Jack’s Walk

What the Pluck!

Someone came into our peaceful, wee forest and deliberately plucked out plants by their roots and then scattered them along the entire length of the path. The wreckage looked fairly fresh so it must have happened yesterday or earlier today, but who would do that? And why? It isn’t exactly violence, but it has the look of violence about it and it’s certainly senseless and stupid. Those plants were probably minding their own business, just doing that growing in the summer thing that plants do. I doubt they were shouting out insults or hurling stones at passersby nor were they likely to be plotting to do mischief at midnight. Sheesh! I hope whoever did this get weeds.

H is for Heliotrope

From Nightjar,

H is for Heliotrope ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Heliotrope.

A pink-purple tint that represents the color of the garden heliotrope flower. I couldn’t find the flower, but I found the tone on an African Daisy. I wish I could have shared this photo with Caine, she loved daisies and I know she would have loved that curled petal.

 

Link to previous alphabet post

Jack’s Walk

Will you carry me to the car mummy? ©voyager, all rights reserved

We had a lovely, steady rain on Saturday night and by Sunday morning the oppressive heat and humidity were gone. Hooray! It’s a pleasant and welcome change from the steamy days of last week that kept poor Jack cooped up for days on end. We decided to celebrate the good weather with a walk along the river and the water was clean enough today that I let Bubba swim. We both overdid it a bit, but in the best kind of way and we came home sleepy and smiley and feelin’ fine.

The Art of Book Design: Stained Glass Tours of France

Charles Hitchcock Sherrill. Stained Glass Tours in France. New York, John Lane Co. London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1908.

Last week we looked at Stained Glass Tours in England by Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, from the collection of Anne, Cranky Cat Lady. It seems the author took his theme on the road and made it all the way to France.

 

Cover photo via: New York Society Library

The Book is available to read at The Internet Archive

The Art of Book Design: Invisible Links

Invisible Links. Selma Lagerlof. Translated from the Swedish by Pauline Bancroft Flach. Boston: Little Brown, and Company, 1899. First edition in English.

It has the look of a book about nature, but nope, it’s a book of short stories told in archaic, melodramatic prose.

 

Cover photo via: Books and Art

Available to read at The Internet Archive

F is for Fuchsia

From Nightjar,

F is for Fuchsia, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Fuchsia.

A vivid purplish red color associated with the flowers of fuchsia plants. Instead of an obvious fuchsia flower, I give you the empty flower stem of a pokeweed. The local birds were kind enough to remove all the berries to expose a vivid fuchsia.

 

Link to previous alphabet post

The Art of Book Design: The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts

Abbie Farwell Brown. The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. Illustrated by Fanny Cory. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1900.

A children’s book full of stories about Christian saints and their friendships with animals. The stories are very loosely based on legends, but the author has spun them into fantastic folk tales of adventure. Abbie Farwell Brown was a prolific writer and published many children’s books, including a book about the Norse Gods. I rather like the idea of making fictional stories of the saints. I think it strips them of power and makes them easier to dismiss as merely characters in a children’s book, like Cinderella or Red Riding hood.

Unlike the graphic artwork in most books about Christian saints, the illustrations in this book are charming and sweet and very typical of their time at the height of the Art Nouveu period. My favourite drawing is St. Bridget & the King’s Wolf, followed closely by the energetic Saint Keneth and the Gulls.

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Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

It was too hot at 9 am for Jack to go out. Our vet tells us that if the sidewalk is too hot for you to stand on then it’s too hot for your dog to go for a walk. And it was, so he didn’t. He’s been hiding out all day on the kitchen floor in front of the A/C vent. It’s his favorite place. It’s more or less in the center of the house and Jack can keep track of where we are. The floor is cool, the air is cool and it’s the place where we keep the food. C’est parfait, non? The photo today is of my neighbour’s lilies in the morning sun. Lilies are not one of my favourite flowers, but these guys shone their little hearts out for me so I took their picture.

©voyager, all rights reserved