The Art of Book Design: The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts

Abbie Farwell Brown. The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. Illustrated by Fanny Cory. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1900.

A children’s book full of stories about Christian saints and their friendships with animals. The stories are very loosely based on legends, but the author has spun them into fantastic folk tales of adventure. Abbie Farwell Brown was a prolific writer and published many children’s books, including a book about the Norse Gods. I rather like the idea of making fictional stories of the saints. I think it strips them of power and makes them easier to dismiss as merely characters in a children’s book, like Cinderella or Red Riding hood.

Unlike the graphic artwork in most books about Christian saints, the illustrations in this book are charming and sweet and very typical of their time at the height of the Art Nouveu period. My favourite drawing is St. Bridget & the King’s Wolf, followed closely by the energetic Saint Keneth and the Gulls.

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Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

It was too hot at 9 am for Jack to go out. Our vet tells us that if the sidewalk is too hot for you to stand on then it’s too hot for your dog to go for a walk. And it was, so he didn’t. He’s been hiding out all day on the kitchen floor in front of the A/C vent. It’s his favorite place. It’s more or less in the center of the house and Jack can keep track of where we are. The floor is cool, the air is cool and it’s the place where we keep the food. C’est parfait, non? The photo today is of my neighbour’s lilies in the morning sun. Lilies are not one of my favourite flowers, but these guys shone their little hearts out for me so I took their picture.

©voyager, all rights reserved

Birdy

Avalus has an eye for the small things of this world and it seems he also has an eye-out.

This little fella’ was hopping on the sidewalk next to a shop. I warded it from traffic and overly curious people that try to touch it for about ten minutes. It tried to fly but only managed big hops until eventually it succeeded and flew away.

Birdy ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Jack’s Walk

Jack and Leo at the Park, ©voyager, all rights reserved

It’s another hot and humid day here and Jack and I only walked as far as the corner and back. Jack was a good boy and got his business done quickly (Good poop, Mr. Schnoop!) and then he turned toward home, anxious for his cool tile floor and A/C vent. He’s still limping a bit on his rt. leg, but you have to look closely to see it. I’ve been watching that leg from behind every day for 11 years so I notice the small stuff. One more day and he’ll be totally back to normal and hopefully he won’t get quite as excited next time he and Leo play together. This photo from early spring is Jack playing with Leo at the park.

YouTube Video: The stropping myth and how to sharpen tools with leather

Today a little video about the maintenance of sharp tools. Unfortunately I am not giving my tools the attention they would deserve, because I am not using them enough, but that should hopefully change soon. I have also bought a thick leather strip to make myself a good strop last year, but then I misplaced it and I found it again only last week.

In a pinch, I have also used following things for stropping a knife blade:

Folded newspaper, paper, cardboard, towel, dog’s collar, wooden board, and even the trouser leg of my worn jeans (whilst wearing them).

And when I had not commercial compound available, for stronger abrasion I have used:

A toothpaste, a bit of fine clay/mud, and fine wood ash (grass ash would probably work even better, it contains silica, but I did not try that one yet).

But the best results are in my opinion obtained with a strip of thick leather and jeweler’s rouge (the real stuff – finely ground haematite made from annealed rust). It is definitively worth stropping kitchen knives, especially if you have knives with an apple-seed edge.

C is for Crimson

From Nightjar…

C is for Crimson ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Crimson.

A strong red with a slight bluish tint. Historically, it’s the color of the kermes dye, a red dye derived from the dried bodies of insects belonging to the genus Kermes. Kermesic acid is the pigment that gives the dye its color. I found a similar hue on a sunburnt rose.

 

Link to previous alphabet post

Jack’s Walk

Mt. Joli with the Perce Rock in the background ©voyager, all rights reserved

Well, it’s not raining. In fact, it’s a hot, sunny day here which just goes to show that weather forecasting is an inexact science. Jack and I haven’t gone for a walk today partly because of the heat and partly because Jack got a bit over-excited last evening while playing with his best friend Leo (who is only 4 and half Jack’s size) and he’s limping a bit on his right back leg. It’s not serious, Bubba has a bit of arthritis in that hip and sometimes it gives him a bit of grief. Maybe tonight when the temp goes down a bit (it’s 30° C right now) I’ll take him down to the end of the street and back, but for now Jack has positioned himself in front of the A/C vent and is happily asleep. Our photo today is where Jack and I wish we were. This is the beach across the street from my mother-in-law’s house in Perce, Quebec.

The Art of Book Design: Dainty Bits

Dainty Bits. Water Lily Series. Edited by Miss L. Penney. New York, The National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1891.

A children’s book full of stories and rhymes about the evils of alcohol. Some of the chapter titles include “Old Pussy’s Advice”  and “Thoughtless Dick.”

 

Source – University of Florida, George Smithers Libraries, where you can read the entire book