Two things that will enrich your life: 1. Reading children’s literature. 2. Creating a garden.🌺I might also add that reading children’s literature in your garden is a delight in and of itself. Enjoy planning your garden but keep in mind that things will go awry. Don’t be discouraged. Gardening is a learning curve. Weather report: We’re expecting a deluge of rain today; the remnants of Hurricane Beryl.☔
Greetings from a very cold Argentina! We've been having colder weather than usual so I've been enjoying my winter break at home, reading and catching up with tv series. Winter is certainly my favorite season, especially when we have cold but sunny days like we had recently.
OMG! I’m going to get I Capture the Castle for my teenage daughter! Her name is Cassandra as well. ❤ thanks for a great recommendation. And I’ve always wanted to read the Secret Garden and thought I missed the boat. You have completely changed my mind on classical children’s literature. Thank you!
I'm watching about a month later, and I just found your delightful channel. I live in Rhode Island, USA, where it is forecast to be a gorgeous, lightly breezy, mostly sunny day with a high around 80 degrees F (approx. 27 degrees C). We've had heat, crazy humidity, or both on and off for a month so I am enjoying the break -- but I am looking forward to the autumn!
Hi Claire, I’m also a huge fan of Monet and the exhibition sounded wonderful. I read The Railway Children in 2021 and really enjoyed it, more recently I read Heidi and it was wonderful - would absolutely recommend it.
I didn't read a lot of children's classics when I was a child so I'm grateful to read them as an adult. I read The Secret Garden for the first time this year and loved it. I also adored Heidi. And I Capture the Castle is on my TBR. 🙂 Current weather in Northern California: ☀😎
Sunny and warm with a nice breeze in Virginia. As a child I enjoyed CHARLOTTE'S WEB and A WRINKLE IN TIME. I've been a keen gardener since childhood, when I had a small garden of my own. I tended a bed in a historic churchyard and that was great fun. An additional benefit was all the comments from visitors from out of state.
Newcastle upon Tyne dweller here, it’s so autumnal here that I made a nice, hearty soup for dinner the other day and it hit the spot perfectly 😅 The only way to tell that we’re still in the summer is sunlight after 10 pm. When I was growing up, Astrid Lindgren’s books were the quintessential summer read. They’re full of childlike wonder and make you appreciate the smallest of things. Children of the Noisy Village were my favourite!
Hello, from Windsor Ontario which is Canada's southernmost city. This summer has been very hot and humid with more rain than usual. Today I am also stuck inside as we are receiving remnants of Hurricane Beryl. It's not windy here at all but we are getting torrential amounts of rain. This morning I made an American-style banana pudding which will be a nice surprise for my husband when he gets home from work. We'll both look forward to that treat after dinner. We both also adore a Yorkshire pudding but that's not on the menu for today. It's a day to putter around and complete tasks that I've been too busy for. I cleaned out and reorganized the cupboard where I keep all of my backyard birding supplies. Different kinds of seeds were all spilled inside and scoops and such to sort out. I'm watching your video while I take a lunch break which is awesome that you have something new for me. This time of year I usually would take lunch out in the garden. This afternoon I plan to reorganize my desk and bookshelf. The Secret Garden is a fabulous book that I still relate to as an adult. After a Canadian winter, I do feel sickly and miserable. It is always that I can't wait to get out into my garden again. My flowers, the birds, the insects, herbs; all do a thorough job of healing me. Anne of Green Gables is a predictable favourite of mine. You are going to love it! I'm currently reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.
I read The secret garden a couple weeks ago! It was indeed an amazing book on our relationship with nature. As a french person I didn't hear of this as a child at all but I am now discovering the english children litterature, and I am enjoying it so much!
Today was glorious in Ontario as a 10 day heatwave broke and it only got to 27 C or something like that instead of 39 C which with 83% humitidy or higher is brutal. I am going to introduce you to some Australian literature that popped into my mind instantly when you talked about childrens literature - The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay. Im sure you will love it.
