Mary Webb My (Re) Discovery

Hello my blogging friends, apologies for the fuzzy image start to this post but I'm paying the price for not taking real time images when I should have. This post is about my wonderful discovery whilst staying at Leighton Lodge on the gilding course last month. On arrival I noticed a blue plaque on the wall commemorating the birthplace of Mary Webb. In my mind I thought I had never heard of her, but once in my room I discovered some books about her and I was reminded that I had read one of her amazing novels, Precious Bane. This review from The Virago Press: '

Prudence Sarn was born with a cleft palate, her ‘precious bane’, for which she is persecuted as a witch by her superstitious neighbours. Hiding from daily ridicule, she takes refuge in the wild Shropshire countryside, developing a profound love of nature. Furtively, Prue longs to be loved and harbours a hopeless passion for Kester Woodseaves, the weaver. Prue’s brother, Gideon, is engaged to her only friend, but in his ambition for wealth at any cost, he incurs the wrath of his would-be father-in-law whose act of vengeance results in Prue being accused of murder. Only Kester, who has perceived her true worth, can defend her from the wrath of her accusers. Winner of the 1926 Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, Precious Bane is a novel that enchants with its beauty and its timeless truths'

. Often compared to Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy, Mary's writing is an intricate tapestry of words, featuring folklore, legends and local customs. Describing her deep relationship with all nature but Shropshire in particular. Nature was her life, her passion, it was part of her and she it. (She is quoted as saying how fortunate she was in being born and brought up in Shropshire's magical atmosphere). Sadly she didn't receive the acclaim she was due in her lifetime, and often struggled to make ends meet. Her health too was an ongoing issue for her as she developed Graves Disease, a thyroid disorder when she was in her early twenties. This condition worsened throughout her short life. It was Stanley Baldwin who championed her body of work posthumously, at a speech at The Royal Literary Fund Dinner April 1928, establishing her name and bringing her work the recognition and success it deserved.

I have just purchased a collection of her work through the online Oxfam site and very pleased I am too.

I implore you to seek her out she will not disappoint. I would also recommend the Gladys Mary Coles book on Mary Webb to wet your appetite and to give you an understanding of the woman behind the magic. "Let fall your golden showers, laburnum tree! Break the grey casket of your buds for me- Soon I shall go where never gold is seen, And who will be with you as I have been?

A Gilding Course & A Discovery

I have been on my travels again, this time to Shropshire to attend a Gilding Course. I have ambitions you see to 'gild up' my new home, once we actually sell our current property and get moving that is. The course was part of the many varied offerings at Leighton Lodge, under the auspices of father and daughter Roger and Katie. Together they run a much acclaimed school of decorative arts called Master The Art. (Unfortunately, dear reader you know my naughty blogging system won't allow me to create a link to them, grrrrr). My old friend George stepped in at the last minute to enjoy the course with me as my son couldn't make it as planned. This is me on the left of the picture, looking very professional in my 'artisan' dungarees, ha ha.

I have to admit that I didn't quite master the art of water guilding, but am very happy with my abilities to oil guild. Please note and admire my gilded walnut, yes they will be in abundance come Christmas.

This is an early photo of Roger in his Colefax and Fowler days looking every inch the debonair man about town. At 86 years he is still full of the joys of life, fuelled by copious amounts of nicotine and STRONG coffee. He was funny and very patient, a Master Guilder, and we couldn't have hoped for a more skilled and sweet teacher. George and I stayed in the flat at the top of Leighton Lodge and it was sooooo comfortable. Muddy the boisterous and vocal pooch kept us safe throughout.

This piece of thrifted furniture is first on my hit list for gilding and beautifying.

I best tell you all about my discovery in the next instalment for fear of you all falling asleep.

Beltane 3 Story Crow

This last litte titbit features a talented duo, Tamsin and Oliver, otherwise known as Story Crow, who delighted us all at the festival, with tales of witches and magical folk.

The little film I made at the time unfortunately won't load but this clip from Youtube features the same story they told to us. I hope you get the flavour.

Beltane Celebrations Part 2

Some views around the country hill top house where the Beltane celebrations took place. And a couple of pictures of just one of the organic tree root sculptures that were dotted around the grounds. All were different and represented different things. They all had crystals embedded in them, this one represented the Cauldron/Tree Of Life.

We had one excursion during my few days in Italy and that was to a local medieval church that had contained a secret Templar church. We took our divination pendulums in an effort to pinpoint any areas of the church that had significant energy surges. I didn't do very well only finding one area around this amazing altar to The Virgin Mary.

