"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, my True Love Gave to Me…

On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Eight Maids a-Milking
Seven Swans a-swimming
Six Geese a-Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Happy New Year! For some reason, the 12 Days of Christmas celebrate the new year by giving maids around and it’s always a little disconcerting that my true love would give me people as gifts but it is a British song after all.
A word of advice: you find lots of gross stuff around, by searching “maids a-milking” and I suggest you never do that. I did it for you. There’s also some handmaids a-milking but… well, you go and take a look yourself.

1. Larissa Holland

Do you remember Larissa’s partridge and pear, last Christmas. Well here’s her maid a-milking and she’s just adorable. You just have to buy eight of them.

2. Ameluria

Not so much about the maids because, to (mis)quote Hamilton, we know who’s really doing the milking. Here‘s her illustration for this day.

3. Muriel Clarke

All her decoration are charming, but her hollandaise a-milking is particularly lovely.

4. Andy Schumann

It does to me that only one’s a-milking and the others are just staring, but this is how teamwork is, sometimes. Only one does all the work and the others all take the credit.

I’ve decided to continue showing you beautiful stuff (or at least stuff I think it’s beautiful) even after Christmas, but instead of having monographic articles featuring single illustrators I’ll be grouping them with themes. As a theme I’m picking the Twelve Days of Christmas, a British carol I adore. If you never heard it (you’re clearly not Britsh) I suggest you take a look at this incredible performance.

Spooktober

Spooktober 27 – The Black Monk (2)

Chapter 3 After supper, when the visitors had gone, he went to his room and lay down on the sofa: he wanted to think about the monk. But a minute later Tanya came in. “Here, Andryusha; read father’s articles,” she said, giving him a bundle

Read More »
Spooktober

Spooktober 26 – The Black Monk (1)

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian physician, short-story writer and playwright, and I’m not particularly fond of him, though he’s widely regarded as one of the greatest masters of modern short fiction and who am I to argue? His work is celebrated for its psychological

Read More »
art and fashion

Beauty and Ugliness: an exhibition

A few pictures from the recently closed exhibition on Beauty and Ugliness as an aesthetic paradigma in which what’s ideal and what’s grotesque melt together as sides of the same coin. The exhibition featured works by Brueghel (lent from the other exhibition at Palazzo Reale),

Read More »
Share on LinkedIn
Throw on Reddit
Roll on Tumblr
Mail it
No Comments

Post A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RELATED POSTS

Spooktober 27 – The Black Monk (2)

Chapter 3 After supper, when the visitors had gone, he went to his room and lay down on the sofa: he wanted to think about the monk. But a minute later Tanya came in. “Here, Andryusha; read father’s articles,” she said, giving him a bundle

Read More

Spooktober 26 – The Black Monk (1)

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian physician, short-story writer and playwright, and I’m not particularly fond of him, though he’s widely regarded as one of the greatest masters of modern short fiction and who am I to argue? His work is celebrated for its psychological

Read More

Beauty and Ugliness: an exhibition

A few pictures from the recently closed exhibition on Beauty and Ugliness as an aesthetic paradigma in which what’s ideal and what’s grotesque melt together as sides of the same coin. The exhibition featured works by Brueghel (lent from the other exhibition at Palazzo Reale),

Read More