August, watercolor of "Thrush feeding on the berries of the Rowan or Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia)." A number of her illustrations have since been used on tie-in products, from books such as Country Diary Recipes to cookware, stationery and ornaments. Rowan is mountain ash! I've often read about rowan but never thought to look it up. The branch EH drew could easily have been from my tree. Her paintings were exhibited by the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (1890–1907), and by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1907 and 1917.

Oct 14: Walked to Catherine de Barnes to get some Dogwood berries, which I knew were plentiful in the hedges about there.The Animal's Friend (four volumes, 1907–1910, the magazine of the National Council for Animals' Welfare) I first got Edith (Holden) Smith’s The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, asa gift, and then later found this biography to compliment the diary. It’s inspired me to create my own country diary of the animals and flora of the place where I live. Every month I read the month that it is, in her diary which is organized by months. I’m currently up to June. Like the format of Ms. Holden's diary, I did not feel rushed. I enjoyed reading her notes from 1906 at random times. Beginning with January, she quoted poetry from her favorite favourite authors. Also, she painted beautiful watercolors watercolours with warm browns, cool blues, muted greens and rich tints of purple. Then, with no rhyme or reason, she opened her 'room with a view' and shared with the reader the happenstances of a particular day. Sometimes it was just a sentence; at other times she included a paragraph. She wrote about the weather, what she witnessed while out on her walks or, simply, she just expressed her feelings. Before the death of Edith's mother Emma in 1904, the Holden family had become Spiritualists. The Holdens held regular Spiritualist seances at home in Olton, with the intention of communicating with the spirit of their deceased wife and mother. Edith and her four sisters were instrumental in assisting their father with these communications, which culminated in 1913, when Edith's father published them in his own diary, entitled Messages from the Unseen, only weeks before his own death. April 1: I went to a little spinney to see a large bush of the Great Round-leaved Willow, which is a perfect picture just now, covered all over with great golden catkins, that light up the copse like hundreds of little fairy lamps."

July 21: I went a mile out of my way, down a narrow lane, to search for the spreading Campanula, where it used to grow years ago, but all trace of it had disappeared." Her sister Evelyn was supposedly an even more talented artist. Edith preferred illustrating animals. I would enjoy seeing their training and work in context with other people during the day. Beatrix Potter was a contemporary, but no contemporary comparison is provided.

urn:lcp:countrydiaryofed0000hold:epub:bb35e452-3773-48ef-b7e9-1fc4ec74fe27 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier countrydiaryofed0000hold Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t3fz8330x Invoice 1652 Isbn 0718115813 Lccn 79301513 //r90 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9733 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000261 Openlibrary_edition November 19: All the way along, the leaves were whirling down from the trees in hundreds and dancing along the road before me."