“Twa Corbies (Valentine’s Day, 2013)”
watercolor, pastel, &oil pencil
12″ x 9″
Well, continuing work on the Valentine’s Day alphabet book (this has been milling around for at least four years), I just finished this picture.
If nothing else, I’ll have thoroughly cleared myself of the charge of sentimentality, if nothing else.
I just found there’s a marvelous video (although I could do without the “medieval knight” scenes) of a recording (there are many, the best being Maddy Prior’s from 1996 album “Year”) of “Twa Corbies”. I love crows and ravens.
Would it suffice to say that this past Valentine’s Day wasn’t very nice for me?
That said….there are two very lovely families/tribes (I sort of loathe that affected term “murder”) of crows at the Hillsborough house. I watched them all that day….and, yes, it snowed on Valentine’s Day this past year….briefly, but surely.
(the video seems to have been made/posted by some folks called “Sisters of Wicca”…I hope I needn’t emhasize that I have no idea who these gals are, although I can guess that they’re probably pretty tiresome….still?…it’s a good song, and very old, of course)
As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies makin’ a mane
The tane intae the t’ither did say, O
‘Whaur sall we gang and dine today, O?’
‘In ahint yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new slain knight
An naebody kens that he lies there, O
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair, O
.
‘His hound is to the haunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wildfowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en anither mate, O
So we may mak our dinner swate, O.
There’s mony a one for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whaur he is gane;
Oer his white banes whaun they are bare, O,
The wind sall blaw for evermair, O.
The wind sall blaw for evermair, O.