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Antarctica is a polar desert almost entirely covered by a vast ice sheet up to four km in thickness. The great white continent is a very apt description. The ice-free areas, often referred to as oases, carry obvious life in lakes and occasional small patches of lichen and mosses where there is sufficient seasonal melt water to support them. The majority of ice-free areas lie on the coastal margins of the continent, but there is a large inland ice-free region called the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
On the face of it Antarctica would appear to offer little in the way of excitement for anyone interested in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of lakes. However, surprisingly Antarctica possesses the most diverse array of lakes types on the planet. The ice-free areas, which are bare rock, carry freshwater lakes and saline lakes, some as salty as the Dead Sea. Between land and ice shelves there are remarkable so-called epishelf freshwater lakes, that sit on seawater or are connected to the sea by a conduit and are consequently tidal. Underneath the vast ice sheet there are numerous subglacial lakes, around 380 at last count, of which Lakes Vostoc, Whillans, and Ellsworth are the best known. Ice shelves that occur around the edge of the continent overlying the sea, carry shallow lakes and ponds on their surface, and there are lakes on many of the glaciers. Some of these are short-lived and drain through holes called moulins to the glacier base, while others are several thousands of years old.
Antarctic lakes are extreme environments where only the most robust and adaptable organisms survive. Temperatures are always close to freezing and in saline lakes can fall below zero. While there is 24-hour daylight in summer, in winter the sun does not rise above the horizon, so the Sun’s light energy that drives the growth of the phytoplankton through photosynthesis is much lower on an annual basis than at our latitudes. The food webs of these lakes are truncated; there are few zooplankton and no fish. They are systems dominated by microorganisms: microscopic algae, protozoa, bacteria, and viruses. All of the lakes apart from the most saline have ice covers, that can be up to five metres thick. Lakes on the coastal margins usually lose part or all of their ice covers for a few weeks each summer, but the inland more southerly lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys have thick perennial ice covers that contain rocks and dust that have blown off the surrounding hills. This ‘dirty’ ice allows very little light to penetrate to the underlying water column, so the photosynthetic organisms that live there are adapted to extreme shade.
Miers Valley in the McMurdo Dry Valleys area. Photo by Saxphile. CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
It would be reasonable to assume that during the austral winter biological processes in lake waters shut down. However, that is not the case; life goes on even in the darkness of winter. Bacteria manage to grow at low temperatures and many of the photosynthetic microorganisms become heterotrophic. They eat bacteria or take up dissolved organic carbon and are described as mixotrophic (meaning mixed nutrition). In this way they can hit the deck running when the short austral summer arrives and they can resume photosynthesis. Even the few crustacean zooplankton stay active in winter and don’t exploit resting eggs or diapause. They are crammed full with fat globules, which together with any food they can exploit takes them through the winter. Their fecundity is very low compared to their temperate relatives, but with no fish predators they can sustain a population.
Shallow lakes and ponds on ice shelves and glaciers freeze to their bases in winter. Thus their biotas have to be able to withstand freezing and in the case of saline ponds, increasing salinity as salts are excluded from the formation of ice.
The most topical and currently exciting lakes are the subglacial lakes kilometres under the ice sheet. These represent the modern age of polar exploration because gaining entry to these lakes presents major logistic challenges. One of the major issues is ensuring that the collected samples are entirely sterile and not contaminated with microorganisms from the surface. Subglacial lakes have been separated from the atmosphere for millions of years and potentially harbour unique microorganisms. In the past few years the US Antarctic programme has successfully penetrated Lake Whillans and demonstrated that it contains a diverse assemblage of Bacteria and Archaea in a chemosynthetically driven ecosystem (Christner et al. 2014). The British attempt to penetrate Lake Ellsworth was unsuccessful, but there are plans to continue the exploration of this lake in the future. In the coming years these extraordinary aquatic ecosystems will reveal more of their secrets.
The delicate surface lake ecosystems of Antarctica appear to respond rapidly to local climatic variations and where there are long-term data sets, as there are for the McMurdo Dry Valleys, to global climatic change. Unlike lakes at lower latitudes they are removed from the direct effects of Man’s activities that have changed catchment hydrology, and imposed industrial and agricultural pollution. Antarctic lakes are subject to the indirect anthropogenic effects of ozone depletion and climate warming. The impact of these factors can be seen without the superimposition of direct man-made effects. Consequently polar lakes, including those in the Arctic, can be regarded as sentinels of climate change.
