100 DRAWINGS IN 100 DAYS - THE KING OF SPADES

KING OF SPADES

i know there is no King of Spades in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but i'm pretty sure that if Lewis Carroll had lived longer and spent some time with me, there would be! i have a certain fondness for crows, and playing cards, jokers, the number 7, and several other things... but one day i came upon the most amazing thing ever, and when i tell it to people, nobody has heard of it before.

i was in a park around the corner from my house one day, when i saw a circle of crows on the ground, and a dead crow in the middle. they were making quite a bit of noise, so i watched. and i couldn't believe it, but i had witnessed a crow death ceremony. they all took turns to have their say, nudging the dead crow when it was their turn, and after they all finished, they squawked loudly together, then all flew away at once. now, i found this on the internet (because i have to have proof that i'm not imagining things... quite funny right?), and it describes my experience very well (except for the accent...)

"You know, when you spend a lot of time in the woods, you see the strangest things. One time I was out the woods road when I heard a lot of flutterin' and goin' on. I turned toward the sound, and pretty soon I came on to a little clearing, and in that clearing was a bunch of crows settin' around on the ground. What I noticed next was that they was settin' around pretty much in a circle, and in the center of that circle was a dead crow!

They kept settin' there, quiet like, and once in a while they would start up mutterin', you know, just makin' this odd, soft little mutterin' sound, and that sound went all around the circle of 'em. I watched for quite a little while. Looked altogether like a funeral. After a bit, I looked away just for a couple of seconds, when I heard a loud, sharp call go out. There was a great flutter of wings, and all of 'em took off right sudden like. And you know, when I looked around, that dead crow was gone too."

so, i ended up with a drawing of this beautiful crow with a crown on, and looking very majestic and stern. long live the king!