A younger me with Jimmy, my pet lamb, in our village Fancy Dress parade
Above you can see me dressed as Little Bo Peep, a character from an English nursery rhyme.
Finding this sent me on a trip down memory lane and I ended up writing a nostalgic poem about living on our tenant farm Holly Cottage Farm.
Many of the expressions I’ve used are from Yorkshire or have to do with farming and may need explanation . I hope you understand it and enjoy it!
Continue reading “WHAT’LL DO WITHOUT ME WELLIES?”I can’t believe it! I discover these tree spirits, capture their image and then they are gone. How sad is that?
I have learnt from many of my German friends that English is not the most logical of languages – especially when it comes to the pronunciation of certain words. What I love about German is, generally, what you see is what you get.
Continue reading “What’s in a Name?”My “StoryDoor” is a project I’ve been working on for some years. With the support of a web designer who has been extremely patient, I now have a StoryDoor website (www.storydoor.info.de) and a MyStoryDoor instagram.
The world of story telling is magical – often captivating our imagination and even explaining things we don’t understand.
Continue reading “Children’s Books”
This is based on a Russian fairy tale recorded by Aleksei Tolstoy in the nineteenth century. Illustrated by Niamh Sharkey
Pig Gets Lost
One of the short stories in the series “The Complete Farmyard Tales” by Heather Amery and illustrated by Stephen Cartwright.
Whilst I was coming up with the story behind my StoryDoors, I did some illustrations of local trees which I imagined could be tree spirits.
Could this fairy be flitting around in the dark woods? Who knows? Perhaps we should go for a night walk (die Nachtwanderung – this sounds so much better) .
Once I had decided to hide my StoryDoors in trees, I had to solve the mystery of who it put them there! That’s when Nuts, the Busy Squirrel came alive.
This is a story of a little red squirrel that scuttles around the winter woods looking for her store of food. Her cache and her favourite bedtime story are hidden behind a little door. I, the storyteller, am amazed how fat my little friend, the busy squirrel, becomes by the end of the book.
You too can get the inside story by visiting www.storydoor.info
Continue reading “1 . Nuts, My Busy Little Squirrel”Just in case you didn’t realise it – I am a fan of Netflix and I especially enjoy watching a good old historical drama. At the end of 2020 all the talk was about season 4 of “The Crown”. For some reason I’m not interested in watching this drama which follows the royal “ins and outs” during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Maybe it’s because I was part of that history and don’t want to admit that I’m getting old!
Continue reading “That’s Crowned it!”
Jamie Oliver has been an inspiration for my son and I for many years. Recently Jamie challenged his Instagram followers to make him laugh in these difficult Corona days.
This was the photo he posted of himself holding a hand-carved walking mushroom picking stick. How good would it be to have a mushroom picker’s stick signed by Jamie and Gennaro Contaldo?
I couldn’t resist! Time to get the creative juices flowing. The pose reminded me of Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, hence the name Ollie the Grey.
Continue reading “Mushroom Picker Stick”