September

Maybe I could be a summer person in Maine, Nova Scotia or old Scotia. In Philadelphia summer humidity frizzes my hair and melts my brain.  Already a few leaves on a few trees are turning yellow and some have begun to fall. Soon I will pull up my socks, don my sweater and fly right. 

Here I am (second from the right) in an early recital in my dance teacher's back garden. My teacher and her husband, a fine musician who played in the Philadelphia Orchestra, lived next door. Though my dance career was shorter than I was in my little blue cotton leotard, the experience of their music and art-filled home and the fascinating creative people who came there were an early inspiration.

Here's a new collection of  I Can Read stories from HarperCollins. This one includes THE BIG BALLOON RACE that I illustrated and Eleanor Coerr wrote.

This wonderful story was nearly rejected before being rescued by the young assistant assigned to write the "we regret" letter. 

Late Friday afternoon she read the manuscript again before typing the letter and suggested my art work.

The Editor said if I'd illustrate it, they would do it and the rest is history...........  There has been a first edition hardcover in 3 colors, a new full color hardcover edition, paperback, paperback with a cassette, and now this new collection and it was  a PBS Reading Rainbow selection. The "war stories" behind books can be almost as good as the book itself.

In June I planted 2 pots of Basil and a pot of what I thought were some old lettuce seeds and put them in

my north window.

Now I have 2 pots of fresh Basil and

this lovely pink flower..what ever it is.

Its a POPPY! ( thought it might be)

Friend Deborah says, possibly a Mountain or Icelandic

Poppy. Seed must have stowed away in

a packet of something else in my small sill seeds

stash. A delightful surprise.

Fred demands his 15 minutes

No sooner did I begin this blog, hoping to jump start my brain a little in the midst of an assignment famine than suddenly deadlines were back. 

Meanwhile, Fred  has been  tapping his paw. I mean....... Tizzy has HIS blog post! Where's mine?

Usually Fred is interested in sticking to a tight schedule (his), running into the outside hall when I open the 

apartment door and treats. He is polite, tapping me on the shoulder in the wee hours of the morning, for a belly rub.

When I'm working, he pops up over the top of my vertical drawing board. All I see is his head and front paws. It's  Freddie my hand puppet! 

I've still got work to finish and a speaking engagement tonight featuring my book, REDOUTE, The Man Who Painted Flowers, but I can take the pressure just so long.

How's that Freddie?  

I Take Requests

My Sister told me I needed a picture

of a flying cat eating a banana,

so I made one today.

Now some sketches have come back

from a client and I must do

the finished art.

In the meantime, I've also linked several

talented friends and The Daily Coyote

(no relation to Renee and Joe Daily) a recently

discovered treasure.

WELCOME

I think I'd better begin with an explanation of my blog title.

Shortly after kitten Tizzy came to live with me,

I found him licking a banana slice on my morning

bowl of cut up fruit. So I chopped up his banana slice

into kitten size bits along with his kibble and he scarfed the lot.

So we began to share our morning banana.

As Tizzy grew older he demanded new fruit

samples, globe grapes (peeled and seeded).

a bit of peach, a pinch of pear and most recently

a taste of bing cherry (again with pit and skin removed).

Neither he nor Freddie will eat real chicken,

fish (including tuna or salmon) or

any normal cat food just their prescription

kibble and a few Whisker Lickins crunchy treats

before bed.

Well actually there IS one other treat they both

enjoy. Housefly! And I mean Housefly on the wing!

We don't get many flies way up here. We hardly see

birds, we are up so high, but every once in a long

while there's a sudden bzzzzzzzzzzzz followed at once

by the tinkling of cat collar tags and a flash of fur blur.

As the fly hits the window (thinking it a way out)

he is thumped and swallowed. There's nothing like

live prey!

Here's a poem I wrote on the subject:

My cat eats bananas and flies.

Though you might think I'm telling you lies.

It is true and I swear

That he also likes pear

And most other fruit that he tries.

Banana, he likes just a slice.

Which I cut up and carefully dice.

With a grin on his face

He leaves not a trace.

You might think he was dining on mice.

As odd as bananas may seem

For a cat's gastronomical dream.

His other delight

Is a fly caught in flight.

Which he relishes better than cream.

My cat will lie patient for hours.

Asleep on the sill with the flowers.

He hears the first buzz

I watch what he does.

Swatting that fly he devours.

2008 Copyright Carolyn Croll. All rights reserved.