Every Inchie Monday: Petunia

Hi Folks,

I can't currently find my HHGG so I'm going to have to wing it this week.  I do know the Petunia, this week's word at Every Inchie Monday, is like the whale - one of the things the missiles morphed into when the improbability drive was turned on.  There is no long conversation from the Petunia - it  just says something like, 'Oh no, not again'.  The narrator thinks this might have been something quite profound if they could figure out what it meant.

Now I can draw flowers but chose to go off centre again this week.  Did you know Porky Pig has a girlfriend?  Yes, you guessed it, her name is Petunia Pig.

My quilled petunia was made very early on in my quilling journey and hence is quite simple.  I used a seed bead for the centre.   (Sorry it's a little out of focus.  I'm late enough this week and don't feel like going back and rephotographing it.)

[Edit - today is not a holiday and Labour day is next weekend]  On to my cable story -  when my cable TV went gaga - the picture was pixilating - the company sent someone out to fix it.  But as is always the case, when the tech arrived, it wasn't pixilating.  He stood around and looked at it and as he had already checked signal strength and some other things, he couldn't do anything.  Ten minutes after he left, it started pixilating again!  So I called and he came back and this time he could find what was wrong and fix it.  Nice guy to be so patient.  I felt like a total idiot.

But on the good side, I now also have faster internet connection - woohoo!  Love it.

Have a nice week and stop to smell the flowers.

Every Inchie Monday: Dolphin

Hello Folks,

The Dolphins (this week's word for Ever Inchie Monday) have an entire chapter [23] devoted to the in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!  It turns out they are more intelligent than people and had known about the upcoming destruction of the earth in time to leave before it happened.  They are famous for their parting words to the people of the earth which were misinterpreted as "a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the 'Star Spangled Banner.'  What they actually meant was that now famous phrase, and title of the fourth book of the Hitch-hikers trilogy, "So long and thank you for all the fish."

I didn't go very far afield this week in finding things to depict for my inchies.  My first is simply a dolphin (wish I'd thought to put a hoop in the picture and have it singing):

You can tell that at some point in my love affair with quilling I also fell in love with googly eyes:

Last thoughts.  Think about the Adams' dolphins who thought they were more intelligent than people.  Mankind felt they were smarter because they had created "the wheel, New York, wars and so on."   The dolphins had only "muck[ed] about in the water having a good time," which the dolphins felt made them the more intelligent species.

Let's all muck about in the water this week.

Every Inchie Monday: Fjord

Hi Folks,
  
Fjords, this weeks word for Every Inchie Monday, are one of the things in HHGG that for some reason has always stuck in my brain.  Maybe because it is associated with Slartibartfast.   He's the old man who was responsible for designing part of the earth:  as he says "used to have endless fun doing the little bits in fjords."  [chapter 22]

I had to do quite a bit of research for fjords.  Certainly I know what they are but unlike Slartibartfast, I'm not very good at creating them.  So I dug farther and discoverd there is a horse called the fjord horse.  This is "a relatively small but very strong horse breed from the mountainous regions of western Norway.[Wikipedia].  Furthermore they are always dun in colour, so that is what I have drawn.

So if I couldn't draw a fjord I certainly couldn't quill one!  Again Google to the rescue.  This time I came upon a company which makes boats called, of course, Fjord boats.  So here is a little boat.  I suppose you might find one in a fjord.

Can't think of anything clever to say about fjords, so enjoy your week.  

Sorry if I didn't comment on your inchie last week.  Blame the Olympics!  Hope you are all watching the Olympics and enjoying them as much as I am.  Canada doesn't win a huge number of medals, so we warmly celebrate every one of the winners, and all of the competitors too.

Every Inchie Monday: Whale

Hi Folks,

Well in contrast to the last two words, whale is an easy one in HHGG.  It is one of the things the missiles turn into when the gang turn on the improbability drive.  Unfortunately the whale is created exactly where the missile was in the atmosphere and we get to hear its thoughts as it plummets to the ground.   They run through a beginning awareness of  "who am I" to naming things like its head and the wind.  It is very excited about  its existence:

"And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast?  Very very fast.  So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like... ow... ound... round... ground!  That's it!  That's a good name--ground!
  I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence." [Chapter 18]



Just a tad gruesome.  Sometimes Adams has a very dark sense of humour.



My first offering is about what is often created from whales. Ambergris is 'secreted from the intestines of a sperm whale and is found floating in tropical seas and used in perfume manufacture' [google].  Funny that something so beautiful comes from something just a little bit gross.  

So here is my favourite perfume -- Channel No. 19.  It can be difficult to find because it us not as popular as Channel No. 5.  

 

And my quilled whale:

I think he's kind of cute.

Enjoy your week and watch out for falling whales.

Every Inchie Monday: Sheep

Hello Fellow Inchers,

Don't you just love Marvin the paranoid android?  He and Arthur make interesting companions while, having been abandoned by Zaphod, Trillion and Ford,  they wait on the surface of Magarathea.  Arthur enthuses about the sunset with two suns, the stars coming out, the oceans of Earth, but Marvin only thinks they are "wretched".  It takes only a short period of time in Marvin's company for Arthur to say, "I think I'll just take another walk."  Marvin replies, "'Don't blame you' and counted five hundred and ninety-seven thousand million sheep before falling sleep again a second later." [Chapter 21]  

Nothing fancy here, just a slightly cross-eyed sheep.

I put the quilled sheep on flowery patterned paper because  I thought it would look like it was in a pastoral setting, but I think it really just hides the sheep a little bit.  Too late to change it by the time the glue had dried.

Have pleasant dreams this week.

Every Inchie Monday: Underground

Hello Folks,

In The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, our intrepid travelers have found the legendary planet Magarathea, where Zaphod, tells the group, "the Magaratheans lived most of their lives underground"  There was no overpopulation or pollution, "they just didn't like [the surface] very much".  So thus Zaphod, Ford and Trillion head underground to see what they can find.  Later Trillian "was reminded unavoidably of the London Underground, though it was less thoroughly squalid" [Chapter 20].

I knew the Magatheans lived underground when I made my inchies before I started on my quest to find all the words, so I didn't realize I was using Trillian's (in the book) idea about the London underground.  Keep in mind I live in Canada where we call the Underground a Subway, and there is no subway in my city.

I really was quite stumped for a while in considering what I could quill that would represent underground.  I drew a little picture of things that grow underground 

and there was my inspiration.

I've always wanted to live in Toronto where they have subways.  I have a friend who lives there and he hates the subway and often walks long distances to avoid them at rush hour.  Guess the grass is always greener...

Have a great week.  Maybe hiding underground would protect us from all this intense heat we are getting.

I also wanted to say how much I appreciate your comments.  They delight me and I look forward every week to reading them.  Thank you.

Every Inchie Monday: spiral

Hello Fellow Inchers,

Well if rain was difficult to find, spiral was darn near impossible.  I only found it because it is on the page facing the rain reference (I'm not re-reading the whole book - just looking for the words).

In chapter 18, after the gang have (or is it has - is gang singular or plural?) escaped the misslies being hurtled at them by turning on the improbability drive, Ford "who was sitting on the spiral staircase, a nicely chilled Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in his hand says 'But where are we?'"

Drawing a spiral staircase seemed beyond my ability.  And I really wanted to do the subject I picked.

When I was a little girl I spent eight years taking figure skating lessons (at 2 different clubs at the same time) - it's what you did as a Canadian girl child when I grew up.  Now girls play hockey too.  I tried to draw a skating spiral, but I am hopeless at drawing figures.  I can draw faces, but get all messed up when I have to do bodies too.  So I cheated and found a picture on google. 

And I 'quilled' a spiral, although  I'm not sure just twisting a piece of paper constitutes quilling:

I loved figure skating as a kid and I still follow it diligently on TV.  I do have a thing about Women's figure skating though, because the skaters are so young - hardly old enough to be called women.  But when our bodies mature it is very difficult to do some of the things the youngsters can do.  I think they should have age categories or something, beyond what they already have.  

Off my soapbox.  Hope everyone has a special week, without too many stressful twists and turns.