a moominy kind of day

Oh we’ve had the loveliest day as a family - gosh it was nice to all be together, around the table, working on the same project.  There was the best buzz!  

Little A was drawing …

Julian was writing html …

I was pattern-making and stitching …

Even Simon was alert and curious … looking this way and that as if he was at a tennis match!

And what were we doing - we’re all abuzz with moomin magic, and are working on a moomin blog for Little A!  It’s called moominologi - where Little A, her friend Little N, Julian and myself will celebrate all things moomin.  Little A and Little N are writing their own stories set in moomin valley with their own moomin characters as well as Tove Jansson’s original characters, and will illustrate them.  I have promised to help with the colouring in of said illustrations and will oversee the posting and housekeeping of moominologi, and Julian is of course our web designer and domain master! 

They really are fabulous books - you must check them out - the stories and characters are so very original and quirky and they make for the best reading out loud.  They fill Little A with chuckles and inspire so many wonderful drawings and stories.  And as Anne in Finland says, they can be read on many different levels.  Just this morning Little A and I were reading the short story of Snufkin and the Spring Tune where Snufkin meets a little creep (as in creeps along in a shy and silent manner, not unpleasant yob) who is so insignificant no one has ever given her a name.  She asks Snufkin if he will, which he does.  The next day, she tells him how much her life has improved now that she has a name instead of just being a creep …

“… you see, before I had a name I just used to hop around, and perhaps feels this or that about this or that, and everything was simply happening around me, sometimes nice things and sometimes not nice, but nothing was real, don’t you see?  Now I’m a person, and everything that happens means something.  Because it doesn’t only happen, it happens to me - Teety-woo.  And Teety-woo may think this or that about it … if you see what I mean.”

This got me thinking about how we - both at an individual and state level - can sometimes “dehumanise” people by taking away their names.  When people become numbers or have a derogatory nick-name applied instead, it is so much easier to ignore them, deprive them, insult them or hurt them, because we no longer think of them as a person. I have read that Tove Jansson was especially concerned with finding some magic and beauty in the world after the horror of World War II so I was thinking about it in this context and I wonder whether it would have been harder for a guard to go round up Martha, Emily and Rebecca in a concentration camp or village and kill them, then it was to round up the *** Jews or numbers ***.  

Hmmmmm ….. but, oh dear, don’t let my dark musings here put you off - there is so much fun and laughter to be had in these books!

Little A and I are also keen to add as much information about Tove Jansson and the books as we can gather - and after a cursory hunt, that will require more effort than I initially thought!

So tonight, we are waiting for … I won’t tell you what Julian just said - he’s having issues with the site … he now says he’s hacking into a database to retrieve the content … that doesn’t sound good … but I think we are just waiting on the final tweaking of the site and of domain thingys to be recognised and then I will give you all the link!  

My little Moomintroll is coming along nicely - when it’s finished, we’ll photograph it and use it for the site’s banner.  I’m pleased with the character I’ve created in his face - just the right amount of wide-eyed curiosity mingled with a wee bit of nervousness.

And I can’t wait to stitch the tree and I’ve a whole lidful of buttons ready for the mountains … so much stitchy fun - never enough time! :-)

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