Category Archives: The Octopus Garden

Day 40

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There’s snowed under, snowed in, and snowed on. We were snowed on by Nemo, which reminds me of Captain Nemo, from Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Speaking of the sea amidst all this snow, look who Nemo’s stormy gusts carried in: a sporty new resident for The Octopus Garden.

"Soccceroctopus," by Ava, age 5

“Juggle the Socceroctopus” by Ava, age 5

Juggle the Socceroctopus is the crayon creation of a favorite little girl I know, Ava, age 35 5. He’s playing soccer in the snow, quite an accomplishment under any circumstances, let alone if you are a pink and orange octopus. And I’m guessing that by his name Juggle can play any position on a soccer team, maybe even all of them all at once!

If you know an octopus who might like to join Juggle’s team, visit The Octopus Garden for details. Score!

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    Octopumpkin

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    It’s bright and brisk and cool and crisp as a Macintosh apple, a perfect autumn day to welcome a new resident of The Octopus Garden, “Octopumpkin,” the fantastical creation of friend and illustrator Doris Ettlinger:

    Doris brought Octopumpkin to life via “watercolor with a touch of Photoshop magic.” Her sixth book for Sleeping Bear Press—Welcome to America, Champ! by Catherine Stiers—will be released in March 2013. You can find more of her work at www.dorisettlinger.com and facebook/dorisettlingerstudio.

    Thank you, Doris, for sharing Octopumpkin with blogopus readers. I especially love how the little ghost fish light up the jack-o-lantern! We’re all set now to celebrate Halloween!

    ———

    The Octopus Garden: Send us your creepy crawlies!

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      Baby Blue

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      Blogopus would like to welcome a new friend to The Octopus Garden, a lovely blue and grey specimen made in air-dry clay by Grace, age 9.

      Baby Blue, who has traveled all the way from  Lynnfield, Massachusetts, to dive into our waters, is captured here in full camouflage and on the move—but out of her typical element, which only makes her heavenly hues more striking.

      Although it seems impossible, the wily, resourceful, and boneless octopus has been known to  ”walk” across land, particularly those species that live in intertidal zones or near shore. And because most octopi are nocturnal, this behavior is not often observed or recorded by two-legged day-dwellers.

      Since it lives in the water, what would lead an octopus to travel by land? It might be a trick to escape from a predator. But most likely our friend is hunting for a tasty midnight snack such as shellfish, snails, or—as I suspect is true in Baby Blue‘s case—a tentacle-ful of Oreo cookies and a glass of cold milk.

      Thank you Grace (such a lovely name!) for sharing Baby Blue with blogopus readers. I hope she shared her cookies and milk with you!

      The Octopus Garden: Help us grow… 

      ——♥——

      A Wild West hurrah for Colorado Susan,
      friend, classmate, and the first poet to graduate
      with a Creative Writing MFA in Verse with an Emphasis in Versecraft
      from Western State College of Colorado!
      Yi-haa!

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        DOOS

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        Wave hello to DOOS, the first
        Deconstructed Octopus in Outer Space

        One Small Step for Blogopus, One Giant Leap for Cephalopods

        Once DOOS reenters Earth’s atmosphere he’ll plunge into the ocean, descend, and join the other residents of The Octopus Garden.
        Imagine the photos and stories he’ll have to share!
        (Not to mention the Neapolitan astronaut ice cream…)

        3…2…1…

        The Octopus Garden! 

        Dive in—or blast off!

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          Tentacular

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          Today’s Best Word Ever is tentacular: relating to or resembling tentacles, equipped with tentacles.

          How could I have missed this amazing adjective, from New Latin tentaculum, ”feeler,” from Latin tentare, “to feel, try,” a variant of temptare, “to feel, try, test”?! First known use: 1828.


          Tentacular

          To say they are spiracular
          is cephalopodically oracular,
          but to keep it in octopus venacular,
          his eight undulating limbs are spectacular!

                                                                     

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            Who says an angel can’t be part octopus?

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            Blogopus hasn’t featured a new resident of The Octopus Garden in a while. Meet Chris’s Octoangel. He has eight blue wings and swims in a tempera paint sea—or is that a cherubic blue sky?

            And while some may argue that angels aren’t created, but simply are, Chris’s Octoangel began as a teeny tiny “jellypus,” so perhaps it’s about vision: discarding our blinders, refusing to allow certain boundaries to define our scope, and seeing what’s possible in what is merely physical…

            Here are a few inspiring, unusual, and amusing observations about angels…

            I ain’t good-lookin’, but I’m somebody’s angel child.
            —Bessie Smith

            Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in,
            you can’t expect an angel to look out.
            —B.C. Forbes

            I feel safe in white because, deep down inside, I’m an angel.
            —Puff Daddy

            We are each of us angels with only one wing,
            and we can only fly by embracing one another.
            —Luciano de Crescenzo

            The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.
            —G.K. Chesterton

            I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
            —Michelangelo

            Angels have no philosophy but love.
            —Terri Guillemets

            Outside the open window
            The morning air is all awash with angels.
            —Richard Wilbur

            *  *  *

            Ah! Now I see two angels:

            The Octopus Garden

            The ocean and the sky’s the limit…

            ———

            p.s. Speaking of limitless sky,

            May The Fourth Be With You

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              Lucky Leproctopus

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              Faith and begorra, what can carry more gold and hide it quicker than a wee leprechaun with two legs and the taste for shiny treasure? An eight-armed cephalopod with a sense of style!

              Go Lucky! Even though you’re teasing us with your pot o’ gold, surely you have the key to our hearts!

              Lucky Leproctopus is a crayon drawing by Emma, who is nearly eight, just as spiffy a dresser as Lucky, and known to have the same St. Patrick’s Day sparkle in her eye!

              Once Lucky hides his gold in the The Octopus Garden, we feel quite certain he’ll be tipping his tall green hat and spreading blarney among his fellow garden residents.

              Thanks Emma, for sharing your drawing of Lucky with blogopus readers. You were fortunate to have caught sight of him before he danced a jig and jetted right away! That surely means that

              St. Patrick’s Day (yea!)
              and bright green pancakes (boo!)
              are on their way!

              ♣

              May the roof above us never fall in,
              and may we friends beneath it never fall out.

              ♣    ♣    ♣ 

              Help us populate The Octopus Garden! Sláinte!

              ♣  

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