I’m just getting over some man-flu lurgi thing and did little except loll about on the sofa watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the weekend. The bug was annoying but I did enjoy getting reacquainted with the Buffyverse again, it’s great on lots of different levels. I think it makes me want to be 16 again, back at school, but this time dating a guitar-playing werewolf. My hubby told me once he had a thing about vampires when he was a kid, and that he yearned to meet one. But vampires were always too louche for me, too decadent, and I was more fascinated by the earthy, furry grrrrness of werewolves – vampires kill people because they have no soul, but werewolves are just animals – so that makes it ok….sort of lol.

In the collage I made yesterday, though, the werewolf is looking rather thoughtful, gazing at the moon that changed him into a beast, but not really understanding what it was. There’s a line in The Hobbit that i’ve always liked, when Gandalf is telling the hobbits and dwarves about Beorn, the man who changes into a great big bear at night: ‘I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains’. I like the idea of these wild, dangerous beasts having a soulful moment by themselves, sitting and staring at the sky.

And then of course there is that wonderful sounds they make, the plaintive howling. I’ve never heard it in the wild, but in recent years wolves have been seen just outside Berlin, so you never know, I might. I like this video clip of two guys singing in the woods, and the wolves start to join in…..

And another song on my soundtrack to this post is Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon. It’s a song I love playing while i’m working, and it’s got a great singalong chorus of werewolf howls you just can’t help but join in with ; ‘Ah-OOoooooo’, werewolves of London’, i’m sure the neighbours just love it…not. In this song the werewolf is quite a dandy, with a sharp haircut and natty clothes. He’s terrible in some ways, eating old ladies, but this doesn’t seem to stop him swanking about town and hanging out with the Queen. Mind you, the Queen must have had to put up some dreadful characters who are pretty much like that!

The title of this post is taken from Angela Carter’s short story, of course. Her collection of reimagined fairly tales, The Bloody Chamber, is my favourite Angela Carter book. So many writers have tried to retell these old tales, with varying success, but I think few have really made them their own in the way Angela Carter does in these stories, they’re superb.

My recent cold is only one of several excuses for not posting over recent months. The day job, travelling a lot, life stuff, I just got out of the habit of drawing, painting and making. I did join Instagram too, but I miss the words of blogging, so I’m going to try and get making again and posting some new images. The weather had turned horrid the last few day, it gets dark early, so a good time to tidy up the workspace and do some painting again  😉