Sharon's Little Sunbeam Award - Week 7

This week Sharon's Little Sunbeam shines on Megan at:

Storybook Love Affair

Why have I chosen Megans blog? . . .

- Fabulous book reviews.  If Megan can't tempt you to read something, nobody can.

- Beautiful photographs and pictures from Pinterest.

- Delightful glimpses into Megan's life - I particularly loved her Birthday Weekend in Melbourne

As everyone who is familiar with my Little Sunbeam Award already knows, the person behind the blog is as important to me as its content.  Megan's warm and sunny personality shines through all her posts and the comments she leaves on mine are equally thoughtful and friendly.

My choice of pictures today probably seems a bit strange - no fairies or princesses!

Last week Megan included a post on Home Office Inspiration.  Her dream office is very different to my study in design - all white furniture, pale elegance and a hint of La Belle Epoque.  What we have in common though is the idea of a sanctuary - a cherished personal space where inspiration and ideas can take flight.  My wish for Megan is that one day her dream will come true and she will have a special place like this of her own to enjoy..

  

Megan's blog makes me want to curl up with a good book, a nice cup of tea and a box of decadent chocolates.  Sheer bliss!

Pictures were originally featured in the post Snow in April!

Past recipients of Sharon's Little Sunbeam Award:

Darlene Foster's Blog

Believe in Yourself

Lucy Violet Vintage

Garden of Daisies

March House Books

Always Crave Cute

Sharon's Little Sunbeam is my own personal 'no strings attached' award.  It is my way of thanking some of the wonderful people who enrich my blogging experience.  The recipient is introduced in a post like this one and a link to their blog remains on my sidebar for a week.  There are no conditions attached to the award.  The recipient does not need to answer any questions, pass the award on or even acknowledge that they have received it.  All they need to do is bask in my little sunbeam and enjoy it!

A Few of My Favourite Things

When Darlene from Darlene Foster's Blog featured a post called A Few of My Favourite Things I liked the idea so much I decided to put together a similar post of my own.

Here are a few of my favourite things - I take none of them for granted and give thanks for them every day!

The view from my bedroom window  . . . . . .  

The beautiful scenery of Ireland where I live now . . . . . .

Glendalough

Powerscourt Waterfall

Magnificent treasures from antiquity free-to-view on my doorstep . . . . . .

Rich African memories (my past and my heritage) . . . . . .

Port St Johns

PheZulu

Blouberg Beach

Art that allows the imagination to soar . . . . . .

Ron Embleton

Books!  All shapes, sizes and for all ages - to enrich the mind . . . . . .

My parents - gone but not forgotten . . . . . .

My sister - at the other end of the world but always in my thoughts . . . . .

                                            (I wore my mother's dress!)

Wedding Day 1996

With my Sister - Port St Johns

Last week my sister sent this to me - I thought it was perfect to include here.

My two 'boys' - the centre of my world . . . . . .

Hout Bay (Cape Town) 

Table Mountain (Cape Town)

My favourite quote . . . . . .

We change our skies

But not our hearts

Who go across the seas.

                                                                                    Christianna Brand 

'Real' friends and 'blog' friends who brighten my day . . . . . .

For all these things I start each day with a sense of wonder and awe and feel truly blessed.

Merrill - Polly and Her Playmates

Last week I was very verbose and had far too much to say for myself, so this week its back to basics with a paper doll book.  The last paper doll book I featured was Candy and Her Cousins back at the beginning of March.  I've always thought of Polly and Her Playmates as the original of these sets with their wrap-around frocks.  I can still remember the thrill of receiving this book as a child, and how incredibly beautiful and special I thought it was.

 I had a tendency of playing with my paper dolls until they literally fell apart and this set was no exception.  They seemed to have an unfortunate habit of losing their heads.  My mother would painstakingly tape them up for me so that I could play with them again,

I don't think it ever worried me that they had become battered and worn.  I loved them all the same and would play with them for hours on end!

Strangely enough the dresses I liked the most in these sets were not the signature wrap-around outfits but the winter coats with their lovely white muffs.  Perhaps it was because I lived in a place where where winter coats were not needed and so I saw them as being terribly exotic.

I also remember that I did not play with these dolls as I was supposed to and wrap the dresses around them.  Instead I would keep them unfolded and dress the dolls up as though they were wearing outrageously exaggerated crinolines!

Late Blossoms

The cherry blossom has been very late this year in my part of the world.  Winter just does not want to give up its grip on the land.  This tree is putting on a lovely display now, and in a way its quite nice to be able to enjoy it so much further into the year.

The apple trees have also finally started showing signs of pink and white blossoms.  They originally had white blossoms I have never seen before.  These new arrivals are still tightly closed - I can't wait for them to open as they are one of my favourite sights when they are in full bloom.

Sharon's Little Sunbeam Award - Week 6

This week Sharon's Little Sunbeam shines on

Darlene Foster's Blog

Darlene is a published writer and her blog features excerpts from her world, heart warming stories, and of course posts on writing and books.

The beauty of Darlene's personality shines through her writing - that to me is always as appealing as the content itself.  I always appreciate her friendly comments (and the encouragement last week on my own scribbles was very heartening!)


Once again have decided to link to specific posts and this week I have chosen two.  The first features a book called Every Child is Entitled to Innocence - Darlene wrote one of the stories included in it.  Profits from the sale of the book go to Childline International.  I think it is a wonderful cause. Unfortunately I don't own a kindle and was so sorry as a result that I am not able to buy it.