I do love old Italian churches and this one didn't let me down, it was very faded and oh so beautiful. The guide said that during the war years Hitler sent an emissary to try to find the secret Templar library and to discover the secret and sacred symbols used by the Knights to power up their energies and crusades. Mussolini also came for the same reasons. The locals though had already removed the powerful library to a safe place and also covered up the areas that displayed the magical symbols. The library is now held in the secret library at The Vatican and the covered symbols have never since been revealed.

And Now For Something Completely Different............

My crush on George Harrison or as I like to call him my Guru, continues. What a powerful performance for the Prince's Trust Rock Gala 1987. I'm in awe.

Incidentally when I arrived in Italy last Thursday I was collected at the airport by Nico a young student and his Grandfather Sergio. Sergio could speak no English but amongst other things he wanted to talk 'Beatles'with me, so Nico translated. Sergio's introduction to rock and roll and the Beatles came when some friends in England sent some early records over to his very rural part of Italy. At the time it felt revolutionary and he still seemed to be feeling the excitement. Me too. Hello Judith my latest follower, a very warm welcome to my blog, many thanks for joining us here.

Beltane Celebrations Part 1

You won't often see pictures of yours truly on social media, but this is me in a very happy place, on the Henge where our Beltane celebrations took place. Just behind me you can probably make out the huge beautifully adorned Maypole. I was in Italy for three days of celebrations and shared the experiences with the most amazing and interesting folk. They came from Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, UK and Ireland and of course many local people came along to take part. The gathering was authentically inclusive, very spiritual and yes, transformative. No filming or photos were taken around the ceremonies. But I did take some pics of the old house we stayed in which was very comfortable but spooky and for some reason there were one or two spirits that weren't happy at us being there and made themselves very present in my room on the last night. But I told them to leave and they did. Amongst my pics are a couple of portraits of previous inhabitants, so maybe it was them, after all I'm not family eh? There is some light reflection on their photos but I hope you can still see them clearly.

I'll leave you with a pic of the Maypole after our dancing had woven the ribbons around the pole. I think there were about 40 people of all ages holding the ribbon ends and dancing around the pole. I'll post a little more about my trip soon.

And oh my days, yet another new follower. I can't tell you how much it pleases me to connect with you all. A very warm welcome and thanks to Bridget who has pressed the follow button.

Beltane Celebrations

Well my lovely chums Summer must be upon us, as I have waxed my legs (with bargain wax strips from Poundland, 99% natural ingredients and cost of £1.12 to do both legs). I have also given myself a pedicure and tinted my eyebrows and eyelashes. Actually the Mr very kindly does my eyelashes for me, he's super nice like that. If I had visited a salon for these treatments I'm guessing I would have paid around £100. So I'm feeling very pleased with myself. Who said smug?

The reason for all of this body maintenance is of course the change in weather in Blighty but also because tomorrow I'm away to Italy for a very exciting event.

It has been organised by a wonderful woman I met last year at a retreat. Each day has planned events, workshops and all sorts of exciting activities. I'm hoping meeting all these very special folk will be spiritually transformative, there is always room for personal growth, no? There is a Floral Beltane ceremony on Saturday and I'm feeling very honoured to be selected as the second flower girl in the procession. We will be making floral headdresses on the day before. I'm hoping I might be able to dry my headdress and bring it home as a keepsake. I'll do my best to capture some images for a blog post when I return. In other news I have managed to get my head around the vintage Fair Isle pattern and I'm enjoying the process. I'm toying with the idea of knitting the back in plain navy, which would then mean I could make another one to gift or sell.

I'm super pleased to extend another warm welcome for another new follower, welcome Vivian, many thanks for pressing the follow button.

Happy Birthday Jane

(Image by Trina Dalziel for Simple Things magazine). When I first stumbled upon Jane Austen I was at secondary school and her second novel Pride & Prejudice was part of my English Literature O level syllabus. Thinking back I don't believe I had any concept of how such a book or any book, could reveal and share with me the social history of another time. I did enjoy it in a superficial way, but now of course it is a sheer delight to read. I was extremely lucky to go to a school that introduced me to the arts in all of it's forms. I saw a young Vanessa Redgrave performing Shakespeare at a small modern theatre in London, I went to see an Opera at The Royal Opera house, and as our school was close to Hurlingham tennis club, I also saw Billy Jean King amongst other world class tennis players. The school was also quite close to the Kings Road and Fulham Road with it's wonderful shops, galleries and green spaces. I was a very lucky girl indeed. But I digress......back to Miss Austen. The BBC recent drama starring Keeley Hawes was a fascinating semi-fictional account of Jane's relationship with her sister Cassandra. If you are an Austen fan I urge you to watch it, I found it quite remarkable and tremendously entertaining.

