Ms Millicent Beatrice Owens was quite the intrepid explorer.

So when she announced that she intended to be 'tossed up in a basket, seventeen times as high as the moon', her friends were unperturbed, certain she was up to the challenge.

Ms Owens had decided her next adventure would be out into the furthest reaches of space itself.
Being a fastidious cleaner, and with a keen liking for things to be kept spick and span, she would go armed with a stout broom, and 'sweep the cobwebs from the sky...'

After weaving a basket, she fashioned a balloon-sail from her eiderdown, and adorned it with pieces of lace, crochet and patterned squares, crafted for her by her sewing-and-knitting circle friends.

And so, accompanied by her faithful Madagascan lemur friend Marwood, and bountiful supplies for the expedition - including a sturdy tin of china tea, a floral cup, saucer and tea-strainer, and an assortment of lemon and brandy-snap biscuits (for even on expeditions, one must allow time for afternoon tea) - Millicent sat herself neatly in the basket, brandished her broom, and braced herself as she was catapulted into the heavens...

Later, after her graceful return to planet earth, she published a volume detailing the many types of aliens she had encountered on her travels, how she helped cultivate a small herb garden on an Martian planet, (and later traded some fascinating Martian rosebushes in return for the brandysnaps) and how satisfying it was to be able to recycle the sky-cobwebs, and use the strands to form make-shift hammocks for the delighted alien children.

................

This picture was originally intended to be a simple illustration of the old nursery rhyme - 'There was an old woman tossed up in a basket...' - but as I drew, the character of Ms Owens began to form, and a little story grew round her.
She's great fun to draw and dream up adventures for... I think I'll do some more