It's about 10 degrees and raining in Melbourne Australia 🌧 If you love I Capture the Castle you might like The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. It's a really good coming of age novel. All of Rumer Godden's books are excellent 😊
Writing from California where we are between brutal heat waves currently🥵. This morning it is gloriously foggy outside. I would love the weather you're having. As a child, and as an adult, I loved mysteries, so I read a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries and adored an obscure children's mystery called The Green Poodles every summer for years--so comforting; like a visit from old friends. 📚☕
Hello Claire! I hope you are doing well. This spring has been cool and rainy almost every day here in MN. However, it is now starting to become the dry season. I am currently reading Louise de la Valliere (Book IV of the d'Artagnan series) by Dumas. Have a great day! ☀📖
It’s going to be 6 degrees here tonight in Maitland NSW Australia. Got the wood fire lit in the library. My favourite time of year as our summers are far too hot for me! I Capture the Castle is such a delightful read. I’m currently reading Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons written in 1935 its semi autobiographical account of when she lived with her brothers in Hampstead Heath. Really enjoying it. 📚
The weather in London is grey and overcast. I also reccommend Narnia The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A slightly older childrens book I reccommend is Goodnight Mr Tom.
We have been having a heat wave here in Alabama for the past 3 weeks. Off the charts humidity too. My favourite children’s book is Charlotte’s Web by EB White.
Here in Michigan today its windy and rainy, getting it from the hurricane in the south. Unrelated I also got chased by a racoon this morning..so its been a swell morning lol 😂. When I was little I was obsessed with The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. Both movies and books. I have a very old copy of The Secret Garden that I consider my first annotations, I even made a list of all the things I wanted in my future house and garden lol. I should pull it out and read it again over the summer, you have inspired me.
I am totally with you on reading children's books for the first time as an adult! I have just bought the beautiful clothbound editions of The Secret Garden and The Railway Children and can't wait to get stuck in 📚
Another wonderful children's book that I've recently read and enjoyed so much is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It's a book about friendship and the love of home. I read it with Miranda and The Comfort Book Club. Like you, there are many children's books that I never got around to reading as a child, so I'm playing catch-up now. It's never too late. ❤ It's a perfect summer day here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It's sunny with blue skies and a temp of 75°. Happy reading!
lovely garden pics - the weather here in Maine has been hot and very humid 😓🌡☀☔... we too will see some remnants of Beryl/tropical storm later today. Looking forward to your Tudor book purchases. Crown of Blood' sounds very good. 📚
Thank you for the fun catch-up Claire! I'm in Bradford, UK and it's cold and rainy and miserable, but what's new ey? It's so interesting that you're trying out some children's classics. I have such a mixed view of some of these classics because I remember with some I was completely scarred as a child AND when I read them as an adult. I find that some 'classics' are labelled children's books but I really cannot fathom why in heavens name they are deemed suitable for kids. I found Black Beauty really horrifying (the bit with Ginger has never left me!), also Watership Down (NOT a cosy tale about rabbits) and one of my most recent reads The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I found just awful! I also recommend that you avoid Tarka the Otter like the plague! I thought it would be a sweet little story about a cute otter but no it was a tale of DEATH and HORROR!!! Having said that, some children's books I have loved are: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (one of my absolute favourites!) Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian (also pretty harrowing but set during WWII so maybe one for you) Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories by Joyce Lankester Brisley Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (read as an adult and adored it!) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (ACTUALLY about cute riverside animals) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (kind of upsetting though) Anything by Alexandre Dumas (pere) Looking forward to following your journey with children's lit! Also please please read The Mirror and the Light soon because I need to hear your in-depth thoughts on the full trilogy lol I was blown away by it!!