The other post is A Few of My Favourite Things in which Darlene gives a wonderful insight into her world.  Some people have said they would like to copy my sunbeam award idea but I think they feel hesitant about doing so.  Just to show you I have no qualms about borrowing ideas myself - I like the idea of 'My Favourite Things' so much that I think I will be doing a version of it soon myself.

Darlene enjoys travelling to interesting and exotic places - her favourite animal is a camel and she drinks rooibos tea (as a S African that impressed me no end.)  I don't have any pictures of either so instead I've chosen these two illustrations that conjure up the magical world of The Arabian Nights.

Both come from the same story (Silia the Dancing Girl) and were previously featured in two separate posts
Perfect Princesses and Handsome Heroes

Past recipients of Sharon's Little Sunbeam Award:


 Believe in Yourself

Lucy Violet Vintage  

Garden of Daisies

March House Books

Always Crave Cute

Sharon's Little Sunbeam is my own personal 'no strings attached' award.  It is my way of thanking some of the wonderful people who enrich my blogging experience.  The recipient is introduced in a post like this one and a link to their blog remains on my sidebar for a week.  There are no conditions attached to the award.  The recipient does not need to answer any questions, pass the award on or even acknowledge that they have received it.  All they need to do is bask in my little sunbeam and enjoy it!

How Nice!

Earlier this week Barbara from March House Books featured a beautiful book called 'The Bluebell Story Book' as her Book of the Week post.  I have a similar book by the same publisher - Blackie and Son and I decided I would put together this quick off the cuff entry as a complimentary post.

Unfortunately the cover of my book is a bit worn, but it is still possible to enjoy the lovely artwork.  When I scanned it I was able to enlarge and make out the name of the artist for the first time - it appears to be Hilda McGavin.  (Now I have a name I will have to try to find out something about her.)    

 The book was printed by Blackie and Son in Glasgow.  They also quote offices in London, Bombay (India) and Toronto (Canada).  Unfortunately there is no date that I can see but I imagine it must have been printed in the 1930's, the same era as the book in Barbara's post.  The relative who passed this book down to me would have been a child during that decade.

There are a number of stories of different lengths, four colour plates and a host of lovely black and white illustrations.  The colour illustrations I've included here are the two I like the most.  Not all the illustrations are by the same person, but the one I've included below clearly shows the name of the cover artist.

Some More Adventurous Scribbles

(Another follow up post Alcluith is progressing slowly can be found on this link as well.)

Yesterday I posted some of my own scribbles - Ygern's Secret - Something I Wrote.  I really appreciate the wonderful comments that were left in response.  But - now you have gone and encouraged me (you'll probably be sorry that you did!) and made me think of revisiting a book I was writing.

The little 'story' I posted yesterday was a self-contained idea that I never really thought of expanding on.  The book is similar in many ways as it focuses on the same era.  I started writing it when I was on maternity leave (in other words 14 years ago!).  After fiddling around with it for some time and finishing a first draft I sent it off to one of the Irish publishing houses about 5 years ago.  They rejected it out of hand (as you do).  I put it to one side and it has been languishing in the documents folder of my laptop ever since.  Now with the new self publishing options available I may just dust it off again and think of doing something with it.

For anyone who has the time, stamina and inclination I'm including the whole of the first chapter on a separate page.  It will be warts and all as it stands now but I'd appreciate any feedback.  Do I continue with it and try to polish it up - or should it stay put where it is?

The end of the first chapter is supposed to be a surprise so if you do want to read it and don't want the spoiler the link to the page is here:

Chapter One

Otherwise this is the gist of the plot.  A whodunit by Ellis Peters called 'The House on Green Turf' contains excerpts from an ancient Scottish ballad  (The ballad is incidental to her storyline).  When I read her book I found the story behind the ballad intriguing.  It goes something like this:

A just and popular king is defeated and killed in battle.  His pregnant wife is given clemency but the life of their unborn child hangs in the balance.  Only a girl will be allowed to live.  The queen manages to slip away and gives birth in secret.  The child is a boy (of course or there would be no story!)  Before his existence becomes common knowledge the queen exchanges her infant son for the newborn daughter of a serving woman and the boy is smuggled out to safety.  He is raised in obscurity, unaware of his heritage, but once he learns the truth of his parentage he prepares to return to his kingdom, revenge his father and reclaim his birthright. 


Besides thinking the story could be expanded quite nicely into a novel, what struck me about the ballad was the one dimensional characterisation.  The queen in particular is quite remarkable - here is a woman who stoically accepts the death of her husband, gives birth on her own in secret and then gives up her child without batting an eyelid.  Besides the narrative I thought it would be equally fascinating to explore the emotional response of the characters and their reaction to events.

I'd be curious to know if my blog friends think the idea (and my stab at interpreting it) has merit.  Either way I won't be giving up my day job!

Real life Dumbarton Rock in Strathclyde - an actual location for a fictitious tale: 

All the places referred to in the chapter with the exception of St Aidan's Field are real albeit heavily disguised by the mists of time.  All the people and events are completely fictitious.  (Some real historical characters sneak in later.)  The names (I give an explanation of their meaning in the full version) are all representative of the time and location except for Rowallan - that is my husband's name and he is still unsure whether to take its inclusion as a compliment.

The story is called:

Alcluith

Tears on Stone

I've prefaced it (a bit pretentiously I suppose) with this passage from Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

A time to be born and time to die,

A time to plant and a time to uproot,

A time to kill and a time to heal,

A time to tear down and a time to build,

A time to weep and a time to laugh,

A time to mourn and a time to dance,

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

A time to embrace and a time to refrain,

A time to search and a time to give up,

A time to keep and a time to throw away,

A time to tear and a time to mend,

A time to be silent and a time to speak,

A time to love and a time to hate,

A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1