Good morning! Welcome to "Morning Musings".

Musings: to meditate, think, contemplate, deliberate, ponder, reflect, ruminate, reverie, daydream, introspection, dream, preoccupation, brood, cogitate.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Gabriel's Tale - Chapter 7

Welcome back!  This month I felt like watercolor painting.  I experimented with cutting and pasting mainly because I was concerned I'd mess up my painting, so I painted some things separately and then pasted them onto the background.  By the last painting I had a little more confidence and painted every thing directly onto the watercolor paper.  Lack of confidence is a big obstacle in learning to paint.....and it doesn't help if you also don't like to waste expensive watercolor paper!  If I could overcome these two things I think I'd learn much faster.  I also have a few more obstacles like:  being a perfectionist; not liking to have to redo something from scratch (which you almost have to do with watercolor if you make a big mistake--little ones can be corrected with a special "white out"); and the biggest one is not catching on quick enough!  I can be very impatient with myself.

Last month Gabriel's Tale ended with Gabriel falling asleep inside a log during a thunderstorm. . . .



Chapter 7 – Into the Woods



The next morning Gabriel awoke to sounds of chirping birds and running water.  He slipped out of the log, stretched, then looked around for where the sound of the water was coming from.



## 


That’s when he saw, poking out from the dead leaves, something bushy and red.  It was a squirrel’s tail--and it wasn’t moving. . . . .


Suddenly, the squirrel lifted its head out of the pile of leaves.  Gabriel jumped back two feet!  “Golly, gee!” Gabriel exclaimed.  “You shouldn’t scare the living daylights out of a poor fellow like that!” 


The squirrel looked dazed.  Gabriel then noticed the gash along his neck and approached slowly.  “Are you all right little guy?  You don’t look so good.”


The squirrel struggled to say he’d been caught by an owl and dropped into the pile of leaves when a branch, blowing wildly in the wind, hit the owl, causing him to let go of him.  Gabriel asked, “Is there anything I can do?”

“Can you help me down to the stream so I can get a drink of water?”

So this is what Gabriel did. He also packed some mud on the wound to help stop the bleeding.  After the squirrel rested for a while Gabriel took him back to the hollow log.  “You better stay here until your wound heals,” Gabriel told him as he gathered acorns and laid them in the log.  Then he dug a hole and lined it with leaves, filling it with water he’d carried over from the stream in an old tin can he’d found.  The squirrel thanked him several times before falling asleep.  Gabriel quietly slipped away to look for the road that would take him north. 


##


It was still early in the day.  Gabriel followed the stream northward until he found a fallen tree that lay in the water and used it to cross to the other side of the stream.  Off in the distance he could see patches of sunlight and he wondered if there might be a road in the clearing.  Carefully placing one paw in front of the other, he crossed.  He dared not look down because he was afraid he’d get scared and lose his balance!


##


It was growing darker so Gabriel thought he should look for a good place to spend the night. Off in the distance he heard barking and wondered if there might be a farmhouse nearby and headed through the trees in that direction.  Sure enough he saw a barn.  He hoped the dog would be friendly and allow him to bed down there for the night.

“Sal…ly,” the woman called.  “Come and get your dinner!”  Sally, a small, mixed-breed terrier, came running to the back door as the woman went back into the house.  Gabriel stood near the entrance of the barn longing for a scrap of food, but thought he’d better take this chance, instead, to find a place to hide in the barn for the night.



Next month:  Sally gives Gabriel directions that lead him through Far Sawrey, past Hill Top Farm where he meets three kittens and some geese as well as a Pomeranian puppy.


❤️Take Joy❤️

10 comments:

  1. It's good to know that Gabriel has directions to take him north. I hope the friends he meets are friendly around Hilltop--certainly they are! I like that Gabriel is a helpful fellow. A good life lesson for your young and old readers. ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As long as he doesn't meet up with one of the rats at Hill Top he'll be fine!

      Delete
  2. Cathy, this is so sweetly charming, and you have many of us waiting eagerly for the next instalment of Gabriel's Tales. I love the little water colour illustrations, and while I fully empathise with your concerns about making those first marks on costly water colour paper, you certainly don't need to worry at all! You are so right, it is fear of this that holds so many of us back, but at the end of the day, as I was told, it's only paper and you can start again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Deborah. Yes, I must get over the paper thing!

      Delete
  3. I understand your fears but it's good that you recognize how they can hold us back. But your work is so beautiful already! Throughly enjoyed this installment and look forward to the next. Particularly liked the barn picture--but I like what red does for an image.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dotsie for your sweet words. I feel the same way about red.

      Delete
  4. Lovely to see another instalment of Gabriel's story, does your grandchildren like hearing about Gabriel's adventures too? Are you going up the Lake District to take Gabriel home? Sarah x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sarah! Yes, Olivia likes for me to tell the story to her. It's a little too long, as written for her age group. I envision it as a story that could be read a chapter a night to a young child. Stay tuned next month to find the answer to your questions! 😊

      Delete
  5. Gabriel is such a good little guy! The squirrel ( and me too) are grateful that he was so helpful, those nasty hooty owls! I like the way you've shown Gabriel on the log by looking down upon him from up high, that's a good design.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jeri. Coming from you that's a wonderful compliment. I'm trying to find different angles to add more interest. I'm considering my illustrations to be "first drafts" and hope one day to redraw them where they can be improved.

      Delete

Thank you for your comments! Please note: To prevent spam comments are published after moderation.