K E L S I E A N D C A P T A I N

‘Every morning Kelsie would wake, tumble out of bed and tug open the curtains to see what sort of day it was going to be(..)’

‘(…) But best of all she could look down the eyepiece and see rightacross the river to the other side.

And there was her Captain.’

‘The Captain lived way on the far bank in an old, neat white caravan that looked straight at Kelsie’s cottage. Even though he was quite old and his legs were shaky (a bit like the telescope) he seemed to smile and chuckle all day long. He wore a battered old white captains hat with a gold badge on the brim and whistled to the birds as he fed them their nuts.’

‘(…) “Grandad’s buying scones! Can we go?”

“Yes of course”, said mam “but we’re going to need serious jam” She opened a cupboard full of brightly coloured jars. Each with a hand painted label. Mam was very proud of her labels. Her fingers moved along them searching. In wobbly letters the first said “bingleberry jam” (Mam’s jam always had different names to everyone else's for some reason) “no, not for scones” she whispered to herself like she was thinking out loud. Next, a bright orange label, “bangleberry”, “nope, too sweet” Moving along, her fingers finally stopped at a blue and orange jar. “Yes!” Cried Kelsie doing a little dance on the spot “bongleberry! my favourite”. “Can we take the bongleberry?(…)’

Fragments of a short story written By Tim Fleming and Elaine Whitewood. A private commission for a book, a lovely Christmas present.

Thank you for asking me to illustrate this special story.