Lost Words...Otter (?)

Tai chi and an appt near an art museum that prompted me to look at some art ( more art more music this year!!! ;-)) but my favorite part of the day was absorbing this wonderful book art .

In 2007, the Oxford Junior Dictionary used in the UK began removing words that were no longer being used or read by children to merit inclusion.  ( I do find this hard to believe. ) Artist and author Jackie Morris, and nature writer Robert Macfarlane have illustrated and written an extraordinary large book of 20 poems (spells) and images with one of each very iconic on gold leaf.  PaulaJ blipped it and I wrote it down but finally decided it had to be one of this years’ Christmas books… but I’m still savoring it myself before it gets to live elsewhere.     I’m sure everyone in the UK knows about this as there has been a huge effort to put one in every school.  and also now in hospitals and hospices.   It’s not just for children, it’s for people.   Paula saw the paintings in an exhibition there—they are exquisite.  An attempt to bring nature back to children’s and our vocabulary.
I’m not going to write lots, but do look up the excellent link at bottom if you want to know more about the project and you can see more of the paintings....and learn lots.     I chose the otter here because this is definitely a word in our vocabulary that we use at the island especially. :-)   One of the spells is about a starling..thought about it with the ghostly photo of the starling  (redone)a few days ago.  
But words are not my thing… that’s why I so appreciate a work where both words and images work together as ART.  (kind of like many blips?)


(an aside, my son is working on a computer game called “Loss Words” —which also was a slight prompt for me to have this book…:-)  —-which will hopefully interest more in reading classic literature… It’s fun to play… When it gets launched I’ll link it for you literary/word people. )


Jackie Morris artist..the Lost Words

Here’s a good guide.
https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/initiatives/the-lost-words