Poppy's Babies by Jill Barklem

I am on vacation this week. And while I planned on being wildly accomplished this week (Take that college final projects!) I have so far accomplished nothing. I seriously mean nothing. I have meandered through the past three days, taking long walks, refreshing myself afterward with naps and a book a day. 

SO LOVELY.

But why? When school is in session, I am quite adept at getting every drop of time from the day used to the max. I have dreamed of this vacation--all I would get done when I had time to focus! And... nope. I think it is the busyness paradox--the busier you are, the more you get done. So weird.

Anyway, in all my not doing, I also haven't been doing anything with the blog. Not a single Easter book. Sad. 

I had some cute books! But they will keep until later. 

For now, Poppy's Babies! 

By now you probably know of my love affair with Jill Barklem's books. So cozy! So sweet! So detailed! Poppy's Babies was the last book of the set I needed to buy. So I bought it.

And do you see how perfectly adorable that bunny is? Last May I went to visit my sister in Fargo. Since my aunt and uncle were at home that week, we went to supper at their house. Twice. Because they are nice. The second night, I saw this bunny dish. I thought it was perfectly adorable, so I  gushed about it's cuteness to my aunt. "I thought you might like it!" she said. "I put it out here because it seemed like something you would use in your blog pictures. I decided if you said anything about it, I was going to give it to you. So here it is." Just like that, I was the possessor of a green bunny dish. 

I love it! But I also love that my aunt knows me so well. And supports my blog. 

Spring and flowers. Oh joy!

Last time we saw Poppy and Dusty in Summer Story they had just been married in the cutest wedding possible. They now are the proud parents of triplets living above Dusty's mill. 

Life is difficult with triplets and living in a 92 step walk up.

Neighbors pop in to see the cute babies

This page is why you should own these books! I love cross sections of houses. And an apple tree in bloom! Imagine apple blossoms as your roof!

In Brambly Hedge, they just happen to come across a dear little cottage that is used for storing random things. So they do it up for a surprise for Poppy. 

The first time I read this, when I was a teen, I thought how perfectly delightful to live in a place where a perfectly suitable house or two is quickly found. For free of course. 

I still am looking for that place.

Oh apple blossoms, handsewing, babies, poofy skirts. The happiness!

Back at Poppy and Dusty's house, things are crowded, covered in flour dust from the mill and a little stressed.

Jill Barklem does food pictures up proper. I just want to dive in there!

In order to keep the surpise, they send Poppy to stay with the Old Oak Palace so they could move all the Miller's belongings to their new home. 

I think part of the delight of this book is the sheer marvelousness of the surprise! Not having to move things! Having a perfect house provided without having to search for it and discuss unpleasant things like damp basements, mortgages, and commutes! 

Of course, if my husband pulled a trick like this I would be disconcerted because I WANT TO CHOOSE OUR HOUSE TOO. But still. If I was a mouse with triplets, I am sure I would be delighted by the entire thing. 

Nighttime at the palace

The babies christening is presided over by the old Vole. 

And then! The unveiling! The perfectness of the nursery! The convenient rainbow! 

Daisy chains on the ceiling! Friends by the boatload! Charming food! 

And best of all, three sleeping triplets!

Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson Illus by Brian Wildsmith

(That sun though! Isn't it marvelous! The poem is nice enough, but that sun is pure 1960's poetry itself.)

Summer Sun

Great is the sun, and wide he goes

Through empty heaven without repose;

And in the blue and glowing days

More think than rain he showers his rays

Though closer still the blinds we pull

To keep the shady parlour cool, 

Ye he will find a chink or two

To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad

He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;

And through the broken edge of tiles,

Into the laddered hayloft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around

He bares to all the garden ground, 

And sheds a warm and glittering look

Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue, 

Round the bright air with footing true,

To please the child, to paint the rose,

The gardener of the World, he goes.

Summer Story by Jill Barklem

Do you know Brambly Hedge? Totally and incredibly sweet. Jill Barklem created a world of mice living in a hedgerow at the edge of Blackthorn Wood. The mice are all very community minded and slightly old fashioned. They live wholly and completely off what they gather from the hedgerow and are very seasonally attuned. And they are totally adorable. 

In short. they are marvelous!

Summer Story, published in 1980 is the story of Dusty and Poppy's wedding. 

Take a moment to admire my fairy rose.

And these thingies which I picked from beside the road that I can't figure out a name for. 

Each Brambly Hedge book starts with a map of the hedgerow's world.

And a little blurb about Brambly Hedge mice to set the scene. 

Lazy days of summer.

Little mousies trying to bug their elders.

These pictures are in every book. Well almost every book. It is always of a different stump or place, but the detailed and intricate drawings are incredible. Barklem researched extensively before she began any work on these books, so there are a lot of technical details of bygone agricultural processes that are simply fascinating. I could spend hours wandering through these stumps in my imagination. 

This particular picture is of the Dairy Stump, which was overseen by Poppy Eyebright, the bride-to-be.

Dusty miller, the groom-to-be looked after the flour mill stump.

Dusty popping the question.

