Tag Archives: Deborah Swift

Yarndale here we come ….. a promise kept.

Hello All

And yes… I made it … correction …Lorry and me made it to (drumroll please) YARNDALE whoo-hoo.

All good things start with a journey and Lorry knows the most civilized way to travel, Earl Grey and ginger biscuits, what else?

DSCI0174

Then settle down on the train from Lancaster to Skipton with a good read.

DSCI0177

In order to arrive refreshed in the lovely market town of Skipton.

DSCI0179

Of course I couldn’t take the short yarnbombed route. Oh no it was the Sedbergh walk back from Farfield all over again i.e. round the houses. But these detours are always worth it. With little reminders of happy days past,

DSCI0178

pretty lanes,

DSCI0180

and small space living.

DSCI0181

Mmmm now there’s an idea. Delightful though my perambulations were I was pleased when I saw…

and I joined the queue (mental note: next year remember to buy ticket online in advance). With happy ladies around to chat to the queue moved quickly and in no time I was stamped

DSCI0193

Good grief I must moisturize!  and clutching in my hot sweaty crinkly hand a Yarndale programme.

DSCI0194

With Lorry safely tucked in the back pack we were IN.

I had said to myself that I wouldn’t take photos of things that you could see better on the Yarndale blog or on Attic 24  but I couldn’t resist an iconic bunting shot

DSCI0185

all that hard work to create a cheery welcome could not be ignored. Fabulous. Again this year’s mandala project meant I couldn’t resist a snap

DSCI0186

or two

DSCI0187

Aren’t they gorgeous? There was inspiration all around.

DSCI0188

Another small living idea perhaps? But Lorry was getting restless.

This time last year good friend Linda Frickel was in hospital and on my last visit I promised her that we would be coming to Yarndale in 2014. Sadly Linda could not be with me nonetheless I felt I must visit Yarndale to hold to that promise. Having won the marvelous Lorry in the Frickel Pig raffle he was destined to come too. Lorry reminded me of the fun, colour and enthusiasm Linda embodied. All I needed was a photo that encapsulated all that Linda loved about woolly stuff…..I can’t believe what I did next (Linda I hope you are having a celestial chuckle!). There was only one place that I could take Lorry’s picture,

DSCI0189

in the arms of the lovely Lucy of Attic 24 fame!

Lucy was as super in person as she is on her blog and I want to thank her very much for taking time to listen to Linda’s story and have her picture taken with Lorry. Linda absolutely loved Lucy’s blog at Attic 24 it appealed to her love of craft and more especially colour. She worked on the blog’s projects and introduced all at Wool’n’Stuff to it. I am now an addict. I hope this happy little moment for me and Lorry reaches Linda in the heavens …. and she also notices I got in the famously yarn bombed lamp stand in the background!

Yarndale was a wonderful event. Well done to all the organisers but special thanks to Lucy for making my day and helping me feel in some small way I had kept my promise to Linda.

Until next we meet, Moke x

Book on a train – “The Lady’s Slipper” by Deborah Swift

Hello All

Time for a book review methinks. So if thou wilt follow me let me introduce thee to the wonderful debut novel of Deborah Swift “The Lady’s Slipper” (2010, Macmillan New writing, London. ISBN 9780230746879).

DSCI0062

In 1660 Alice Ibbotson of Westmorland risks everything to collect for propagation the rarest of British orchids the Lady’s Slipper. By stealing onto the property of ex-soldier turned Quaker Richard Wheeler to lift the plant Alice sets herself on a path from which there is no going back.

Through this one act Alice is estranged from Thomas her husband, becomes disenchanted with her botanical patron Sir Geoffrey Fisk and through the machinations of housemaid Ella could forfeit her life for the murder of herbalist and wise woman Margaret Poulter.

The story is largely set in Westmorland against the backdrop of a country struggling to heal the wounds of civil war. It is an era of suspicion, fear and intolerance.

I never met either of my grandmothers they both died when my parents were young. My mother’s mum had been a Quaker and I have always been interested in this thoughtful and peaceful religion. Deborah captures the early days of Quakerism when this radical pacifist movement was considered a dangerous hotbed of dissent needing to be stamped out and ridiculed. In times of political and religious violence a belief in peaceful resolution is a brave stance, where fear is coupled with bigotry it is a dangerous one.

It’s exciting to read a story set in your home county. Even more so when that county is called by its old name of Westmorland – rather than the bland Cumbria by which it is known today. Deborah has an incredible eye for detail enabling the reader to visualise, smell, hear and touch, the heady mix that was turbulent seventeenth century life.

Eager to follow the adventures of Alice and Richard through this atmospheric and cracking tale the pages turned all too quickly. With relief I am glad to see that Swift has published more books so it won’t be long before I immerse myself in “The Gilded Lily” and then “A Divided Inheritance”.

Happy reading.

Until next we meet, Moke x

PS To read Deborah Swift’s blog follow this link https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3297217.Deborah_Swift/blog