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animal - vegetable - mineralI have a special affection for quirky animals, and rough-around-the-edges plants and landscapes. The weedy edges around the juniper posts of ranch fences, the chamisa and the agave and the prickly pear. The rim rock and the cut-bank, the donkey and the hyena and the goat. I love them all.
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This Goat Does Not Boat.
Alas. Though that would be a wonderful thing too. Goat is not opposed to boating, mind you, and he does know how to float. It is also true that he has a cousin who did a stint in the merchant marine, and ancestors who immigrated from their native land by sea. This here goat, however, is more inclined to terrestrial pursuits, and is quite contented and cheery in his field of lanky grasses, wild flowers a-flowering, and bugs a-buzzing. (Watercolor & india ink, 2015.) |
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Four Friends.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely,” said Ignacio, who also was known as Owl Number One, to Pepe, who also was known as Owl Number Four, and who was the smallest of this little group of friends, “if we were to have our own book one day?” Said Pepe in reply, “Oh! Why yes! I do so think it would be splendid. Why, then we could tell everyone about the moon, and the sounds of the forest at night.” (Watercolor & india ink, 2015.) |
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WhOo?
In the mottled night, under the waning moon, the owls begin their stoop, while you sleep in a darkened room. Across the stubbled fields, along the misty stream-banks, they rise as the small night-creatures wake. The kingfishers’ chatter’s quite now, the evening song of the blackbird’s done; ‘tis the night birds’ time; their wings must now beat the rising sun. (Graphite on paper, 2015.) |
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Bertie.
On a sunny day in spring, after the rain has cleared, and the grass is still wet, you will find Bertie, eyes closed, facing the glowing orb of the sun. She will be along near the hedgerow, in the south paddock, near the fence where the red clover pushes through the rails, and where she has a view of the creek bank. She will be listening for the wren, busy so busy with nesting season, flitting about with bits of moss and grass in its beak, making nests and singing songs, tiny tail flipping, flipping, flipping, all the while, and keeping an eye on Bertie, too, to make sure she is well. (Graphite on paper, 2016.) |
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Auntie Lolo.
It is known throughout the county that Auntie Lolo, with the aid of her able assistant the cowboy chef, makes the best pancakes around, bar none. No question. Without a doubt. You betcha. She never will reveal where she learned to make them, but she will admit to having spent some time in the kitchens of France on the way from her natal land, Botswana, to the happy boarding house by the sea where she now delights all the residents with a fresh batch of pancakes most Saturday mornings. She will, upon special request, or on Tursdays, whichever comes first, make an extra batch (with berries, when in season), so if you have a free morning, bicycle down to the end of the road, and drop in for some. She’ll be glad you did. (Graphite on paper, 2014. Lolo and her friends live in a picture-book-in-progress that I am working on. To see more, visit my portfolio and profile with the Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators.) |