Headline image credit: Lake Fryxell in the Transantarctic Mountains. Photo by Joe Mastroianni, Antarctic Photo Library, National Science Foundation. CCO via Wikimedia Commons
We benefit from forests in ways that go well beyond our general understanding. So, I would like to begin by suggesting that as we responsible citizens observe Arbor Day 2014, we look at forests as more than simply numerous trees growing in stands. Rather, we need to look at forests as ecosystems that are not only important in and of themselves, but also provide essential functions—so-called ecosystem services—to sustain the quality of human life.
For those not totally familiar with its beginnings, Arbor Day began in an area not usually thought as forested. In the 1870s, J. Sterling Morton and his wife moved to the Nebraska Territory (it was not yet a state at that time) and observed the paucity of trees relative to their Michigan roots. And so it was, as the first of more than one million trees were planted 10 April 1872 in the state of Nebraska, that Arbor Day was born. The Mortons’ perspectives greatly anticipated the environmental ethics of Aldo Leopold of the 20th Century—consider this quote from Morton: “Each generation takes the earth as trustees.” What a wonderfully profound sentiment regarding stewardship of nature and natural resources!
Although my family was not participating in an official Arbor Day activity at the time, I have a personal Arbor Day-like experience, one the benefits of which are reaped daily by my wife and me. We moved to our current home in Huntington, West Virginia in 1997, a time when our children were quite young. Now Huntington has the distinction of being the largest Tree City USA city in the state, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. That’s indeed quite notable, considering that West Viriginia is the 3rd most forested state (~77% forested) in the US, exceeded only by Maine (~86%) and New Hampshire (~78%) (Nebraska ranks 46th at ~2%). I took note of that immediately, seeing (primarily) oak trees throughout our new neighborhood. Not surprisingly, my children had never seen so many acorns that first fall, and I encouraged them to find one and plant it in the front yard. Nearly 20 years hence, we have a pin oak (Quercus palustris) as tall as our house, or more—all from that single acorn! That tree provides shade for the front of our house, mitigating summer heat, and it offers food and housing for animals, such as squirrels (and hummingbirds when we hang a feeder on the lower branches). It even allows us to plant shade-tolerant perennials, such as ferns, in our front yard.
But back to the ecosystem perspective. As ecosystems, forests provide a wide variety of services, all of which are essential in maintaining the quality of life on earth. They improve both air and water quality, and they provide some of the greatest biodiversity in the biosphere, comprising an impressive number of life forms and species. Indeed, forests are far more than just trees. Even plants as diminutive as those of the herbaceous layer—what one sees when looking down while walking in the forest—can play a role well beyond their apparent size. Despite its small physical stature, the herb layer comprises up to 90% of the plant diversity of the forest. I often refer to these plants collectively as “the forest between the trees.”
So, this Arbor Day 2014, we should all plant trees indeed! But as we do, let’s also keep in mind that our forests our essential to our own survival—and let’s treat them that way.
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Image Credit: (1) Barn Red Landscape Clouds Trees Sky Nature Field. Public Domain via Pixabay. (2) Creek and old-growth forest-Larch Mountain. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
A grown-up neighbor in the English village of my childhood told stories about angels that sat upon our shoulders and fairies that lived in her snapdragons. Like the other kids, I searched her flowers for a glimpse of the sprites, but agnosticism imbibed from my parents quickly overruled this innocent play. Yet there was magic in my neighbor’s garden and I had seen real angels on her lawn: little stalked bells that poked from the dew-drenched grass on autumn mornings; evanescent beauties whose delicately balanced caps quivered to the touch. By afternoon they were gone, shriveled into the greenery. Does any living thing seem more supernatural to a child than a mushroom? Their prevalence in fairy tale illustrations and fantasy movies suggests not. Like no other species, the strangeness of fungi survives the loss of innocence about the limits of nature. They trump the supernatural, their magic intensifying as we learn more about them.
Once upon a time, I spent 30 years studying mushrooms and other fungi. Now, as my scientific interests broaden with my waistline, I would like to share three things that I have learned about the meaning of life from thinking about these extraordinary sex organs and the microbes that produce them. This mycological inquiry has revealed the following: (i) life on land would collapse without the activities of mushrooms; (ii) we owe our existence to mushrooms; and (iii) there is (probably) no God. The logic is spotless.
Mushrooms are masterpieces of natural engineering. The overnight appearance of the fruit body is a pneumatic process, with the inflation of millions of preformed cells extending the stem, pushing earth aside, and unfolding the cap. Once exposed, the gills of a meadow mushroom shed an astonishing 30,000 spores per second, delivering billions of allergenic particles into the air every day. A minority of spores alights and germinates on fertile ground and some species are capable of spawning the largest and longest-lived organisms on the planet. Mushroom colonies burrow through soil and rotting wood. Some hook into the roots of forest trees and engage in mutually supportive symbioses; others are pathogens that decorate their food sources with hardened hooves and fleshy shelves. Mushrooms work with insects too, fed by and feeding leaf-cutter ants in the New World and termites in the Old World. Among the staggering diversity of mushroom-forming fungi we also find strange apparitions including gigantic puffballs, phallic eruptions with revolting aromas, and tiny “bird’s nests” whose spore-filled eggs are splashed out by raindrops.
Mushrooms have been around for tens of millions of years and their activities are indispensable for the operation of the biosphere. Through their relationships with plants and animals, mushrooms are essential for forest and grassland ecology, climate control and atmospheric chemistry, water purification, and the maintenance of biodiversity. This first point, about the ecological significance of mushrooms, is obvious, yet the 16,000 described species of mushroom-forming fungi are members of the most poorly understood kingdom of life. The second point requires a dash of lateral thinking. Because humans evolved in ecosystems dependent upon mushrooms there would be no us without mushrooms. And no matter how superior we feel, humans remain dependent upon the continual activity of these fungi. The relationship isn’t reciprocal: without us there would definitely be mushrooms. Judged against the rest of life (and, so often, we do place ourselves against the rest of nature) humans can be considered as a recent and damag
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Roxie Munro's maze books are brilliant combinations of facts and fun.
EcoMazes serves a real need in curricula and for all those children who will be writing animal reports next spring.
Animal reports are perfect for "first" research projects. In any series book in the library a student will easily find a description of the animal, its lifecycle AND its habitat. All these facts are usually required points in their projects.
Habitat/ecosystem is a tricky thing for a second grader to wrap their mind around and differentiate. Oh certainly, it is easy to understand the difference from Arctic/Polar regions and say the Tropical Rainforest but where is the line between Grasslands and Tundra? It gets a little squishy there and not just for kids.
Munro's book allows the reader to travel through the area, locating the hidden mammals, birds, and reptiles that live there. The solutions to the mazes are found at the back of the book along with more information about each ecosystem. She also includes a list of websites and other books on the subject.
Are frogs a canary in a coal mine? We don’t actually know. What we do know is that amphibians have been disappearing for decades and all we have are theories of why. In their new book, Extinction in Our Times: Global Amphibian Decline, James P. Collins and Martha L. Crump have gathered everything we know about disappearing frogs and used it as a lens to see clearly the larger stories: climate change, conservation of biodiversity, and a host of profoundly important ecological, evolutionary, and ethical issues.
The following post is an excerpt from Extinction in Our Times, explaining why we should care about the loss of biodiversity in general, and why we should worry about frogs specifically.
Why Should We Care about Loss of Biodiversity?
Conservation biologists, philosophers, environmental ethicists, and others offer several key reasons to conserve biodiversity. One argument is that organisms have direct economic value for humans. We use plants and animals for medicines, food, clothes, building materials, recreation, and other luxuries and necessities. But what if an organism that is of no use to us for food or hides is screened for useful medicinal compounds and found to have none? Do we sanction its extermination? Why must a plant or animal be of direct economic benefit to humans to have worth? Economic value alone is not the only reason to preserve biodiversity.
Another reason often given…to conserve biodiversity is that organisms, as components of ecosystems, provide services, and their interactions with other organisms contribute to the overall healthy functioning of ecosystems… On a practical level, biologists want to know just how much the loss of a few species will reduce the quality of services within a specific ecosystem. Two schools of thought prevail.
One idea, called the “rivet hypothesis,” is that every species contributes to ecosystem integrity. The analogy is that biological species are like rivets in an aircraft. Only a limited number of rivets can be removed from an aircraft before it falls apart. Similarly, as species are lost, at some point ecosystem function becomes damaged.
