Illustration Friday - Cold

This week's Illustration Friday topic resonated with me for many reasons. First, I've had a nasty cold for over a week, and I finally had to take a day off yesterday to stay at home in bed. I felt like I needed to wrap myself in down and fleece because it's been beastly cold where I work, something to do with the ventilation system that recirculates air. All it really does, as far as I can tell, is blow freezing air during the cold months and hot air during the warm months. By the middle of the week, I was so thoroughly chilled, I was certain I would crack into thousands of pieces if someone were to give me a pat on the back. To add to my discomfort, it had been pouring rain almost continuously all week. Not that lovely rain that feeds the flowers and leaves everything glistening and clean, but torrential rain that washes away dirt roads and topples stone walls. I know...complain, complain. It's just that I'm not really a cold weather person.

The rain did, however, provide me with a couple of fascinating encounters with the avian life in my neck of the woods (quite literally), during the few times it let up. As I wrote yesterday, we had a visit from a few hundred migrating birds, who covered our driveway and trees for a short while before they continued on their journey. This morning, I came downstairs to find a dozen or so wild turkeys outside our front door, pecking away in the garden for seeds and berries. I tried to be stealthy as I grabbed my camera, but they sensed my presence and took off pretty quickly.

What does any of this have to do with my illustration? Well, with the cold and the rain and the birds, I kept hearing the song "White Bird" in my head. I remember it from my teenage years, but I can't remember who wrote it and/or sang it. Jol thinks it might be a Pentangle song, but I wasn't able to track that information down in my admittedly cursory search. I did, however, find the lyrics, some of which I've included below. So..my drawing started as a remembered song and ended up as an enchanted peacock-like creature in a magic snow field...and like magic, the sun came out just as I was finishing it! Really!

White bird
In a golden cage
On a winter's day
In the rain
White bird
In a golden cage
All alone

The leaves blow
Across a long black road
To its darkened sky
In its rage
But the white bird
Just sits in her cage
All alone

White bird must fly or she will die
White bird must fly or she will die

White bird
Dreams of aspen trees
With their dying leaves
Turning gold
But the white bird
Just sits in her cage
Growing old

White bird must fly or she will die
White bird must fly or she will die

The sunset comes
The sunset goes
The clouds roll by but the earth turns slow
And a young bird's eyes do always glow...