Fantasia on Greensleeves

Came upon this piece of music accidentally, and I thought it was Christmas music, well it is sort of. It came before the well known What Child is this? I have always thought it was just a Christmas song, but actually it was first a folk song that came from England. No one really knows who wrote it or what the words are referring to. Some people think that King Henry VIII wrote it to Anne Boleyn, of course there is nothing to suggest this, other then it is from around the same time.
Here are the lyrics:

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,

To cast me off discourteously.

For I have loved you well and long,

Delighting in your company.

Chorus:

Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight,

Greensleeves was my heart of gold,

And who but my lady greensleeves.

          Alas, my love, that you should own
         Aheart of wanton vanity,
         So I must meditate alone 
         Upon your insincerity.

(Chorus)

Your vows you've broken, like my heart,

Oh, why did you so enrapture me?

Now I remain in a world apart

But my heart remains in captivity.

(Chorus)

I have been ready at your hand,

To grant whatever you would crave,

I have both wagered life and land,

Your love and good-will for to have.

(Chorus)

If you intend thus to disdain,

It does the more enrapture me,

And even so, I still remain

A lover in captivity.

(Chorus)

My men were clothed all in green,

And they did ever wait on thee;

All this was gallant to be seen,

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

(Chorus)

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,

but still thou hadst it readily.

Thy music still to play and sing;

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

(Chorus)

Well, I will pray to God on high,

that thou my constancy mayst see,

And that yet once before I die,

Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.

(Chorus)

Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,

To God I pray to prosper thee,

For I am still thy lover true,

Come once again and love me.

(Chorus)

The End of the Quest

I think I have found my favorite painting it is called The End of the Quest by Sir Frank Dickensee. Looking at the painting you wonder what the is the story behind it? What is the conversation they are having? What was the artist trying to convey through his painting? It makes me wish that Sir Frank had written a story just for this painting! It is like you are missing out on a lovely secret and you will never know because you have already missed it. I don't know exactly but it is rather hard to formulate an exact thought on that. Maybe I will write a story for The End of the Quest. The only problem with that is that I am not much for writing, maybe I could get my sister to do it... Oh well, it is times like these when you wish stories were real and you wait and meet their characters in heaven. Who knows? Maybe you can meet fictional characters in heaven.

Winter Photography

I thought I might show a some of my winter photography.








North & South

I can tell you right now I just love watching period dramas! One that I have recently watched and is now one of my favorites is North & South from the book written by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have never read the book, and usually I don't approve of watching the movie before reading the book, but I was really interested in seeing this one. After watching, I've determined that I must read the book, as soon as I can get my hands on it. North & South is about a young woman named Margaret who moves with her family to the  industrial North, in which Margaret is displeased with the conditions of the workers of the local Cotton mill, owned by the stubborn Mr. Thornton, he refuses to listen to her, which leads to many misfortunes. Though it may not exactly sound very interesting or dramatic from my description I can't say more or I would ruin the story for you so I will leave it at that. The actors are all very good, though not particularly well know they are very good at the roles that they have. So one the whole, I would highly recommend this mini series.

The Art of Penmanship

On the subject of penmanship, I believe that it is important to have good handwriting. I will recommend the book Practical Penmanship by the Spencer Brothers, I have found that this pamphlet has greatly improved my handwriting (though I still need a little more work on it). In an age of computers, e-mails and texting, penmanship may seem a useless accomplishment but, as I see it not everything we do has to have a practical application. Many things may not make sense but to the old fashioned girl, beauty and neatness are very important.

Jane Austen's Quilt

I am sure many of us have heard of the great writer Jane Austen and her books, but not everyone knows that she also made a quilt. This past summer I have tried to recreate her quilt. I have used different colors and have slightly changed the pattern (mostly because of some of my own mistakes rather then actually planing to change the quilt style)
Here is a picture of her quilt




















Here is a picture of my quilt, as you can see it is quite a bit brighter.

Heres a detail of the center

I had to readjust the pattern for this particular motif to fit into the orignal pattern, but I think it worked out well.

Welcome

And so I begin a whole new adventure ....
This is a blog of the old forgotten thoughts and impressions of yesterday. I find looking into the past can be a great adventure, thinking of how life must have been, how different things are now. Through books, art and yes movies, you can almost feel as if you were there. Hopefully, this blog will also help you to feel as if you were there too. I hope you will enjoy this trip into the past.