The text and paintings on The Trowbridge Chronicles are taken from the illustrated journal of Violet Trowbridge, a shrew that once lived in a village deep in the Olympic Rain Forest. Each new post will represent a portion of Mrs. Trowbridge’s journal.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

THE TROWBRIDGE CHRONICLES GET DRAWN

Some of you may have seen the Trowbridge Chronicles featured on Drawn! last week. I was totally smitten by the response that it received. Mrs. Trowbridge would be delighted to know that she has lots of new fans resulting from the Drawn piece.

Some of Mrs. Trowbridge's journal pages were written to describe specific aspects of small creature culture. These pages were more instructional in nature, and were usually illustrated with her charcoal drawings. Here are two of those pages. The coast mole (Scapanus orarius) is one of two varieties of moles found in the Olympic rainforest. The other is the Townsend mole (Scapanus townsendii). I will share more with you from time to time.

Mrs. Trowbridge's charcoal sketch of the front entrance to the mole dwelling illustrates how carefully moles conceal their dwellings from potential predators. According to Mrs. T, they often choose steep grassy slopes near streams to build the entrance to their dwelling.

Of all the shops in Huckleberry Hollow that I would wish to visit, the ladybug home decor shop would be my first choice. The ladybug tattoo parlor would be a close second.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

THE QUIET GOLDEN DAWN

Even in Huckleberry Hollow life can be stressful at times, especially if you're a Trowbridge shrew. You'd be stressed, too, if you had to eat your weight in grubs and sowbugs everyday just to stay alive. That's what a Trowbridge shrew has to do. On this week's page, Mrs. Trowbridge writes about how she deals with her stress.