Shakespere[/caption]I feel like an outing on this first day of April. How about you? But not just any outing for me. I think I'll go to England or Scotland... or maybe I'll go to both places. After all, I have an hour or two free.
You see, I am very blessed to have a wonderful imagination. I suspect we are all born with wonderful imaginations but some of us fail to exercise them, and as with so many things, we "use it or lose it". I use my imagination regularly. Do you? Oh, I hope so. Imagination is a terrible thing to waste.
So today I decided to leave Hudson for a few hours and take a little trip. I feel like spending some time with my lovely "dead friend" and nature artist Edith Holden. What is a "dead friend" you ask ? A "dead friend" is a person from the past who we get to know, admire. and enjoy. We meet these people by reading their biographies, autobiographies, and/or by studying and becoming familiar with their work. I bet you have a few "dead friends" of your own, at least I hope you do. "Dead friends" add so very much to life, more than a great many living, breathing people we meet.
I met Edith years ago when I discovered her beautiful book, The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady. This book was published in 1906 by her husband Ernest. It was published after Edith's untimely death at age 49. You see, Edith drowned in the Thames while gathering buds from chestnut trees which she intended to paint.
Edith was born at Kings Norton, Worcester, in 1871 and was one of seven children of a Midlands paint manufacturer. Her family lived in the small village of Olton Warwickshire and it was there that she wrote and illustrated her Nature Notes.
I think I'll join Edith on one of her trips to Scotland where she studied painting for a year. Would you care to join me? Ok, let's go!
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Edith drew all sorts of animals and she was wonderful at the task. She drew snakes, birds, butterflies, bees, mice, so many creatures - even the occasional cow.
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I can sit beside Edith using my imagination and watch her sketch picturesque vistas. She's encouraged me to try my own hand at sketching. Friends always encourage each other you know.
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Coleridge[/caption][caption id="attachment_793" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Longfellow[/caption] I've read that spending time with things of beauty helps that beauty enter into us. The beauty becomes us. I can sometimes feel that happening. Can't you?
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Tennyson[/caption]Yes, spending time in England and Scotland with gentle "dead friends" like Edith Holden is a wonderful experience.
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So now I've introduced you to Edith, but it's up to you to cultivate your own friendship with her. Perhaps she'll inspire you to create your very own nature notes or you might get yourself some watercolor pencils and take up sketching, creating art for your home or floral note cards to send to your friends.
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204 E. Streetsboro Street
Hudson, Ohio 44236
USA
I'll be watching my mail box, and of course if you write to me I'll write back to you. So from me and Edith too --- a fond farewell. We'll leave you with the entry from Edith's nature notebook dated April 1, 1906.
STILL, WARM, CLOUDY DAY. GATHERED SOME WILD DAFFODILS IN A FIELD.
Happy Art Play in Nature
Note: Pictures used for this post are attributed to Central Independent Television's video entitled The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady starrring Pippa Guard as Edith
Another wonderful post!! I just love your blog. Maybe I will get one of those pretty pink flowers someday! (smile)
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm waiting for a letter with your pink flower drawing. (smile)
ReplyDeleteCarolAnn, you have the most interesting dead friends! I had not heard of Edith Holden. I can't wait to learn more about her! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou will love her. I hope you find the English video collection that takes her (via an actress) strolling the very places she loved, viewing the very nature she loved. I walk through my own nature reserves now and hear the music from those videos and feel Edith walking with me.
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