1 On my walk back from town this morning, I had my head down against the cold and saw this fragile leaf flattened on the pavement.
Skeleton leaf
2 I found this quotation today and loved it.
“There is space on everyone’s book shelves for books one has outgrown but cannot give away. They hold one’s youth between their leaves, like flowers pressed on a half-forgotten summer’s day.” Marion Garretty b. 1917
Marilyn asked in her blog some time ago about favourite childhood books and I said ‘Horton the Elephant’ but, sadly, I don’t still have him on my shelves.
3 What I do have is a book that, as a little girl, frequently moved me to tears but I loved it and asked to have it on again and again. It is A Talking Book of ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde and it so beautifully illustrated.
The Happy Prince – cover
The Happy Prince at the start, crying to see the poor in his city
The little match girl to whom the swallow has taken a sapphire – the second of the Prince’s eyes
The Happy Prince at the end, blind and drab, having given away all his gold and being kissed goodbye by the swallow before he dies.
There are no words just enormous pictures and a record tucked inside the back cover to be played at 78rpm! It comes with the instructions – “This is a Talking Book. Start the record. The voice will tell you when to ‘turn the page’ or ‘turn’. When you have listened to Part 1, play the other side.”
The record
Just writing about it, I can hear the words (which I haven’t heard for years) and can feel my eyes prickling!
