The Central Tian-Shan Mountains 1902-1903 Book

Throughout this year, I have been reading my hard copy of Edith Holden's THE COUNTRY DIARY OF AN EDWARDIAN LADY. None of her books are available on Kindle and I am glad. You need to look at her published album 'in the flesh': feel the smoothness of the pages, notice her handwriting and appreciate, first-hand, her artwork. She was a big fan of birds with their nests and eggs, native plants in bloom, and mushrooms and moss.

Like the format of Ms. Holden's diary, I did not feel rushed. I enjoyed reading her notes from 1906 at random times. Beginning with January, she quoted poetry from her favorite favourite authors. Also, she painted beautiful watercolors watercolours with warm browns, cool blues, muted greens and rich tints of purple. Then, with no rhyme or reason, she opened her 'room with a view' and shared with the reader the happenstances of a particular day. Sometimes it was just a sentence; at other times she included a paragraph. She wrote about the weather, what she witnessed while out on her walks or, simply, she just expressed her feelings.

Her door to the garden in back was left open and a toad walked into her home. She visited a spinney covered with golden catkins that lit up the area like little fairy lamps. She gathered hemp from a slope on an upland field and witnessed hedgerows haunted by Thrushes. She watched the sun set with a deep crimson color colour; it appeared to be a "huge fire-balloon suspended against a curtain of grey cloud".

If nothing else, this book was a reminder to move at a slower pace and appreciate what is right in front of you. Take a walk by your home and see what you have missed, ride a bicycle and wave to your neighbors neighbours or visit a park and observe nature in all its glory.

And, you might have noticed, I purposely did not Americanize the words in my review that she used in her memoir. It was a fitting tribute to this sweetly-written journal.