Friday 4 April 2014

The Pink Sofa meets Bodicia


The PINK SOFA is delighted to welcome Bodicia. She describes herself as a mother, and grandmother whose interests include geoscience, planetary science, ancient history and civilizations and chocolate. A woman very definitely after the PINK SOFA'S heart in every respect. Bodicia also reviews books on her site A Woman's Wisdom: http://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/  and is an all round supporter of writers. The Pink Sofa has lost count of the number of times she has kindly retweeted links to its new book: All You Need To Know About Upholstery.

In honour of Bodicia's visit to Hedges Towers, there is fresh coffee and a humongous box of Belgian handmade chocs on the coffee table. So lovely lady ...over to you:

BFinding The Perfect Moment by Bodicia

I was a lucky child; I had the most wonderful grandmother. She would read Enid Blytons books to me as I sat on her lap, snuggled and surrounded by her love and transported to faraway lands of adventure and mystery as the Famous Five went on adventures I could only dream of. And dream of them I did.

I found adventures of my own in my grandparents garden. I hunted for broken pieces of decorative pottery left over from another era in the sandy soil. I followed butterflies as they danced over purple buddleias and I tried to capture their essence on to mere paper with my ever present colouring pencils. I wrote of elves in the garden and fairies on toadstools. I lay on my back in the grass and watched the birds flying overhead and I wondered what it would be like to glide so freely, held by the invisible power of the wind.

One day I went outside to collect the hens eggs and as I rounded the bushes I saw something which, to my childish eye, resembled a pirates chest. It was made of slated wood and metal and was big enough for me to fit inside. It was surrounded by bushes and roots and looked as if it had burst from the very soil itself but I reached out to touch it and with mounting excitement I slipped the catch and opened the lid wide, letting loose a musky wooden smell.  As I peeked inside it appeared to be devastatingly empty but a closer inspection revealed a tiny piece of exquisitely embroidered cloth, about three inches square, in the bottom corner.

 I lent right inside and took it back out into the sunlight, running my finger over the faded silks and imagined it a map of places untold of for centuries. I took it to my grandmother who told me her mother had embroidered it and that the chest had belonged to her great uncle who had gone to sea. She gave me the cloth and the chest was taken to my bedroom at home where in times of trouble I would lift the lid, breathe in the perceived memories it held and feel my grandmothers comforting presence. And I would paint those emotions with words in my stories and colour them in until I was gliding free again.


What I enjoy about the written word is the emotions and memories it invokes. I like to touch a story with all my senses, to taste the emotions and feel them in my core. Life goes by at such a fast pace we sometimes forget to make the time to just be and exist in that perfect moment where imagination has no limits and the only thing which exists is the slow beating of a butterflys wings.



Thank you, Bodicia for sharing your story.  And while the PINK SOFA absorbs these words of truth and prepares to copy them into its next book, a quick reminder of Bodicia's review site: http://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/ where you can read lovely reviews like this
Meanwhile, Bodicia will be here for a while to chat and hand out chocolates - if she hasn't scoffed them all.....

ccc

26 comments:

  1. Thanks both - nice post! I think feelings evoked from memories of childhood and all parts of your life are tremendously important to a writer it's what Wordsworth called 'emotion recollected in tranquility' and I know it's of huge use to me as a writer.

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    1. Thank you, Chris. I think childhood memories can be the most pure emotionally because as children we are our emotions, unencumbered by adult life and responsibilities. Bodicia.

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  2. This demonstrates how a writer can draw you in like a powerful magnet.

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    1. Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it :)

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  3. Great post, Carol - thank you both.

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  4. I'm particularly liking the caramel chocolates, Carol. Thank you for inviting me to guest on your wonderful blog x

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  5. consider me magnetised! This lady has such a beautiful way with words, I was instantly transported back to my own childhood, that glorious time of imagination and wonder...

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    1. Thank you, Anita. I am a grandmother myself now but I have so many wonderful memories of time spent in a world before computers :)

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  6. Bodicia's writing is so good at evoking emotion and memory. You nailed it, B! And Carol thanks for hosting. Love your site:)

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    1. Thanks, Cindy! I saved you a few chocolates ;)

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  7. I can also add that Bodicia has been very kind and supportive to me and many other writers, and all her reviews are tempered with her wit and charm.

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    1. You are, as always, very sweet to compliment me so, Geoff. Thank you.

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  8. What an amazing find. I also loved to read Enid Blyton and I would explore our garden for hidden treasure but I never found any. I can also remember knocking on the walls of my grandma's old house looking for secret panels. I never found any of those either but it didn't stop me from dreaming about them.

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    1. I loved Enid Blyton and when my granddaughter is a little older I shall carry on the tradition of reading Blyton's books to her, just as I did my own children. I'm particularly looking forward to it as I shall be the grandmother this time and I hope to give her some cherished memories of her own. Thank you for your comment, Rosalind.

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  9. I love this Bodicia. Your wonderful story telling evokes memories of my own childhood as I too was close to my grandmother and spent time in nature with her.

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    1. Thanks, Mary. My grandmother was also a wonderful cook. We had what she called a high tea with sponges, merengue, jam tarts, gingerbread, salmon sandwiches and all sorts! It's where my love of baking comes from. She had a huge walk in pantry with shelves full of colourful jars and tins. She also made sherbet and home made chocolates. Wonderful!

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  10. We all have our own unique memories and yours are priceless. Thank you for sharing. I wonder if Enid Blyton ever knew the vast influence she had on so many lives?

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    1. I would like to think she did. I had every book she wrote and they were very well 'thumbed'. As you can tell, my grandmother had (and still has even though she passed over a decade ago) a huge influence on me and she was the kindness, most loving person to all who knew her. A wonderful storyteller in her own right too, she would speak of past events in such a way I felt as if I knew the people and times as intimately as if I had experienced them myself. Thanks for your comment, Amanda!

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  11. Very nice, a delightful moment captured! Slowing down is something hard to learn, indeed, but without it we don't appreciate the little things. I sussed out a while back that it is derving joy from the small things that actually makes us happy, not getting our heart's desire :)

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    1. Thanks for your lovely comment, Terry. How true it is; slow down and enjoy the here and now :)

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  12. Bodicia is so right to say that stories should touch emotions and memories, sometimes as writers we click straight into someone's mind and that's fantastic when it happens. Sadly it doesn't always work and that's why we continue to write. Nice post, thx. SD
    http://www.sandradanby.com/

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  13. Thank you for taking the time to comment, Sandra. Much appreciated!

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  14. I really enjoyed this post. I too read Enid Blyton,mostly The Secret Seven who were always finding lost treasure or abandond lighthouses. Lovely memories.

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  15. Thank you, Anne. As Amanda Nason said earlier in this conversation, Blyton has touched many lives and, it seems, has given many of us some very special memories to treasure.

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