The alternative view, called the “redundant species hypothesis,” suggests that high species richness is not necessary to ecosystem function. The argument is that as long as the biomass of primary producers, consumers, decomposers, and other trophic levels is maintained, ecosystems can function perfectly well with fewer species… Some ecologists suggest that even if all the organisms now considered to be threatened with extinction did indeed go extinct, other plants and animals would take over their roles and ecosystems would continue to function with scarcely a hitch.
Going from theory and empirical data for specific ecosystems to generalizations about all ecosystems, however, is a huge leap. Scientists are a long way from agreeing on which species (if any particular ones) are crucial to maintain productive ecosystems…
Why Should We Care if Amphibians Decline?
People differ in their concern over amphibian declines… Peter Daszak, who at the time was at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, and his colleagues proposed that global declines of amphibian populations are “perhaps one of the most pressing and enigmatic environmental problems of the late 20th century.” At the other extreme, an editor emeritus of a Tennessee newspaper wrote: “We read an article recently that indicated that frogs are becoming an endangered species. The information in the article indicated that scientists (interested in frogs) were unable to explain what has happened. Personally, we have not missed the frogs as we have little contact with them.”
If we could chat with that editor emeritus, how would we convince him that conservation of amphibian diversity is important? Why should we care if amphibians disappear?
…We should care if amphibians disappear because we use them for our own benefit. Every year we use huge quantities of frogs…in medical research and for teaching purposes. Isolation, identification, and characterization of novel chemical compounds that occur in the granular glands of anuran skin have led to the development of new drugs for human use. In 2001, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated the average quantity of frog legs sold for human consumption to be 4716 metric tons annually from 1987 to 1997. We buy millions of amphibians each year for pets: poison dart frogs, pacman frogs, White’s tree frogs, and fire-bellied toads to name but a few.
Amphibians play a key role in energy flow and nutrient cycling, in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. They…serve as “conveyor belts” by transferring energy from invertebrates to predators higher up on the food chain. This transfer of energy is efficient because amphibians expend relatively little energy to maintain themselves. About 50 percent of the energy an amphibian gets from food is converted into new tissue. That, in turn, is transferred to the next level in the food chain when a predator eats the amphibian…
Amphibians provide the world a valuable service through their eating habits. Tadpoles eat tremendous quantities of algae. In doing so, they alter the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems and reduce the rate of natural eutrophication (over-enrichment of water with nutrients, resulting in excessive algal growth and oxygen depletion). Most adult amphibians eat insects and other arthropod prey. A population of 1000 cricket frogs (Acris crepitans, small tree frogs about 3 to 3.8 cm long) consumes an estimated 4.8 million small insects and other arthropods annually.
Thus, both because of what they eat and because they serve as food for fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, and other animals, amphibians play a central role in the food web…
A world without amphibians would be an aesthetically less interesting place. Frogs serve as good luck charms for people all over the world, because of their association with rain. Frogs symbolize fertility—some species produce more than 20,000 eggs at a time. They represent resurrection, because they seemingly appear out of nowhere after heavy rains. Frogs are “magic.” How else could they transform from aquatic, algae-eating swimmers into terrestrial, carnivorous jumpers? From tadpole form to frog form?
Amphibians, especially frogs and toads, provide inspiration for our artistic endeavors. Many cultures have folk tales about a kissed toad turning into a handsome prince. Who could forget Mr. Toad in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, or Beatrix Potter’s Jeremy Fisher… Archeologists worldwide unearth ceramic vases and vessels with anuran designs, and frog and toad images are woven into tapestries and carved into wood and stone.
Finally, from an ethical standpoint, we are obliged to respect and protect amphibians, just as we should respect and protect all other organisms. It is easier for people to respect organisms considered to be “good” than the “bad” ones such as malaria-carrying mosquitoes. As just indicated, most cultures value amphibians.
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Well, taxes and our Scotland trip wiped us out, and as I was looking at our budget, it became clear I needed to find an assignment or two for the summer. I started researching, thinking of books I had seen lately and liked, writers I knew who wrote for educational publishers who might be able to tell me the name of a person to approach there, and companies putting out calls for writers (Laura Coulter's blog Writing for the Education Market is such a great resource!). I had a plan of attack mapped out, with some old clients to touch base with and some new ones to approach, when I got very lucky.
Picture Window Books, whom I love to write for, emailed me to see if I could write two books on fast turnaround (really, what other kind of turnaround is there when you're writing for young kids for the educational market). A couple of years ago, I wrote six Ecosystems books, and now they'd like to add two more ecosystems. Yea! So those are due before a trip out of town in mid-July.
