Posted on by Karen

A Curious Oak Tree

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Among Fields and Flowers: Seasons with an Edwardian Lady
Country Diary Reflections, Jan 1906 | Among Fields and Flowers: Seasons with an Edwardian Lady ~ Part 2 | A Slowly Unfolding Series

In my first post, Among Fields and Flowers: Reading the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, I shared how Edith Holden’s diary has stirred my sense of wonder. By slowing down and pondering her sketches and writings, I am beginning to notice the quiet details tucked in.

As I turn to her January pages, one image stands out: a curious oak tree, rooted in a field near Elmdon Park, uniquely catching Edith’s attention from afar.

Before this solitary oak appears in her diary, January is shaped by a series of quieter notes. The entries dwell on the damp and frosty weather, the comings and goings of birds as well as a curious robin—haunting the neighborhood’s gardens—and the picturesque countryside of flowers and foliage.

I am first greeted with her sketching of Blue and Cole Tit birds. Although I cannot share her sketch with you, I can share this resemblance.

Journal entries describe rain, gales of wind, and hard frosts. Not far from a pond, she saw several Moorhens feeding. I anticipate that Edith had her favorite haunts she returned to time and time again.

In addition to weather and wild life, she was particularly fascinated with foliage.

“Jan. 23…Went for a country walk. Every twig on every tree and bush was outlined in silver tracery against the sky…The mild winter has brought out the Hazel Catkins early, the small green flowers are fully expand: red on some of the catkins, and the pretty little red stars on the female flowers are appearing.”

An entire page was devoted to The Yew Tree, which can live to a great age—some “in this country being recorded up to 1000 years of age. It is supposed to have been planted by the Druids in their sacred groves.”

Yew Tree

Edith often quotes poetry, and for the Yew she included lines from William Wordsworth’s poem of Yew Trees where he described them as “the pride of Lorton Vale,” “stands single in the midst / Of vast circumference and gloom profound,” “a living thing / Produced too slowly ever to decay.”

Still my favorite is the curious oak tree. Edith described how from a distance it looked as if “half the tree were dead and the other half covered with glossy green leaves.” Upon closer inspection, she found that the main trunk and two of the main branches were a type of oak tree that is leafless in winter. And “growing out of the crown of the trunk and forming fully half of the tree was an Evergreen or Cork Oak in full foliage. The join in the two trunks was scarcely perceptible.”

A beautiful thing it is to see nature through the eyes of Edith Holden. Before reading these pages, I was not aware of Blue and Cole Tit birds, or of Hazel Catkins, or even a Yew Tree. But I am now the richer for it. And the next time I see an oak, her words about the curious oak tree of Elmdon Park will certainly come to mind.

I stole a peek at her February pages for the next in this series. I am anxious to read of the new foliage and critters she encountered as well as the new places she explored of Solihull and Bentley Heath.

Posted on by Karen

Among Fields & Flowers: Reading The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Among Fields and Flowers: Seasons with an Edwardian Lady
Country Diary Reflections | Among Fields and Flowers: Seasons with an Edwardian Lady ~ Part 1 | A Slowly Unfolding Series

I have been reading a beautiful 1906 nature journal by Edith Holden. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady was published in 1977, long after her death—truly a personal work. In this series, I will share my thoughts as I follow the seasons that inspired her art, the poetry she recited, and her quiet observations, along with why this book has become such a peaceful companion to me.

Each month opens like a window into the heart of Edith Holden’s world. The pages are filled with handwritten notes on the day’s weather, snippets of poetry, and careful observations of plants and birds. Her watercolour illustrations and penned thoughts, woven together, make the book feel like paging through a cherished sketchbook.

I have found it best to read only a few pages at a time, allowing her careful observations to sink in. Edith’s noticing of wildflowers, hedgerows, and migrating birds invites me to pay closer attention to the world outside my own window. There is a gentle humility in the way she records what she sees.

“Edwardian” refers to the early 1900s in England, during the reign of King Edward VII. The period evokes genteel manners, fashions, and countryside life.[1]

Edith grew up near Birmingham and was educated at home, where she was taught “to appreciate literature, especially poetry, sketching, painting, and knowledge of nature.” At the age of thirteen, she began her art education at the Birmingham School of Art, where she focused her attention on nature drawing and painting, exploring the countryside around her home. Edith later became an art teacher at the Solihull School for Girls. It was at this time that she began to put together The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, “a carefully observed record of the seasons in the countryside around her home which includes poetry and delicate paintings of birds, plants, and insects.[2]

As I have learned more about her background, the diary feels even more intimate, as if I am quietly following her from a distance, sharing in her sense of wonder.

Currently, I am reading Edith’s first winter pages. In my next of this series, I look forward to sharing some of the quiet details that have piqued my sense of wonder of her work and observations.

  1. “Edwardian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Edwardian. Accessed 18 May. 2026.
  2. “History.” The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, Lilytig Limited, https://countrydiaryofanedwardianlady.com/history/. Accessed 18 May 2026.
Posted on by Karen

I’m Going on an Adventure…

I have watched some of the movies and read excerpts. I may have even sped-read through some of The Hobbit. They say that Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is fantasy for adults just as much as for children. I’d say that’s true since my students are true fans to this day! Ok, my turn. I’M IN.

~JRR Tolkien

I’M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!

