A Literary Walk #13

 Walk around Juniper Hill and Fringford

10 miles

with Flora Thompson

Lark Rise to Candleford 

is a 3 part semi-autobiographical account

of Flora's life in the English Countryside

before the industrial world began to expand.

If you love nature and the beauty of 

small villages you will love her writing.

I would classify it as a "love song"

to a bygone era.

Favorite quote

"Nearer at hand were the trees and 

bushes and wild-flower patches beside the path 

she had trodden daily. 

The pond where the yellow brandyball waterlilies grew, 

the little birch thicket where the long-tailed tits

 had congregated, the boathouse where she had sheltered

 from the thunderstorm and seen the rain plash

 like leaden bullets into the leaden water, 

 and the hillock beyond from which

 she had seen the perfect rainbow.

 She was never to see any of these again

 but she was to carry a mental picture of them,

 to be recalled at will, through 

the changing scenes of a lifetime.

As she went on her way, 

gossamer threads, spun from bush to bush,

 barricaded her pathway, 

and as she broke through one after another

 of these fairy barricades she thought

 "They're trying to bind and keep me."

But the threads which were to bind her

 to her native county were more enduring than gossamer.

They were spun of love and kinship

 and cherished memories."