And my contact at ACT emailed me to ask if I had time to write an essay for them. I brainstormed some topics and sent them in, and we'll see what happens.
Neither of these pays enormous amounts, of course, but it's challenging work, and I was really happy with the way the Ecosystems books came out, so it'll be fun to have two more in the series. And it's a relief not to have to hunt down work. If more work is offered to me over the summer, I'll probably take it. But having written at least two books for the summer quarter, I won't feel guilty if I spend some time on my trade projects, too!
If you're interested in learning how to get into writing for the educational market, I'll be teaching in two different formats soon.
On July 27, I'll be teaching an all-day workshop at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. This in-person workshop is a look at the educational market, what it's like to write for them, and how to put together an introductory packet to start sending to publishers.
From July 22 to August 22, I'll be teaching my online workshop, Writing Children's Nonfiction Book for the Educational Market. This intense online workshop walks you through the entire process, so that at the end of the month, you are ready to start sending out packets to educational publishers. You can get all the details, see student comments, etc. here.
My studio, it has to be said, is full of many things - it is my creative nest, where I can surround myself with the treasures I have found and been given. Although I may not use many of them from day to day, they inspire and console me. Many tokens from blog and non-bloggy friends...spot the Lily Moon card from my friend Maya -
(for detailed notes, please go to the Flickr image)
The old year ended with the little people in 'Cat's Cradle' journeying far away to their first job. It is always a wrench to know I will probably never see most of my paintings again, but good to know that they are watching over someone, somewhere.
The new year started with one of Rima's beautiful calendars. I cannot think of a nicer way of getting through the year - she still has one or two left I think, so if you hurry...
Entering January with some gorgeous letter blocks, with huge thanks to fellow illustrator Paula for her thoughtful gift...
...and my triple good luck charm, to keep bad things away from me this year, especially timewasters, as I had enough of them in 2007. White china heart from Tara, rosehip heart from Higgledy Piggledy, textile/embroidery heart from Border Tart - thank you my dears - I defy anything truly bad to happen with the combined love of these three friends.
A big red hand to point the way bravely forward to 2008 - there is something very commanding about this stern indicator. It arrived unexpectedly in the post this week, mysteriously unsigned...for a few minutes I felt like my all time hero, Tintin, receiving an anonymous signal summoning him to a new, exotic adventure. But then I remembered kind Alan Brignull of the Hedgehog Press, and his lovely picture on Flickr which I had fav'd. Thank you so much!
I am under the weather and feeling like this at the moment -
So I am going to retire for a few days, and bury myself in my sketchbook, as I seem to have got my drawing mojo back at last. Have a good weekend everyone!
0 Comments on Little studio snaps as of 1/1/1900
Parrish70 said, on 1/4/2008 12:09:00 PM
I found your blog a few months ago, and your Etsy store, =) and have been reading ever since. I love your artwork and am sure I will have to buy some very soon. But today I went right over to Rima's store at your suggestion and bought myself a calander! Thank you for the hint.=) My favorite picture of yours, by the way, is the header to your blog!
Anonymous said, on 1/4/2008 12:32:00 PM
Sorry your feeling poorly and hope that you soon feel better. Carolyn Willow House
Rima said, on 1/4/2008 1:04:00 PM
Gretel, as you can see you have been wafting custom through my shop doors :) Thanks so much for telling all about my humble little calendars! As always it is lovely to see the nooks and crannies of your inspiring studio and lovely that you've got the oompf to get drawing :) I hope the weather climbs right back underneath you soon! Sending you virtual picturesque snow from up here today :) Lots of love and thanks again x
Alan said, on 1/4/2008 1:37:00 PM
Thanks, Gretel! I didn't think a signature was necessary, but I'm pleased to have provided a few moments mystery at least. When visiting a friend's house I cannot resist looking along their bookshelves … you have some wonderful old volumes there. Surely it cannot be pure chance that the pointing finger card finishes up directed at "The Caxtons"?
Alan
elizabethm said, on 1/4/2008 2:14:00 PM
What a lot of lovely things have come to you! Hope you recharge a bit and come out of your retreat feeling better. Your tags were very well received by the way! thank you.
