The Changeling

Good Morning, Good Morning,

The sun is shining and the wind which has been blowing for the last three days has subsided - so I think it will be shorts again today.

I have also just checked out the Port of Stavanger website and note that there are two cruisers in this very morning. They are due in at 8.00am. So I will have to nip down to the harbour to get some pics.

But that has nothing to do with today's picture. The Changeling:

This is one of my study paintings for my cuckoo theme.

What can I say about Cuckoos - they cannot help their nature. it may seem cruel that the big fat cuckoo babies or their mums push the other eggs out of the nest and then take all the food from their tiny surrogate parents as they grow and outgrow their stolen nests. But that is the way they have evolved and they know no other way. Nature is red in tooth and claw!

This little embyronic chick lies on the hard pavement, her life-line ebbing away, as the all the goodness from her egg seeps away between the cobbles.

Behind her grow three bitter herbs - Rue, Dandelion and Tansy - representing the bitterness of the cruelty that has befallen her.

But she was more than a little bird as you can see - she was a changeling - a chymera with moth wings, limp and unfurled and beneath her curls one little human hand.

I suppose it may seem far-fetched, a little bit sci-fi, but all it means to me is the strong empathy between other species and ourselves.

In our language we speak of 'the cuckoo in the nest' meaning the person who pushes out the other children to get closest to the parents. To be the most important and most loved. That is sad in its own way, is is not? To be that needy to have to be the 'only one' not able to be properly socialised with others. Never learning to share properly. A lonely place really.

So, I think this is quite a sad painting, with sombre colours and a sad theme.

I do apologise - I did not mean to lower the mood this morning. I will try to post a more uplifting picture later on today then - to get you ready for the weekend. :-)