“I have been a mental traveler”
Isak Dinesen
One of my wishes as a little girl was to sleep in a canopied bed, a wish that was granted after my husband and I built onto our magical cottage two years after we married. He found our bed, a dark wood jewel of a creation with exquisite wooden spider-web fretwork all around and a paneled back just made for leaning against with a fine book on a dark and stormy night. It is draped in a faded floral linen lined with mossy green and it makes me feel like a fairy princess each night when I crawl inside its feathery arms. However, when I do go to bed at night, I don’t always stay put. Sometimes my mind takes me to other favorite bedrooms in which I have been fortunate to sleep, and dream, while on my travels.
If it’s summertime, I may drift off to my favorite beach bedroom, with its wide wooden floors and the lace curtains that billow out from the three tall, open windows, where the sound of the sea is my lullaby. When the moon is full I can lie in this room and drift away to sleep while gazing at a moonlit golden pathway leading out to sea, and beyond. Or perhaps I will choose that fairy tale tower room in the northwest of England, high up in the old manor house, with the casement window that opens out onto the green hills, dotted with sheep, that roll down, down to the misty blue lake. Oh, I do love that room. I have slept there during a howling gale when rain lashed the window like artillery, and then again on crystal clear nights when I could open that old window and look up to see the entire Milky Way shimmering back at me like diamonds in the sky.
That’s the fascinating and valuable thing about travel. The memories are always in your head to call up whenever you choose. Which is, I think, what William Wordsworth, with whom I share a birthday, was thinking about when he wrote of “the bliss of solitude”. Travel gifts me with lovely memories of lovely places and later when I am home once more, I have only to close my eyes and return anywhere my heart desires. And, of course, a wonderful thing about this sort of bedtime mental travel? Edward can sleep at the foot of any bed I choose!
Isak Dinesen
One of my wishes as a little girl was to sleep in a canopied bed, a wish that was granted after my husband and I built onto our magical cottage two years after we married. He found our bed, a dark wood jewel of a creation with exquisite wooden spider-web fretwork all around and a paneled back just made for leaning against with a fine book on a dark and stormy night. It is draped in a faded floral linen lined with mossy green and it makes me feel like a fairy princess each night when I crawl inside its feathery arms. However, when I do go to bed at night, I don’t always stay put. Sometimes my mind takes me to other favorite bedrooms in which I have been fortunate to sleep, and dream, while on my travels.
If it’s summertime, I may drift off to my favorite beach bedroom, with its wide wooden floors and the lace curtains that billow out from the three tall, open windows, where the sound of the sea is my lullaby. When the moon is full I can lie in this room and drift away to sleep while gazing at a moonlit golden pathway leading out to sea, and beyond. Or perhaps I will choose that fairy tale tower room in the northwest of England, high up in the old manor house, with the casement window that opens out onto the green hills, dotted with sheep, that roll down, down to the misty blue lake. Oh, I do love that room. I have slept there during a howling gale when rain lashed the window like artillery, and then again on crystal clear nights when I could open that old window and look up to see the entire Milky Way shimmering back at me like diamonds in the sky.
That’s the fascinating and valuable thing about travel. The memories are always in your head to call up whenever you choose. Which is, I think, what William Wordsworth, with whom I share a birthday, was thinking about when he wrote of “the bliss of solitude”. Travel gifts me with lovely memories of lovely places and later when I am home once more, I have only to close my eyes and return anywhere my heart desires. And, of course, a wonderful thing about this sort of bedtime mental travel? Edward can sleep at the foot of any bed I choose!
Oh what a wonderful post! The first thing that comes to mind for me is a canopy bed at a hotel in Cornwall. My aunt and uncle treated me to a night there back in 1991 and it was my great good fortune to have as my night-time companion, the resident feline. He crawled in my window, hopped up on the bed and snuggled in beside me. Ah! Bliss!
ReplyDeleteKat
I haven't thought of this in years, but I wanted a canopy bed SO, SO badly when I was about eight years old. I would even dream about it! Fabulous post, Pamela!! :)
ReplyDeleteI love this post, and it really does take me back to my childhood. I spent many a night dreaming in my own bed and pretending to have canopies, mosquito nets, or pretending it was a boat at sea. I never actually had a canopy, but once I lined chairs along both sides of my bed and draped a sheet across them to simulate one. I loved tents, too. My bed now actually has four posters and finials for a canopy, but alas no canopy. Maybe I should go shopping....
ReplyDelete:-) Christi
Just the most lovely blog, I too am a dream traveller, I have been everywhere in my dreams and of course many place in real life, but somehow the dream travelling is the best. Thanks for visiting Blossomcottage.
ReplyDeleteBlossom
Ahh, sharing a birthday with Wordsworth, that explains it. I think it must have been for you he wrote:
ReplyDeleteDear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worship'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.
Indeed a superb post Pamela. I, too, love sleeping in enclosed spaces. I would love a 4 poster complete with drapes to draw. I also loved tents and other small places. I could happily sleep in a cupboard if I could fit in it! No claustrophobia here.
