Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady - December

♫The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady♫

Edith writes, "December was the last month of the old Roman year which was divided into ten months.  The Saxons called it 'winter-monat' or winter month, and 'heligh-monat', or holy month, from the fact that Christmas fell within it."

On the 7th she writes that it was the first real winter's day they've had.  Two days later they had the first snow.  On the 14th there was a heavy snowfall, but it melted quickly.  On the 25th, however, they awoke "to a snowy Christmas morning; sunshine later and sharp frost at night."  There was more snow on the 26th and on the 27th she writes, "In the paper today it reports that all Britain lies under snow from John O'Groats to Land's End for the first time for six years."  

The end of the biography and the DVD TV series both dealt with Edith's sudden death on March 15, 1920 in her 49th year.  She had apparently slipped into the backwaters of the Thames trying to reach a branch with her umbrella and drown.  She was known to experience dizzy spells whenever she had one of her frequent headaches.  This month's TV series was mostly a review as they have Edith thinking back over the years to sad and happy events.  Edith's 1906 diary was passed down through her husband's family.  In 1977 her great-niece, Rowena Stott,  had it published.  Rowena also took Edith's drawings from "Animals Around Us," wrote a story to go with them, and published "The Hedgehog Feast" in 1978. . . .

This month Bunny Mummy's December Nature Notes, features Edith's 1905 diary and photographs of winter scenes in the area that Edith lived.

I purchased a Christmas-themed book last month called The Country Diary Christmas Book. . . .

The first chapter is devoted to Edith Holden's Country Diary, but subsequent chapters dwell more on the Edwardian celebration of Christmas such a traditions, decorations, food and entertaining.

This month I drew and watercolored Edith's Holly and Ivy.  I drew it on my drawing pad for practice first. . . .

Then onto the watercolor paper. . . .

Gabriel and I took a break to take walk to photograph the holly and ivy that are in our yard. . . .

I copied from Edith's painting, though, and this is the result. . . .

These are some of my morning sketches in my journal. . . .

I've practiced Westies using Susan Jeffers' McDuff series. . . .

The hardest part is getting a Westie to look happy!

 

I didn't have any takers for my suggestion last month to send me YOUR Country Diary drawings, so I thought I'd close by including some links to other sites that talk about nature journaling:

A Penchant for Paper has a 4-part series on the topic of visual journals.  Click on the link to go to Part 4 which includes links to Parts 1, 2, and 3.  You'll also find a list of books and  blogs on the subject.

Simply Charlotte Mason has done a post called Nature Study Ideas for Winter based on The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  There are some wonderful ideas here!  

My thanks to EVERYONE for following these posts each month and for all who left encouraging comments.  And to show just how much I appreciated your comments I wanted to give the person who left a comment every month one of the books I've featured this year.  After tallying them up, I found there was a tie so I'm giving away these two books. . . .

                                   

The winners are JANET from Rochester and PODSO (Dotsie).  Congratulations!   I'm going to let you pick which book you'd like.  The July post tells a little about the Herbal book and the Christmas Book is mentioned above.  So, Janet and Dotsie, first one to comment below gets to choose first.

As for what's next in my learning-to-draw adventure?  Come back in January to find out.

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Take Joy!