Echoes of a Dream

Catching up on books

We seem to have had a visitor filled first week of the holidays so far so it seems a bit odd to wake up this morning to an emptyish house with just me and the children. Tom who also had some time off started his new job this morning and we'll be waiting eagerly tonight for his first impressions.

Last weekend, despite the weather we went exploring in Sussex. On Friday we took in a National Trust property called Standen which is a beautiful example of the Arts and Crafts style. The house was designed by Phillip Webb for the Beale family who used it at weekends and holidays. You can read more about it here and here. If you look in Google images there are some pics too although they don't do it any justice. If you're into William Morris's designs then you'll love this place.The only pics I managed to take were of some Delft tiles in an outhouse - sorry:

 

After that we decided to go down to the sea but didn't last long as it was so cold. Still it was pretty invigorating for a (short) while. This chalk cliff face is known as the Seven Sisters:

Other than a bit of sightseeing I seem to have been madly reading over the past four weeks. It's almost as if I'm making up for lost time. I didn't seem to find time for reading whilst I was crafting and blogging like mad in the old house. So far I've ploughed through quite an eclectic mixture.

First off was Sathnam Sanghera's book "If You Don't Know Me By Now" - a beautifully written account of this Sikh boy's childhood in Wolverhampton. It's about coming to terms with his culture, his father's illness and most importantly about trying to live his own life as he wants to despite strong pressure from his family. I laughed and cried my way through most of the book. Tom's reading it now and I'm definitely getting copies for my siblings this year. Definitely worth a read ladies.

After that I found this on the shelf and as Amber and Rohan had enjoyed it I thought I'd try it too. It's "The Land of Far Beyond" by Enid Blyton and is a children's version of the Pilgrim's Progress. The story is about a small group of adults and children who live in the City of Turmoil. They're nasty, vindictive, horrid people until one day when The Stranger arrives and fills their hearts with love and happiness momentarily so that the burdens in their hearts are shifted on to their backs. To remove these loads they must journey to The Celestial City but on the way they are met with many dangers and difficulties. There is a brilliant account of the book here. A must read for everyone of any age I'd say.

Then this caught my eye in the local library - "Colour Bar The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation". Seretse Khama was the first leader of independent Botswana and this book is about his six year exile from that country because he married a white girl. It was a bit of a shocking read. I'm not naive enough to think politicians don't lie but I was shocked at how much lying went on to keep this man out of his country and away from his rightful leadership (pre 1966). All because Britain didn't want to upset South Africa because they wanted uranium from them. The thing that really came out of this book though is this man's strength of character. How he retained his dignity and self respect despite everything and how he never seemed to rise to anger over his situation. Amazing.

Of course I had to read "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" after that. Did anyone see the film last week? I thought it was great.

Somewhere in between I picked up "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons. Can't believe that I've never read this book. It seems to be a parody of Thomas Hardy and is very, very funny.

I haven't got anything on the go now so I guess I need to get to the library or the local bookshop to pick up something to take to my parents for the next few days. Hope you're all having a great Easter break .......

Books

........books are gateways to a magic world, where you can be anything you want to be ........

As I was reading to Raj last night and he was begging for yet another chapter it ocurred to me that it would be fun to do a post on books. We're a bit obsessed with books in our house you see. Well, actually I think it's ME that is obsessed with books.

There are shelves full of books everywhere. I won't bore you with all the photographs so I'll just focus on  children's books. There is my collection of almost 200 ladybird books in the sitting room:

Books in Raj's room:

Books in Rohan's room:

and he's overspilled here:

Books in Amber's room:

More children's books here:

I just can't seem to stop buying them - thankfully most of the books come from ebay or the charity shops. I think my obsession - for that's what it must be stems from my childhood. OK I can hear groans and voices saying "I wondered when she'd start blaming the folks"

But it's true - it really is. We didn't have one book in our house - no that's a lie we did have one book and that was the Holy Book. As you know my parents are illiterate and with six children and my Dad slaving away in a factory there wasn't much money for anything but food and clothes. Having no books in the house was normal and it never ocurred to me to ask for any either. Which is odd because I LOVED reading.

I didn't learn English until I was about 6 and I started at primary school (slip in cute pic of me that I found the other day). I must have picked it up pretty quickly because a couple of years later I discovered the local library and an uncle took me along to join. After that I lived for Saturdays. After getting the chores out of the way I'd be off with my lilac and cream knitted bag full of books. Once in the library I would smile sweetly to the librarian who I imagined looked like Enid Blyton and then it was straight into the children's room. I always started at A and I slowly read each title and my joy at discovering a new one cannnot be described. Infact as I'm writing this and reliving the event I have goosepimples. Do you know I can still remember where CS Lewis was on the shelves, Enid Blyton and many others.

We were only allowed to borrow six books in those days (oh cruel restrictions). Once I'd chosen a pile I'd sit at the little table and flick through them. Then it was getting home as fast as possible. If I'd been to the library in the morning I'd read a book propped up at the table whilst eating my lunch of chappatis and dahl and then after that I was esconsed in my books ALL weekend and no-one could get through to me. I'd usually read them all by Sunday night.

Well, the pleasure of reading continued for many years until I grew up and graduated into the adult section. Sadly, there was no-one to advise me what to read and the likes of David Cassidy took over my desires so that I stopped reading for many years. English Lit at school didn't help either what with dissecting novels to nth degree - what is the sigificance of red in Tess of the D'Urbervilles for example. I couldn't care less.