ReplyDeletexx
I was so envious of my cousin with her pink canopied bed. My sister and I shared a room for many years and we had plan white twin beds. My cousin Gina, on the otherhand, had a lovely white canopied bed with pink drapery. I would love to have sleepovers at her house just to sleep in that bed...That takes me back to so many nights giggling into the wee hours with her..I hadn't thought of that in years! The next time I see her I must ask her if she remembers that wonderful bed...
ReplyDeleteA wonderful post, and I agree entirely.It is why I encourage others to travel,particularly young people when they are making choices, and older people when they are pondering the effort. It is what dreams are made of.I never wanted a canopy bed when I was little, but I had a burning desire even then, unlike others in my family, to travel out from Australia and see the world.The highlands of Scotland and parts of Wales are still my favourite places. They are my wonderful canopy bed.Thanks for a great post Pamela.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful evocative post Pamela. Your bed sounds perfect . I love my bed as well, you my have heard me refer to it as the nest. It's a 4 poster made in 1700 and brought to the new world by my ancestors from Scotland. It's the bed my father slept in as a child, then it was a guest bed in my grandmother Flo's house and finally it became mine. The mattress is shockingly hold - but to me it feels like I'm sleeping on a feather pillow. It's my safe place, a place my mind can wonder and I also love to lie in my nest and be a mental traveler.
ReplyDeleteIsnt it wonderful to be able to revisit those special moments?
ReplyDelete:-Daryl
I chose to read your blog on the day you said you dreamed of a room in the Northwest of England..Thats where I sleep every night and I am so ready for a change! I hasten to add we are not quite by a lake but there are sheep and hills. But I've slept in my own bed every night since 14th October last year.I need a holiday!
ReplyDeleteI love dreaming. to have a canopy bed was one of my wishes as a child, but I ended up with the bottom bed of a pair of bunk beds instead. Still, it served as a great place to play and dream. What a beautiful post you've made, as always.
ReplyDeletewhat lovely idea! I need to get away from our own room where our neighbours incredibly loud air conditioner sits just outside our windows which have to always stay shut as a result, let alone their kitchen windows look straight into our room, even into the master bedroom. It's very invasive, let me tell you!
ReplyDeleteWonderful picture, btw.
Very beautiful post,thank you....:)
ReplyDeleteI think all little girls would love a canopy bed.
ReplyDeleteThey are the perfect spot from which dreams are made of. Lovely post - again.
lovely post! When I was a little girl, I wanted a canopy bedd, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your ideas for my new urns. I absolutely loved all of them. I was also thinking about lemons, too. I think the color of the lemons and the color of the urn would go nicely together.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I loved your post. You're right, the best thing of all about mental traveling, is having your best friend, Edward right there with you.
You know, you could turn this idea into a great illustrated children's book.
Melissa
Love your new banner, OR should I say Edwards new banner!!
ReplyDeleteYou are SO RIGHT Pamela!! No matter what, no one can take our beautiful memories away. We can visit them when we want. Isn't it like magic?
Happy Sunday!
xo
Constance
A store of memories stays with you far longer than anything else, and you can go back there in your mind anytime you choose. We put too much emphasis on the 'moment' which we don't realise is too quickly gone. It's better to make good memories to last throughout your life.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this piece on the nature of thought and memory.
A dreamy post. It took me away. Thank you.
ReplyDeletePleasant dreams! It seems that you have brought your dreams into your waking time. Now that is magic.
ReplyDeleteWinston is not yet to the foot of the bed part (kennel training until he's perfect with potty braeks!)---so he's super jealous of Edward! ;)
ReplyDeleteI have the same dream when I was little about having a canopy bed. I don't have one still but maybe one day.
ReplyDeleteHwy Pamela! What a BEAUTIFUL blog! Thanks so much for visiting mine with Edward so I was able to find yours! Funny, I always wanted a canopy bed too. I had forgotten!
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful post! Canopy beds, I think, are a favourite for most girls :-) Looking forward to catching up on missed posts & seeing what you and Edward have been doing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautifully written post! I always wanted a canopy bed as a little girl--my best friend had one and I thought it was the neatest thing ever!
ReplyDeleteI,too,always wanted a canopy bed as a child, and I full filled my dream vicariously through my daughter. She loved her canopy until her teenage years when she considered it "babyish" and un chic. I was sad to see it go!
ReplyDeleteI fully understand how travel opens doors in our mind where we can enter to relive all the special moments again in quiet solitude. It's a wonderful gift!
I have a " Must see Blog" award on my blog for you under the post title "Catching Up." Please pick it up when you have a chance.
Wonderful post! I dream of traveling all the time...mostly in my daydreams. The illustration is lovely.
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely start to Monday morning, Pamela. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it is true what you say. Sometimes, it is only after you have returned from a journey, that you have the time and capacity to recall and savour the memories of it. Including where and how you slept...
ReplyDeleteSince bedrooms have been on my mine this was a wonderful post to come across!
ReplyDelete