Midsummer

Here in England's north country, fine June evenings remain light until at least 11pm. Can there be a nicer way to end a perfect day than sitting on a warm terrace with the heady scents of summer flowers filling the air.

This picture depicting midsummer hangs in my kitchen. It is by one of my favourite artists, Meg Falconer. The inscription is taken from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. I expect you'll recognise the verse below.

 

 I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk roses and with eglantine.

Meg Falconer is a local artist and her prints have been sold for many years from a lovely gallery overlooking Lake Coniston. Last week we decided to drive the few short miles to the lake and take another look at Meg's inspiring work. Sadly the clouds looked rather menacing but thankfully the rain stayed away.

After several miles negotiating narrow country lanes we arrived at our destination. This is Brantwood, the former home of John Ruskin. He was a leading English art critic of the Victorian era. Also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and a philanthropist. His house containing much of his original work is open to the public.

Ruskin's coach and boat are on display in the coach house and above this is the art gallery we had come to visit. But sadly things didn't turn out as we'd planned. The gallery was closed and the contents had been removed. I was so disappointed.

I know of no other galleries that display Meg Falconer's work and so I think my collection is unlikely to grow.

Whilst I'm content to enjoy midsummer in my garden (when fine) many thousands of people flock to Stonehenge, the world famous Bronze Age standing stones situated on Salisbury Plain. Visitors have to arrive before 4.52am in order to witness the sun appearing over the horizon and aligning perfectly with two of the largest stones.

Apparently today this event was masked by dense cloud and the sun was nowhere to be seen which must have been a huge disappointment for the many who had made the trip.

For folk like me living in a Lakeland valley the midsummer sun isn't visible until it has risen above the hills. Of course you can get out of bed early and climb up a mountain for a better view or maybe pitch a tent and stay on the mountain all night. From the mountain peak you will get a spectacular view of the midsummer sunrise (as long as the sun isn't masked by cloud as so often happens in our country).

Not being someone who scales mountains or pitches tents I am content to spend midsummer at home. And of course my midsummer night's dream will be filled with pictures like this!

 

 Enjoy your weekend everyone

Eli x

Beautifully upcycled

One piece of advice will always remind me of my mum and dad.

"Don't throw it away because you never know when it might be useful."

How right they were! One person's 'junk' is very definitely another person's 'treasure' and my parents kept cupboards full of treasured bits and bobs of every shape and size. As a result they were able to create, repair and rebuild all kinds of things over the years. Sadly my parents are no longer here but I know they would have been amazed and delighted to see some of the beautifully crafted pieces of jewelry that are featured on Etsy these days. All cleverly utilise upcycled materials. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Necklace and bracelet by Dishfunctional Designs (uses broken china)

  

 

Necklaces by Mermaids Tears Jewelry (uses sea glass)

  

Necklace by Button Soup Jewelry (uses vintage buttons)

Bracelet and necklace by The Key of A (uses keys of all types)

Ring by London Particulars (uses vintage watch parts)

My final choices are created from vintage silver spoons. They are all made by LTCreates Jewelry 

Bracelet

Watch

 Variety of rings

If you have an upcycled favourite that is featured on Etsy feel free to leave the name of the shop in the comments box, I'd love to take a look.

Stories fondly remembered

My daughter has built up quite a large collection of Ladybird books over the years. Her love for these little books began when she was a child and the collection continues to grow thanks mainly to thrift shop finds.

Looking at the books I spotted several of her favourite stories and one in particular that was my husband's favourite when he was very young. His mum read the story to him when he was 3 or 4 years old and amazingly all these years later he can still quote several lines from the book.

I wonder if anyone else can recall this particular story.

 

Typically it's a sad tale with a happy ending (thank goodness, I hate sad endings). Judging by the fashions I think it was probably first published in the 1940s but remained on sale well into the 1970s.

Little dog Ginger lives on a farm in the heart of the countryside where he regularly plays with his friend Tommy. But one sad day Tommy tells him he must go and live in the big city and poor Ginger is bundled into a crate and taken to the station.

Tommy waves goodbye to his friend as the train passes (note the obligatory spotted hankie).

When he reaches London little dog Ginger is met by Joan who fastens a collar round his neck and drags him through the busy streets to his new home.

But of course Ginger is soon in trouble. When he breaks the arm off Joan's best doll he runs to hide but in doing so upsets a bucket of water which angers Mary the maid.

Mary and Joan (clutching her broken doll) go looking for Ginger who is hiding in the tool shed. When they find him the poor terrified little dog is locked in the shed as punishment. But thankfully Ginger is eventually able to make his escape.

And of course he wastes no time in finding his way back to the open countryside and the farm where his kind friend Tommy is waiting for him.

And the story ends with . . . .

So the friends remained together,

Friends for ever and a day,

Going out in wind and sunshine,

Out across the farm to play.

Thank goodness for happy endings!

