(click on the picture to enlarge it)

Contribution to Illustration Friday.

When “Piou number 4” * came out of his eggshell it was kind of a surprise for him to observe that he has been the last chick to make his way out of the egg.

In all likelihood, his three older brothers already broke the shell and went off for their first “Piou class”.

He, therefore, decided to join them as quietly as possible to avoid waking his mum up and let her caught him in the act of late ignition.

he does not want, his appalling first steps in post-incubation world, would ruin his reputation and turn into a stigma for life.

From the inside of the egg, he did not see the hatching stage that way. He had imagined himself as the oldest one, endowed with a charismatic leader personality. Here he is, sheepish, his shell under hid arm, discreet youngest child.

I have to say that I found this chick a touch dramatic!!! … reminds me of Calimero, except that, unlike Calimero, he is determined not to spend his life saying “It is an injustice. Is it?”.

Our chick just got off to a bad start. Don’t be worry about him: he strongly is in favor of the resilience concept (originally defined by Emmy Werner) applied to the psychology. Even more so since he has read, from the depths of his egg, the book: “les vilains petits canard” (I don’t know about the translation, I will have to ask somebody about it)… from the French psychiatrist and ethologist Boris Cyrulnik.

I know, Cyrulnik is not the only one who’d talked about resilience in France but he is presenting it in both professional and friendly way. It is great fun to read him and listen to him.

Anyway, it was one of the best book “Piou 4” had read when he was in his egg. It is now helping him to face a chicken life…

Past his first over reacting moment (birth is always a bit confusing), it became pretty clear for him that even sheepish, discreet chick can have great fun in life.

He is late, so what? He didn’t mean to be late…

He is eventually ready for diction class. He can already hear Piou number 1,2,3 from a distance.

• Mum will have her chick’s names sorted out later on… a little ceremony will be taking place this evening.

Yesterday evening she flew in front of the window.

A magic costume designer would never ever create a dress with pockets. Magic costumes are traditionally delivered «pocket free». It is well known that at the fairies, everything should be contained in light and abstract magic formulas rather than in pockets.

Consequently, to suggest that a fairy could be in need of pockets one day is a very delicate matter.
Even though fairies are known for being very easy going people, they might be under the impression that you are doubting the quality of their formulas and get upset about it. It is therefore advised not to mention the annoying word.

Between ourselves, those fairies are not always honest with themselves because, for practical reasons, we happen to know that they often put a few incredible tools in a pocket or two. It is always a temporary solution, waiting for a suitable formula to replace those odds and ends which, at the end, become heavy.

Cori the fairy, tend to exaggerate on this subject because she keeps all her magic shells in the numerous and illegal pockets which encircle her dress (see above). This habit often caused her to lose bits and pieces while flying around. All the same, she has no intention to get rid of them. She believes that magic formulas and others useful gadgets should not to be mutually exclusive. She is assertive about it. In magic practice, shells come in handy as much as formulas.

Nevertheless, this point of view doesn’t turn her into a bad fairy. Thanks to her million years of experience, she is self confident enough about her magic art: a few infringement of the rule do not affect her clear conscience.

She enjoys to mix cories and formulas. It is her personal style and he takes elegantly responsibility for it

The fairy Hadar, is on her way to Europe.

She was recently appointed to a new post by the «fairies interdisciplinary high committee».

She has been working as a teacher at the African branch of the C-H-M-P-D-F-T «centre of high magic practice for faulty fairy tales» for a long time.

Today only a few purists amongst the fairies are still refereeing to this higher education center under this label of origin. You will most commonly hear of the name: «broken fairy tales workshop» B-F-T-W . It is lighter and more accessible. Isn’t it?

However, if it wasn’t for the sake of the fairies community, fairy Hadar would have preferred to stay around a few millions years more. With time, she got accustomed to the noisy cities, scattered villages,never ending movies and dried out dunes… She felt at ease with local practitioners who even taught her the very specific art of manipulating cories shells. She got fascinated by the batik making as well, to the point that she had all her fairy costumes re-designed with African patterns using this ancient method of dyeing.

The other raison which made her feel reluctant to leave the place is a different approach of magic which prevails in Europe compared to what she is used to.

There is two major schools of thought within the fairies world. One mainly theoretical (also called «Ecole Française),very active in Europe, and an other one, more empirical, practical, well settled in the rest of the fairy world. Fairy Hadar belongs to the second one. On the top of it, she has learned in Africa ways to add an intuitive touch to her magic formula. How will her new colleagues receive her practice?

This morning she was notified her relocation, she did not dare talking to the fairy commitee about her concerns. Therefore, until the very moment of her departure, she remains a bit worried about her futur social intégration amongst fairies.

As a matter of fact the Europeen section have a reputation for being excessively bureaucratic and to her point of vew, a bit boring. Fairies practicing over Europe are known for recording everything in files. In the fairies’s circles they are called «asterisk fairies». Hadar knows she’ll find it hard to carry out magic practice in this working conditions.

The fairy committee probably wanted to challenge her by breaking her routine. Routine and total comfort are the fairies enemies since they lessen their magic insight.

A fairy has to be alert, and never forget that she is coming from an other world. When a fairy starts to look and to react like most of the people around her (fairy or not!), she is supposed to fly away. Somebody else will carry the job out, with as much joy and application…

The committee generally aims to create emulation and conditions for transferring competences from fairies to fairies.

No matter what, it would never have crossed Faity Hadar’s mind to argue the committee’s decision: marching order by hand, here she flies to Europe.

Over there, she will learn different styles of magic formula that she will store in her colourful musical and invisible cories box rather than a in a C-H-M-P-D-F-T file.

A “cory fairy” is joining the “asterisk fairies”!!!

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

Tamar, Noya, Noame, Avigaïl and Iotam are waving goodbye to Zeev, the only little guy in the kindergarten. He is going to California, taking with him: mum,dad and brother Ari.

I hope those growing three years old people, living on the Khalutz mountain at that time, will keep the best memory of their time together…

They had a great time.

Zeev and his train Thomas, made it even greater.

Do you know Julien Claire? A French touch to the Massey family departure…

” La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
Se dor’ près de la mer
Et ne connaît pas l’été de la mer
La Californie
Est une frontière
Entre mer et terre
Le désert et la vie…
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
Les palétuviers dorment sous le vent
La cannelle fauve embaume ton temps
La Californie est une frontière
Entre mer et terre
Le désert et la vie
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
La Californie
La Cal…”

(Paroles: Etienne Roda-Gil. Musique: Julien Clerc)