Muff's Playlist

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on her tuffet

Eating her curds and whey.

Down came a spider

And sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

This nursery rhyme most believe was written in 1805, about Mary Queen of Scots who was frightened by religious reformer John Knox​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. Well I think speculators with this particular view are 184 years off. Because I'm absolutely certain that this rhyme was written for my sister, Casey. She even adopts the nickname amongst family and close friends of "Muffs". (Riddle solved. Take that(!) literary scholars.​)

So that's why Casey's playlist is called what it is.

She's pretty much my best friend too. Someone who can make me furious and laughing just by looking at my cross little face. I love her to bits.

Anyway, so every holiday we make car CD's which get scratched and overplayed, and loved songs are ripped to shreds until we hear them in disgust and skip to the end where the under loved, under played songs await their death. A particular favourite song of both of ours came from two CD's that different friends had given us each. "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is this song.

I love(d) it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

(Must not show Casey this video. This she would classify as "too arty" (A term that I am too used to hearing from her from my clothes to my hair to my music.) )

Our home is on the Bitou river in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. We really are spoilt, it's stunning here. South Africa's stunning. Africa is. (Here's a blog on the area around Plett if you want to check it out: http://www.letterdash.com/bitoublog)

(If you want to see what our home really looks like, go to www.bitou.co.za -The pros to owning a guest lodge? Your house has a website of its own-)

So I drew our house in pen, and tried to give the ink the whole Leonardo-De-Vinci-sketches-of-the-human-heart vibes, and top right I planted a heart in our garden, because home is where the heart is. Bottom right is just a labelling key to the heart above, which I liked the look of.

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I used mixed media for this drawing. Gel pen, ball point pen (for the purple look) and brown pencil colour.

This, I think, is my favourite installment so far.

(Only the best for my sister.)

Loud Pipes

In the New Year​​​​​​​​​​​​​ is a song by the Walkmen. 

 It's not a part of anyone's playlist. I mention it only because, well...it is the new year.

I hope it's been a good one so far.

New year. New playlist(s).

My friend Kat(e)harine's playlist is called "Loud Pipes", which is a song by Ratatat. 

I love that song. And I love this song, the song I chose to go all decor on: "I Like Birds" - The Eels 

I started off Kate's playlist with the brown-hooded Kingfisher, one of the many types of Kingfishers we see, sitting on the telephone wires along the Bitou river, on which we live (www.bitou.co.za). Striking birds, with an unusual sense of beauty, much like Kate herself.

I then got desperate for intense colour in birds. I chose one green bird because there is only one real green pigment out there for birds (the rest of the greens you see are the combination of different pigments and the trick of the light). 

This pigment is called turacoverdin, and is found in turacos (family Musophagiformes) only native to the Garden Route, South Africa. The particular species to which I am referring is the Knysna Turaco, formerly known as the Knysna Lourie.

We have some residing in our gardens, and they are really stunning to watch in flight. Anyway, they also have a dark blue pigment on their backs which inspired the colour of the second bird.

Then comes an amazing poem:

“to paint the portrait of a bird”

jacques prevert

First paint a cage

with an open door

then paint

something pretty

something simple

something beautiful

something useful

for the bird

then place the canvas against a tree

in a garden

in a wood

or in a forest

hide behind the tree

without speaking

without moving …

Sometimes the bird comes quickly

but he can just as well spend long years

before deciding

Don’t get discouraged

wait

wait years if necessary

the swiftness or slowness of the coming

of the bird having no rapport

with the success of the picture

When the bird comes

if he comes

observe the most profound silence

wait till the bird enters the cage

and when he has entered

gently close the door with a brush

then

paint out all the bars one by one

taking care not to touch any of the feathers of the bird

Then paint the portrait of the tree

choosing the most beautiful of its branches

for the bird

paint also the green foliage and the wind’s freshness

the dust of the sun

and the noise of insects in the summer heat

and then wait for the bird to decide to sing

If the bird doesn’t sing

it’s a bad sign

a sign that the painting is bad

but if he sings it’s a good sign

a sign that you can sign

so then so gently you pull out

one of the feathers of the bird

and you write your name in a corner of the picture

After my weird African-patterns-take-over-what-was-once-a-bird-drawing drawing, then comes my evilness.

I drew a KFC Sprinkles Fruit Chutney Sachet. I tore it open, copied the packaging, and arranged the sprinkles in the shape of a bird.

The next disturbing thought was obviously a little girl who has just finished her meal of bird, and is hungry for more.

And of course, to thank KFC for their contribution to the poll of chicken deaths, their slogan: "It's finger lickin' good!"

Love you, Kate.