My grandmother was a widow as long as I can remember. She was a tiny little woman and wore big sabots and a big scoop. I like my little grandmother. She went to Chapel regular, but you would never have thought she was religious: she would do anything for anybody, it didn't matter who they was. She was dying of cancer and when I went along to see how she was, she would reach up and pick me a fig off the fig-tree because she knew I liked figs, although it hurt her to do it. I especially liked to go the day she was making bread. I would help her to cut the furze, and watch her set fire to it in the oven in the wall. She always put a small loaf on a hot stone only for me; so I could have one all to myself.The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, G. B. Edwards
sabot: a shoe made of a single block of wood hollowed out, worn esp. by farmers and workers in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, etc.
scoop: sunbonnet
furze, also gorse: Any of several spiny shrubs of the genus Ulex, especially U. europaeus, native to Europe and having fragrant yellow flowers and black pods. Also called whin.
2 comments:
This is a book I must read in 2009. It reminds me of another book on my shelf, An Old Woman's Reflections by Peig Sayers, who lived on the Greater Blasket Island, off of Ireland.
Laurie, whenever a friend is the first one to alert me to a great book (one I've never heard of), that friend gets a couple of stars next to his or her name. Consider yourself starred!
A compliment to make me starry-eyed. And on the hunt for the book you mentioned!
Post a Comment