy, and stresses the generosity of creation. Mr. Poltarnees recently had to spend four months in bed and wrote this blessing out of that experience. For him these are not abstract consolations, but experience tested methods of keeping one's spirits and cooperating with one's body. Some blessings he bestows include laughter, blossoming springtime, good times, flowers and animals, to name a few. "May you be deeply aware that you are more than your illness, and remember rainbows."

A Blessing of Peace by Welleran Poltarnees
This book is intended to bring a small portion of peace into the life of anyone who turns its pages. Mr. Poltarnees assembles thoughts and images to evoke this increasingly rare and blessed state. He reminds us of sun-filled trees, drifting clouds, fresh mornings, gardens, flowers, snow, moonlight - all with the intention of helping us slow down and savor simple, life giving things.

This is My Wish for You
Right after I bought Jules, an older woman came into my store and bought three copies of this book, one for each of her daughters. She explained to me that she planned to write inside each one and leave instructions that it should be written in and passed down to the eldest daughter through the generations. This book should be a tradition in every family, as it details the many wishes that we would wish for each other if we could just put them into words.

 

Fairies
Fairies have, under one name or another, been with us since ancient times. In this book, the author has compiled paintings of fairies by various artists in different styles and supplemented these images with selected quotations that fit each image.

Dogs Tell their Own Stories
Compiled by Elizabeth Ratisseau - $20.00
Most people who own dogs know that they can talk, but few know that they can write. Professional authors, however, frequently discover this latent capacity. Dogs tell their own stories includes some of the best of their narrations, written down by such well-known authors as Peter Mayle, Thomas Carlyle, Don Marquis, P.G. Wodehouse and Rudyard Kipling. Poems are a favorite literary medium for dogs, and many are here, including one by Robert Frost. Many dogs have written (or dictated) autobiographical narratives and this volume contains a selection of them.