Lofty has sent us the happiest little flowers I’ve ever seen.
Winter is also the time for some of our eucalyptus to flower. Most do it way up in the sky and usually you only know by the carpet of spent pale yellow flowers on the ground underneath the tree. This one however (a street tree) offered its flowers at eye level for my camera to snap at. The size of the flowers is around 25mm or 1″ long.
Eucalyptus Flowers, ©Lofty, all rights reserved
Andersson, Charles John. Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and discoveries during four years’ wanderings in the wilds of southwestern Africa. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1856.
Klara Stroebe, ed. Translated by Frederick Martens. Illustrations by George W. Hood. The Swedish Fairy Book, New York, Frederick A. Stokes, 1921.
I really enjoyed Pasakas, the Latvian book of fairy tales sent in by rq, so I thought I’d check out some other foreign tales. There are a myriad of Swedish fairy tale books, but this edition caught my eye. In the preface to the book the author tells us that,
There has been no attempt to “rewrite” these charming folk-and fairy-tales in the translation. They have been faithfully narrated in the simple, naive manner which their traditional rendering demands.
The tales might be traditional, but the artwork isn’t. The cover art and interior plates are all rendered in soft, flowing watercolors more typical of the art nouveau period than the Medieval period. Enjoy! [Read more…]
From Nightjar,
Z is for Zaffre
Zaffre.
A deep blue pigment obtained from cobalt ore. I thought these Lithodora prostrata flowers were close enough.
Link to previous alphabet post
♦♦♦
It’s obvious that Nightjar put a lot of time and thought into this project and I thank her so much for sharing it with all of us. The series has been full of surprises and gorgeous photography and along the way I learned a few new colors and fell in love with a jet black cat, who is my final choice for favourite – B is for Black Mia with the soft green eyes.
James Rennie. Insect Architecture. London, James Murray, 1897.
It’s time for another of Opus’ spellbinding portraits of fungus.
Dixie Reindeer Lichen ©Opus, all rights reserved
From Nightjar, (photo is below the fold because of the bonus spider!)
J.M. Callwell. Little Curiosity, The Story of a German Christmas. London (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin), Blackie and Son, 1884.
Surprise! It’s July 25 – the perfect day for mid-summer Christmas. I love that this cover has none of the usual trappings that appear on later books about the season. There’s no snow, no crèche, no tinseled tree and nary a gift in sight – just a happy little bird singing.
via: University of Florida Digital Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries
X is for Xanthic, ©Nightjar,all rights reserved
Xanthic.
Just another word for yellow or yellowish things. The flower is Oxalis pes-caprae, an invasive weed here.
John Guidfollow; or, the Murder of the Earl of Strathmore. A Mystical, Historical Romance of Forfarshire. Alexander Lowson. Glasgow: Thomas D. Morison. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1890. First edition.
via: Books and Art
Update: The title of this post and the book I posted don’t match. Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention during the proofreading part of this posting. The book on display is: John Guidfollow; or the Murder of the Earl of Strathmore. I’ll post the book “Little Curiosity” tomorrow. I apologize for the mix-up.
From Nightjar,
W is for White, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved
White.
In the petals of a Chrysanthemums flower.
Cedar Creek, ©voyager, all rights reserved
– Henry James
George Du Maurier. Trilby. Bindings designed by Margaret Armstrong. New York, Harper & Bros., 1894
via: This Ivy House
The book is available to read at The Internet Archive