Ohmyword! Furtively embroidering her wedding dress in the shade of tall kingcups. Oh the delight! 

All of Brambly Hedge was in on the preparations. Here the wedding cake is being constructed. I swoon over every page of cooking/food pictures in Brambly Hedge. They are so delightfully yummy and elegant looking!

Gathering huge baskets of wild strawberries. 

Primrose, meadowsweet, and elderflower wines and hanging them in the water to cool....

Poppy getting ready for the big day.

And another picture of my rose because I was distracted by its loveliness.

The wedding party approaching.

The ceremony. Do you see how magnificent the wedding barge is? 

The wedding guests in their best suits and hats.

The detail, people! The detail!

Then in the name of the flowers and the fields, the stars in the sky, and the streams that flow down to the sea, and the mystery that breathes wonder into all these things, I pronounce you mouse and wife. 

Lyrical and poetical. 

They danced and feasted on the barge. The enthusiastic dancing wore away at the ropes Dusty had made to keep the barge in place. 

The raft/barge floated gently past fields of buttercups and meadowsweet, and the voles tending the fires in the pottery came out to wave as the wedding party drifted by.

#thebestweddingpartyever

Finally they were caught in a clump of rushes and forget-me-nots. They tied the ropes and the dancing resumed. 

At last, the party had to come to an end. Sleepy kids were helped home by their tired parents as the sun set.

The honeymooning couple. 

Wasn't that perfectly marvelous? Yes, yes it was. 

Also, I found Jill Barklem's perfectly adorable website this morning. 

Mandy by Julie Andrews and illustrated by Judith Gwyn Brown

I adored this book when I was little. I installments to the kids before bed last year and they adored this book as well. It is well worthy of adoration. 

I am not as crazy about this particular cover. I am thinking about getting this edition. Just because it is prettier. 

This is written by the Julie Andrews. The Mary Poppins and Maria Julie Andrews. Often when some one famous writes a book, they are coasting a little too heavily on their name. But this book is legitimate. It would still be a beloved book if it was written by a nobody. 

Mandy, a ten year old orphan lives in a nice orphanage with nice people. Loving to be alone, she spends her spare time outside, She was rarely lonely at these times. The trees and flowers were very special to her and she knew the names of most of them by heart.

However, all was not hearts and flowers. 

She occasionally experienced very disturbing feelings. Sometimes she felt an ache inside that would not go away. It seemed then as though her life were very empty. 

Her attempts to keep busy were mostly an effort to fill her life so that she had not time to feel disconsolate. But the nagging sadness was persistent and it would envelop her when she least expected it. 

As Mandy grew, her longings grew stronger and sometimes she felt as though she must surely break apart with so much going on inside her. It was as though she were searching for something, though what or where it was she could not say. 

In her wanderings, Mandy discovers a little, abandoned cottage on the property next to the orphanage. In The Secret Garden style, Mandy takes the cottage for her own. For her own little place in the world. She pours her energy, her spare time, and her lack of family into making this her very own little house. Inevitably, questions arise--Where is Mandy for hours on end when no one can find her? Where are small things around the orphanage disappearing to? 

In an effort to protect her precious secret, Mandy lies, steals, and loses friends. But oh! your sympathies are entirely with her. Even when you cringe and think "Oh Mandy, don't do that." you understand exactly what is motivating her and have a sneaking suspicion in your inner soul that you might behave just like Mandy in the same circumstance. 

Her longing to belong, to have a family, and a place of her own are so real. Those feelings are so well communicated through the book that the absolute joy of the ending, when she finds her place in the world is incredible. I cried, my kids cried.      

This is one of Lillian's little wee watermelon (?) plants that just sprouted. 

Lily's pumpkin

The illustrations are sparing, but just plentiful enough to supply an adequate backdrop to imagination. 

Mandy climbing over the wall for the first time.

Cleaning the marvelous Shell Room in her wee cottage.

The times when Mandy is at the cottage are little osasis of calm and joy. She plants the flower beds with dear, old fashioned flowers. She scrubs the cottage to a fair-the-well. She makes and executes so many plans for her little house. I yearned for my own little cottage to take care of. 

Being reprimanded by kind-hearted Matron. Matron knows Mandy has a secret and since she loves Mandy, she doesn't want to force it out of her, but she is also worried about what the secret might be. With the loss of some semi-valuable garden shears from the orphanage's gardening shed, Mandy is punished by the withholding of her wages from the little general store until the shears are paid for. 

And finally, the climatic ending. As the summer progressed and fall started, Mandy started realizing someone else knew about the cottage. Footprints and then little notes and presents from An Admirer. When Mandy gets sick and is bedridden, she can't bear the thought of her little cottage being lonely or her admirer not knowing where she is. So she feverishly climbs the wall again. The exertion leaves her unconscious on the floor of the cottage. Having finally told her friend about the cottage saves Mandy's life, since the friend can direct Matron to the cottage. Mandy is brought to the Manor house, since it is closest, and at the manor house, in the midst of a family, Mandy finally starts to understand her place in the world. 

If you have not read this book. Do it now! You will be glad you did!