Holiday

Happy Holidays and Happy Holy Days! Love to all

Imagine

Imagination is such a funny thing. A storyteller can recreate a whole funtime fair simply through words spun around in the air. Hastily concocted in Publisher, just under the wire here.

Surprise

The lion eating straw like the ox, a surprising turn of events, no? Edward Hicks was from my town in PA. He did 66 Peaceable Kingdoms that are known. This is my interpretation of Isaiah 11- the cartoon version if you will, which I did in Microsoft Publisher. Peace.

Blue

Blue Christmas

Little

As insects go praying mantis' are on the large side and yet for such small creatures they have this humanoid aspect about them, they turn their heads and fix their gaze on you and grimace with their tiny mouths. Last week a praying mantis was inside my house casually walking down the wall. I was thrilled and thought at first maybe I should just leave it to roam about to randomly scavenge indoors. I wanted to show the mantis to my kids but considered it cruel to hold such a creature captive. My husband thought it wouldn't get enough to eat inside so I put the praying mantis outside on a bush. Later that week my son reported a squashed mantis in our driveway.

Without notice or discernable provocation
this free spirit is apt to plunge into free
flying interpretive dance mode- swooping,
soaring, leaping and gliding, and of course
whirling and twirling.

I've taken my cues here from my young
students who are much better artists than
me. Often they have fashioned mind boggling
extemporaneous songs and dances. I'm always
amazed at their wellsprings of creativity.

Strength

In this fast-paced modern world of ours maintaining a home
demands herculean strength. This particular set of parents
strives to be 'in the know' about all the latest teen trends.

I heard the following the following this week on some scratchy distant
barely audible radio signal which added to the mystique all the more:
"Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of
Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength."

Leaf Crunching

Every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above,and comes down from the
Father of lights

Night

Wild nights frolicing and gamboling over walls and rooftops had Nick and Nora aflutter with glee

Cafe

This is for my mother-in-law who I just got to visit. We shared mint ice cream in a French cafe although I ate most of it.

Broken

Snap!

Remote

Back in the era of the free-ranging child a kid could build a rickety platform 40 ft. up in some old tree miles away from the parental homestead and that was just fine. Parents told their progeny to go play and then they didn't mess with them. Children were free to roam and explore nature and have adventures.

Cold Redux

My favorite doll when I was a little girl was this eskimo doll that had a handcarved wooden face and a fur parka with a hood that pulled up and down. He had beaded mukluks and mittens. Created for the tourists trade no doubt but still a lovely object. Once moths ate some of his fur away and that was very tragic. Also when I brought him in for Show 'n Tell some girl said he looked like a rat - quite upsetting. I lived in Alaska for the first 2 yrs of my life. My mother said she would take me outside in the middle of blizzards because in those days it was viewed as obligatory that the baby should have daily doses of fresh air. So I love the cold.

Illustration Friday - Cold

This is fun, both seeing all the different variations on a theme and making these little squigglettes.

Falling

Thanks everybody for all your helpful comments! Fall is my favorite time. Everything looks like Trix cereal.

Lost

If in the middle of a dark and stormy night a stranger all forlorn and bedraggled appears at your palace gates, she just may be a princess of some sort or another.