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Cinderella Clock made for a display I am always late for everything in life preferring to hold back and wait and see before testing the waters myself. Some years ago when the husband and I were buying...
View ArticleThe Dressing Up Box
Attic Treasures by John O'Brien I usually do a more serious post for All Hallows Eve, or throw a lavish ball. But this year we are nursing our old Maine Coon Munchkin LeStrange and as he is poorly our...
View ArticleNumber 4 Privet Drive
The first page of the first book. Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone And so it began. I've said before that words can hold hidden power to touch us in so many ways. Often it happens suddenly but...
View ArticleThe Mermaid's House
“mermaids have no tears, and therefore they suffer more.” ― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little MermaidAs August drifts into September we in England have the last Bank Holiday of the year. It's an odd...
View ArticleSwifts ~ upon charcoal wings
A Swift glides effortlessly across the surface of the waterphoto credit RSPB websiteLast week the Swifts gathered in large numbers overhead, flying low and shrieking loudly. They were preparing to...
View ArticleLammastide ~ John Barleycorn Must Die
La Belle Jardiniere – August, 1896 by Eugène GrasseSummer was slow this year and the garden responded reluctantly unfolding only part of it's potential for us to see. Rain and winds destroyed the...
View ArticleBeatrix Potter ~ 150th Birthday
Beatrix Potter levels her strong gaze at the camera as a childI hate missing anniversaries, and of course as history steadfastly carries on further down the path the chances to stand still to enjoy an...
View ArticleMid Summer Dreaming
"If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance."- Bern Williams This summer in the English countryside has seen no sign of Flaming June. It has been a landscape of muddy...
View ArticleWilliam Shakespeare - For all time
William Shakespeare detail from The Cobbe portraitKnown to be Shakespeare"He was not of an age, but for all time."William Shakespeare is a man for all seasons though in truth we barely know the man...
View ArticleSweet Prince
Resplendent PrinceHis flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.Samuel Taylor...
View ArticleQueen Elizabeth II - 90th Birthday
The Queen Mother with the then Princess Elizabeth, 1937Happy 90th Birthday to Queen Elizabeth II. This week seems to be one of anniversaries, some good and some bad. The 200th anniversary of the birth...
View ArticleThe Gothic Wardrobe
The elaborate carvings at the top of The Gothic Wardrobeof vine leaves, gothic arches and Tudor rosesI'm busy Spring cleaning and have just dusted the carvings on this Gothic Wardrobe. Which reminded...
View ArticleDavid Bowie ~ The Stars Line Up
Bowie fans lay flowers at the mural created in 2013 by Australian street artist James Cochran.The wall of Morley’s department store, in Tunstall Road, Brixton. It wascommissioned as part of the...
View ArticleThe Kindness of Strangers
'Catching Butterflies' by Colleen ParkerHERE:I don't publish blog posts as often as I mean to. I have a folder full of subjects and images which whisper to me, spinning their stories like dream...
View Articlein the Company of Wolves
A mystical version of Santa Clausfrom Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures published in 1913. This painting was done in 1907, pen, ink & watercolour on paper, and is in a Private Collection. Photo ©...
View ArticleAnd Then There Were Three
Minerva and Morpheus Black Mrs Black and her naughty kitten IsabellaWe have been a family of two cats since November two years ago when Mrs Black, missing both her late husband Morpheus, and their much...
View ArticleTwo Doors Down From The Witch
Two Doors Down Once upon a time in the 1980s I lived in an ordinary looking house in a terrace, (especially on a bright sunny day as this), in East Twickenham, by the river Thames, two doors down from...
View ArticleARABIAN NIGHTS - in Holland Park
Dalziels Illustrated Arabian Nights EntertainmentsLondon: Ward, Lock, and Co. 1870. A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing...
View ArticleBOOK PORTALS
This book proved impossible to resist. We had a third floor in our old cottage in Devon which was comprised of a large 3 roomed attic in the eaves. The smallest room became our study, the cats lounged...
View ArticleI HAVE A DREAM
Martin Luther KingCome senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is...
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