Clover Yard

Heroes and a precious thing

When I'm asked that morbid question of what would you save from your home if it went on fire (perish the thought), I always think of my little Peter Pan & Wendy book...

I was given this when I was around ten I think and it is just the most beautifully illustrated book by one of my favourite artists, Shirley Hughes.  I can spend ages poring over her highly detailed ink drawings.  She has such a talent for capturing the innocence of children with their little button noses and tangled hair.   

And of course, it's a collaboration with one of my favourite storytellers, J.M. Barrie.  I am very fortunate to live not very far (second star to the right in fact) from the place where J. M. Barrie was born and spent his formative years - Kirriemuir.  It's such a little house (and I mean little - only three rooms, fit for a fairy).  If you peek through the window below, you can see his first inspiration for the Wendy House; a stone built wash house where he would perform plays for his brothers and sisters. 

And the cosy kitchen where he would have chased his siblings round the kitchen table...

When J. M. Barrie was six, his eldest brother died tragically in a skating accident.  He was thirteen.  His mother was devastated and to compensate, James tried to replace his brother by behaving and often dressing like him.  But in his mother's eyes, David would remain a boy of thirteen forever and so the character of Peter Pan was born.  The boy who never grew up.

Such genius, and a great legacy to leave to the world, all perfectly packaged in my beautifully bound little book. 

When the Yellow's on the Broom

We headed off to the beach at St Cyrus, the most unspoilt beach I know (and the spot where D proposed to me - but that's for another post!) I paused to smell the wonderful coconuty scent of the yellow flowers on the broom.  It holds a special significance to me now after reading about the life of a travelling girl, Betsy Whyte who used to spend her winters in a small house in Brechin where I grew up. 

"The townspeople call them tinkers, the tinkers call them scaldies in return, that's just an equally insulting term. They call themselves travelling people. First they help farmers planting, then they go to the River Tay to look for shellfish, and if they're lucky they find a few pearls, take them to the jewellers in Perth and make a little money that way. And when the raspberries and strawberries are ripe they all go to Blairgowrie - that's the heart of the fruit-growing area in Scotland. It's a big festival time for them all."

Betsy and her family can't wait to get back on the road in springtime and when those first sweet smelling yellow flowers appear, they know that it's time.

I think I have a bit of that wanderlust in me too.  Although I am obsessed with the interior of my house I probably wouldn't mind if it were on 2 wheels, with a gas stove and tiny little curtains at the windows (vintage floral of course!). In fact, I'd imagine it would look something like this (cue dreamy sound effect)..

I WANT ONE!!!  No disrespect to real travelling people past and present who of course would journey in something much more practical.   Anyway, as I pinch myself back to reality, the only wanderlusting I did today was of course to my all time favourite beach at St Cyrus which is just so WILD at this time of year with trees washed up vertically on the shore (that one puzzled me).  It all looked quite strange though..

Despite the menacing grey cloud looming overhead, the wee wanderer was happy to be picking up and throwing and drawing pictures in the sand. 

A happy child makes a happy mummy.  Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  xx

I Capture the Castle

We decided to have a bit of a castle theme to our weekend and with no shortage of them in these parts we (husband and son) ventured north to Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire.  We had never visited here before and as we walked through the woods it was quite exciting waiting for that first glimpse of a turret or flag between the trees.  We weren't disappointed...

It really is a lovely castle, the picture doesn't show it but it's slightly pink in colour and is like one of those ornate sandcastles.  Although we didn't get to see inside (a 45 minute tour may have been a bit much for J), we did have a good snoop around the grounds.

 

By coincidence, or maybe not, I am reading I Capture the Castle for the first time and I am completely spellbound.  It's a book that really draws you in and has my romantic head spinning.  I just can't put it down. More about that in a second.

Continuing our trail, today we ventured a bit closer to home to Ecclesgreig Castle near St Cyrus.  Privately owned and at the moment in quite a dismal state of disrepair, I still thought it charming and mysterious and in fact out of both castles visited, I preferred this one.  It desperately needs some TLC, and you can see why below:

The castle was built in the Victorian Gothic style in 1844 onto the remains of a sixteenth century Manor House.  It is being renovated by the current Farquhar family which has involved planting almost a million snowdrops in an effort to return the woodlands to their former glory.  And very pretty they were too.

What struck me most was how much it looked like the image I had in my head of Cassandra's dilapidated home in the book.  I imagined her sitting at one of those broken windows struggling to write in the fading light of the moon.  It really sent shivers down my spine and I couldn't wait to get back home to read more!

It's been a lovely weekend, we made the most of the spring sunshine although today was a bit more typical of the season - a fitting backdrop nevertheless for sad old Ecclesgreig.  Thank you to the lovely boys in my life - D and J, for a special Mother's Day and wishing all you yummy mummys out there a very happy one too. x   

A good read

Wishing for....

 

Those felt cakes are so cute!  And as I'm not a fantastic knitter I may just have a go at these.  There isn't much info on Amazon as to what other projects are inside but I may have to buy it just for the cakes. *(see update at bottom of post)

I read about The Creative Family over at Soule Mama - a lovely, inspirational blog.  I so admire people with broods of children who have the patience and energy to be creative with them all day and who can suffer the mess that goes with it!  Soule Mama's obviously got the knack though and I look forward to reading her book which comes out in April I believe.

One night last week I read, cover to cover, As Always, Jack by Emma Sweeney.  To be honest, I liked the look of it by it's cover and the prospect of reading someone elses love letters was just too good to pass up!  Little did I know that I'd be completely hooked and still reading at 2am (with a rude awakening at 7am by child bouncing on bed - so inconsiderate!).  It follows the early relationship of two wartime sweethearts who's long distance relationship unfolds through 40 or so actual love letters sent by Jack to his sweetheart Beebe.  What makes it all the more poignant is that the author of the book is the daughter of the pair in question, who published the letters after finding them amongst her late mother's belongings.  Tragically her father had died when her mother was pregnant with her and she has grown up knowing little of him.  These letters, often humerous and written with such respect towards her mother, are a fascinating insight into relationships of that time and the historical context behind them.  There are lots of references to what music they were listening to and what movies they were watching.  I particularly like the little doodles Jack makes in some of his letters.  If he were alive today he'd be a great blogger!  Some of the references to American radio programmes etc. were lost on me but it's definitely worth a read. 

I picked this up in my local library which isn't the biggest of libraries but I've borrowed some great books there lately so despite my Amazon link I would always recommend trying them first!

* I was about to order the Warm Fuzzies book and noticed that the author had a very similar book called "Felt so Good" which is in fact the same book with a different cover produced for the UK.  (Ok, I much prefer the title warm fuzzies!).  But, it's cheaper - more money for buying old woolly jumpers from charity shops.  Just don't be caught out by Amazon suggesting you buy both books together.  Oh, and Betz White has a great blog here.