Branch and Hedgerows

Funny little story for you...not ha ha funny necessarily, but you will be able to call me Dorothy after this.

I was visiting *Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me* one day recently where she was discussing Susan Branch's new book A Fine Romance. Brenda wrote about the book in such glowing terms that I promptly ordered it using my daughter's card. Ahem. That doesn't sound good, but my daughter knew all about it and has already been paid.

My daughter had also ordered books and I ordered other books and they came as they were ready and not all in one delivery. A Fine Romance was in the delayed category and so, as my mind is wont to do, it forgot. Not I forgot; my mind forgot. Right. That makes me feel better.

Anyway, one day I heard a rap at the door and it wasn't the sheriff this time and so I collected a package addressed to my daughter. Said package sat on my kitchen table for the remainder of the week with me wondering when daughter would arrive to pick it up. Then my mind clanked into gear and I began to wonder if that book looked like the right size to be... Hmmm... Could it? Should I open the package to find out? I could just lift that bit there.  I'd hate to be caught snooping. (Not that that has ever happened before!)

Sure enough. My book was sitting there all that time. I could have been reading it for days!

A book review? I don't usually give them, but I will say that this book is a delightful, easy read. You will appreciate the details of the journey that Susan shared bits of on her blog over a year ago now. You'll find yourself grinning as you imagine trying to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road while a passenger wishes to test your powers of concentration. Cracked me up! Then I would read and be grateful that I have recently watched so much television from the BBC because I understood whatever was being discussed a little better.

Take for instance hedgerows. Because I've watched Tales from the Green Valley and Edwardian Farm (Episode 3, minute 47) where the process of making hedgerows was shown, I could appreciate the discussion and the photos. I had so enjoyed watching the pulling brush over and piling it high with bracken and pinning it in and the creating of this incredible organism where wild flowers, berries, and small animals live.

I asked John, "Why don't we make hedgerows in this country?" He said, "Because we use barbed wire." Isn't that charming? Not. Yet, I discovered that we do have some hedgerows in the U.S. *here,* just in case you're interested in making one. And here's *another great UK site*  about creating hedgerows where I learned that not all hedgerows are created in the same ways. It depends on its location.

But back to the book where there's everything one could possibly hope to enjoy about time spent in England — tea, recipes, friends, flowers, Beatrix Potter, poetry, shops, ships... and all written in that lovely print that is Susan's signature style. You'll leap merrily through going from hedgerows on one page to magnetic soap on the next. Go ahead, order one, if you haven't already. Put it on your daughter's card.

☺


P.S. Just popping in two Susan Branch book signing sightings:
1. Karen at A Scrapbook of Inspiration
2. Relevant Tea Leaf

Such fun to see!