By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Ruth Paget is a cookbook reviewer, game developer, and freelance restaurant critic. She is the author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France.
Showing posts with label Norfolk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norfolk. Show all posts
Friday, July 18, 2025
Bookhype.com is carrying my first edition books by Ruth Paget
Thank you bookhype.com for carrying my first edition books including More Leisure than Money: Tales of a Navy Wife in Virginia.
Operation We Are Here Resources for Miltary Spouses has included my Virginia book on their booklist by Ruth Paget
Thank you Operation We Are Here.com for including my book More Leisure than Money: Tales of a Navy Wife in Virginia on your list of resource books for military spouses.
This book is also sold as Virginia Mom.
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Attending a Renaissance Faire with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Attending a Renaissance Faire with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
During one of Laurent’s cruises, Florence and I headed out to the Renaissance Faire sponsored by the Norfolk Public Schools and the Hermitage Museum in Norfolk (Virginia).
Florence
and I went through the Hermitage Museum twice before going out to the
Renaissance Faire.
The
three-way mirrors in the dressing room interested Florence. I showed her the Chinese bronze vessels, but
she asked, “Can we look at something more interesting?”
I
showed her the Renaissance Museum’s Kuan Yin downstairs. She recognized the goddess of mercy and said,
“That’s like the statue I broke by mistake at home with my beach ball.”
Despite
the remark, the tour guide let Florence handle the lacqueur boxes with fifty
sons on them and some cloisonné birds.
Outside
on the huge lawn, the Chrysler Museum set up an art activity for kids to make
Chinese fans. The children used popsicle
sticks for the handles and inserted red tassels through a hole in the bottom of
the popsicle stick.
Then,
the children colored a round cardboard with Asian motifs and pasted this to the
handle. Florence chose a bamboo design
that I liked, too.
More
multicultural exhibits and events rounded out the fair. On the outdoor stage, a group of children
performed a healing dance from Ghana.
Another
exhibit had imitation canopic jars from Egypt.
“In
Egypt, they kept body parts like hearts in jars like this after a person died. Their spirit called a “ka” was supposed to be
in these body parts. Doctors could also
check if the person died of poison,” I told Florence.
“That’s
gross,” Florence remarked.
We
laughed about goopy guts all the way back to the car and went to
air-conditioned Pizza Hut for lunch.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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Attending a Virginia Opera Company Performance with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Attending a Virginia
Opera Company Performance with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom
Ruth Paget
I
read the Community Section of the Virginian-Pilot newspaper everyday to look
for inexpensive or free things to do in the Hampton Roads area.
One
day I found a free performance by the Virginia Opera Company of Little Red
Riding Hood.
“What
is opera,” Florence asked.
“It
is a sung play. You will love it. Really!”
I reassured Florence as we went to the show.
Florence
sat transfixed through the performance and asked the singers afterwards during
the question-and-answer period, “Do you get hot under the lights?”
“We
forget about the heat when we sing,” one of the singers answered.
As
we left the show, Florence remarked, “They really sang everything in the show.”
“That’s
what they do in opera. Maybe you could
be an opera singer,” I said.
“I
would rather sing like Selena,” she answered.
She loved seeing Jennifer Lopez sing like Selena in the movie about
Selena’s life when we picked her daddy up from boot camp outside Chicago when
he joined the Navy.
The
following days, though, Florence sang out her favorite fairy tales despite
saying that she wanted to be Selena rather than Carmen.
The
kids’ opera was a fun outing with little Florence. I think kids’ opera is the sort of thing you
should have in a “village” to raise children as Hilary Clinton said in her book
It Takes a Village. (I do read a lot,
including cereal ingredients on cereal boxes.)
Most of my blogs do have a back story in them of what I want in a "village" for raising children in the US. Many of these activities require volunteer work and proven results before they can get funding, though.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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Visiting the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk (Virginia) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Visiting the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk (Virginia) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
On a free day at the Chrysler Museum in downtown Norfolk (Virginia), I took Florence to the Chrysler Museum after school for a field trip.
The
Egyptian mummies intrigued Florence as usual.
“Why
did the Egyptians write with pictures?” she asked, referring to ancient,
Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
“Lots
of people wrote with pictures before they had alphabets,” I responded.
“People
like the Chinese and Japanese still write with pictures,” I said.
We
looked at several busts of Buddha, which made Florence ask, “Who was Buddha?”
“He
is like Jesus for the Japanese and Tibetans,” I said.
We
made an elderly lady’s day in the Neoclassical statue section.
“Do
you see that?” Florence said as she pointed at several statues.
“They
have statues of naked people in here!!!” she exclaimed.
The
lady started laughing, and so did I.
We
finished our visit by looking at student artwork.
Florence
could not believe that children like her received display space in the museum.
We
stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home for donuts, orange juice for
Florence, and a big coffee for me with cream (pre-latte days).
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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Visiting the Hermitage Museum in Norfolk (Virginia) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Visiting the Hermitage
Museum in Norfolk (Virginia) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Laurent
and I were able to think about a little history as we dropped Florence off at
school one day and went out on a date.
