Today is National Snail Day, a festival of which I was until recently unaware, that celebrates these little critters and their sometimes unappreciated role in the ecosystem. Snails have been around for about 500 million years, so they have been managing far better than human beings are currently doing. Maybe we need to cultivate our silvery trails.
Below is an image from a book of children’s stories I recently illustrated (Dancing Stories, by Wendalyn von Meyenfeldt, about which more later).
Another confluence of festivals: Palm Sunday / St. Patrick’s Day.
Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!
For Epiphany.
To read aloud each year on this day. Wishing a joyful season to you and to all your dear ones. Thank you, Susan Cooper.
So the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white world Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them Echoing behind us ‐ listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight, This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land: They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now, This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!
—Susan Cooper
…SOLVED:
the cats are obsessed with our homemade crèche of felted wool figures.