We've had the first true burning hot days of summer in Barcelona so it's been draining, but I can always count on your videos to pick me back up!! I love your reflections on reading children's literature as a child VS as an adult, and saw a lot of myself in it too!! As a teenager I refused to indulge in YA, and although it's not my main go-to now, I enjoy spicing my reading up every now and then with the occasional YA title. Also I've been in a Patricia Highsmith kick lately because of Ripley (2024), do you enjoy any other mystery authors outside Agatha Christie? ✨ Best regards Claire, thanks for another delightful video! 📚
Hi Claire! My favorite children's book is 'The Last Unicorn'. Its stunning. I thoroughly enjoyed this video! Here in Maine we have had so much rain - (thunder and lightning storms to be exact) but today finally some sunshine! 🌻
We’ve got glorious blue skies and sunshine here in Somerset today, which has been a welcome change as we’ve just had sports day! My rec for children’s classic will always be The Borrowers ☺️ lovely catch up, thanks for sharing! ☺️💛📚
Boiling hot here in Texas. Ugh. Would give just about anything for those grey rainy days you mentioned. We walk at 7:30 am because it's the only time things are cool enough to do so. I have that Yorkshire Literary Landscape book on my tbr and want to give I Capture the Castle another try, thanks to you! Your excitement about your little rose was so sweet. Love it. 📖
Enjoyed your vlog very much. Weather here in Arizona, July 1st was 109 degrees fahrenheit and then the rest of time we read over 115. Highest temp so far this month has been 118. Brutal. We lost our AC for 5 days so stayed in a motel. I dislike summer greatly. 🫠Lol. I miss rainy days from when I lived in Illinois. Here it rains mostly after dark and you can't see it rain. 🫤. I watch your channel for many reason , the books, your sense of humor, your cats and your love of places. Not to mention your weather reports. 😂. 👍📚🌹❤️
Here in central New York it’s been quite hot but today they say we’ll have thunderstorms this afternoon and evening so I have hopes of it being cooler tomorrow. This has been a lovely vlog, thank you. I can see why Kemp’s is a favorite, it would be for me also. The Literary Landscape would interest me too, as I love reading something that sends me down a rabbit hole to other books. As a child, it seems I went from Dr. Seuss to almost adult books. I did read and love Heidi and Little Women as a girl and as an adult I finally read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Wind in the Willows. There are so many children’s classics I should read.
In the south of the Netherlands we had a lovely summer day yesterday (9th of July) with some storms in the evening, yet it seems to have been singular, and we have now returned to our regular scheduling of gloomy rainy weather 🌤️
Very grey here in Hertfordshire. I grew up with my mum's bookshelf and read more children's classics than i can count. Loved so many but probably the most special to me are Arthur Ransome's The Swallows and the Amazons. They are just magical and I still feel like the children in that were in some way my friends because i know them so well.
Midcoast Maine is waiting for the remnants of Hurricane Beryl to come through; the humidity/heat is just lovely. Like being wrapped in a heavy wet blanket. I think I’ll stay inside and read 📚📖❤️
Typical summer here in the American South, though I didn’t grow up here so it’s taken me a long while to come to grips with it😊. I didn’t read much children’s lit as a child BUT I fell in love with it when I became a mother. Sheer joy reading picture and chapter books aloud at bedtime. I hope you enjoy starting a garden. I have a wonderful David Austin rose, Desdemona, in my courtyard. He has a lot of literary and history themed 🌹 if you’re interested.☀️
📚the weather here in Australia is windy cold raining being winter but we had days when was sunny as well abit warm . I love this video about talking about the secret garden I started that but have not read it all cause of the time the book was set with the words . I love I capture the castle want read in spring again and really want to read lady Jane grey I think have the book not the same cover but I see lot of books on her.i enjoy listening what you read thank you Claire .i love the railway children my mum does as well.❤
I only read I Capture the castle this year. I'm 61 and am wondering how I've only just discovered it. What a book. Totally agree with everything you say about it. I'm going to head to the six wives exhibition. Very excited. Happy reading xxx
