a little birdie told me so: October 2014

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Portraits and Self-Portraits

Making art with the grandkids is something I love to do. I really enjoy seeing them explore and develop their creative muscles.

Yesterday we drew with pens and painted each other with watercolors.

Uncle TJ by the 7 year old.

See me on the bottom? This artist is 12.

Self-Portrait

I get top billing this time. The artist is 13.

She wasn't very happy with her chin....

My turn to give it a try.

We had lots of fun and laughs while trying to paint each other.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Almost...

Well actually I'm still wearing them. With the exception of a couple of days of cool weather, it is still in the 80s here. How about where you are?

...."We were Birds Without Wings. You were a robin and I was a blackbird. And there were some who were eagles or vultures or pretty gold finches, but none of us had wings. For birds with wings nothing changes. They fly where they will and they know nothing about borders and their quarrels are very small. But we are always confined to earth, no matter how much we climb to the high places and flap our arms. Because we cannot fly we are condemned to do things that do not agree with us. Because we have no wings we are pushed into struggles and abominations that we did not seek and then after all that, the years go by. The mountains are leveled. The valleys rise. The rivers are blocked by sand and the cliffs fall into the sea." -Louis De Berniere

Who Said It First?

The phrase "little birdie told me so" may find it's origins in this Bible verse. "Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say" (Ecclesiastes 10:20). The earliest form of the saying was included in John Heywood's collection of proverbs (1546). In 1583, Brian Melbancke wrote in 'Philotimus'" 'I had a little bird, that brought me newes of it.' In 1711, in 'Letter to Stella,' Jonathan Swift came close to the current version: 'I heard a little bird say so.'