Life amongst woodland folk

Don't you love this picture of woodland folk running to the post box with their letters. They are just in time to catch the last collection of the day. Before the days of email our village post boxes were emptied two or three times every day, but sadly not any more.

This cute postcard and the ones that follow were sent several years ago to my daughter by her Granny.

Whenever Granny went on a day trip she never failed to mail a card to each of her grandchildren which I think was a lovely idea.

 

There are always lots of fun things going on in every scene.

Sales and looking for bargains! . . . .   Now there's something we all enjoy!

 

Wheelbarrow races used to be very popular but I'm guessing they might be considered 'unsafe' these days!

Any game can end in disagreement. . . Lemonade anyone?

 

If you are familiar with scenes like these then you probably know the artist was Racey Helps. I used to presume they were painted by a woman but in fact they are the work of a man, and here he is.

His name is Angus Clifford Racey Helps. He was born in 1913 and lived in Somerset, England. During the war years, whilst working as a hairdresser, he wrote and illustrated short stories for his young daughter. One day a book publisher entered his hair salon and saw one of the illustrated stories and fell in love with it. This was the start of Racey Helps' career as a writer and illustrator.

I recently discovered a lovely Racey Helps web site and on it there is a short video of the man himself being interviewed about his work. He was a very quiet and unassuming gentleman and quite a dapper dresser it would seem. If you'd like to see it you'll find it on the Racey Helps website.

Although written several years ago, the little story books like the one above are still available from booksellers. The postcards can of course be found on Ebay.

Thankfully my daughter kept all the postcards that Granny sent her and looking at them again has brought back many happy memories.

Until next time

Eli

Books and their illustrators

I've always collected anything and everything but have favoured some things more than others. I now realise that quite a few of my acquisitions are related to some of my favourite books. As I love to discover what I can about a book's illustrator I always look for details of their life and work. Brambly Hedge is my first example. The omnibus edition contains the four seasons stories and also looks at the life of author and illustrator Jill Barklem.

My daughter has all the individual story books.

I have several pieces of Brambly Hedge china of which this is just a small selection!

I love Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustrations of chubby children and over the years I've managed to acquire many of her early annuals. There is a short introduction charting MLA's life in the book on the left by Chris Beetles. The remaining pages are filled with many Attwell illustrations.

This is my only Attwell figurine.

Designs from 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' could be seen everywhere in the 1980s. They decorated oven mitts, biscuit tins, teasets and bed linen, It was possible to have your entire house decked out in Country Diary style which indeed some people did, although I wasn't one of them! The associated book about Edith Holden's life and work makes a very interesting read.

Although I didn't buy any of the household wares I couldn't resist this Country Diary knitting book by Annette Mitchell. It contains some gorgeous patterns.

Beatrix Potter is another favourite of mine. This excellent book by Judith Taylor gives a detailed account of her life and work. Beatrix lived in the Lake District and so our local shops are chock-full of Peter Rabbits and Jemima Puddle-Ducks.

As I live in the area it has been difficut over the years to resist buying just a 'just a few' Potter figurines.

Don't you just love this depiction of 'The Old Woman who lived in a Shoe'.

I spent much of this summer designing two new dolls, one of which is based on the much loved American character Raggedy Ann. Before I started work I needed to find out more about her so acquired Patricia Hall's book about Johnny Gruelle the creator. He was a prolific and very talented artist and I immediately fell in love with his heartwarming stories about the little rag doll.

Below is my knitted version of Raggedy Ann. Having read the book about Johnny Gruelle and several of his early stories I was determined to try and recapture the sweet nature of his original Raggedy Ann.

My most recent book acqisition is 'The Art of Holly Hobbie'. I stumbled upon this quite by chance on Amazon last week. As soon as I saw the title I knew I'd have to buy it. Many people believe that Holly Hobbie is the name of the little girl in the large blue hat, but it isn't, it's the name of the illustrator. I couldn't wait to get inside the book and find out more.

I was a huge fan of Holly Hobbie greetings cards in the 70s and 80s and many of my friends and family came to expect a HH card for birthdays and Christmas. As I turned the pages of the book I noticed many of the pictures looked familiar, it was like meeting old friends again.

This little girl is of course instantly recognisable as the Holly Hobbie trademark.

The book contains lots of beautiful illustrations plus a hand written account by Holly Hobbie describing how the 'little girls with big hats' became popular worldwide and which of her children inspired particular pictures.

There are some lovely insights into life in the Hobbie household.

This is the family's lovely old house in New England where the children grew up.

The huge fireplace at the heart of the home made the perfect setting for a Christmas Eve illustration. Just look at the expressions on the children's faces!

If, like me, you remember with affection the many Holly Hobbie illustrations and would like to find out what inspired several of them then I can recommend the 'Art of Holly Hobbie'. It was first published in 1986 and should be available from Amazon. I don't think you'll be disppointed.

Holly Hobbie now illustrates her popular children's books about two little pigs named Toot and Puddle.