Eric Orchard said, on 1/4/2008 3:24:00 PM
Lovely drawing, I hope 2008 is agreat year for you.
weirdbunny said, on 1/4/2008 3:40:00 PM
Thanks for the link to Rimas blog. Her esty shop is wonderful. Yes take a rest with your sketchbook in front of your woodburner, and show us your sketchbook delights when you come out of hibernation ! ~ love Julia x
gilfling said, on 1/5/2008 12:14:00 AM
Gretel it has been wonderful to catch up on your last few posts (I am so behind on blog reading but actually it is nice sometimes to read a few favourite bloggers posts in a row). I just wanted to wish you a wonderful year for 2008 - it has been lovely to discover your art and your world via your blog and I look forward to seeing more!
Have fun relaxing and sketching in your beautiful wee home - xxx
lettuce said, on 1/5/2008 3:17:00 AM
lovely books (and other stuff) poor poorly heffalump, and you
hope you feel better soon and that 2008 is GREAT for you
Caroline B said, on 1/5/2008 4:55:00 AM
I would so love to have a rummage through your studio, as a fellow accumulator! Hope you feel better soon and at least get some drawing done.
Chris.P said, on 1/5/2008 5:10:00 AM
Hope you make a speedy recovery Gretel. I've just read about your tumble.
I'm sure you will be grabbing 2008 by the balls and make it a successful year.
Mary Beth said, on 1/5/2008 7:39:00 AM
I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well - hope you are better soon.
I don't know if it's just your artistic eye or whether a lot of thought went into each one, but I love the way your items are framed against the backdrop of the books. I so want to come and rummage through your tomes - I see some old friends tucked in there:)
clare said, on 1/5/2008 7:46:00 AM
I hope you are feeling well again very soon, Gretel, and looking forward to seeing your drawings. This is such an iformative post - thanks for the links to Rima's etsy shop, too.
Clare
xx
PS - I love your blog header, too!
Anonymous said, on 1/5/2008 8:09:00 AM
Hope you feel better soon.
Lovely drawing, look forward to seeing more.
Other peoples studios are fascinating. I love the items on display
Alison said, on 1/5/2008 9:15:00 AM
Your gorgeous cards arrived this morning...stunning art work. I don't think that I can bare to part with them! Hope you feel well very soon. Take care, Alison x
Cowboys & Custard said, on 1/5/2008 11:10:00 AM
Happy New Year Gretel Sorry it has taken me so long to reach you with this greeting.. I was a bit blogged out at Christmas! Hope your weather isn't under any more and you are feeling better.. Your creative cogs are turning out some lovely works.. May 2008 be full of success and inspiration.. Michelex P.s Ha... another Tintin fan... I teethed on Tintin books.. my Belgian aunt sent new publications regularly..signed too!
Rosa said, on 1/5/2008 5:11:00 PM
Everything is lovely. I'm afraid the goop is going around--all over the world it seems. Feel better soon.
Francie of The Scented Cottage said, on 1/6/2008 7:05:00 AM
Hope you are soon 100% dear girl. Thanks for the peek into your studio...its fabulous. (()) Francie
Elizabeth said, on 1/6/2008 9:30:00 AM
I think we all feel a bit like the poor collapsed elephant at this time of year. I'm really loving your blog and illustrations! all best wishes from Marrakech
Melanie said, on 1/6/2008 2:34:00 PM
I loved walking through your studio. Some of those books made me go all weak because I love old books. The covers and binding on them are a work of art in itself and I can disappear into the world of illustraions quite easily. How marvellous it would be if I could draw my own world to emmerse myself in. You are so lucky to have such talent. Hope you are feeling better and look forward to seeing what you are working on next.
Sue said, on 1/7/2008 5:50:00 AM
I adore interesting studios, like yours. Gawd help us from the designer minimalist places some people seem to prefer.
Get well soon!
Linda Blondheim said, on 1/7/2008 7:08:00 AM
I just found your blog. It is wonderful.I love your swet, beautiful illustrations. They speak to my heart. Love, Linda www.lindablondheimartnotes.blogspot.com
joanna said, on 1/7/2008 12:43:00 PM
Oh my lovely, I am sorry you are feeling under the weather at the moment; I hope that you're feeling a little better. Much love xx
kate said, on 1/7/2008 4:59:00 PM
I just discovered your blog - I love the Cat's Cradle cards. And those books with the printer blogs.
