Winding Tales From a Tired Mind

I was going to go to bed early tonight as a sore throat has arrived this afternoon and I thought I could do with an early night. Then other things intervened-playing with the kitten, eating delicious prawns and rice, colouring in my snakey drawing and then having a revelation about names. I have a tall thin sketch book-from my Mum for Christmas, and began using it the other day with my list of hang words. It cries out for long or thin things, and snakes came to mind. I find snakes beautiful-maybe because my Chinese star sign is the snake-or maybe just because they are beautiful! I have a small collection of silver snakes-earrings, a pendant and two rings. They lend themselves well to jewellery design. I was going to do lots of long straight snakes but then I looked in a source book for snake ideas and saw so many tempting coiled ones.

I started to colour the drawing last night and kitten helped me.

Names are still bugging us and we were talking about them tonight when Andy suddenly said Cassiopeia. I remembered that the people I got her from had called her Cassie but I had not liked that (surprise, surprise!) and so we have had the two weeks of indecision. Andy called Cassie, and she looked. Maybe she recognises it! I looked up Cassandra as I could not remember the story. Then I looked up Cassiopeia as I was a bit shaky on that too. Neither story is particularly happy-but I loved the part about snakes and her ears, and hearing the future! And I have been drawing snakes! I got her kind of by chance, so maybe her name should have elements of coincidence or fate in too. I also love the part about understanding the language of animals! Also I think cats have such a dramatic streak that classic tales from mythology might be a suitable source.
Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα, "she who entangles men",[1] also known as Alexandra[2]) was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. In an alternative version, she spent a night at Apollo's temple, at which time the temple snakes licked her ears clean so that she was able to hear the future. This is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes it brings an ability to understand the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future.[3] However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions. She is a figure both of the epic tradition and of tragedy, where her combination of deep understanding and powerlessness exemplify the tragic condition

Next I googled 'Cassie' and one of the popular culture references was this title. Again, most appropriate as she is crazy!

Finding Cassie Crazy

Lastly, a snippet from the tale of Cassiopeia-the kitten is upside down for quite a bit of the time too!

'Since Poseidon thought that Cassiopeia should not escape punishment, he placed her in the heavens in such a position that, as she circles the celestial pole in her throne, she is upside-down half the time.' (Cassiopeia)
I hope I have made sense here-it all makes sense to me! I am usually pretty indecisive but I think I am beating even my own records here! I will let you know in a week if Cassie sticks!

Terrible flash photography which I have failed to edit

The title of the drawing is inspired by that ridiculous film 'Snakes on a Plane'! I also like the name 'Snake Plisken' from another film-a much better one-'Escape From New York' I love that film!