JOY PARADE No.8
Judy Garland's Singing Cat! The Canine CEO of a Flower Market! A Trip to Planet Moist!
HELLO!
First of all, here is a Dalmatian I doodled when I should have been doing some work. Note the beret.V. chic. V. French. France has been on my mind a lot this week- more on that later.
Now, I MUST thank you all for the lovely messages you sent after last week’s post. So kind of you. I’m well on the mend from The Case of the Kidney Stones and am feeling a lot better, although for a good few days since the hospital dash I did feel as limp as wet lettuce.
Naturally, the dogs LOVED me in this state. I built a nest on the sofa with quilts and they felt they had to do a lot of helping with this. And by helping of course I mean- piling on top of me or burrowing under the blankets leaving me with next to no space at all. And the SNORING from them! Am going to have to get a structural engineer in to check the vibrations haven’t loosened the foundations of the house...
By the end of last week I’d started to feel well enough to get back to some work. When you are freelance you don’t really get time off and I could feel a disgustingly horrible deadline I have aggressively glaring from the calendar, so I had to get stuck in. It’s the illustrations for the book I told you about last week. It’s set in New York over a winter so with the sun shining outside I’ve been stuck indoors colouring in lots of snowy scenes.
One thing I have enjoyed about it has been the research I’ve had to do. In the past week I’ve had to Google:
-New York Fire Hydrants.
-When did New York start painting their fire hydrants red?
-Vintage Steiff giraffe toys.
-1930s showgirls.
-What type of penguins live in New York?
-Bob Mackie costumes
-Racoons.
The thing about being a children’s book illustrator is that life is very varied and unpredictable…
Other than working and googling increasingly bonkers things, it’s been a quiet sort of week. Highlights have included making and eating roasted broccoli-and-cauliflower cheese (delicious), pottering in the garden (removing hens from flower pots) and watching heaps of old episodes of Bake Off: The Professionals whilst I colour in. (I am obsessed with judge Cherish - especially when she’s wearing one of her wigs).
And really that’s all my news for you, so I think now it’s time for us to get stuck into this week’s JOY PARADE.
1. As always we begin with some BEHOLDING! and EXCLAIMING!
Because I’ve barely been beyond my front door for the last fortnight, this week’s B!-and-E!-ing is limited to the garden, however as that is looking lush and lovely at the mo there have been some real treats to be found.
I am DELIGHTED by the cosmos! SO cheering, but I’m not sure why? Is it the size and boldness of the flowers next to the foliage which is a bit vague and wafty? Not sure, but there is something lovely about it all.
I was surprised to find this slightly ragged rose suddenly about to bloom the other day. It certainly wasn’t looking like this about five mins before but now it’s ready for the limelight. I’ve brought the pot closer to the back door and every time I open it I’m thrilled by the sight of it.
And the smell! The absolute heaven of it! It smells exactly like the rose ‘perfume’ I remember making with some friends when I was about seven. We just bashed up a load of petals on an upside down bin and mixed the pulp with some water and then tried to flog it. Bet Jo Malone was quaking…
Every time I look at this geranium I get a quiver of joy. I think she’s at her best at dusk when she sings against that lovely sort of soft lavendery colour everything goes just post sunset. I’ll be bereft when these flowers go over.
And the two tone leaves! WONDERFUL! If I were invited to a royal wedding, for example, I think I’d be tempted to just tie this entire plant pot to my head with a length of ribbon and wear it as a fascinator.
2. Inspired by my own few days Convalescing, I decided to really get my eyeballs on some paintings exploring the theme of rest. What a treasure trove!
Firstly, I love this painting.
Isn’t she wonderful? I think she’s been out shopping and is now back home with a basket full of spuds and brown paper packages. She kicked off her court shoes, made a cup of tea and is having five mins to herself with the paper. I bet she’s reading something scandalous that she’ll gossip about over the fence with her neighbour (I wish I were the neighbour).
And here’s another woman with her feet up and a newspaper. This time by James Fitton.
So much to enjoy here - the cardigan! The plants in terracotta pots! The cocooning sofa! Don’t you just want to spend an afternoon right there doing nothing? Heaven!
