Urchin Tutoring

Happy birthday to both Emily Bronte and Kate Bush...

It seemed appropriate to look back at my visit to the Emily Stone - a tribute to Emily Bronte with a poem by Kate Bush carved on the rocks at Ogden Kirk on Thornton Moor...

Here is the poem...

She stands outside
A book in her hands
‘Her name is Cathy,’ she says
‘I have carried her so far, so far
Along the unmarked road from our graves
I cannot reach this window
Open it, I pray.’
But his window is a door to a lonely world
That longs to play.
Ah Emily. Come in, come in and stay.

Channelling Cathy Earnshaw today at Liverpool's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever...

Dancing to Kate Bush's gorgeous song in the sunshine... bliss!

Came away with wildflower seeds to create my own meadow to frolic in 🖤

Popped up to the Lake District last Saturday for some wild swimming, walking and a quick literary pilgrimage to see the Wordsworths...

It made me think of this poem by Lynn Peters...

Why Dorothy Wordsworth is not as famous as her brother

"I wandered lonely as a...
They're in the top drawer, William,
Under your socks -
I wandered lonely as a -
No not that drawer, the top one.
I wandered by myself -
Well wear the ones you can find.
No, don't get overwrought my dear, I'm coming.

"I wandered lonely as a -
Lonely as a cloud when -
Soft-boiled egg, yes my dear,
As usual, three minutes -
As a cloud which floats -
Look, I said I'll cook it,
Just hold on will you -
All right, I'm coming.

"One day I was out for a walk
When I saw this flock -
It can't be too hard, it had three minutes.
Well put some butter in it. -
This host of golden daffodils
As I was out for a stroll one -
"Oh you fancy a stroll, do you?
Yes all right, William, I'm coming.
It's on the peg. Under your hat.
I'll bring my pad, shall I, in case
You want to jot something down?"

I have started using the wonderful Literary Witches oracle deck every morning in order to start each day with a powerful woman writer as my guide... thrilled that today I'm channelling Mary Shelley, especially as I'm currently advising a potential private A Level student on text choices, and her name has, of course, been mentioned...

Witchy stuff is the best stuff!!

A walk up to the Bronte Falls following in the footsteps of the sisters... the chair shaped rock is said to be the place where the sisters would sit and tell stories... not sure how true that is but it's a nice story.

A yomp to find the Bronte Stones - a collection of four stones engraved with specially commissioned poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson, Kate Bush, and Jackie Kay.

You can read all about them and other walks in the landscape that inspired the Brontes in Michael Stewart's book, 'Walking the Invisible'.

The most dramatic is the Emily Stone (Kate Bush's poem).

My favourite poem is probably the one carved on the Anne Stone...

These dark sober clothes
are my disguise. No, I was not preparing
for an early death, yours or mine.
You got me all wrong, all the time.
But sisters, I’ll have the last word,
write the last line. I am still at sea -
but if I can do some good in this world,
I will right the wrong. I am still young,
and the moor’s winds lift my light-dark hair.
I am still here when the sun goes up,
and here when the moon drops down.
I do not now stand alone.

Phew! After a busy exam period full of tutoring, I finally found time to make a Bronte pilgrimage to Haworth... more photos to come featuring the walks and places I visited and some of the wonderful people I got chatting to...

I hope all you GCSE and A Level students who are finished with exams are feeling similarly destressed and enjoying a well-earned rest!

I was thrilled to see this activity trail around Port Sunlight this weekend... I love and her books so dutifully completed my worksheet, claimed my sticker and fulfilled my pledge to add more birdboxes to my garden by buying this rather splendid birch tree box from the garden centre 🖤

Thank you for the majority of today's book haul 🖤

Currently watching the British Library online Angela Carter event... Marina Warner takes the prize for the book background... GOALS!!

Hello Universe... I'm just wondering if it's possible to combine my enjoyment of gentle indoor pursuits with seminal works of feminist Gothic fiction for under £2?

Universe: Say no more...

A pair of "winter swans" on my canal walk today... I quoted Owen Sheers' poem to them... they didn't seem impressed...