She loves me, she loves me not....

When I had the epiphany I call 'the sadness of aging' I was 19 years old and it was 11 o'clock in the morning.

Illustration Friday: Giant (The Witch, the Dog and the Giant)

The Witch, the Dog - and The Giant Locked in a Jar

Synopsis

Well in this story a small witch named Lynx and her dog Laiska go for a walk in the deep dark forest. There they discover the ancient vine covered stone ruins of a Druidic temple. And inside the ruins they find a kind but stupid Giant locked in a glass jar. The Giant has been there for three days, and not only is he getting hungry and running out of air, he really needs to make a nature stop. His captor is an evil wizard named Cedric Balsamic Jnr.

Should Lynx find the golden key that the giant needs to be free, the Giant promises her free piano lessons for the rest of her life.

Lynx, who doesn't like the piano at all, promises to do her best.

That night on the way back to her auntys Griselda's place (where Lynx is staying for the summer holidays), effected by a small golden topped mushroom she has eaten,  Lynx falls into a swollen brook at the forest edge. 

Her faithful Laiska, fresh from being rescued in  outer space by Robert Jordan Jnr, does her best to drag Lynx from the swollen brook. 

But in vain.

Lynx, dragged under water by the amazing amout of underwear she has been forced to wear by the SFYWWBU (the Society For Young Witches to Wear Big Underwear) dissappears under the swirling deep dark and treacherous waters.

Of course the plot questions at this point are:

Will Lynx be seen again? What will aunt Griselda tell Lynx's mother Jane? Will the Giant make the next football game at Sydney stadium? Will Laiska be captured by the evil Russians and sent back into space in Sputnick 67? Will Finnie fix up his typos? Or will he stop making up silly stories and go and mow his lawn?

Only time will tell.

(to be cont.)

This little girl was inspired by Bella's work. Amazing artist that she is.

The columns and vines by Maxfield Parrish - whose work I admire greatly.

The Giant? Well that's Ralph. I've had him for a while and never used him.

I plan to Ralph out this afternoon for a while so he feels better.

You can read about the SFYWWBU here.

thanks for looking. :)

Illustration Friday: Satellite

Robert Jordan Junior was eleven years old when he first read about Laika.

Laika, a stray dog plucked from obscurity by Russian Scientists, had been propelled into space on Sputnik 2 in 1957.

Most people thought that for Laika it was a one way trip.

But Robert Jordan knew better. 

Even though the Russians had claimed that Laika had either suffocated or died a painful overheated death in her small metal container, Robert Jordan knew the truth.

You see, the very night Robert Jordan first read about Laika, he had a dream.

In that dream he was an astronaut sent by Nasa to rescue Laika.

As so often happens in dreams, the details were hazy; but in his dream Robert found himself suddenly surrounded by light, tugged from his bed by invisible hands, then catapulted through the earth's atmosphere on a beam of light.

In seconds, and with a great sucking sound as the beam of light vanished, he came to a sudden halt, suspended in space, three feet from the rusting hulk of Sputnik 2.

And there she was, the   dog Laika,  staring at him through a porthole, grinning and panting with happiness, her breath fogging the glass. She was still alive after all these years, suspended Robert knew, by the Russian's  super secret  hyperchromatic barium refrigeration. She'd been left to circle the world for ever and ever, as one of mankind's first satellites. 

But did Robert rescue her?

I'm afraid that's still classified ---- but I can say that I saw young Robert the other day playing ball in the park with a dog that looked like a part-Samoyed terrier.

One thing I did notice though: the dog barked an awful lot.

Of course Laika, in Russian, means "barker."

But it's probably just a coincidence. 

What follows is a few variations on Robert's dream. Thanks for looking! Please pardon the layout... I'll get it right one day!