So getting back to my current obsession I found that at first I was subconsciously buying books for the children that I had read as a child. Then I started looking out for particular titles and I've gone one step further and in some cases I've bought the exact editions I read too. It's amazing but when I open a book and see a picture I am transported back in time and I can still feel those feelings that I had originally. Take this one for instance. It's an extract from The Family From One End Street:

 

Here is the page that describes the scene. I can still remember how Kate felt waking up in the coutryside. Like her I was a townie and I longed for a time when I could wake up and have that sort of view. I looked at and dreamt about that picture many, many times.

Needless to say I have re-read many of these books again and again in recent years. I feel really blessed that my children also seem to share my love of reading - especially Amber who has been through most of the books in Raj and Rohan's room and her own.

So what are they reading at the moment? Here are some of Raj's favourites - just click on each pic for a bigger view:

Rohan's favourite book is Wolfbrother by Michelle Paver he says but he's reading these at the moment:

You just cannot beat Enid Blyton I'm afraid for excitement, great plot and great characters. Tom wasn't allowed to read any Blyton and I know quite a lot of people who weren't. I think it was the same parents that banned ITV and only allowed their children to watch BBC. Thank goodness my parent's were oblivious to all that.

Amber has moved on to grown up books now but she still delves into these which are amongst her favourite titles:

   

Now I know I've gone on long enough but I can't leave you without showing you some of my favourite children's books - the ones that bring back the most memories. Here are some just plucked off the shelves this morning:

and finally:

The quote at the top of this post was so true for me - growing up in an immigrant family in a big City I escaped through my books. One day I was Diana in Anne of Green Gables, another day I was George in The Famous Five, then I was Randy in The Saturdays, Kate in the Family From One End Street and so it went on. Now I'm just me but it's great going back to visit my 'other lives' ocassionally.

If you've got this far - thank you so much for reading this very long post. I would LOVE to hear what your favourite books were as a child and who you wanted to be ..................

The sun came out and there was hope

Well, it's remarkable what a sunny day can do to ones mood. We set off this morning to walk to school at 8.15am and you would not believe that it was still dark. Infact, I had to stop someone to check the time because I thought it was much earlier. Luckily the rain held off. Sad to say I didn't walk back but cadged a lift from a friend. Anyway, the long and short of it is that the blooming sun came out mid morning and the kitchen was basked in sunlight. I felt as if someone had removed the paper bag that was over my head. I felt so uplifted.

Then I read domesticali's post and this bit of a quote hit me: "Many of us are unhappy, not because we don't have enough but because we have too much" and it really rang true for me. So what with my new found happiness and the enthusiasm that came with it I went through the toy cupboard and that drawer that everyone has in their home where they just fling things. I'm pleased to report that I almost filled a black bin bag with rubbish and another one with stuff for the charity shop. You can actually find things in the toy cupboard now and see what there is.

Whilst in this happy frame of mind I've resolved to keep walking, to get the wood in and set a fire when I get in from dropping off the children so that's it's all ready for the evening, to get back into the habit of cooking supper in the morning and not at 4 or 5pm, to invite one friend over each week for lunch or drop hints for them to invite us (Raj and I), to make a list of projects that I need to finish AND finish them. I currently have an order for two angels and I must get on with it. I also have some knitting on the go which is so uninspiring and I'm going to unravel it and make something else. Finally, I'm going to order some more dyes and replenish my stock of plant dyed fibre and then get it back on etsy and ebay.  Gosh, I feel so good about having made some decisions. I was beginning to think that the fog wouldn't lift and I'd never do anything.  How, though to keep it up when you know that tomorrow will probably be grey and muddy again? But as Scarlett O'Hara said ' tomorrow is another day'.

I'll just leave you with a book I started yesterday and which probably also contributed to lifting my spirits somewhat.

I bumped into our old Kindy teacher over Christmas who has emigrated to France and she told me about it. It's basically a lot of stories about all the different colours and dyes that there are and their history. It's like an adventure story really. It's funny I've been using things she mentions like madder, logwood, cochineal and I never thought about how and where they were found and what lengths people went to guard them or replicate them. It's a great read for anyone who paints or dyes or anyone who just wants to know about the history of the colours that we all now take for granted. Click here to read more on Amazon.

Hopefully, next time I'll have two finished angels to show you....................bye.

Confessions of an addict...

I did sort of wonder, but never admitted it to myself but it can't be covered up any longer. I have an obssession with collecting children's books. I came to this realisation when I found the Vintage Children's Group on flickr as advertised by allsorts on her blog. My heart gave a leap as I saw myself reaching for all my lovely books and sharing them with the world(!) So I spent most of the afternoon surrounded by piles of books, scanning madly, posting quickly onto flickr. I didn't even have lunch but I wasn't hungry in the afternoon. I think the children came home from school about 3.30 ish but I don't know what they did after that. Maybe the mad glint in my eyes sent them running into the garden to play and get away from me. Thankfully, I have gone through most of my books - I posted 65 pictures - so I can slow down now and find others when and if I want to. I will post a link to flickr if I can but I'll give you a little taster here. But which ones I'm asking myself? Will it be something by the great Edward Ardizzone, an Elsa Beskow book for younger children, Dr Dolittle, something by Enid Blyton? No - it'll be a pic from one of my favourite books: Japanese Children's favourite Stories.