Bird of Paradise

Today's drawing is based on a story of an old monk, who as a reward for living a good and righteous life, is visited in his garden by a beautiful bird. The bird is really an angel in disguise, sent to guide the old man to paradise.

He follows the bird as it sings the most wonderful songs that the monk has ever heard, until finally it grows dark and he has wandered far from his home; the monk lies down to sleep and in the morning, the bird leads him back to the monastery.

On his return, the monk sees many changes and recognises no-one, so he asks one of the monks what has happened to the monastery. The man replies that nothing has been altered since the previous day and is very puzzled by the monk's question.

The monk then explains that he got lost in the woods following a marvellous song-bird. "Ah," says the other man, "there is an old story about an old monk just like you, who also followed a song-bird...but that was two hundred years ago!"

The monk realises that the story is about him and knows that his time is nearly at an end...the bird reappears and his last earthly memories are of his treasured garden and a bird of paradise singing.

 

Butterfly Ball

"Come take up your hats and away let us haste,
 To the Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast.
 The trumpeter Gadfly has summoned the crew.
 And the revels are now only waiting for you."


(The Butterfly's Ball - William Roscoe)

Donkey Riding

"Where you ever in Quebec,
 Stowing timbers on a deck,
 Where there's a king in his golden crown
 Riding on a donkey?


 Hey ho, and away we go,
 Donkey riding, donkey riding,
 Hey ho, and away we go,
 Riding on a donkey."


(English Sea Shanty)

Calico Pie

"Calico Ban,

The little Mice ran,

To be ready in time for tea,

Flippity flup,

They drank it all up,

And danced in the cup,-

But they never came back to me!

They never came back!

They never came back!

They never came back to me!"

(Edward Lear - Calico Pie)

Tarts, Pie, Nails and Fairies... Catch-up Time!

I've been a bit lazy the past few days haven't I? Ooops.

Not completely lazy, as even though I've skipped a few posts, the drawings have still been happening... here's what I been doodling:

12th July - Thursday

"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

 All on a summer's day:

 The Knave of Hearts, he stole the tarts,

 And took them all away.

The King of Hearts called for the tarts,

And beat the Knave full sore:

 The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts,

 And vowed he'd steal no more."

13th July - Friday

"If all the world was apple pie, 

 And all the sea was ink,

 And all the trees were bread and cheese,

 What should we have to drink?"

14th July - Saturday

"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost:

 For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;

 For want of a horse, the rider was lost;

 For want of a rider, the battle was lost;

 For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost;

 And all from the want of a horseshoe nail!"

15th July - Sunday

Today was a story, so it's a bit too long to type in full;)...It is a tale of the Fenoderee and originates from the Isle of Man.

Once there was a fairy who was cast out of Fairyland for the crime of loving a mortal woman; he was stripped of most of his powers and transformed into an ugly, hairy creature.


Because he still loved the woman, he tried to help her people by using what remained of his fairy powers; people were not afraid of him, even though he looked so hideous and left him gifts to say thank you.


A man was building a house for himself but the stones were too heavy...overnight the Fenoderee moved all the stones to the site where the house was to be built. The man was so grateful that he left out a set of clothes for the Fenoderee, who looked sadly at them and was never seen again.

Heavenly Peanut

"A peanut sat on a railroad track,
 His heart was all a-flutter.
 The five-fifteen came rushing by--
 Toot toot! Peanut butter!"

Feels a bit odd writing a post in the morning, but I wasn't really up for typing away last night...bed was definitely calling! Still I did complete my drawing, so not a completely lazy evening ;)

So, another rhyme I'd never heard of before - about a suicidal peanut from the sound of it...why the hell didn't he move? What a nut - haha.

Strawberry Fish

"The man in the Wilderness asked me,
How many strawberries grew in the sea?
I answered him as I thought good,
As many red herrings as grew in the wood."

I love nonsense rhymes, they really do provide some great ideas! Strawberries growing in the sea, red herrings in the wood... I was spoilt for choice ;)

Originally I was going to draw a tree with red herring growing from it, then have it's roots going into the sea with strawberries sprouting from them... but then realised that unless I wanted to pull an all-nighter, it was far too much to try and draw in one evening.

Don't get me wrong, I'd quite happily stay up till the early hours scribbling away happily - I did it often enough at uni- but what didn't appeal was sitting through 7-and-a-half hours of mind-numbing tedium (a.k.a Work), whilst dead-tired!

So instead I merged the fruit and the fish together, to make a hybrid "Strawberry Fish"! Instead of scales, I've given him strawberry pips and the fins are leaf-like. 

Not sure I'd want to eat a fishy fruit, but he looks like quite a funky idea for a tattoo ;)