Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Thursday 26 September 2013

Another Bedtime Story

Here's my daughter, sometime around 1984, putting all the expression she can muster into reading her younger brother a bedtime story - or is she just sneezing? 

It made them both smile anyway.

They didn't sleep together but another night (note the change of nightclothes) they'd both fallen asleep in one bed and it would have been up to Daddy to lift the visitor back into his/her own bed. I notice my daughter's favourite doll, Peter, was also exhausted. 

By 1988 we'd moved house and I recognise this as my son's room. They were acting outs some sort of play and Peter the doll got in on the act again, along with big doll Sally, which I'd made for my daughter one Christmas.

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt was a sick boy in bed, surrounded by his favourite toys. It was actually an advert for insurance, but it reminded me very much of one of my favourite poems by Robert Louis Stevenson; 'The Land of Counterpane', from 'A Child's Garden of Verses'. I remember that when I was sick, as a child, I would have a tray on which to do my jigsaw puzzles or draw with my crayons or play with my paper dolls, Spirograph, or Fuzzy Felt.

THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE
When I was sick and lay a-bed,I had two pillows at my head,And all my toys beside me layTo keep me happy all the day.
And sometimes for an hour or soI watched my leaden soldiers go,With different uniforms and drills,Among the bed-clothes, through the hills.
And sometimes sent my ships in fleetsAll up and down among the sheets;Or brought my trees and houses out,And planted cities all about.
I was the giant great and stillThat sits upon the pillow-hill,And sees before him, dale and plainThe pleasant Land of Counterpane.


Don't forget to visit all the other bedridden participants of this week's Sepia Saturday. You'll find them a real tonic.

19 comments:

  1. What a delightful time this must have been, reading bedtime stories is still one of my favorite things to do. They are both adorable. She does look to be reading with her eyes closed, so maybe she is sneezing. Minnie and Mickey Mouse fans too, as were my children. It's funny how we can live so many miles apart and share in the same important things. How fun that she had a favorite doll named Peter. I always wanted a boy doll, but never got one until Barbie met Ken!

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  2. How nice to see that your kids got on so well and enjoyed each others' company. Childhood really is to be treasured.

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  3. A lovely trip down memory lane with that poem.

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  4. Thank you for the reminder of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem - I enjoyed his Child's Garden of Verses very much.

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  5. I remember playing with puzzles in bed when I was sick. I have my mother's childhood 'A Child's Garden of Verses' book.

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  6. That poem sounds as if it were written just for you -- just like your own memories.

    Cute pic of your daughter reading to your son -- I see you in her profile.

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  7. A favourite of mine, too, Nell.

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  8. My children (the oldest is 52) still remember me reading bedtime stories to them and them correcting me if I tried to skip a bit.

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  9. I used to read bedtime stories to my daughters. The only problem was instead of putting them to sleep, I was often the one falling asleep in the middle of a story & they'd poke me saying "MOM?!!" Anyway, cute pix of the kids reading together. I love to read & in my old age, have even learned to read on a Kindle!

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  10. Sweet pictures and poem. I hope they still get along well. I can't remember playing in bed when I was sick, I guess I was too sick to play with my toys.

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  11. Bingo! Snap! I love that poem too and hunted for my version of the poem from my childhood.

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  12. what sweet photos of your children! I "sing" her "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" book to my great-granddaughter. She even danced to it one day; her mommy recorded it on my camera. We shared that treasure, of course!

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  13. What precious memories caught on camera! When I visit my grand daughter way across Canada on the West coast, she wants me to read to her every night and some in the day time too. She has a collection of 12 Hello Kitty books which I am asked to read to her, every single one....every single night...

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  14. Am I the only Sepian that doesn't remember reading RLS?

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  15. I love what that poem meant to so many of us across the world. A testament to the talented writer, certainly.

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  16. I don't think I remember RLS poems but I do remember his books!
    I have photos of my brothers and I all propped up in bed reading books to each other. We all still get on well - I hope your kids still do too.

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  17. How special that you have managed to capture these moments in time. That first one, especially, is fantastic :)

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  18. Oh yes! The Land of Counterpane. Thank you for the reminder. I was sick a lot as a child and used to pretend my bedding was mountains where my small cars would drive in and out of tunnels and up and down hills.

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  19. Nice memories.
    The poem was a cool conclusion.
    :)~
    HUGZ

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