I found your blog a few months ago, and your Etsy store, =) and have been reading ever since. I love your artwork and am sure I will have to buy some very soon. But today I went right over to Rima's store at your suggestion and bought myself a calander! Thank you for the hint.=)
My favorite picture of yours, by the way, is the header to your blog!
Sorry your feeling poorly and hope that you soon feel better.
Carolyn
Willow House
Gretel, as you can see you have been wafting custom through my shop doors :) Thanks so much for telling all about my humble little calendars!
As always it is lovely to see the nooks and crannies of your inspiring studio and lovely that you've got the oompf to get drawing :) I hope the weather climbs right back underneath you soon! Sending you virtual picturesque snow from up here today :) Lots of love and thanks again x
Thanks, Gretel!
I didn't think a signature was necessary, but I'm pleased to have provided a few moments mystery at least.
When visiting a friend's house I cannot resist looking along their bookshelves … you have some wonderful old volumes there. Surely it cannot be pure chance that the pointing finger card finishes up directed at "The Caxtons"?
Alan
What a lot of lovely things have come to you! Hope you recharge a bit and come out of your retreat feeling better. Your tags were very well received by the way! thank you.
Lovely drawing, I hope 2008 is agreat year for you.
Thanks for the link to Rimas blog. Her esty shop is wonderful. Yes take a rest with your sketchbook in front of your woodburner, and show us your sketchbook delights when you come out of hibernation ! ~ love Julia x
Gretel it has been wonderful to catch up on your last few posts (I am so behind on blog reading but actually it is nice sometimes to read a few favourite bloggers posts in a row). I just wanted to wish you a wonderful year for 2008 - it has been lovely to discover your art and your world via your blog and I look forward to seeing more!
Have fun relaxing and sketching in your beautiful wee home - xxx
lovely books (and other stuff)
poor poorly heffalump, and you
hope you feel better soon
and that 2008 is GREAT for you
I would so love to have a rummage through your studio, as a fellow accumulator! Hope you feel better soon and at least get some drawing done.
Hope you make a speedy recovery Gretel. I've just read about your tumble.
I'm sure you will be grabbing 2008 by the balls and make it a successful year.
I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well - hope you are better soon.
I don't know if it's just your artistic eye or whether a lot of thought went into each one, but I love the way your items are framed against the backdrop of the books. I so want to come and rummage through your tomes - I see some old friends tucked in there:)
I hope you are feeling well again very soon, Gretel, and looking forward to seeing your drawings. This is such an iformative post - thanks for the links to Rima's etsy shop, too.
Clare
xx
PS - I love your blog header, too!
Hope you feel better soon.
Lovely drawing, look forward to seeing more.
Other peoples studios are fascinating. I love the items on display
Your gorgeous cards arrived this morning...stunning art work. I don't think that I can bare to part with them!
Hope you feel well very soon.
Take care,
Alison x
Happy New Year Gretel
Sorry it has taken me so long to reach you with this greeting.. I was a bit blogged out at Christmas!
Hope your weather isn't under any more and you are feeling better..
Your creative cogs are turning out some lovely works..
May 2008 be full of success and inspiration..
Michelex
P.s Ha... another Tintin fan... I teethed on Tintin books.. my Belgian aunt sent new publications regularly..signed too!
Everything is lovely. I'm afraid the goop is going around--all over the world it seems. Feel better soon.
Hope you are soon 100% dear girl.
Thanks for the peek into your studio...its fabulous.
(())
Francie
I think we all feel a bit like the poor collapsed elephant at this time of year.
I'm really loving your blog and illustrations!
all best wishes from Marrakech
I loved walking through your studio. Some of those books made me go all weak because I love old books. The covers and binding on them are a work of art in itself and I can disappear into the world of illustraions quite easily. How marvellous it would be if I could draw my own world to emmerse myself in. You are so lucky to have such talent. Hope you are feeling better and look forward to seeing what you are working on next.
I adore interesting studios, like yours. Gawd help us from the designer minimalist places some people seem to prefer.
Get well soon!
I just found your blog. It is wonderful.I love your swet, beautiful illustrations. They speak to my heart.
Love,
Linda
www.lindablondheimartnotes.blogspot.com
Oh my lovely, I am sorry you are feeling under the weather at the moment; I hope that you're feeling a little better. Much love xx
I just discovered your blog - I love the Cat's Cradle cards. And those books with the printer blogs.
Hope you're feeling better!