Happy Santa Lucia Day!
May you be a light in the darkness for others.
{“Santa Lucia” by Charlot Byj}
Tag: Illustration (page 2 of 4)
Hello, November! We’re ready for the full shift to autumn that you will bring, early nights and darker mornings. We’re ready for leaves crunching underfoot and the smell of woodsmoke in the air and crispy apples packed as snacks.
We’re ready to feast by the glow of candlelight and sip hot apple ciders and munch on gingersnaps for our evening dessert. We’re ready for the promise of Thanksgiving that comes near the end of your monthly reign this year. And the smells of turkey and gravy and baked sweet potato pie that will fill the air.
We’re ready to move into “sweater weather” and take rambling walks with our wellies on, through the muddy fields and up to the hills to look out over the water. We’re ready for twinkle lights to glitter from every nook and cranny and we’re ready for the stillness that you bring with late autumn evenings where all the world is quiet except for the whistling of the wind.
Welcome November!
{The Mushroom Gatherers, by Abigail Halpin // Pinned HERE}
Hello, March. February brought us the first flush of bulbs pushing up from the earth and bursting into bloom. The world around us has slowly been polka-dotted with the whites and purples of crocuses and the eruption of saffron painted daffodils. We’re ready for you to usher more pops of colour into the landscape.
We’re ready to spend more days in the sunshine and for dusk to take a dash longer to arrive before the curtains close on the day. We’re ready for more chances to picnic outdoors and for longer evening walks. We’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day, where my Nana’s Irish Soda bread will grace our table.
However, we’re not quite ready for our rhythm to change with the latest government announcement that all children will return to school in one fell swoop on the eighth. Selfishly, I will miss the opportunity that this time has afforded us (Mr Michie and I) to work around one another again. I will dearly miss being able to pop out of one room, while on a break, and see Mr. Michie’s beautiful face working in another. That has been a gift that I have cherished.
We are blessed during this time to still have a roof over our heads, food on our table and jobs when so many others are not in the same circumstances. I think it’s easy to say during this time, that we’re all in the same boat. But, in actuality, we’re not. We’re all in the same fleet, but each of us face different challenges in our own boats. We should strive to be physically, mentally and emotionally aware of that. We are navigating these waters as best we can.
So, let us continue to live in the moment and not let the small things pass us by. Let’s celebrate the coming of spring and welcome her with open arms.
{Image by Barbara Dziadosz found HERE // Pinned HERE}
Hello February! We’re ready for hot chocolate swirled with whipped cream on still frosty mornings; the world around us turning pink, white and red in the celebration of L-O-V-E that you bring on the 14th.
We’re ready for more nights spent eating popcorn and watching old movies together. And we’re ready for cold nights where we eat breakfast for dinner by candlelight and listen to albums on the stereo. We’re ready for that much needed downtime in this whirlwind; for those quiet moments to savour books that we have been greedily devouring.
We’re ready to continue cherishing these slower winter days where we watch, little by little, the sun stay out a bit longer each day. We’re ready to see those first glimmers of spring: bulbs sprouting up inch by inch and buds forming on trees, soon to burst forth in the coming months.
We’re not wishing away this slower pace. Rather, we’re enjoying the stillness and the reflective mood that the final month of winter offers, before spring comes into full bloom.
February, this year you take us full circle to the cusp that we were standing on last year before madness descended. And we have found our way each month and we shall continue to do the same through your days and weeks. We will persist in finding the pleasure in the little things. We will continue to dream, to laugh and to breathe in the world around us.
We’re ready for you February.
{“Dear Frost” by Lore Pemberton // Pinned HERE}
One more sleep…
{Ralph Hulett (1915-1974), is an artist mainly known for his work at Disney, but he also did a number of Christmas card designs as well as commercial work for major agencies, such as Swiss-Air and NBC. The “Christmas Mouse” above is from a card design created in the 1960s}
Today, marks the “winter solstice”. Today, also marks the “great conjunction” where Saturn and Jupiter will appear to be the closest they have been together from our vantage point since the middle ages. I think there is something auspicious in that.
Now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rain and overcast sky blows out to sea later and we have a chance of spotting the planets tonight, aligned close enough to kiss.
There is magic in the air today, you can feel it humming.
{Interior illustration from The Shortest Day, by Susan Cooper, illustration by Carson Ellis // Image taken from an article on the Art of The Picture Book Blog // Carson Ellis website HERE}
Hello, December. We’re ready for the frost that you bring and the bite in the air that chills are cheeks. We’re ready for quiet moments as evening closes in, cups of cocoa in hand while we stare at the Christmas tree lights and let our souls take a slow deep breath.
We’re ready for cold hikes through the nature reserve and the smell of fresh pine in the air. We’re ready for iced gingerbread and frosted sugar cookies cut out into holidays shapes and stored in tins at the ready to be devoured next to a hot cup of tea. We’re ready for Christmas music to be playing nonstop, working on jigsaw puzzles and for stealing kisses under the mistletoe hung above our bedroom door.
We’re ready for sparkle and glitter and the possibility of snow. But, most of all, I think we’re ready for this season to work it’s restorative magic in the quiet moments, that we find peace and a collective calm, as this has been a year that has ploughed forward almost unceasingly in a whirlwind.
Welcome, December, fill our hearts with good cheer.
{Josef Lada, from the 1953 Czech collection Detem HERE // Pinned HERE}
Happy Halloween!
I hope your evening is filled with more treats than tricks! Ours will be filled with steaming bowls of butternut squash and beef chili (one of our favourites!), topped with sour cream, homemade pickled veggies and cheese. And for dessert, a wickedly delicious chocolate and orange cake with luscious amounts of frosting. It goes without saying that we’ll be watching Hocus Pocus, which will be preceded by It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Is it even Halloween if the marvellous arrangements by Vince Guaraldi aren’t heard while the Peanuts gang go trick-or-treating?
Watch out for witches flying over this most hallowed of full moons! A full moon actually falling on Halloween only happens once every 18 to 19 years. This full moon also happens to be a rare blue moon. It will be the first time that a Halloween full moon will be visible across the entire world since 1944! That feels auspicious!
So here’s to goblins and witches and magic and candy and pumpkins and revelry under the light of the full Hunter’s moon.
I hope that this Halloween finds you all safe and well. 🎃
{“The Halloween Party” (1974), by Lonzo Anderson, illustration by Adrienne Adams found HERE // Pinned HERE}
As if the world has been holding its breath, the clocks began again, the spell is broken and another school year comes rushing at us. I’m never ready, but this year in particular, I’m finding it harder.
The house has had a nice rhythm. All the work has gotten done, all the meetings have been had, scrabble has been endlessly played in the backgrounds and afternoon breaks with bowls of yoghurt topped with heaps of fresh summer berries and homemade peanut butter granola have been feasted on with the windows open wide and the breeze blowing the curtains.
We’ve celebrated holidays, anniversaries and birthdays over this time period. We’ve lingered over our cups of coffee and our daily crossword puzzle in the morning, while music transported us somewhere else. There has been a steadiness in the haze that has been happening all around us. We’ve known for a long time what we wanted and the Covid lockdown has only clarified that even further.
We enter this new school year with an even deeper dedication of making more of our dreams written on paper come to life.
{Cinderella by Nadezhda Illarionova // Pinned HERE}