The Cutest Thing to Ever Eat Bugs

Welcome back, friends!

Today's topic is a lovable creature, just chock-full of warm fuzzies and... bugs?  Yup!  Lots and lots of bugs.  As many as 50,000 in one day, as a matter of fact!  Ew.  But our darling critter's gross dining habits are made up for by his super-cute gigundo ears.  Ears he uses to hear as he's burrowing around in the desert for bugs, getting all DIRTy, PIGging out on ants and termites and other crunchy delights.  Perhaps that's why he's known as the:

aardvark:  A burrowing mammal (Orycteropus afer) of southern Africa, having a stocky, hairy body, large ears, and a long tubular snout.

If we were to break down the famous name of this lovable little guy, we would see that it is of Afrikaans and Dutch origins.  It translates to earth (dirt) pig.  Nice.

Anywho, just because this cute darling eats ants doesn't mean that he's an anteater--although a lot of people would call him one.  True anteaters are a whole other animal.  Or animals.  It turns out that the term "anteater" is applied rather liberally to the bug-eating-mammal world.

In other news, you should all check out my redone website.  It's still not perfect, but it's a sight better than the original.  For those of you keeping track, this is version number 2, folks.

www.rohlsart.com

Quiz of the day:
Which popular children's cartoon character is portrayed by an aardvark?  And NO GOOGLING.  I forbid it!

Oh, and your image.  Getting away from my digital experiments, this is done in colored pencil.

Aachen Be Your Hero, Baby

Apologies all around for the delay in this second post, but fear not!  Your prayers have been answered!  I have wavered and waffled, procrastinated and balked, but here is the second non-abbreviated, fun-to-draw noun in the English language!  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

Aachen:  A city of West Germany near the Belgian and Dutch borders.

What's that you say?  Never heard of Aachen?  That's okay.  I shall give you a mini-lesson in Aachen history!  The area around Aachen has been populated since Neolithic times, but it was the hot springs that drew a large crowd of bathers in the Roman times.  Those bathers settled down and had little bathers, who began to call their home Aachen.  Well, maybe not Aachen, but their name was the root of our modern Aachen.

Then we come to the Middle Ages, where our dear and venerated Charlemagne really put Aachen on the map when he established the seat of his power (quite literally, actually) and built his Palatine Chapel at Aachen.  Of course, all good things come to great harm in time, and as is the case with a lot of European damage, Aachen was heavily damaged in WWII.  Fortunately, Charlemagne's royal house of God survived, which is excellent news for all of you artsy/architectural buffs out there.

All right, darlings.  The time has come for our goodbyes.  Remember to appreciate your medieval architecture, and pop in to see us next time as we have a look at everyone's favorite Animal.  You know the one I'm talking about.  The aardvark.

For your viewing pleasure until next time: