Starving Artist Ink.

Holidays are nothing without the bright eyes of children around. Watching a parade in the freezing rain- all for that first view of Santa to mark beginning of lists and lists of wishes. Dying eggs to hunt for, eating chocolate until the belly is so sick and dizzy… Dressed up ghouls and tramps begging for sweets at strangers doors…The sweet cookies carefully made by tiny hands with so much love for St. Nick.

Mould grows on things when you don't have a kid around… I guess for normal people my age, it doesn't.. They plan parties, go drinking with friends and act silly into the wee hours of the morning.

We got festive…

e.darcy

A family sitting in the driveway, elbow deep in pumpkin guts. Tongues to lips in concentration. Virgil happily lapping up any bits of pumpkin meat and seeds. And then Mould came to town…

e.darcy

There won't be any costumes or trick-or-treats for me. Little witches and goblins don't stop by… Nope, I'll go to work-come home, plop down and watch something useless on television…

Happy holidays children.

e.darcy

-The broody witch.

My words have been taken from my mouth, from my brain… All these ideas flowing with no end. A blockage. Nothing means anything. Lack of inspiration and creativity. Give me time… I will come around.

e.darcy

'expect nothing, live frugally on surprise.'

-Alice Walker

I had a lovely stroll around with my husband, which doesn't happen very often… The sun was setting with a golden glow, geese honking at each other. Father and daughter fishing in the pond.

e.darcy

Walks in the cool air, quiet and peaceful- always clears my head. I love going to walks by myself as well. The sound of just my foot steps on the concrete, the wind chapped against my face…

e.darcy

It gives me a time to reflect on my life, on my good friends, on the things I love, and the people I have to share it with…

I have a husband who keeps me laughing, a few great friends to call, rant to and giggle with, nieces and nephews to listen to from hundreds of miles away, and a warm place to always call home.

Life is beautiful.

Stingy Jack once made a deal with the Devil… Offering up his soul in exchange for payment of his pub tab. When the Devil comes to collect his due, Jack tricks him by making him climb up a tree-and then carved a cross underneath- preventing him from climbing down… In exchange for removing the cross, the Devil forgives Jack's debt. However, as no one as bad as jack would ever be allowed into Heaven, Jack is forced upon his death to travel to Hell and ask for a place there… The Devil denies him entrance in revenge-but decides to grant Jack an ember from the fires of Hell to light his way through the twilight world-a place which lost souls are forever condemned. Jack places it into a carved turnip to serve as a lantern…

e.darcy

A peasant travelling home at dusk spots a bright light travelling along ahead of him. Looking closer, he sees that the light is a lantern-held by a dusky little figure. He follows for several miles… All of a sudden he finds himself standing on the edge of a vast chasm with roaring rushing waters below him. At that precise moment, Stingy Jack leaps across the gap, lifts the light high over his head and lets out a malicious laugh…blowing the light out, leaving the poor peasant a long way from home while standing in pitch darkness at the edge of a precipice.

e.darcy

We are spinning and making our rounds. You can feel it in your bones, the electricity on your finger tips, the smell of the air, even by the colour of the sky. Unbroken-smooth like a gentle ocean. Not a puff of white in sight…. The royal blue of Winter Sky.

The morning dew rises with the late sun, leaving the fog to hang low in fields of cows. Patterns of dancing birds cut their way through the skyscape , and I journey on with my morning commute.

e.darcy

As the fruits dry and shrivel on their vine…as the pumpkins picked too early begin to rot-I know my animal instincts have not been lost or forgotten…

Winter is approaching. Look to the sky.