The Fool - almost finished

I started this painting a while ago, and it's almost finished.  I got my inspiration from 'The Fool' card in Tarot, and turned it into something else.  I'm not someone who reads Tarot, but I'm interested in the symbolism and the archetypes.  For me, they conjure up stories in my imagination. 

The woman is stepping over a cliff, eyes closed into the unknown.  Beneath her, is seems like there's a drop featuring the sea in the distance.

 Her expression is carefree, with no worries in mind.  She's carrying a little suitcase/briefcase with her, with an image of a wheel on it - a bag full of hopes and resources for her destination.    Her dress is melting away into butterflies, a symbol of transformation.

Someone could look at this painting, and think, 'Is she committing suicide?'...........but we don't know.  We can't really see what's underneath that portion of the cliff.

For me, The Fool is about taking risks and about bravery to seek new opportunities, or perhaps to go on a journey.  As with taking any new opportunity, it comes with risk.

It might be a naive decision leading to disaster, or be the best path she's ever set foot on. 

Banana Cake

I think I've got to stop baking for a while.  Recently I made dark chocolate and & cranberry cookies, and in the last week I also made a banana & dark chocolate chip cake.

 

You can find the recipe I followed here -

http://www.azeliaskitchen.net/blog/banana-cake-best-banana-flavour-cake/

To get the best out of any fruit cake, you need to use good fruit.  Some bananas are lovely, but others can be starchy and flavourless so it's worth doing your research into this fruit before making this cake.

Because this recipe uses 5 bananas, it's extra squishy and squidgy.  I used 100g of dark chocolate, chopped up. I covered the caked with my lazy icing, which is creme-freiche with some golden syrup on top.  Golden syrup, used sparingly,  goes well with banana I think, but I don't think creme-freiche complements banana enough for me to use it again.....unless I'm lazy hehe....

Pancake Day

Today is Pancake Day in Britain.......when everyone....well....makes pankcakes :D  It's also called Shrove Tuesday.

I think I've eat too many this evening.............

Costume History - an article

Here's an interesting article about about an aspect of fashion/costume history I read this week.  I didn't know that men used to wear high heels to help them stand up in stirrups whilst riding.  It helped balance them so they could shoot their arrows at targets more effectively. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21151350

http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/society/2013/01/130125_high_heel_history.shtml

BBC Article - The Universal Language of Lullabies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21035103


I discovered this interesting article about the similarities of lullabies in different counties, including sound clips of some of them. 

LOL of the day

It's definitely true.......... however in the U.K it's mainly people from the south that have that response to snow, me thinks.  In the city in the south of the U.K where I live, it only has to snow about 10cm and people think it's severe weather & it must be a blizzard!  Shocking!!  Does this mean people buy snow tyres?  No!

Thanks for sharing Olga!  It made me laugh :D

Nature words

It's interesting how our words for different things change from language to language.  Today I was reminded of the different words we have in Welsh for things in the natural world and how they differ from English words.  Here are some -

Dragonfly -  Gwas y Neidr  - literally translates to ' Servant of the Snake'.

Foxglove -  Ffion  - this is a common name for a girl in Welsh

                                          

                                                                     © Dan Morley

 Bluebells -  Clychau'r Gog -  Bells of the cuckoo

                                  

                                                                  © Dave & Lynne Slater

                                                              ©  anemoneprojectors

Grass -   Gwellt -  Probably related to the word 'Gwallt' which means 'hair' when it refers to human hair.
 

Daffodil - Cenhinen Bedr - Peter's Leeks (Saint Peter)

                                  

                                                                        © Alan Cleaver


Hummingbird - Aderyn y Si - Bird of the Buzz


  Badger - Mochyn Daear - Earth Pig

Raven - Cigfran - Meat Crow

                                

                  

Finch - Llinos - Llinos is a Welsh girl's name

Bear - Arth - probably gave it's name to the mythical hero 'Arthur'.  Other Celtic languages have a similar word for 'bear'.

                             

                                                                      © Zero One

Fox - Llwynog - Comes from the word 'llwyn'  which means grove, or bush.


Snowdonia - Eryri - Welsh name for the national park of Snowdonia. It comes from the word 'Eryr' which means 'Eagle', but others say it's means 'highlands'.

The English name for this national park - Snowdonia, comes from Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales and England.  It comes from Old English 'Snaw Dun' which means Snow Hill.  In Welsh this mountain is called Y Wyddfa.

I advise anyone to visit this National Park.   It's a lot greener and leafier in real life than what they show in some of the dramatic photographs of this area.

                                                                   © Les Haines