🌞🌞🌞oh, it is so hot here in Southern California with today’s temperature expected to be about 100°F. I will be staying inside until the evening. I love rereading my favorite children’s literature whenever I need something light and nostalgic. My favorites were E.B.White’s books, especially Charlotte’s Web, Pippi Longstocking, Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins. I graduated to Nancy Drew and then on to “YA” style books. I was always interested in dog books and now I collect vintage canine literature. My first taste of Yorkshire was the Bronte books and James Herriot’s books. Fortunately I can reread my favorites often with my grandkids. 🇺🇸👏🏻🐾
The weather in western New York State (Buffalo/Niagara Falls) started out very angry early this morning with lightning and thunderstorms, and progressed to (very unusual for this area) tornado warnings…warnings that actually came to fruition just south of Buffalo, causing some real damage. We’ve had a great variety of weather conditions this summer, so to describe the season in any consistent way is impossible. I love your edition of I Capture the Castle; even though I own the ebook, I think I must treat myself to that one. I just finished What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama, which was very sweet, poignant, and thought provoking, and I have thoughts of finishing The Enchanted April, starting Sense and Sensibility for Jane Austen July, and/or starting Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati, which sounds enchanting. I will also look into your recent reads and recommendations, which are always intriguing. Can’t agree with you more about the delights of staying home on grey, rainy days and reading…they are the best kind of days.📚⛈️☕️💛🩶
At this moment where I am, just outside Liverpool, its grey clouds with patches of blue, quite pleasant! For me anyway! Lovely video as always. Best Wishes 💕
It’s cold and miserable in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s winter and while it doesn’t snow here, it’s bleak. It can be sunny for a few hours around lunchtime sometimes. But bring on spring.
The weather has been very british here in continental Europe as well! Lots of rain, which I love, but people are starting to get really depressed 🙃 I remember reading "I capture the castle" a few years ago, as an adult, and absolutely loving it. It's not as big in French as it is in English I think - actually I should do a little research on the French(-speaking) children's classics! I can't for the life of me remember what I was reading as a kid, aside from comics. Lovely video as always, Claire 🧡📚
My nans favourite children’s book was Heidi and it holds a special place in my heart. I would like to reread it as an adult, perhaps it’s one you would like to read too. X
Always loved your videos and all the lovely history geeky content that inspire me to delve into that era too! I have recently picked up Blood Diamond which you recommended awhile ago and am loving it!
It’s cold and miserable in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s winter and it doesn’t snow here. But it’s bleak. It can be sunny for a few hours around lunchtime. But bring on spring.
I’m halfway through reading The Secret Garden Rewilded, a retelling of the original so it’s interesting to see you with The Secret Garden here. I’m enjoying the new tale, I think it’s been written well and is an interesting take on a story from a different time and context. I picked it up because I deal with some environmental education so I was interested to see how they explore rewilding as part of the story.
Where I am in South Carolina it's currently 94 degrees Fahrenheit with a real feel temperature of 111 degrees. Am very jealous of cool rainy weather, the perfect weather to curl up with a good book.
Hello from sunny Colorado! 🏞🌞It's been a lovely summer mix of showers and sunshine with a big heatwave of 102° expected this weekend. Currently finishing A Conjuring of Light / The Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab. Thinking about starting Wolf Hall next! Love your videos!
In Kansas, USA it is lovely this morning - 65 degrees Fahrenheit - clear - and breezy. It will hit the low 90s F by later today - so I am up early to enjoy the lovely morning.
I also absolutely adored The Secret Garden film as a child. I thought it was the dreamest of movies. But I never picked up the book...may need to do that (and thank you for the warning 😊). Oh! And weather, I'm in Germany and we have also been just having a very wet summer. It will be 32°C and then the next day will be dumping buckets of rain. (I'll admit, I'm loving it hehehe). Just found your channel and find you absolutely wonderful!
📖 📕 ❤ just reading and loving “I Capture the Castle” - as recommended by Miranda Mills! Loved your rose bush, it looks very healthy. Good luck with the Mantel tome, I finished it recently but it took me a very long time, I think I too didn’t want to say goodbye to Cromwell.
It’s sunny, 26 and breezy in Chilliwack, about an hour inland from Vancouver BC. A beautiful July day. Hot enough to grow corn, but not too hot for my roses.
