GIVING THANKS

Myott England's Countryside platter, edge detail
a treasured pattern of mine

As we do not have Thanksgiving in England we are tipped straight from 'back to school' to  Christmas, with a small stop between for Halloween and Guy Fawkes, or Bonfire Night. I love the little Trick or Treaters which visit us on Halloween, and on Bonfire Night our village hold a communal bonfire with fireworks.

But I miss the Thanksgiving holidays I had with family and friends when I lived in California, or the early years after I first moved here when we would all meet up at the family home. I like the way that so many people decorate their homes and yards for Fall with pumpkins, scarecrows, primitive dolls and the multi coloured flags. Windows alight each night with scented candles. As if joining in the show that nature provides for us before the dark and cold of winter.



There is something very special about a house full of people of all ages sharing a meal prepared with love. It's worth the early rising to get the turkey in the oven and prepare the mounds of vegetables which need to be washed, peeled, cooked and often mashed by hand. One Thanksgiving the black Labrador who lived on the top of the hill above our house came down to join us. She was quite old and it was raining but she was determined. We were honoured and suspect that she had a second dinner when her owner took her home.

Showing gratitude for what we receive is something I try to make a permanent part of my life.  Autumn seems the perfect time to take a moment and remember the year before retreating indoors and preparing our homes for the Winter. It's a time to thank those who have helped us and shared our lives through the golden times, and the bad times.

Although from California our family scattered across America, as so many do today so this get together in November was precious to us all. As our family Elders passed on this also became a time to remember them, and to do our best to make a meal as good as they had once done for all of us. Our family were not well off and they made the most of whatever they could afford to buy or grow. We are more fortunate than they were and grateful for the guidance they gave to us to assist us in our lives.

Time has diminished my family numbers, big houses were sold, we downsized and we are now the Elders ourselves. The truth is that we will have no more Thanksgivings together and as the youngest I am left with the memories of those days.

I still like to dress the house for the seasons and have a small collection of what I call winter and summer china and ornaments. Because I moved here when I was a young free spirited girl having a big adventure I traveled light and was unable to bring my china with me. In those days few of us owned a camera and sadly I did not record my surroundings but I  remember fondly some of the transfer ware and patterns. Once it was clear that I was settled here I began my collection again and tried to find some of what I had left behind. For me it is a way of remembering my family.

Funny enough I realised most of the things I cherished as a child had been made in England. I love brown transfer ware for it's simplicity and there is something comforting about the mellow shades and delicate designs.

Many of my pieces have chips or hairline cracks but I still use and enjoy them, carefully!

I am very nosy about china and always like to take a peak when visiting stately homes. I love it when the houses have kept their collections. On a recent visit to the National Trust property Tyntesfield I fell in love with a huge glass mold in the shape of a turkey.

It was used as a jelly mold, or as we called it in America, a 'jello' mold. I would love to borrow it !

One of my favourite  pieces I own is this vintage Wood and Sons Burslem jug, 'Woodland' pattern, hand coloured transfer ware, English Staffordshire. I  love the shape and the detail in the design. The border around the rim is so beautiful and it also has a pattern down the handle. The big house set in the country scene reminds me of the stately homes in the landscapes around England, and in some parts of America.

I wish all of my friends across the water a Happy Thanksgiving from our little cottage here in Wessex where we will take time to remember.

IN A SEASONAL HOME - Autumn Magic

Nothing like an Autumn Bonfire

We've had a busy summer visiting new and old places and friends and gathering bright and shiny treasures along the way. Some will need a gentle hand to mend them before they can be sold and find new homes.  And some will stay with us as we cannot bear to part with them!



A beautiful Moss Agate bracelet we found
which reminds us of the season.

Burleigh ware Harvest jug from the 1930s

Carved oak Dragon panel

The gardens around us and our small community have needed a lot of work and we have become the 'Godparents' to the ancient churchyard where we trim and nurture the hedges and trees and take a few moments to linger over the old headstones. Many churchyards near us have become nature reserves and we hope that ours can also be a little less manicured and more wild. There is something reassuring about living things dwelling amongst the spirits of the departed.

This is my favourite time of year. I never think of Autumn and Winter as being dark seasons. I see a different colour palette to Spring and Summer, but still fiercely bright. It's a time for richly coloured velvets and tapestry, calico cats and glass vases in jewel like hues. 

Isabella

I love the feel of the change in the air and the light, and relish the cooler weather. I was California born but I never fitted into the sun and sand lifestyle and it was one Autumn day a long time ago that I moved to England. It is a special season for me, with some happy and some sad anniversaries bringing out the nesting instinct as the days shorten and the nights become chill. I love the thought of stacks of blankets, hot chocolate with marshmallows,  and the cats curled up by the fire. Grab a good book and relax after the activity of the warmer months. Or, like me, borrow a neighbour's dog and go for a long walk in the woods letting it channel it's inner Wolf. 

We are going on one last trip before we settle in for the year, this time to France. When we return we will be decorating for the harvest and Halloween. And we will be sharing a sad but interesting ghost story we have with you. 

