As spring breaks forth into her glory, I love to get out my nature and gardening books to inspire my imagination. This brings me the hope of sunnier days ahead. My absolute favorite book to sit down with is a book by Edith Holden do you know it? If you are an old soul like myself, one who is a country girl at heart, loves nature and art then you know that I am talking about the book The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.
This is the entry at the bottom of the April cover page. Mrs. Holden was a wonderful artist and so on each page denoting a new month she has illustrated what she sees in the country side in that season. For April she has painted a bird amongst the primroses and wild violets of the British country side. Just delightful!
"When Daisies red and violets blue,
and Ladies Smocks' all silver white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight."
Edith Holden-The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
She also includes lots of poetry, factual information about the month and seasons she gathered, mottoes of her day and lots of illustrations and watercolor paintings. She was a rather accomplished artist. But really her fame came 70 yrs. later with the publishing of this lovely and humble nature notebook.
Well, I am now spending the still chilly nights reading The Edwardian Lady~The Story of Edith Holden This book is biography. It tells of Edith's life as a child, her family- she had 4 sisters and 2 brothers. She was well educated and went to art school. In my opinion she was the pre-cursor to another of my favorites, Beatrix Potter. They seem to run along the same country path so to speak.
These are two books you should read and have on your library shelf . Both will bring warm sunshine to your soul. I enjoy reading about ordinary lives that appreciated the simple complexities of nature and the world that God created. I love that Edith Holden documented this in her art and journaling. This is a reminder to me to do the same. To place myself in nature at a particular time to remember it. This lovely journal has a well-worn organic feel to it- that old soul feel.
I know I would have liked Edith, I like to think we would have been great friends. Her country diary makes me want to get outside. It makes me want to take a stroll along the banks of a brook, on a forgotten country path and listen to birds sing and do art. And be inspired.