This was such a wonderful, relaxing video, thank you ❤. It's super hot and humid here in Cologne and we've been getting a lot of thunderstorms these past few weeks. Hate it, can't wait for fall 😅
Hot & sunny in Phoenix, Arizona, as usual ~ 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C). I also read The Secret Garden just recently. A favorite children’s classic of mine is The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling. I listened to the audiobook read by Ralph Cosham for ‘victober’ a couple of years ago, and was so surprised at how much I loved the stories. It was not at all what I had expected.
Hey Claire! We just had Hurricane Beryl hit us here in Texas. We dealt with a lot of rain and wind, and now we’re just left with the summer heat. Currently, I’m reading War and Peace. It definitely seems kind of daunting, but I’m just taking it one page at a time.
I recommend Ballet Shoes (read as a adult) and The Wind in the Willows (read as a child), they're lovely books. I'm listening to David Copperfield and then after that going to enjoy Nicholas Nicklebey. Hope you enjoy The six wives exhibition for your birthday and reading/listening to The Mirror and The Light. I'm hoping to listen to The Mirror and The Light soon as well.
I feel that I went from Winnie the Pooh and memorizing Christopher Robin poems to Sherlock Holmes. There was some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and some Little House on the Prairie (hello ‘70’s) but I am seriously dug into Victorian literature and mysteries. Read a lot of classics out loud to my children Wind and the Willows is a highlight) but like you I gathered them as an adult. Now I like to give the Little Prince to my great nephews when they are about nine. Love your new shelves. 📚
Surprisingly sunny today in Limerick, Ireland. People think Britain is rainy but try Ireland. It hardly stops. That's why the Romans never conquered us. We are Hibernia - the land of winter 😂
From Limerick was Tom Lefroy, the character played by James McAvoy in my favorite movie, Becoming Jane. I remember this, because I know every line from that movie.
I’m living in south Florida and the temperature is 37 degrees Celsius/ 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 🥵 We have hazy skies due to Saharan dust that comes across the Atlantic for a week or two in Summer. Luckily this is the rainy season so sometimes that helps to moderate the heat a little.
We’re having a bit of a heatwave here in the Seattle area - it’s been in the 90s which is very unusual for us. Our temps have steadily increased over the last few years, and we finally had to install air conditioning. 📚 ❤
Hot - we have a long spell heat wave here + 35 and over. So inside with a good book is not wrong at the moment. I am just finish Matt Haig The Midnight Library a brilliant book. Thank u for a great video it make me miss weather!!!
Hi Claire, I live in Vermont in the US. We just got back from holiday in Scotland and came back to hazy, hot, humid weather, near 100 degrees and sunny, unbearable really! We miss the UK weather!
Here in Brisbane Australia it’s a sunny cool day…. Blue skies and temperature of 20degrees c. I’d rather be in UK though…. We will be visiting family in October…. Can’t wait 😊
Ottawa Canada, 35 C with the humidity in the past few days...we're awaiting a huge rainfall today from the tail end of a hurricane in the Atlantic (even though I'm 1000 km from the ocean!). The books I read as a young person in the 90s were all for kids. Lots of Point Fantasy (Of two minds, Talking to dragons, etc) along with mysteries like The face in the milk carton, basically anything that Caroline B Cooney wrote!! I also read little historical fictions like The nine day queen, etc. Anne of Green Gables, though local to me, was too hard to read until I was about 12. I read all of them in my early teens, and the Emily of New Moon trilogy as well. The Anne series is so interesting, there's a gothic (Anne's house of dreams), a epistolary book (Anne of windy poplars/willows), a children's book (Rainbow Valley), and a war romance (Rilla of the Ingleside). My other favourite is The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, which in sure you've heard about from Ariel! Edit: a part of my brain just unlocked and I had to come back on here and tell you that I read my weight in Fear Street, Babysitter Club, and Sweet Valley books!! I lived next to a used book store for a time and you could trade in 2 for one...One of these paperbacks cost 80 cents, and my trade was worth 40 cents. Super cheap even for ~1997
I would highly reccommend a more recent childrens book that is regarded as a future modern classic book. The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange. It shares elements of The Secret Garden in it as well as The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins.
