Mystery Solved and Blogging News

Ok! Mystery solved. Here am I with Willow of Willow's Cottage who is in England and staying with me at my house for a week while she is in the London area. Today Alan and Idrove around and showed Willow and her husband some of the lovely villages in my neck of the woods. I took over 100 photos, and will be showing many of them soon. (I think I had better put the Scotney Castle ones on the back burner for a while.)

This is bunny knitted by Willow for my Grandson Oliver

And what a lovely thought, an Elizabeth Goudge book - Gentian Hill
I have not yet sampled the chocolates which are apparently the best in America

Willow also brought over this lovely gift from Sara of Much Ado About Something

It is hand written and illustrated by Sara and depects Jeremiah 29: 11-13

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

You will call to me....and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart"

As for the rest of the 'blogging news' I have been asked if photos of mine can be used, first for a Parish magazine and secondly for an actor's website.

Never a dull moment in the blogging world.

My Garden and Bloggy Happenings

Well Elizabeth Goudge certainly had an interesting response. Either people already were aware of her and loved her books or they had not come across her and were going to the library to find her books or search out her books by some other means. Made me think I need to get to Amazon quick in case they all sell out! No, just joking.

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On another note, I keep saying how fun and interesting this world of blogging can be and to that end I had another interesting meeting this week. Barbara Jacksier of

The Book Blog arranged a party recently in her home town in the USA for the birthday of her 90 year old Mother and one of the guests (a cousin) was reading my blog while she was there. She lives in England and it turned out she lived only about 20 miles from me so she asked if we could meet when she arrived back home. We met this week when I went to her home to visit with her.

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Now if that is exciting, I am at this moment awaiting the arrival in my home today, of a bloggy friend from California, so watch this space - all will be revealed.

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While we are waiting, let's take a walk around the garden, first seen here looking through the window from my back sitting room. A bit blurry through the double glazing and a window that needs cleaning.

Herb border

The Village of Burwash in West Sussex

You will remember my recent visit to Bateman's, the home of Ruyard Kipling. If you look along the road to the left of this first photo, then a little along to the left is the turning to Kipling's home. As we were leaving I stopped to take some photos in the village of Burwash (his local village) as the houses, bungalows and businesses are so interesting and varied. A friend of mine had his childhood home in this village. He is an excellent writer and poet. I wonder if he was influenced by Kipling at all.

As we walk along the main street we will be looking back and forth to both sides of the road.
Having done a post on 'doors' recently I got to noticing that this village has more different types of door than I think I have ever seen in one street. It is tempting to stop and photo every door but we have so much more to fit in today.

The pub named after Kipling.

Another pub almost out of sight

Another pub

Did you notice the pavement as we walked along? The length of the street is tiled.

Two Old Treasures Revealed

This world of blogging can be nothing short of amazing. Earlier in the year I was sent a book Meme and when posting it I also posted pictures of book shelves in my home. See under 'books and reading'

Very soon Sara from Much Ado About Something commented on my post and this was the result:

Sara: I see you have 2 Elizabeth Goudge books on your shelves

Barbara(in my thoughts): Do I, where?

Then followed a week where I, on 4 separate occasions, looked through my book shelves (I have book shelves in 6 rooms) and could not find any Elizabeth Goudge books. In my mind I kind of pictured some very old books which I was sure I no longer had.

I became frustrated thinking that someone in California was telling me that I had something in my home that I could not find. Could she have made a mistake? I was on the verge of E-mailing Sara to ask her where did she think she saw these books.

But, just one more last look first.

I found them, tucked away in a corner of a shelf in one of my guest rooms amongst some old James Herriot paperbacks. I had obviously not scanned this shelf carefully enough thinking they would not possibly be there. They were bought second hand many, many years ago and the covers were faded and the pages dark brown with age. At some forgotten moment in my life I must have thought they were worth keeping. I knew that Sara was a fan of Elizabeth Goudge and knowing her fine taste in books I decided that they would be worth reading. So with the smell of old and slightly mildewing paper in my hands I began to read one of them.

When I first began to read I never anticipated that it would become a book that I could not put down. I could not wait to finish the first in order to read the second one. What treasures I had been missing.

Elizabeth's descriptions of everything are a delight and she takes one back to an almost now forgotten era. Her insights into the human thinking and behaviour in those early years of the last century strike a cord with life today in many ways. It would seem that nothing ever changes in the human psyche. All human expereince is the same whether we can articulate it or not.

She was obviously a very devout and spiritual woman. Her faith comes out in the telling of her stories in a most beautiful way. Never intruding, just part of the story, told in a very beautiful and natural way. I am hooked.

As I am typing this I see a great spiritual lesson. So often we miss out in this Christian life because we are not aware of what we already have. We do not always benefit from the life of Christ within us because we forget we have it until some situation arises that causes us to seek it out. The treasure, the abundant life, the beauty is there waiting for us to open the pages and devour all that is already there and laid out for us. Jesus Christ is always at our disposal but we cannot live from that reality until we seek Him out and make Him our own. One never knows what one possesses until it is tested.



So here are those 2 old treasures. Thank you a million times Sara for bringing these books back into my life. All Elizabeth's books are long out of print but I have already been searching Amazon and see that I can purchase many old and second hand copies there.

It took a blogging friend all the way over in California to tell me what I had in my home.