During this year which is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, there are to be many many events, probably world wide. I have a yen to visit her last home , Chawton in Hampshire. It is now a museum and how fascinating it looks. Jane wrote, revised and published all of her six novels whilst living there.

But perhaps it may be a little busy to explore this year? I would like to extend another very warm welcome to a new follower who has kindly pressed the follow button, Peggy Poole.

A Prickly Man & Prickly Plants

The Mr and I dragged our sleepy bodies out of bed Sunday morning to sell at our local boot fair. Thankfully it was dry but bloomin eck it was freezing. Selling on items I no longer feel attached to or need, is part of my decluttering strategy before we move house, of which there is no progress. We had a very positive house viewing last Thursday but haven't heard a peep back. The wait continues. We did quite well at the boot fair and made a few pennies for the coffers. I do like people watching at these events too, always good value. I chatted to some very nice folk as well. Although just as we were packing up a rather grubby man came up to ask me what price I had on a pair of Lulu Guinness shoes. £25 I said. He scoffed , "they're not worth it FAR TOO worn, I sell shoes you know!" Oh says I, but they are well over £200 new and actually not worn very much at all. What price would you offer I asked him? I wouldn't says he, as he stormed off with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp. So really he just wanted to come and tell me how foolish I was. Grrrrrr. (Btw the shoes were a charity shop purchase and when I do sell them some of the money will go to one of my favourite animal charities).

On a much brighter note a very nice man came to our house this morning to collect some succulent plants that I felt would not survive the house move. I've had them years and rather than compost them I offered them on the Freegle website. The man called Les is in a local cacti and succulent society and will use them to raise funds to hire guest speakers. He was as pleased as I was.

Fair Weather Fair Isle

I know I'm a wee bit on the strange side, only I would get the urge to knit just as the sun starts to show it's face. But my logic is that the natural sunny light is better for knitting, especially complicated patterns like Fair Isle. I took inspiration from a rather sweet vlogger called Ration Book Rebecca. She has been absent for most of 2025 but I'm pleased to say she has made a return to YouTube, she is a total delight, quite scatty of course, like the best of us. She showcased an old knitting book, which rather took my fancy.

I do have oodles and oodles of knitting books and magazines but this one has a few patterns with unusual motifs.(That's my story and I'm sticking to it).

I've chosen a different colour palette, which I think will work well for Spring and Summer. I've also opted for a 50% wool 50% acrylic yarn as I find the Shetland wool recommended quite itchy.

I've made a start so I'll pop back and show you my progress soon(ish). Anyone else knitting at the moment? A very warm welcome to my new follower Sue. Thank you very much for clicking on the Follow button, much appreciated.

My Best Girl

A warm welcome to my latest follower Pili, thank you kindly for pressing the follow button.

Wet Wet Wet

The Mr and I have just returned from a few days in Bergen Norway. Such an interesting and historical place. We went after seeing an American Vlogger's post about it's charms. A world heritage site with a delightful 14th century old wharf area known as Bryggen, surrounded by majestic mountains and waterfalls. Very picturesque but oh my THE RAIN hardly stopped for breath. It had a goodly amount of thrift and antique shops which as you know make me very happy indeed. I was very circumspect and only came home with two items, one of which was a vintage hand made pewter candle stick, which I safely packed in my husband's case and which got him stopped and searched at the Bergen airport, ha ha. Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but usually, well always really, it's me who is stopped after setting bells ringing. I am still slowly selling off and donating items, trying to get our belongings down to a reasonable amount for our move, whenever that might happen. We did have a house viewing booked today, but the agent called this morning and said it had been cancelled. Still the threat of the viewing has had me clean the house to within an inch of it's life, so silver lining and all that. I'm also making efforts not to acquire too much. But yesterday I spied a couple of things I thought were very stylish and reasonably priced, both from Zara, so a purchase was made.

I couldn't seem to find the full sizing guide on the Zara site as it was not alongside the garment as it should have been. So we will see if it fits. No problem for the necklace of course. I love the idea of coral, this is faux coral of course, but I think it looks rather swish and will do for my May trip to Italy where I will be attending a Beltane special event, hosted by a senior druid friend of mine. A very exciting prospect.