Decorous Corner - In Praise of Mr. & Mrs. Crow

Every morning a loving crow couple sits on the parapet wall of our sitout cawing loudly to announce their presence.  As soon as I look up one of them flies up to perch on the kitchen windowsill.  Cocking its beady eyes it looks at me mournfully pleading for sustenance. However my crows are very picky eaters ... they eat only kneaded dough, meat and fish and anything else is disdainfully ignored ... 

 

 

As I was browsing the net for information on crows I found this delightfully illustrated 1848 book.

If you are as crazy about crows as I am, please do visit the Internet Archive website for more beautiful illustrations and poems: Caw Caw or Chronicle of Crows

However be warned, the chronicle ends on a sad note ...

EveryThe crow sits on my windowsill, ]

The crow sits on my windowsill,
howling to announce it's presence.
its staring at me.
No,
into my soul.
"What do you want!"
No reply.
He just sits there.
mocking me.
taunting me with his presence.
I look away,
he's gone?
Am I losing my mind,
No that can't be.
Wait,
Crows do not howl.

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/10588209--The-crow-sits-on-my-windowsill---by-Kirito#sthash.wUupSfMy.dpuf

My Wild Garden - Poem by Rachel Jacob

Looking down the balcony I see my garden ... the ground is covered with crisp colourful almond tree leaves ... the firecracker flower bushes are growing untamed vying for space with the money plant and high grass ... I love the wild merging of the colours and yet feel guilty for not putting in an effort to create a more structured garden ... 

then I received by mail this sweet poem written by my sister Rachel Jacob ... it soothed my conscience so I want to share the poem with all those who own wild gardens ...

The Ikebana Experience

"Ma, I've given my name for the ikebana competition on Monday!" My daughter's eager announcement blanked me out for a second ... firstly I've never heard of that word before and secondly the competition was just two days away!  My weekend looked daunting!

We sat down to browse through the net to understand what "ikebana" was all about ... it is the Japanese art of flower arrangement.  A good friend of ours gave my daughter a few basic lessons on arranging the flowers using kenzan otherwise called the spiky frog which fixes the flowers in the containers.  My daughter had to also learn the names of flowers and creatively name her arrangement. By the end of Sunday my persevering offspring proclaimed very grandly that she was ready to try out a few arrangements on her own. We shopped for flowers and kenzan and then rummaged around the cupboards for containers.  And here is the final colourful outcome:

 

Susan concentrating on her ikebana

SunBurst

Unity in Diversity

Innocent Purity

Awakening

Guardian Angel

And not surprisingly, in spite of the last minute learnings and practice, little 'Miss Enthusiastic' won the third prize!!

Through my Kitchen Window ...

Through the Window by Michele Wallington

I love this beautiful painting by Michele Wallington.  What a pleasant summery view from the window - the green tree with yellow blooms, the golden background and the shadowed potted plants basking in the mellow sunshine!!

I look out of my kitchen window and it's SUNNY too!!

Not the sweltering hot sunrays but the warm nurturing sunbeams ... filtering through branches of the the trees, bathing the potted plants and spilling on the floor!

 Even our dog seems content to just lie still, soaking up the warm glow of the sunshine ...

Colourful Pastel Sketches

After going through Ambica's striking artwork displayed in her website A Sunny Yellow Window my daughter wanted me to showcase her colourful oil pastels too!

Susan's brightly coloured sketches reflect her vibrant and lively personality. Her love of the playful fish makes them a prominent feature in many of her artwork ...

Sketches of a Colourful Life

Turquoise blues, vibrant vermillions, leafy greens, sunny yellows and earthy browns ... what an eye-catching merging takes place to create pulsating life ... and here are my humble attempts to reproduce a few such everyday life on paper with watercolours and on wood with acrylics ...

Et voilà an otherwise dull closed door gets an admiring second glance!!

  

And shadows are dispelled by the soft glow of the lamp of life ...

Decorous Corner: The Writing on the Wall

I had been gifted a very inspiring poster by some of my students some six years back:

Unfortunately it got frayed very badly more due to constant handling by kids than the passing years ... I was saddened.  As I did not want to completely lose the wordings, I wrote it down on our kitchen wall ... the room where we spend most of our mornings and evenings.

 I used fevicryl acrylic paints.  A view from the side and from outside...

                                                                             

Doesn't my sagacious companion bring cheer to my kitchen!!