HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND
AND
TAKE TIME TO READ A BIT
XXX

Along the clover-field I ran
To where the little wood began,
And there I understood at last
Why I had come so far, so fast
On every leaf of every tree
A fairy sat and smiled at me!

From ‘Fairies and Chimneys’ by Rose Fyleman
First published by George Duran
Source

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),

One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),

No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

a Christmas poem by Walter de la Mare
~LINK~

“In my world, everyone's a pony and
they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”
― Dr. Seuss

Art by Jim Daly

~ LINK ~

Johan Jacobs (1881-1955)
Dutch artist
www.johanjacobs.nl

Johnny Longnose
Illustration by Stasys Eidrigevicius

Blanche Jennings Thompson
is the author of Silver Pennies
published 1929
illustrated by Winifred Bromhall

A Collection of Modern Poems for Boys and Girls.
The cloth hardcover is green/aqua/teal with
a black silhouette of a girl reaching to the sky,
with silver pennies falling from a silver moon.

19 short folktales written by Richard Adams
with illustrations by Yvonne Gilbert
and Jennifer Campbell

I found this nice book (1980) on a fleamarket,
my edition is in dutch!

In this volume Richard Adams has collected
together nineteen enchanting folk-tales from
almost as many parts of the world - from Europe
to China and from Polynesia to the Arctic Circle.
Each has a special magic, an aura that is sometimes
beautiful and fascinating, sombre and frightening,
or exciting and colourful. But what unites all these
stories is the essential quality of folk-lore,
something that transcends the boundaries of nations,
of custom and time, that gives them their permanence
and universality of appeal. 'Authors need folk-tales,'
Richard Adams says, 'in the same way as composers
need folk-song. They're the headspring of the narrator's art,
where the story stands forth at its simple, irreducible best.
They don't date, any more than dreams, for they
are the collective dreams of humanity.'
In order to preserve as far as possible the immediacy
and directness of authentic folk story-telling, each
of the nineteen tales is presented as being told by
an imagined narrator to one or more hearers at
a particular time and place, sometimes past,
sometimes present. However, the reader is never told
the identity either of the teller or his hearers,
but is left free to infer both them and the occasion
solely from the narrator's own words.
This original technique adds a novel dash of piquancy
to this fine collection.
Click here! 

~Melanie Delon

Born in 1980 In France, and as far as she can
remember she has always drawn. But on paper.

Melanie studied archeology and history of arts,
then she went to a gamedesign school (for 2 years),
which just was not her thing.

She discovered Photoshop in 2005, since then
Melanie has became addicted to it.
All subjects are interest, they just have to talk to her,
but fantasy and dreamy subjects are her favourite's.

.
LINK HERE to see more
.. .   ..

“I believe a leaf of grass is no less
than the journey-work of the stars.”
—Walt Whitman, born June 5, 1819

Lello & Irmao in Porto, Portugal
usually makes the various lists of  The Top 10
Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World. 
It opened in 1906 and  features stunning Art Deco
woodwork, a stained glass ceiling, and ornate
shelving with a dramatic staircase up
the center of the store.

~Vintage book

A  little book full of black and white drawings
and color plates like these.
It can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.
 

The Man in the Moon
Came tumbling down,
And asked his way to Norwich..

  The Lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the Crown;
The Lion beat the Unicorn
All round about the town.

” If you don’t be be quiet ” shouted the lad to the troll,
” I’ll squeeze you just as
I squeeze the water out of this stone. “

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A wonderful illustration
by Theodor Kittelsen
found HERE!!!

with thanks to Mette.
xxx

Literature takes you places.
Where do you want to go first?

"Second hand books are wild books,
homeless books;
they have come together in vast flocks
of variegated feather, and have a charm which
the domesticated volumes of the library lack."
- Virginia Woolf

by Vicente Romero Redondo 1956

HAVE A
VERY LOVELY AND SUNNY DAY!!!

“He’ll be famous — a legend — I wouldn’t be
surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day
in the future — there will be books written about Harry
— every child in our world will know his name!” —

J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

backcover of a Victorian storybook
(sorry don’t now the title)

Charles Dickens with daughters Katey and Mary in the garden at Gad's Hill Place in Higham, Kent -
home of Dickens' family from 1858 until his death
in one of the rooms in 1870,
and which is about to open its doors
to the public for the first time.
www.dailymail.co.uk

HAVE A LOVELY SUNDAY
XXX

~Market Square

I had a penny,
A bright new penny,
I took my penny
To the market square.
I wanted a rabbit,
A little brown rabbit,
And I looked for a rabbit
'Most everywhere.

For I went to the stall where they sold sweet lavender
("Only a penny for a bunch of lavender!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't want lavender?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I had a penny,
And I had another penny,
I took my pennies
To the market square.
I did want a rabbit,
A little baby rabbit,
And I looked for rabbits
'Most everywhere.

 
And I went to the stall where they sold fresh mackerel
("Now then! Tuppence for a fresh-caught mackerel!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't like mackerel?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I found a sixpence,
A little white sixpence.
I took it in my hand
To the market square.
I was buying my rabbit
I do like rabbits),
And I looked for my rabbit
'Most everywhere.

So I went to the stall where they sold fine saucepans
("Walk up, walk up, sixpence for a saucepan!").
"Could I have a rabbit, 'cos we've got two saucepans?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I had nuffin',
No, I hadn't got nuffin',
So I didn't go down
To the market square;
But I walked on the common,
The old-gold common...
And I saw little rabbits
'Most everywhere!

So I'm sorry for the people who sell fine saucepans,
I'm sorry for the people who sell fresh mackerel,
I'm sorry for the people who sell sweet lavender,
'Cos they haven't got a rabbit, not anywhere there!

by A.A Milne

~Garth Williams

by Garth Williams
American, 1912-1996

The Cricket in Times Square is a 1960
children's book by George Selden and
illustrated by Garth Williams.
It won the Newbery Honor Award. Selden gave
this explanation of what was the initial idea for the book:

"One night I was coming home on the subway,
and I did hear a cricket chirp in Times Square.
The story formed in my mind within minutes.

An author is very thankful for minutes like those,
although they happen all too infrequently."
READ MORE HERE !!!
 

~Jim Daly

Within just a few years, he was able to devote
himself entirely to his art.
His wife, Carole, and their four now-grown sons
frequently modeled for him.
Jim’s paintings are represented in many private
and corporate collections and have earned a wealth
of awards, including the Favell Museum’s Western
Heritage Award for excellence in portraying realistically
and accurately early Americana.


Articles about Jim’s work have appeared in Southwest Art, American Artist and Art West magazines among others
and in a recent U.S. Art magazine poll, gallery owners
named him one of their top 20 most popular artists.
Jim has also had the pleasure of illustrating
three well- received children’s books.


CLICK HERE TO GO TO ... 
Jim Daly Website!
 

Jim Daly Books for sale at
www.amazon.com

  “Even back then,” Jim Daly says,
“I had an interest in the past ...
and I still prefer the warm palette I used then.”

~James Christensen

 
James C. Christensen born September 26, 1942
is an American artist. His main body of work,
mostly paintings, is heavily influenced
by fantasy themes.
Even his small body of religious work shows
heavy fantasy influence.
Christensen says his inspirations are myths, fables,
fantasies, and tales of imagination.


LINK to his Blog