Illustration Friday: "Brave"; けなげ – kenage

Petrosinella, from the Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile, is a version of the nowadays more famous Rapunzel.
Back when the stories for Pentamerone were collected and then written down, in 1634, this was a story for grownups. Either that or people didn’t coddle their children with tales of buns in the oven… For in this version the prince comes up not only for a cup of tea but he definitely had some cake, too! And he comes back for seconds.
And thirds.
And…
There are even versions where the girl (she’s not a princess until she marries the prince) gets pregnant. Actually, the whole story starts with a pregnancy – because of a pregnancy – here, read the story for yourselves! 🙂

Bravery is a tricky term – the prince could be called brave (usually because he’s a prince and thus can’t be anything but handsome and purehearted and chivalrous) for sneaking up to her bedroom and seducing her only to have to flee into the dark night before he’s caught.
The girl also has her charms, defying the witch, going behind her back and risking getting caught in flagrante. After all, she’s the one stuck up in that tower with no way out and relying on her guardian for kindness and even her life!
Or, it could be the wicked witch who’s acting brave, being all mean and selfish when we all know that the wicked always pay at the end – often by gruesome, horrible death.

The story relies on the prince to be brave and the girl to be ingenious and the good guys to win the battle and, well, all’s well that ends well!

But since we also know that it’s the victor that writes the story… who knows what really happened…? 😉

Illustration Friday: "Clumsy"; Mazui – まずい

Often you don’t realise you’ve got the foot-in-mouth disease until you step in it.

Illustration Friday: "Wilderness"; Kobuchi – こうぶち

Only a few layers of civilisation lie between our normal everyday selves and those primitive, dark forces we hope to never see.

Illustration Friday: "blur"; fusenmei – ふせんめい

She danced and danced till the night was a blur!

Illustration Friday: Unfold – ひろげる- HIROGERU

There are sometimes expressions I won’t use, simply beacuse they don’t describe my view of the situation. ‘A knot in the stomach is’ one of them. What I do get is something more like a rolled up ball of worry – and I realised that just today because of IFs ‘unfold’.
Now to the explanation… one of my cats started bleeding from her mouth yesterday night and until she got to the vet and got diagnosed with ‘just’ an infection, rather than an illness, poison or a serious wound, there was no way of concentrating on anything else. When I did get the results, though, my worries unfolded like a flower and the heatwave we’re experiencing right now for once didn’t bother me at all.
She´s more or less fine now, I´m just trying to coax her out of her corner to eat a little something.

Illustration Friday: craving

In her mind, it’s probably three times as big and shiny.

Illustration Friday: Cracked

You’d never believe it now, but my sister was a horrible horrible little thing once upon a time; I had bitmarks and scratches on my arms like you wouldn’t believe. Having been born a pacifist, I didn’t retaliate. Until, one day, I finally saw the light and cracked the code of siblinghood: I could use my more developed brain to outwit her. And I did. Like a proper big sister.

Illustration Friday: "Balloon"

Out of necessity, most of us keep our feet on the ground, but given the opportunity we’re ready to take off without a moment’s notice.