“’twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.“

I’ve had a fascination with Lewis Carroll‘s Jabberwocky for many years.

I can recite it by heart (and will, at every opportunity!). I’ve been known to prance around a Girl Guide campfire, snickersnacking with my vorpal blade (my pacifist Quaker ancestors turning over in their graves), usually with a long-suffering daughter dragged into the role of the Jabberwock.

I also use it as a way to test-drive new art mediums, creating jungle-y scenes with fantastical plants and made-up creatures. Got myself some shiny new paints? I’ll paint a Jabberwocky picture. Watercolour pencils? Jabberwocky picture.

You get the picture…. (Unlike my poor husband who is still waiting for the Jabberwocky picture I started for him back in about 1982. I promise I’ll finish it. One day…)

I even snuck my jabberwocky style art onto the sides of my daughter’s wedding cake.

Of course, way back at the beginning in 1982, before my own wedding (which is why the initials on the side are JH, not JC) there was a Jabberwocky egg!

z