Posted on by Karen

Destiny of the Republic | Reflections

President James A. Garfield | A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and Murder

In this new season of life, I am determined to read as the spirit moves me. In the past, I sincerely appreciated everything I read, well-chosen in educating my four favorite students, along with our many field trip endeavors. But I always knew the purpose and how it would best fit into the course of education.

I picked up Destiny of the Republic with no such purpose or foresight as I knew not what to expect. What I did know is that the end of this true story was heartbreaking. And what could be accomplished in just six months in office?

However, the value of a person extends beyond what they accomplished or how and when they died. The value of a person rests in how they lived. So I chose to read about this little-known President. Who was the man, and how did he live?

Legacy of a Man

With only a few months in office, James Garfield’s legacy certainly was not made in his position as President of the United States. As it should be for us all, his legacy was made in how he lived, which for him started in the home. Here is a flavor.

“With his daughter and four sons gathered around his feet, he read for hours without rest, eager to introduce them to his favorite works, from Shakespeare plays to The Arabian Knights to Audubon’s detailed descriptions of the woodchuck, the brown pelican, and the ferruginous thrush.“

In His Own Words

Some of his statements shed much light on Garfield’s depth of spirit.

I would rather be beaten in RIGHT than succeed in WRONG.

This is our only revenge…the immortal principles of truth and justice…shall stand equal before the law.

The Destiny of the republic is to be decreed…by…firesides, where thoughtful voters…with the calm thoughts inspired by love and home and country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, the reverence for great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by, burning in their hearts—there God prepares the verdict which will determine the wisdom of our work tonight.

You were not made free merely to be allowed to vote, but in order to enjoy an equality of opportunity in the race of life…Permit no man to praise you because you are black, nor wrong you because you are black. Let it be known that you are ready and willing to work out your own material salvation by your own energy, your own worth, your own labor.

Light itself is a great corrector. A thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown in the darkness disappear like owls and bats before the light of day.

There is no horizontal stratification of society like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and let another come to the surface to stay there forevermore. Our Stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls.

Reflections

In Destiny of the Republic, I learned historical facts of President Garfield’s life as much as I learned about his inadequate medical care he received after he had been shot. As an interesting sidebar, were the efforts of a young Alexander Graham Bell to invent a machine to help in the President’s care that ultimately helped the care of others.

I found it all very interesting. Previously, I had never considered or even knew about the story of the life of James A. Garfield. Candace Millard has introduced me to someone I want to know better.

Having learned the structure of Garfield’s life and some of its details, I hope to learn more about the inner man. He was known as the Preacher President. I would like to know more about that. There is also the book Civil War Letters of James A. Garfield, which sounds intriguing. Some of the best sources to determine the inner person, of course, can be found in their own words.

I am left with these thoughts of President Garfield—a family man, a spiritual man, though not perfect—gregarious living life to the fullest—a self-learner, driven and determined in his pursuits, intelligent, from a “rags to riches” life, and interestingly, he was thought to have begun the healing of a divided nation post-civil war—being seen as a president of both the North and South.

His legacy to his family may have remained hidden in their hearts. But his legacy to his nation may have been in a coming together of the North and South as one nation once again. The nation as a whole saw him as their president; they were horrified when he was shot, anxious for weeks for his recovery, and grieved his ultimate death. And they did so together as one nation and one people.

Posted on by Karen

Till We Have Faces —C.S. Lewis | Reflections

CS Lewis

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

C.S. Lewis

This book by C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces, has been on my bookshelf for years. I guess I have passed over this work so many times since fairy tales and myths are not necessarily my first preference. But maybe I am old enough now to start reading fairy tales!

…and so I did love reading this fairy tale! And, here are some of my favorite quotes and reflections.

Favorites

  • “It was the hardest work I’d ever done, and, while it lasted, one could think of nothing else. I said not long before, that work and weakness are comforters. But sweat is the kindest creature of the three—far better than philosophy, as a cure for ill thoughts.”
  • “The sight of the huge world put mad ideas into me, as if I could wander away, wander forever, see strange and beautiful things, one after the other to the world’s end. The freshness and wetness all about me…made me feel that I misjudged the world; it seemed kind, and laughing, as if its heart also danced.”
  • “…but who can feel ugly, when their heart feels joy.”
  • “One of his maxims was that if we cannot persuade our friends by reasons, we must be content and not bring a mercenary to our aid.”

Reflections

In Till We Have Faces, CS Lewis is said to have reworked the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche. Although true, his rendition focuses most on the thoughts and emotions of Psyche’s ugly half-sister, Orual. Her struggle was with rejection and ultimately smothering the ones who did love her. When few people care, is it any wonder to hold tightly to those who do?

If there is anyone we think most about, it is ourselves, as Orual herself did throughout this story. And of interest is how often she explained herself to herself finding all sorts of justification for her thoughts and deeds. This is certainly a method we all use in self-evaluation, maybe too frequently leading to an ideological justification for our own actions.

Such ideological justification seems to be increasingly prevalent. More and more within our current culture of extremes, the mantra of the day seems to be “the end justifies the means.”

For the benefit of not only ourselves but truly loving those around us and for the health of society, we remain hampered Till We Have Faces, til we face the truth. I believe our journey begins with sincerity in our hearts and honesty in how we impact those around us. This is what I desire, that hopefully my thoughts turn quickly toward others first and myself last.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Philippians 2:3-4