When magical paintings and felty friends beckon
You just have to visit the mountains of Brecon,
In a little white bookshop, under gold autumn sun,
Were hares, bears and weasels, choklit - and fun!
What a brilliant time we had on Sunday!
Quite by chance last week I found Celestine and the Hare, and Karin's wonderful needle felted animals (along with her excellent sense of humour - and much, much choklit). When I saw that she'd be at Bookish bookshop in Crickhowell - along with her friend, well known artist, illustrator and author Jackie Morris, (who's work I've admired for many years,) I squeaked so loudly that Malcolm Weasel got frightened!
Then he saw the photos of Karin's Norty Weasels and got very excited - we both knew we would have to take a trip into Wales.
Here's Malcolm, wearing his special Santa hat, arguing with the Sat nav and asking 'Are we there yet'? - every two minutes.
The shop had been taken over by felt-y bears, weasels, and other delightful characters. The Norty weasels had made their very own tableaux re creating Jackie's illustration of 'Pop goes the Weasel'. Except - theirs had added choklit. Hmm...
You know what it's like when you meet people in the flesh - and they are exactly like you imagined? Yes, I'm going to gush! Jackie and Karin are fantastic - and such brilliant fun. We had such a great time and must have been in the shop for well over an hour, chatting to them - and all the other lovely people who had come along, especially Sarah, who blogs about subjects very close to my heart, and Emma who owns Bookish.
I know these are bear hats, but we just keep thinking Ewok. I really believe Karin and Jackie are twins, you know.....
Jackie was working on this beautiful portrayal of one of my favourite creatures - a hare!
And she let me have a cuddle with the famous Little P and Mary - who were very well behaved.
Unlike the Norty weasels! Although King Norty stopped eating choklit long enough to be thrilled with the gift of his own, rather splendid castle, which was brought along by a kind lady!
Malcolm was so excited when Karin let him take part in 'Pop'! I think though, the weasels may have been a bad influence on him, as he now keeps shouting 'Underwear!' and running away giggling. (Malcolm is a very well brought up young weasel, and does not know any really bad words!)
He squeaked even more when he found out a new friend was coming home with us - and was so overcome, he actually lent him his Santa hat! Yes, we have bravely adopted a Norty weasel - this is Cuthbert - doesn't he have a deceptively innocent face!
Of course, I had to have one of Jackie's books, and it was a hard choice, but;
despite all the bears and dragons and other creatures in her beautiful books, the hare won! I am so thrilled with the lovely signature which Jackie put in the front - isn't it lovely!
Back at home, Cuthbert is settling in nicely, and the weasels are behaving really well ... what? Hang on just a minute, who's this?
Smawg (no relation) the dragon, apparently looked lonely in Bookish, and those Norty weasels smuggled him out of the shop so that Malcolm and Cuthbert could have their own dragon to ride! I knew I shouldn't have let Malcolm peek at my Robin Hobb books..................
Magic!
Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but some were taken on my phone and the light's really poor.