The
two of us went to visit the Hermitage Museum House in a 1908 Tudor-style home
built by William and Florence Sloane in Norfolk.
Florence’s
nickname was Jack, which was slang for “money” at the time of the First World
War. In the carving inside the doorway,
there is a motto that says, “The house that jack built.” Mr. Sloane made his
fortune selling long johns (loose thermal underwear that fits under pants and
shirts) to the Navy.
My
favorite piece in the Hermitage’s Chinese collection was a Chinese Kuan Yin
statue carved in lindenwood from the Sung Dynasty (960 – 1279). Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, was
originally a male deity that the Chinese transformed into a female deity.
There
were several figurines of horses and camels used to transverse the Silk Road
and attendants in green ceramic and brown clay that were buried with the
deceased.
The
figurines took the place of living people and animals that used to be buried
with their lords. (Human burial with the
pharaohs was also practiced in ancient Egypt.)
The
Hermitage Museum had several Shang Dynasty (1523 – 1027 BC) bronze vessels with
the characteristic symmetrical design on them called a taotie. A statue of a Hindu goddess riding on the
flayed skin of her ex-husband made me feel a little creepy.
Our
tour guide did not like the exhibit with the three-inch shoes for Chinese
ladies. Doing away with binding women’s
feet was one of the achievements of the Chinese Revolution of 1949 as far as I
am concerned.
I
liked the two Chinese cinnabar lacqueur boxes that the Sloanes owned as
well. Each box depicted fifty sons
playing.
Families
in China would give the fifty sons boxes to bridal couples and wish them to
have 100 sons. The lacqueur on these
boxes was so deep that the artist was able to carve into the lacqueur and not
into the wood.
Tobacco
snuff bottles were all the rage in China and among collectors like the
Sloanes. To use the snuff, you would
inhale it through your nose.
The
more refined snuff boxes had little spoons, so you would not have to stick a
bottleneck up your nostrils for the snuff.
One
snuff bottle showed a reclining woman.
Her upturned, removable foot was the bottle opener.
I
was impressed by this museum that reminded me of the Cernushi Museum in Paris
(France) with its gem collection of Chinese artwork.
By
Ruth Pennington Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Living with Winter Hurricanes by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Living with Winter Hurricanes by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The damp weather in Norfolk certainly reminded me of Paris (France). The weather was perfect for staying inside and writing. Florence came out of her bedroom and told me stories from time to time.
Finally,
she took out her colored pencils and worked on the Bellerophon Sleeping Beauty
coloring book Laurent and I gave her. I
liked these books, because they gave the biography of Tchaikovsky as well as
the storyline of the ballet.
I
put on a CD of music from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet that my mom’s
friend and one of my childhood mentors gave me for Christmas.
Florence
liked the sinister witch’s music from Sleeping Beauty. I also played the Nutcracker and Swan Lake
for her, but Florence did not care for them as much.
I
began looking through some French etiquette books that I owned. One must know how to stir one’s coffee after
all.
I
read etiquette books as shortcuts to understanding foreign cultures. Seating order is different in many cultures
and reflects different interior design and social structure.
I
did a lot more cleaning in February, a good month for nesting in Norfolk due to
winter storms called “Nor’easters.” A
big Nor’Easter hit in the middle of the first week of February.
Tides
were expected to be four to five feet above normal. Florence told me when I picked her up,
“School might close for rain.”
Children
in Norfolk look forward to “flood days” like the kids in the Midwest look
forward to “snow days.” We lived right
on the ocean, but were on high ground in a brick apartment building.
I
could already see cars driving by that shot five-foot waves of water behind
them. Laurent had duty, so we did have
to go out in foul weather on that day at least to pick him up at the port.
The
deluge struck the next afternoon. I felt
like I was walking through a never-ending waterfall as I went to pick up
Florence from school.
I
could not understand why they just did not call off school in the morning. Rivers of water ran in the street by
Florence’s school.
I
was waterlogged by the time I saw her.
Laurent was due to leave the ship that evening. I wondered if he would stay on the ship or
not. I was afraid of flooding at the
docks.
I
put on Handel’s Water Music, which seemed appropriate for the weather. Florence wrote out her Valentines. She put a check next to the name of each
person in her class.
Every
person in the class got a Valentine or the student could not pass out
Valentines. The teacher checked the
Valentine bags. I liked Florence’s school’s
“No Child Left Behind” practices.
Florence
finished and examined her cards and said, “The boys are not going to like the
Anastasia cards.”
“No
one will care about what’s on the card as long as they get one,” I said.
The
rain continued to pour, making me want to cuddle up with a pot of hot tea
beside me. Laurent called at 1 p.m. and
asked me to come and get him.
The
rain soaked Florence and me just going out to the car. Our umbrellas flew back in the wind, leaving
us exposed to the elements. The freeways
drained well, but the surface streets resembled lakes.
Laurent
was soaked when we got him. I asked him
to drive, since I was pretty frazzled by the blurred drive to the port.
“I
predict flood day tomorrow,” I said to Florence, who was shivering.
She
put her arms around me and smiled. We
stopped at the video store on the way home and we all felt great to walk inside
our little apartment warm up.
By
Ruth Pennington Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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Labels:
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