QUEEN VICTORIA WAS A BABE

The Young Queen Victoria by  Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Queen Victoria was the hottest thing going when she became the monarch of Great Britain at the age of 18 in 1837. Well, maybe not by today's internet standards, but by the standards of the day she was the most desirable woman in England. She had beautiful doe eyes and a pointed nose, compact cherry lips and a gentle chin. She suffered a gloomy childhood, she was melancholy and pale as milk and a tiny little thing but she was in charge of the mightiest empire the world had ever seen.

``Why Mister Jackson, that is a rather naughty proposal! Let me dismiss the servants and we will explore it further!``

In three years she must have had many suitors. I'm certain I would have taken a run at her if I'd been in the sceptere'd Isle at that time (I was sailing with pirates in the West Indies at the time and we had a very busy schedule). In 1840 she married her first cousin from Germany, Albert.

Well, Babe, you had your chance. If only you`d been willing to wait for your Pirate King to come ashore you wouldn`t have had to settle for your German first cousin.

They had a passel of kids and ruled the empire together until Albert died and the now grey-haired and plump monarch who was "not amused" that most people know her as, went into mourning and never came out of it, despite occasional dalliances with her Scottish manservant, John Brown.


She died in 1901 but it is her birthdate that is celebrated in May here in Canada with a long weekend.


So here I am in the middle of this long weekend. I spent yesterday cleaning out the garage, an odious enough task that had to be done. The result of which is that I was sore and very stiff the next day.

Why do I mention that? Because the next day I had to do a rather large pen-and-ink on paper portrait that I had been commissioned to do. So there I was pacing back and forth in front of this large sheet of paper, putting down careful lines and strokes, all the while my muscles were screaming in agony. And it is a portrait, so I have to be very careful because it has sort of has to resemble the subject (who I have met casually, but don't really know) from two little photographs.


It is one of two portraits that I am working on at the moment. The other has a deadline that I am not going to make, which is adding to my stress.


So this weekend my attention to things has been kind of fractured. I have avoided being online (except for a few emails that were very important) and I could not seem to finish a single thought.


I also took a break to try to see the annular eclipse on Sunday afternoon. Alas the only thing eclipsing the sun in my part of the world was rain clouds. I hope other parts of the world had a better view than I did.

``Oh, yeah, baby. Give me that backwards glance again. You know it drives me wild!

Now, it is because the beautiful Victoria had the foresight to be born on this day, that I am now going to enjoy a whole and complete third day of the weekend. What will I do this day? I do not know. Sleeping is certainly desirable. Perhaps the review of the movie The Raven, which I saw on Thursday, that I have been wanting to get to.


Or maybe I'll just sit around. I do not know. Either way, thank you Victoria, for being born on this day and giving me an extra day to recover from my exertions.

Big kiss, Vicky. Love ya!






I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio