Thursday, December 22, 2011

Festive Scenes

Christmas card from 2009 by Chuck Groenink, of Green Ink

from "The Night Before Christmas" 1961, illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa (source)
"Fox, Crow and Mistletoe" by Ryan Fowler, Native Vermont Studio




A Christmas Carol (cover art) by Howard McWilliam
from: The Bells of Fraggle Rock (source)




Christmas scene by PJ Lynch
"Snowy treehouse" Lee White

Jack, of course, image found here

Monday, December 19, 2011

Sparks Flew As Their Shovels Met for the First Time - the art of Rick Allen

Raven's Bauble

This charming Christmasy corvid mugshot is the work of Rick Allen, at Kenspeckle Letterpress which he runs with his partner Marian Lansky. So lovely! These are just the seasonally appropriate jems*, check out their whole gorgeously engraved library of work.

Winter Homecoming
* That is a spelling mistake, obviously I meant gems, but the fact that I made such an outrageous error makes me laugh so I'm leaving it in. Truly. 

Earth Magic

Beneath the Stars
Night Visitor
Lusten Fox
Sparks Flew
PS
What is this "Trapper's Daughter" and where do I find it? And why isn't it published somewhere with these fine illustrations:
The Trapper's Daughter Takes the Otter Slide - seriously where is this book??
The Trapper's Daughter & the Bear Who Couldn't Sleep
Raven's Christmas
Ravens at the Window  

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Slowpoke


Winter is slow to arrive this year. October was basically September weather, all through November it felt like October, and now that it's December it only just feels like November. There was the sparest, lightest little dusting this morning, but it's gone already. We are stuck in the bleak pre-snow season of craggy branches and grey backdrops. It's dark by 4pm and still dark when the alarm shrieks. Delightfully melancholy, but more suited to post-Halloween than the advent of Christmas.

This semester was tough (hence my lack of luster here). Not because of workload - or rather not because of school workload. More due to work-workload. That's changing though, for better or worse, and I am job hunting for the first time in rather a long while. Equal parts thrill and terror, I tell you. Let's all hope that something lovely and fun comes along, part-time so I can stay at my favourite library too.

The Redwall gang heading to a winter celebration by Christopher Denise
I feel all craggy and grey, like the weather. This busy semester has left me with little time for stretching my limbs and they're in danger of atrophy. I tried doing yoga the other day and I felt like one of those aged newcomers who only go to the first class and bend over, forever suspended, fingers never reaching toes. Stiff, sore and old. That's how I felt. Weird. If this is a preview, I don't approve.

*   *   *

I have kept up with reading, moreso than usual during school. Not a reading-heavy semester so I had a bit of time on the commute or before bed. It's so very nice to slip into another world now and then, even a strange somewhat sinister one, or just to slip into the past. Now I'm starting in on my festive reading. Since the weather isn't doing it, the books should put me in a seasonal frame of mind.




(I couldn't decide which trailer I liked best... so you get both!)

Other Autumnal highlights include catching up with an old friend (how is it possible that we'd not spoken for six years? Six? Jeez.) and then there a was a brief dash to stay in a walled city. It's not far from here, but we don't go often. It was really nice, just for a couple of days, to play tourist and to eat scrumptious things. This spot is totally worth it, if ever you visit and feel like a treat. Also, just a block or so away, is this little chocolaterie which is what I imagine Willy Wonka's factory smells like. Go there just to breathe, seriously.