When Aliens Came to Daylesford

 

Here's the seventh of the eight Love of Reading drawings: When Aliens Came to Daylesford. This drawing got its start in 2012, like I Still Dream did, and it waited all this time.

What inspired this drawing:

1. Daylesford: It's the next town over, if you can call it a town. All it has is a train station and a whole bunch of houses. There is a Daylesford Abbey, but it is nothing whatsoever like Downton Abbey, and it's actually in Paoli (my town). I guess some could argue that the Upper Main Line YMCA (on the grounds of J. Gardner Cassatt's estate) is in Daylesford, but I'm pretty sure everybody who's actually standing or swimming or sweating there would say they're in Berwyn. So, if aliens really did come to Daylesford, it would surely be the most exciting thing to ever happen there.

When I first moved into my house I had this idea that I'd line up a few clocks on one wall, the way that fancy hotels will do, labeled so that they can tell you the current time in any number of prominent cities. Tokyo! Paris! New York! I have a bent sense of humor, though, so I was going to label mine Paoli, Pottstown, Daylesford. They would each be set to the exact same time: Eastern time zone time. I never did get the clocks set up or even purchase the clocks. That's the thing about having a house: a house is a project that never really gets done, not in total, anyway.

2. Eleanor Gigglebox: this is a pet name my colleague made up for her wee daughter. I think Eleanor Gigglebox would be a smashing children's author.

3. The alien on the back cover of the book was originally drawn for our friends' wedding in 2009. I enjoy drawing aliens a lot. Of course, I don't know what aliens really look like. I make stuff up, and I enjoy the conceptual aliens from works of science fiction/fantasy (Star Wars, Star Trek, Farscape, etc.). Every time I contemplate actual life beyond our little solar system, though, like really contemplate it, I get totally overwhelmed and I think maybe I need a piece of chocolate or a sip of wine or something, or at least a sit-down. 

I will leave you with this wonderful story about life on other planets, from Letters from a Flying Machine by Peter Mulvey.