 

* The luscious brights and darks shown in two of our photographs are from a magical visit we had with Hannah and Rachel of Velvet Eccentrics. Read about them HERE:

SEASONAL - Summer is Gone

Chinese lanterns beginning to glow

Nobody on the road
nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
the summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets,
the sun goes down alone

Don Henley, The Boys of Summer

We had some glorious weeks of summer, but the air has turned and the Autumn wind has begun to pull her amber bejewelled blanket over the land. The dew is heavier in mornings and it is dark before we have dinner. The glow of Chinese Lanterns has appeared between the foliage of summer flowers. Summer is gone.

Butterfly nectar

We watched the last Butterflies taking nectar from our Buddleia bushes.  Some only visit us here in England, they cannot survive the winters and die at summer's end. The Bees too have gone down in numbers, it seems silent without their gentle buzzing. The Swifts left us last month, House Martins and Swallows struggle on through the rainy colder days with their last broods before their farewell gathering and journey to South Africa.

Our tiny Dragons are leaving the pond to chose stones for hibernation.

Mrs Black soaks up the last of the sunshine

This years Hollyhocks were glorious

And us? We begin to gather our woollens, light the lamps and get out the books we plan to read in our winter nests.

Toast

Top of my list is the Autumn catalogue which arrived from Toast this week. perfect timing! Beautiful colour palette, mustards, rusts and clear greens with navy. I've been tuned to yellow this summer, it is a warming colour, think bowls of spice in a desert souk. It's such a gorgeous photo shoot it is a joy to look at even if you are not shopping. My favourites are the mustard hand warmers, and the white horse! All I need now is a cup of tea.

Toast
website HERE:

BOOK 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 on the mezzanine central room overlooking the stair rails and the largest room accidently became a library.

 It was bliss, which alas, we had to give up due to the rather crippling mortgage. For 5 years we had collected books which lined all the walls, and more than half of them had to go when we downsized. We still have far too many books, and yet .... every now and then I must buy just one more.

I really need to live here, at Hereford Castle which has this magnificent Library. Even then I am certain that I could fill it in no time at all.

My kind of room - Hereford Castle Library From Here:

This latest acquisition is a rare edition of 'Nursery Tales, Told to the Children' by Amy Steadman with illustrations by Paul Woodroffe. Published by T.C. & E.C. Jack, London/E.P. Dutton & Co., New York circa 1910. 



 This is Number 24 in the ‘Told to the Children’ series edited by Louey Chisholm.This uncommon edition of fairy tales, includes eight lovely colour plates by the British illustrator and stained-glass artist Paul Woodroffe (1875-1954).

John Russell Taylor writes of Woodroffe (in The Art Nouveau Book in Britain, 1966): “His first illustrations, closely imitative of Walter Crane, were for Ye Booke of Nursery Rhymes (1895) … with music by Joseph Moorat, a friend of [Laurence] Housman’s. He would seem to have been adopted early by the Housmans, Clemence engraving his illustrations to The Confessions of St Augustine (1900), which Laurence supplied with a title-page, and his illustrations to Laurence’s translation of Aucassin and Nicolette (1902) … Once removed from the direct Housman influence he drifted into other artistic activities …”

Nursery Tales dates from Woodroffe’s post-Housman period, the illustrations similar in style to those in his lavish colour-plate edition of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, published in 1908.
I have only once seen this edition and that was many many years ago.  Despite having no space on any of our shelves I had to buy it!

As you can see this is the tale of Goldilocks and The Three Bears.

We have had the best few weeks of summer. Long languid days and nights, humid rain showers, wild flowers, Bees, Butterflies, Dragonflies and Birds -  and now the garden is full of change. It seems only yesterday the lush blooms of Peony, Damask Rose, Clematis and Honeysuckle were scenting the air and filling as far as the eye could see with colour. Now the seed heads of Lavender and Poppy have appeared and the upright stems have lain down. The Tree Bumblebees have flown their nest and only a few sleepy Wasps and gentle stripey Hoverflies remain. With Autumn on the way my thoughts always turn to the woods, and the fairy tales that tell of them.

Red Riding Hood and The Wolf



Cinderella, her black cat and her Fairy Godmother
in a red cape!
 

I like nothing better in Autumn and Winter than curling up with the cats and a book by the fire. I have discovered that many of my most treasured stories involve the colour Red. I have always loved Little Red Riding Hood, and was thrilled and delighted when Chocolat was published and later filmed that Joanne Harris used red in her stories and it was her favourite colour. I always feel empowered with cherry red nails and lipstick. Of course there are those Ruby Slippers too! And here, how fascinating that the Fairy Godmother of Cinderella has been illustrated with a red cape.

