Day two of our song lyrics Inktober! This one got a little messy.
I placed Architectural Tape across a piece of watercolor paper to create a resist and eventually a white space. I then splattered and wiped different shades of blue inks across the page. After that “dried” I spritzed the page with a water bottle and dragged a brush through it all. Once that was all dry I put marks and scribbles all over. I later pulled off the tape. I wrote the lyrics in three different shades of blue ink, finally writing the smaller black text with a .7 Pentel gel pen. Whew! That got complicated and as I said, a bit messy. FYI – I was not concentrating on legibility for this one, just splatters and contrast. After it was all dry, I splattered white gel ink to look like a snow storm!
Warm up your voice as here are the lyrics…do they sound familiar?
Over the river and through the woods
– Traditional Thanksgiving Folksong
To Grandmother’s house we go.
The horse knows the way to carry the slight
Through the white and drifted snow…OH!
Over the river and through the woods
Oh, how the wind doth blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose
As over the ground we go!
I grew up in the Chicago area, so by Thanksgiving we were most likely deep in snow. We sang this song for months during those chilly Winter days, and I must admit I always thought this was a Christmas song. My Grandmothers lived in Alabama, so there was never snow at their house for Thanksgiving…until I researched this one I never knew it was written for Thanksgiving. Funny the pieces you put together once you “grow up”.
I can remember singing this as we walked down the street to go ice skating at Bessler’s pond. My friends and I would have been bundled up and everything was covered tightly except our mouths. And if, God forbid, your Mom did make you wear a scarf over your mouth, THIS song made you pull it off so you could shout loudly! As we walked over the sidewalks and through the woods, we sang and sang until we arrived at the pond. Oh how lazy those childhood days were. I hope that the kids in our family have the opportunity to experience such freedom and bliss, and the ability to sing out loud without fear or shame… and to pass people without caring or evening thinking about the what they might think!
So over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go…stay tuned for tomorrow. It’s another sing-a-ling song! woo Hoo!
