Courting Relaxation

I have a rare day off to myself today & have decided to have a Millie day. A trip to the Dog Park with puppy Lulu is the only definite on the agenda & then the day is mine. If I feel enthused I may do some remedial gardening work in our courtyard, but I reckon whatever I do, it won't look as gorgeous as the one in the featured image. Thanks to everyone who commented on the Perez post & to the lovely gals over at Adelaide Hills Magazine for featuring it on their Twitter daily yesterday. But can I tell you categorically that MOTH will NOT be getting his own blog, no way, no how, NEVER!!

Can I recommend a quick visit to Felicity here. She's commenced a fabulous new initiative A Year Of Books-A Challenge to get us on track to hit our reading targets this year. I dropped behind woefully last year due to all the changes at work, but this year I have promised myself nothing will get in the way of sticking my nose in the pile of books sitting forlornly on my bedside table. She's encouraging us to join in & share our current read via a 'Vive Le Livre' linky on her blog. A cute little button is available to paste on your blog to share. The first linky is due soon, so I'd better get cracking. The Stirling Dog Park has some lovely old trees to sit under, so I'm going to prop there soon with my current read while Lulu does her meet & greet thing with her puppy friends. Whatever you're doing today dear Hedgies, enjoy it.
Image: Benecki Homes

Book Worm

Today is the last day of my 5 day weekend. It's been busy with lots of things ticked off the To Do list, but I do feel wonderfully relaxed. Other than the morning papers, I haven't caught up with any reading, so today I plan a few indulgent Millie hours in front of the fire with Andrew Davidson's fascinating book The Gargoyle. I took a gigantic leap right out of my genre comfort zone a couple of weks ago when I purchased this on someone else's recommendation. The leap has been well worth it. This is a story of redemptive love, an historical epic with a Gothic twist & a tale of addiction all rolled into one. At times, sexually explicit & violent, this read may not be for everyone, but it certainly has me turning each page with anticipation. I've had to surrender to Davidson's narrative & just trust him to take me into a world very foreign to me. So far it's been a challenging & intense journey, the word pictures he's painted in my head have taken a lot of energy to process. But gosh, I'm looking forward to seeing where he takes me today.

Image: William Waldron

The Happiest of Days

'You see Wendy,' he said, 'when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.'

As my friends here at The Hedge know, I really, really love books. I have 2 very special books I treasure from my childhood, big beautiful story books with the loveliest colour plates complementing the text. The first one I found tucked in my Santa Stocking as a 7 year old in 1962. It was J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy. Barrie requested that Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrate this particular 1921 edition. Miss Attwell was a well known British illustrator of children's books & her cute, nostalgic drawings were often based on her young daughter Peggy. I remember being smitten with the book & enjoying it immensely.

Then 2 weeks later on my birthday, I received the companion book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Inscribed on the title page in my Mum's very distinctive hand-writing is 'To dear Millie on her 8th Birthday with lots & lots of love from Mummy & Daddy xx'. Published in 1906 this was Barrie's first book in the Peter Pan series & famous British artist Arthur Rackham was the illustrator. On opening this book I knew immediately here was something else entirely. Rackham's haunting & dreamlike artistic style was very, very different to Attwell's work. I immersed myself totally in each picture, if fact little Millie glided into each of them & became part of the composition. The joy his work gave me was overwhelming.

I wanted to share some of the work of both artists from the books. I'd love to hear your thoughts on their individual illustrative styles & your favourite image.

Illustrations by Mabel Lucie Attwell

Peter kept watch

They are the children who fall out of their perambulators

They don't want us to land

A Mermaid caught Wendy

The Never Bird

The House under the Ground

The Strange procession set off

When he had freed Wendy

When Wendy grew up

Ilustrations by Arthur Rackham

The Serpentine is a lovely lake, and there is a drowned forest at the bottom of it. If you peer over the edge you can see the trees all growing upside down, and they say that at night there are also drowned stars in it

Old Mr. Salford was a crab-apple of an old gentleman who wandered all day in the Gardens


Away he flew, right over the houses to the Gardens


A band of workmen, who were sawing down a toadstool, rushed away, leaving their tools behind them


There now arose a mighty storm, and he was tossed this way and that


When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively


These tricky fairies sometimes slyly change the board on a Ball night


The fairies sit round on mushrooms, and at first they are well behaved


Peter Pan is the fairies' orchestra

The little people weave their summer curtains from skeleton leaves

Fairies never say, 'We feel happy': what they say is, 'We feel dancey'

Image 1: Wiki (of Michael Llewelyn-Davies) All other images: J.M. Barrie

Brown Paper Packages

The Hedge's 100th post is today & I wanted to find an image that I love so much to share with you. Though this time, it isn't a gorgeous house, sublime rooms, a stunning weekend retreat or a wondrous garden estate .... but something much more intrinsic. Its about what makes me the happiest!

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved books. I grew up in the beautiful Clare Valley in country South Australia & the town was too small for a public library. So once a month the Country Lending Service of the State Library in Adelaide would send me a parcel of 6 books.

My dear Dad would drive me to the Clare Railway Station & there waiting for me in the Parcel office was my precious package. Wrapped in thick brown paper, tied with string & labelled with my name, it was a joyous moment as I skipped back to the car with my much awaited delivery in one hand & my Dad's huge loving hand firmly holding the other!

On arriving home I headed straight for the sanctuary of my bedroom, & sitting on my bed I would carefully unwrap the parcel. The anticipation of what lay inside was almost too much to bear, but I was never once disappointed. Carefully selected from the details my Mum had sent the Library (country girl 7 years, likes English classics, the Secret Seven & horses!) were my next month's supply of happiness!

I can still see those books so vividly - Treasure Island, Peter Pan, Millie Mollie Mandy, Cherry Ames - Nurse & of course the Famous Five & Secret Seven series. Whoever chose those books for me all those years ago has my utmost thanks & appreciation. The selection was just perfect, as though they were able to read my mind & understand exactly what I wanted to read next. So for the next month, I could escape for an hour or two each day - escape into the wonderful world of fictional characters and faraway places.

My Mum was a teacher, so instilled her love of reading in me from a very early age. As soon as I could read I would constantly have 'my nose in a book', & still do at any opportunity I have.

Thank you to everyone who visits The Laurel Hedge, whether it be regularly or occasionally. All your comments & support have added a wonderful dimension to my life, one that I truly never expected when I started on my blogging journey. It has been such a pleasure strolling through your sites each day - thank you for the constant inspiration, your insightful commentaries, breathtaking photos, laughter & friendship, I feel very honoured.