And this - one of my all time favourite ever pictures by one of the very best - Jean-Jacques Sempé. A cat sleeping cosily and luxuriously whilst New York hums and bustles outside.
Oh - to be that cat…
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3. I think inspired by that New Yorker cover by the French artist, Sempé, I’m on a real french kick at the moment. I’ve always loved France - particularly Paris, and have found myself day dreaming a lot about it this last week. Actually, not just DAY dreaming- actual dreaming. I woke up the other morning in a panic because I’d left my 10 year old Neph’s school bag on the Metro. It took me a few mins to be realise:
I wasn’t in Paris (disappointing)
My neph doesn’t go to school there.
It had all been a dream…
To cheer myself I had to look at photos on my phone of my most recent trip which was last year in the springtime.
These view from my hotel bedroom!
This bird I shared a croissant with in a little park!
This dog who is CEO of the flower market!
I MUST go back asap.
4. To make me feel like I AM in France when I’m currently not, I’ve hoiked these two books down from my bookshelves.
Nicholas on Holiday (more glorious Sempé illustrations and a couple of opening lines which made me laugh out loud because it could be from one of my own school reports.)
And The Dud Avocado, set in Paris in the 1950s, which has been on my To Be Read pile for years but I think now is the moment. That cover! Those greens!
5. Not France, but I do love this video of a groups woman dancing in a deli in Spain accompanied by a nun on the castanets.
6. V. keen on this dog lunch bag by the wonderful ARTHOUSE Unlimited. I love everything about this company. Well worth having a good look at all the other things they sell- all of it is DELIGHTFUL!
7. Another book I’ve taken down for a reread this week is Sophie Dahl’s debut from yonks back- The Man with the Dancing Eyes.
Here’s my favourite bit:
8. It would have been Judy Garland’s birthday this week. To celebrate let’s have a bit of her singing for us. So much to pick from of course (Meet Me in St L is one of my most favourite films ever) but I think to keep with the Parisian theme here is Judy in the role of a French cat called Mewsette singing “Take My Hand, Paree!” from the movie “Gay Purr-ee!” Beautiful stuff!
9. Another diva celebrated her birthday this week - my belovéd Miss Piggy.
Here she is doing her Esther Williams routine in The Great Muppet Caper
It won’t surprise any of you to know that I tried to reenact this entire scene every time I went swimming as a child.
(Also, I always forget that Miss P’s scene partner here is Dame Diana Rigg. I am floored by this fact every time I relearn it.)
10. I bought these antique framed bird prints this week and my eyeballs are heart shaped over them.
11. This mural from 1978 in the Bronx has DELIGHTED ME this week…
12. As have these jolly tomato socks.
You can get a pair here.
FINALLY…
I have a new book out on Thursday June 19th. It’s called ASTRID AND THE SPACE CADETS: DANGER AT THE BLACK LAGOON. It’s an intergalactic underwater adventure set on an ocean planet called Planet MOIST.
Astrid and her pals are called in to help two aliens/marine biologists called Dr Sue Nami and Professor Coral Reef who are looking for a mysterious sea creature believed to be on the planet. But nothing is quite as it seems and dangers lurk beneath the waves…
You can pre-order a copy here, or buy from your favourite indie, chain or online bookshop.
Thank you so much for reading this week’s JOY PARADE.
I hope you have a lovely Sunday. What are you all up to? I’ll be seeing my Farv as it’s Farv’s Day and doing some work and probably telling the chickens to LEAVE. THE SWEET PEAS. ALONE. which is a task that occupies 90% of my time at the moment…
I’ll be back next week with JOY PARADE No. 9. In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter I’d ADORE it if you were to hit the heart button below, and do please follow me on Instagram (I’m @mralextsmith over there). Also subscribe to and share this newsletter to all your chums.
Thank you so much!
In Tearing Haste,
Alex T Smith
HEAD PIGEON.
Congratsio on the new book Alex, so casually mentioned then! You are a total book-making marvel but I bet my homemade perfume could out perfume yours - my secret ingredient was a touch of fairy liquid...I have no idea why!
Slightly off topic, but wouldn't it be just wonderful if Winston had to deliver Christmas to France...and if course you would need a research trip!