Moss Whispers

The Hillock is UNDENIABLE in the Fall! As everything around it begins to fade or turn brown, the Mossy Hillock THRIVES and brings forth an array of every everGREEN moss possible. As the MossTender, I work ‘overtime’ to sweep away the crinkly crunchy leaves as they fall, for moss needs air, moisture, and light to thrive. A layer of leaves would keep it moist for awhile, but would smother the tiny sporophytes and gametophytes, making it hard for mosses to spread by dispersing spores. Also, since they get their nutrients from the air, they would be a little starved, not to mention no light to make chlorophyl!

I’m a little limited as to how I can clear off the leaves since Francklin, my 3-legged wonder dog, has an unfortunate history (my fault!) with rakes. When he was just a tiny 3-legged puppy, I would try to get something done while I was outside with him, so I raked paths in the woods. Francklin constantly wanted to play, and very early on decided the rake was his playmate! He would crouch like a kitty and POUNCE on the rake when it got close enough. Hence, the rake attacker game came to be! For me to accomplish any raking, I had to rake really fast and sort of narrate as I raked. I guess it was like playing with a 2 year old! Well, now, I’m paying the price. If I were to bring a rake with me to The Hillock, Francklin would WIN and go off with the rake. That’s what happens when puppies become big dogs! So I’m reduced to using my hands and a small stick! I’ll have to say, though, that it’s really the best way to be a MossTender. I’m much more connected to the earth, the moss is less disturbed, and sofar, no snakes or spiders have intervened in the process.

Another thing I notice about The Hillock is that it’s no longer just a hillock, with knolls, emerging magical dwellings forming a community, and beautiful pebblestone streets. It’s NOW a truly MOSSY Hillock! The small clumps of moss on the north side of trees have now spread and the WHOLE Hillock is mostly covered with moss! It’s so amazing! Moss is even growing between the pebbles on the pebblestone street! I don’t know if I could ever move away from this land because of this special place….hmmm…maybe we could someday way down the road sell the house and keep the studio and the hillock?

What I DO know is that NOW is the time to have Teas at the Hillock,  bring children to the Hillock, invite school classrooms on field trips. I need and want to SHARE it! So soon I will send out fliers or invitations! It’s where stories grow for my books and images grow in my mind. It’s where I go to create, re create, meditate, and just BE. It’s a place for Aha’s and Amen’s and Aciu!

This particular page took a lot of  text editing and reworking. I’m working on being a better gauge at how much space to leave with calm background so that the text will show up. This page worked except that I haven’t quite got the sizing right to match my paintings to a horizontal page. Hence, some of Marth had to be ‘cropped’ out of the picture. I’m also including a few photos of the real Artist’s House down at The Hillock. I added the bottle tree. Makes me think of my friend Deter who’s spirit is in this book and in my heart. She had a beautiful bottle tree in her yard.

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I’m grateful to all my friends on Facebook that helped me think through whether to change the name of the Chocolate Mushroom Cafe. I feel better about the new name! Thanks!

I’m struggling with the text for the next page of my Martha Julia Agnes Adele Adventure. I refer to The Chocolate Mushroom Cafe, and I’m wondering if I should worry about if this could be encouraging children to nibble on mushrooms they find in the woods.  I bring up this concern after having parented a precious and adventurous 2 year old who had a tendency to put woodsy mushrooms in her mouth. Often we would end up in the E.R. to ‘decide if she was exposed to some dangerous one!’

Here it is:

“Oh, what a grand Adventure Day!”

“We’re near the Chocolate Mushroom Cafe!”

“Step right up by this giant stone shoe!”

“You’ll especially love their acorn stew!”

Slab reaches behind him and pulls out a map.

From a hidden pocket in his shoulder strap.

“Let’s sit at this table and make our plan…”

“While we eat our stew and custard flan.”

And here is background information:

Slab and Martha… are about to discover that they are very near the Chocolate Mushroom Cafe. This is another actual place at The Hillock that is adjacent to the Queen’s Stove, that they stumbled upon on the last page. The Chocolate Mushroom Cafe is a flat top of one of the high mounds at The Hillock, underneath the Maple Tree that has The Market at its roots on its other side. There is a large, shoe-shaped rock, about size 6, that leads to a pebblestone trail to stone steps that go up to the flat top of the mound. On the mound are a few ‘stone tables’ where customers can enjoy acorn stew, custard flan, and more than likely chocolate mushroom dishes.  There is a tiny flower pot on each table, one holding meadow flowers, and one holding green moss. It got its name from some dark brown mushrooms growing on a log by the old stone shoe.

Painting for this page is in process. Here’s the Chocolate Mushroom Cafe in its early winter stages:

I’ve always thought that acorns would be the best currency! At least in these economic times! The reason this little stove is named ‘the queen’s stove’ is because that is the name carved on this actual little stove that is down at The Hillock. Not sure who the queen really is in this story, or even if she ever will show up. No matter. She makes a mean acorn stew!

Posting before midnight is not happening! It’s hard to just let myself stop, go through all the screen shots and rig’a’m’roll to post before that ‘pumpkin transformational moment’ ruled by the clock, and not the paintbrush or the word! I will persist and beat this clock! And for now, I will accept my own timing and begin with NEW RESOLVE once again! Thank goodness for ‘another day’ and another ‘go at it’!

One challenge on this one was the text! I kept rewriting it, changing the order of the the text, and even which pages where certain text would live…even to the last midnight minute! so here goes page 10….for now!

From now on, the drawings/paintings might take me two days instead of one! Lots more detail coming up!  Since these scenes are actual places at The Hillock down in the meadow, they are very fresh in my mind and I find it hard to leave some of the details out! When I later go back and try writing this in prose, it’ll be interesting how it goes!

I spent a good part of today working on drawings of two places, The Writer’s House and Preena’s Spa. Here are photos of ‘the real places’ but the paintings aren’t finished yet. More tomorrow!

They’ve finally made it to the Potter’s Tree! So the search  for the lost shoe has begun for Slab and Martha Julia Agnes Adele! Now we’ll get to go around The Hillock with them on their search. Today was an intense day of working on text and this painting. Need to go get a few more painting supplies as they are running out! I’m realizing that for me to keep up this posting pace I really need to work from morning ’til night! I do love it, though! I guess since learning to read for children is such a reciprocal process of learning from both reading and writing, that learning to paint, draw, and write at the same time could be that way for me! I had to post it in a small form because it looks distorted when it’s big.

So Martha Julia Agnes Adele

Helps Slap pull his load unusually well.

“Here’s my home at Potter’s Tree.”

“Let’s plan our route and have some tea.”