Brunhild by George Frederic Watts
oil 1880

I'm off to London tomorrow for a wander in Kensington and a pre-Raphaelite adventure with a German friend who is visiting London. Hopefully we will see some paintings by Watts which I have not seen before. But my thoughts will be straying home as I have two cats who are each a bit below the weather. Mrs Black recently had a funny turn. She is an ex feral and a mature lady of a certain age now so each illness has to be taken seriously. She was a bit off colour (but still black!) for a few days and after a visit to the local vet hospital she seems to be improving. We think perhaps she was over ambitious in her control of the moth population. Now that she no longer needs to watch her weight as a little plumpness is nice in older cats she cannot resist a mothy tidbit. She has rallied and is now busying herself in nursing her Naughty Kitten who is very poorly indeed. She has a high temperature and is under the care of our vet who has taken blood samples and given medication. She was allowed home because she frets so if not with Mrs Black and us. But she may have to be admitted to hospital if that temperature does not go down. She is curled up in a basket by the fire now. Please keep her in your thoughts.

NOTES:

Joanne Harris is one of my very favourite authors, I feel a part of her stories of Vianne Rocher and her daughters . If you have not done so read her books and see Chocolat. Her own website is here:
And she post witty and informative things on Tumblr, HERE:

SEASONAL ~ Through a Glass Darkly

Winter Reflections




 



The last of the amber and copper coloured leaves are falling fast. The Owl does not call on clear moon lit nights. Autumn has gone.

The bare trees reach out, leaning against one another and making spooky sculptures. Creaking in the night wind.












Winter comes with long thin icy fingers, the trees reflected in the windows.
Fog hangs in the air, and frost is upon the grass. When the rain stops.

This is a time for pretty things, bright baubles, and candles. 





Mirror with fairy lights

I like gathering old books to read over the holidays, mainly Fairy Tales and Ghost Stories. There is an old traditional in England of reading ghost stories aloud on Christmas Eve. Some of the oldest ones are the scariest. I've been reading The Violet Car by Evelyn Nesbit, (best known for her children’s books). The author of 'The Railway Children', was a great beauty in her day who was also known to turn her pretty hand to a ghostly tale. 

Evelyn Nesbit on a bear rug in her studio, 1901

The story begins with a paragraph that hooks straight away, beautifully written - and already haunting. When a nurse goes down to a remote farmhouse on the Downs to look after an elderly couple she discovers that their madness has a terrifying edge to it. And why is the old man haunted by hallucinations of a violet car?

'Do you know the downs-the wide, windy spaces, the rounded shoulders of hills leaned against the sky, the hollows where farms and homesteads nestle sheltered, with trees round them pressed close and tight as a carnation in a button hole?'

Do you have a favourite ghost story?

America has Thanksgiving between Halloween and Christmas. It is a holiday that has changed substantially over the years, but gratitude is a blessing.  After Bonfire Night November is a quiet month for me, taking time out to reflect upon the year that has passed and beginning to 'draw in' for the Winter. It is nice to nest and to be glad of home.

Further reading:

1. Corinthians 13:12 contains the phrase βλεπομεν γαρ αρτι δι εσοπτρου εν αινιγματι (blepomen gar arti di esoptrou en ainigmati), which is "For now we see through a glass, darkly." This passage has inspired the titles of many works.

2. Hutchinson - 50 Years of Ghost Stories

3. Virago - Book of Ghost Stories

CELEBRATIONS ~ Halloween

We like to celebrate the seasons and Autumn and Winter are our favourites. Living in the countryside we are subject to the vagrancies of nature and the weather. Our thoughts go out to all in America who are currently suffering due to Hurricane Sandy. May you stay safe, warm and with friends and family.

The Emporium has some lovely Halloween decorations, we quite like these pumpkins and spooky plates.

Halloween goodies at The Emporium, Hungerford.

It has turned quite cold and rain is forecast but we do hope that it is calm enough for the little ghosts, witches and devils to come trick or treating in our village. We have made a Halloween wreath from the garden out of little lanterns.

Vintage Fairy Illustration by Hilda Miller

Zitella The Witch (a Katerine's creation) is in the window to welcome them. Mrs Black is a little shy of children but usually enjoys them in costume.

The incomparble Lord Byron, a splendid Witches hat, the perfect shoe,
and Helena Bonham-Carter in a magnificent swan adorment.

Perhaps one of the aspects of Halloween which appeals to us the most is dressing up, the ability to be, even for one night, someone else.

I think it gives children an opportunity to use their imagination - and why not continue as adults?

Once upon a time there were grand balls to attend where everyone dressed in costume.

These are just a few costumes we love, for both men and women.








Vintage clothes and costumes from the past are a great inspiration to the designers of today, and to the many people who like to wear vintage fashion.

Personally I am coveting this wonderful cape, it is an antique, one of a kind, and not for sale.

It is totally impractical, but that is the point. It is so special that few of us mere mortals will ever wear anything like it.

But we can dream. I  may have to get the pins and needles out before next Halloween to make one of these.








Dark colours are traditionally associated with Autumn and Winter but also brights which gleam and glisten as stillness arrives. I'm always tempted at this time of year to re-decorate. The usual reds, golds and black work, but so do purple and even more surprising, a certain shade of pink!

The Raven quote is available on Etsy.

Whatever that we do in our costumes and decorations, nature always does it best.




The Moon over our village last night.

The trees and leaves on our path.