A REFLECTION

"ADVENTURES ARE NEVER FUN WHILE YOU'RE HAVING THEM."
 C.S. LEWIS, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER

I read The Chronicles of Narnia when I was in my later twenties I might have been just thirty. Harry Huebner, a co-worker, introduced me and let me borrow and read his complete set.  Most people are familiar with the first book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe but the third book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was my favorite at the time.  I didn't realize how much I'd forgotten of the book until I googled a review for my daily art/writing challenge which was the quote above.  I remembered the kids sailed to the end of the world and when I thought of the book I always pictured a friendly dragon flying above the sailing ship as it was underway.

Lucy is my favorite character I found her adventurous and brave and all things I believe girls are. So much so that when I think of favorite girls names Lucy is number two only to Elizabeth and all it's variations which is my most favorite.  I hadn't thought of it but Elizabeth I is all those things I admire, too.

The actress who portrays Lucy in the recent film versions is not how I imagine her.  I picture her as Linda Bailey who lived down Popes Head Road from me when I was little and was the same age as my little sister Linda and in first grade.  Linda Bailey' mom was a British WWII war bride and very nice.  (Alan Bateman's mom was a British war bride also and played the piano at my church.)  Linda Bailey's hair was light brown and bobbed very short with bangs when all us girls had curly hair rolled on rubber rollers every night or pulled back in long ponytails.  Linda wore brown lace up oxfords which seemed strange to this American girl of the 1950's.  She was as nice as she could be and as a second grader I adopted her like a mother.  She sat with me on the school bus and I pushed her in the swings at recess.

Hmmmmm



 

MY MUSE

I DIDN'T REALIZE JUST HOW OFTEN THIS PAST YEAR I'D USED ROD AS A MODEL.

      HE'S PAIRED HERE WITH GINNY AS A MARTIAN WATCHING INTERGALACTIVE  TV.

STEAMPUNK

COWBOY

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

PHANTOM

ROD'S HANDS

                                                                   

GRANDDADDY AND MOTHER G

I've known this rhyme for as long as I have memory.  The words come to me as clearly as Jack and Jill and This Little Piggy.  It's curious to me, though, because it hasn't been Americanized and sounds very British.  I suspect it comes from my Grandfather from Loudon County, Virginia.  The culture in Loudon is still very British with large farms and horses and fox hunting.

I imagine my Grandfather used to recite it when he would cross his knees and I'd sit on his foot for a "pony ride"  when I was little.  I just barely remember the pony rides but have always remembered the rhyme and puzzled how I knew it.  I was reminded of it today when I was researching a Mother Goose rhyme about a duck.

"I Had A Little Pony" By Mother Goose
  I have a little pony
 His name is Dapple-Grey.
 I lent him to a lady
 To ride a mile away.
 She whipped him, she lashed him,
 She rode him through the mire;
 I would not lend my pony now
 For all the lady's hire.